Biz Stone’s new app saves its first life…sort of

Published January 16, 2014 at 6:32 am

It looks as if Twitter co-founder Biz Stone’s new app, Jelly, may have saved its first life. Of course, that’s not the purpose of Jelly, which is essentially positioned as Quora-for-pictures, and saying that it actually saved someone’s life is an extreme exaggeration, but Stone certainly didn’t miss the chance to capitalize on the amusing scenario.

Oh, did we mention that the “life” that Jelly “saved” was Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s?

First, we’ll provide some background. As Mashable notes, Jelly “launched last week as a free iOS and Android app.” It enables users to photograph objects and share them with their networks of Facebook and Twitter friends in order to stimulate discussion.

Now, for the interesting part. ABC News reports that over the weekend, Zuckerberg found an opportunity to put the app to good use. After finding a spider in his bathroom, the 29-year-old snapped a photograph using Jelly and posted, “What kind of spider is this, and is it okay to let it keep living in my shower?”

Shortly after, Jelly’s chief operating officer, Kevin Thau, responded with an answer: “I think it’s a Phidippus johnsoni. Probably want to relocate it out of the house.”

Further research shows that the Phidippus johnsoni, though capable of leaving a nasty bite wound, isn’t exactly what you would call deadly. Still, Stone documented the incident bytweeting, “First life saved via Jelly! (The spider, not Zuck),” and posting a link to the photo.

In addition to “saving lives,” Jelly will give brands all sorts of new ways to reach their audiences. Mashable reports that General Electric and CNBC have already tried it out. It will be interesting to see which other companies incorporate the app into their marketing business ideas — and who knows, maybe someday it actually will save a life.