Nokia serves up fruit of Twango acquisition

Nokia today launched a key part of its Ovi Internet services strategy with a revamped multimedia-driven social network dubbed "Share."

The service was created using software and leveraging the team Nokia acquired last summer in Twango. The new Share on Ovi is essentially a rebranded version of Twango, with additional tweaks including a streamlined user interface, new search options and an improved help system, said Jim Laurel, formerly of Twango and now director of service development at Nokia, in a blog post. Nokia also upgraded the service infrastructure, enabling the Share to scale to potentially millions of Nokia handset users, Laurel said.

Share on Ovi includes a downloadable application that enables users to capture photos and videos and upload them for hosting. The mobile site then enables users to view and share feeds of media from friends and contacts.

Nokia launched a separate social mobile network back in August dubbed Mosh. Since then, it has consolidated its online content efforts under the brand name Ovi.

Nokia today also released a new version of its revamped “N-Gage” gaming service. Nokia is launching N-Gage in a preview version for N81 owners, with a full launch expected soon. Originally slated to launch last fall, the service was delayed as Nokia fine-tuned the offering. The gaming offer began its life as an online service tied to Nokia’s ill-fated N-Gage hardware.