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Blog-hosting service Six Apart today purchased mobile photo blogging service SplashBlog in a move that reaffirms the blogosphere's direction toward richer content and newer delivery platforms.

The SplashBlog service allows users to instantly publish photos from a camera phone to a blog.

"We've always thought it was incredibly important to have good integration with mobile devices," Barak Berkowitz, Six Apart's CEO, told internetnews.com. "Over time there will be a huge number of bloggers using mobile devices for photos and voice."

Building on features Six Apart users already enjoy in Movable Type, TypePad and LiveJournal, SplashBlog provides client software that runs on a variety of camera phones and a photo-hosting service that links the mobile phone and Web service with two-way syncing.

"From a competitive standpoint we think we're making a strong statement that both the PC and mobile phone are important to blogging," said Berkowitz. "Very few, if any, competitors are taking both platforms as seriously. We take a more holistic approach."

SplashBlog currently allows users to capture photos on their camera phones and upload them to splashblog.com with a single click. In addition to uploading photos, SplashBlog users can also subscribe to other photo blogs to view and comment on them from their mobile devices.

Berkowitz said Six Apart plans to modify the service over the next two months, as well as include more sophisticated bi-directional read and write functionality before the end of the year.

SplashBlog currently supports all leading mobile platforms, including Palm OS, Windows Mobile and Symbian, and the company said it will work across all mobile operator networks.

The SplashBlog team will be responsible for integrating their wireless sync protocols and mobile technologies across Six Apart's software and services.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. SplashBlog's staff, including a handful of developers in Portland, Ore., and Seattle, will join Six Apart, though remain in their locations.

Reprinted from internetnews.com