Zlango Launches Web Play

Last we heard from Zlango the company had announced a $12 million in funding from Benchmark Capital and Accel Partners. Today Zlango is announcing its first major foray in the Web space.

For those of you unfamiliar with Zlango, the company created a new language based on slightly over 200 icons in categories such as People, Actions, Places and Feelings. The Zlango offering was originally aimed at injecting life and excitement into the ever popular but boring SMS, however, the company’s jump into the Web space indicates an understanding that engaging users requires Zlango to extend itself beyond a pure mobile play.

Today’s launch kicks off Zlango’s roll out of a number of social-oriented features. Two of the most notable features available today are:

• Zlango Composer – A Flash driven composer featuring an on-the-fly “Text to Zlango” translator (see screenshot), making it a snap to create fun messages. Messages can be shared, emailed or embedded across a number of social sites (thanks to integration with Gigya).
• zMess – Zlango’s version of a micro-blog. This is an area for users to view public messages, or private ones with groups of friends. Unfortunately, support for threaded comments is not included.

Here is Zlango’s promotional video for the launch:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvDF5oZ8rCM]

By year’s end Zlango intends to add support for user generated content, allowing users to add their own icons, contribute content (videos and books), as well as generate personalized merchandise (t-shirts, caps, etc.). Also on the horizon are an API, browser extensions and a Facebook app.

On the business front, the most notable achievement of the year is a partnership with Nokia to preload the Zlango into handsets. Zlango is now also deployed at all three Israeli operators, and has inked deals with operators in the Philippines, Ukraine, Malaysia, Finland, and Indonesia.