Text message in your Netflix movies and Amazon wish lists with Kwiry

Venture Beat — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:01:15 -0400

It happens to me quite a bit that I’ll be out with a friend and we’re talking about a movie that I’m interested in seeing. But then we move on to another topic and I never think about it again. A new feature available on Kwiry may remedy situations like that.

Kwiry, a service that allows you to interact with different web services through your phone, now allows you to use text messages to send in movies you wish to add to your Netflix movie rental queue. You do this simply by texting “netflix” and then the name of the movie you want to add to Kwiry’s number, 59479 (k-w-i-r-y).

Kwiry is also launching similar integration with Amazon’s Wish List feature. This is the area of the site where you can add items that you hope to buy, or that someone will buy for you later. Simply text “amazon” followed by the name of the product you wish to add to the same 59479 number and the product will be in the list the next time you check it.

Of course, both of these services require you get the name of either the movie or product right. For a movie that shouldn’t be too difficult, but a product seems like it could be problematic.

For both of these features all you need to do is register for a free Kwiry account. It can be easy to forget sometimes in a world with iPhones and BlackBerrys that simple phone functionality combined with the Internet can still be useful — and can potentially reach many more people.

As Kwiry puts it: “While the iPhone is cool and works great, you can use nearly any phone — all you need is an SMS plan.”