Last Wednesday, Twitter announced that it was going to stop delivering SMS messages over its UK number, mainly because of the cost. As they say, and we well know, “Mobile operators in most of the world charge users to send updates”. We thought this was a shame, because as we have said before, we really like the Twitter service, so we stepped in and set up a web site called ZygoTweet to gauge the appetite of Twitter users for a low-cost replacement SMS interface that we, Zygo, would build. Response so far has been encouraging, and we’re well underway with our technical investigations.

We’re looking into developing a service that will use a version of the billing platform we use for ZygoHubs, with message credits bought in advance, because this will give users the best value. We’re not going to rush the development process, so we’re not promising a launch date yet - but watch this space for more news. And if you haven’t registered your interest yet, head over to www.zygotweet.com.

This is one we found out about by looking at where the traffic to our site was coming from. Zygo has won the Always On Global 250 Award, the tech blog’s “list of the hottest, most disrupting private companies in technology”. As they put it, “this year’s AO Global 250 reflects a set of trends that are about to ignite new market opportunities the whole world over.” We couldn’t agree more - and thanks, guys! Read the article here.

Recently we met up with two of the founders of Wigadoo, Andy Cockburn and John Connolly. Wigadoo is the perfect service for when you’re trying to organise a group trip where everyone has to chip in to cover the cost of flights and hotels. I’ve done this in the past and found myself temporarily out of pocket by several hundred quid waiting for payment from stragglers and having to pay using my own bank account. Wigadoo simplifies the process by making sure everyone is committed to the trip beforehand, taking pledges for the funds, then giving the group its own virtual prepaid Mastercard into which the funds are deposited. This sort of co-ordination is never painless, but Wigadoo makes it considerably less painful, and I’m definitely going to be using it for my next group excursion - along with a Zygo group, of course.

The guys are based in SE1, home to a welter of tech startups right now, as well as to me.