mEgo snags $2.5M for avatar-based widgets
Widget maker mEgo just brought in $2.5 million to add avatars and related media to users’ social networking profiles and blogs. Already running on Facebook, MySpace and Hi5 among others, the company’s application embeds a rectangular box containing an animated character or silhouette, and buttons leading to other information about the user in question.
For example, one MeGo shows a cutout of a cowboy standing against a starry sky with buttons leading to the user’s Flickr photos and bookmarks. Mousing over the figure’s stomach produces a button linking to his favorite foods, while clicking on his ears takes you to his Last.fm profile. Another shows a photo of a cutesy blond girl overlaid with a translucent sillhouette of a dancer and animated birds and butterflies. Clicking on the dancer’s feet tell you where she has traveled and where she wants to go. Mousing over her heart gives you her mini bio. Content can also be aggregated from Twitter, Amazon, YouTube, etc.
