Two Fresno State alums teamed together to create Dwibbles, a website that focuses the favorite content of social media users into one easy-to-use website.
Kenneth Koontz, who studied computer science at Fresno State, came up with the idea behind Dwibbles.
“Dwibbles started as a side project about six months ago,” he said. “At the time, I felt as if I was spending too much time on my social networks.
“I felt the industry lacked something that brought social networks together and provided users with relevant social updates and news.”
Koontz began programming the foundation of what would become the website.
He soon brought the idea to Eric Santos, who graduated from Fresno State with a business degree with a focus on entrepreneurship.
Santos was behind Soshowise, Inc., an online interface that allows people to connect to experts all over the world via webcam.
Santos admitted that, at first, he did not take the prospect seriously. But after a couple days while using social media with Koontz’s idea in mind, he began to realize the usefulness of the idea.
“I was pretty psyched about it after thinking about it for a while,” he said.
Excited by the prospect behind Dwibbles, Santos began helping Koontz by offering business expertise.
“I was giving feedback and helping while getting the name out there for the company, getting ready for the launch,” Santos said.
Koontz said the website’s most useful feature lies with its ability to read a person’s social media use and instantly recognize patterns. The program then discovers relatable content that the user may find interesting and makes it the higher focus.
“Dwibbles will recognize what the user finds interesting through their interactions with social media,” Koontz said. “Along with social interactions, Dwibbles will perform natural-language processing to further iterate upon a more relevant feed.”
Dwibbles experienced its beta launch on April 1.
“The launch has been great and humbling,” Koontz said. “We really didn’t know if others would like Dwibbles. We knew it was a good idea, but there are many good ideas.”
The website has accrued feedback from users. Since launch, more than 100 people have signed up for the service.
Jeff Macon, program manager for technology commercialization at the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, is helping with the project.
Macon said he is advising Koontz and Santos on what he, and the general populous, would like to see in Dwibbles.com.
“What is potentially interesting with Dwibbles is that it can sort by your interest level,” he said. “From what I understand, that is a differentiator compared to some other products out there, and it’s adding more and more services as it goes through its beta launch, then [we] can get it in a better position with those other products.”
Not everything has been smooth sailing since launch, Santos said. Last Thursday they experienced a temporary server crash, brought on by what he believes came from coverage of the website by The Business Journal, a local business newspaper.
The coverage brought an unexpected flux of traffic, which caused the server to overload.
“I guess it’s better than no one showing up,” Santos said.
Dwibbles supports Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but more will be added over time.
In a couple of months, Santos believes that the website should be ready for the developers to start introducing it to the rest of the world.
“Once we get a little more traction, we’d actually like to start getting funding from angel investors or venture capitalists,” he said. “That’s probably the next big thing we’d like to do.”
To try out Dwibbles, head to the website: http://www.dwibbles.com.