Scoot over Facebook and Twitter, there’s Buhz of a new social media network that has recently come to OU.

OU alumni Chuck Kelly and co-founder, Brett McIsaac, launched Buhz, a new social media app for Android, at Oakland in late September.

Kelly and McIsaac created Buhz specifically for college students.

 It has strong privacy features that no other social media sites have so students can pick and choose who sees what on their profiles.

“Buhz originally started with an idea I had years ago,” said Chuck Kelly, Buhz CEO, Co-Founder and Director. “Facebook, to me, has always felt like a never-ending high school reunion.”

Kelly said creating Buhz has been a long process. When Kelly first got the idea to create a social network, he didn’t know the first thing about programming.

“I considered outsourcing the development of the app,” Kelly said. “But I felt like that would be taking a shortcut. I didn’t like the idea of running a company I didn’t understand on a deep, technical level.” 

For six months, Kelly taught himself the essentials of programming and started working on what would become ‘Buhz for Android’ this time last year.

McIsaac, who followed Buhz from the beginning, has since then joined the team as a co-founder.

“Our creativity is bred by necessity,” McIsaac said. “We are creating a product with truly unique characteristics not yet seen in the social media world.”

McIsaac introduced Kelly to his friend Mark Medaugh, who had expertise in all the business-oriented tasks. He soon became the third co-founder.

Kelly, McIsaac and Medaugh officially launched the public beta of the app late September/early October of this year.

“We built Buhz first and foremost as users and students,” Kelly said. “The vision was to build the social network we always wanted — that has been our guiding light and what has kept Buhz fresh.” 

“Buhz is a great way to network with students near you. It was created to thrive in a university atmosphere,” said Jake Block, an OU alumni and Buhz beta tester.

 “If you need to find someone to study with, Buhz can connect you. If you need to get notes from a class you missed, Buhz can connect you. If you need to sell your old textbooks, Buhz can connect you.”

Buhz can also help your social life like it did with OU student Anthony Yousif.

Buhz helped Yousif reconnect with a girl he met at a Michigan State party.

“A few hours later when I opened up my Buhz app, I had a friend request waiting for me from one of the ladies, Audrey,” Yousif said. “Buhz literally made my night and saved the day.”

Kelly could not give specifics about what is on the horizon for Buhz but he provided some teasers.

“We’ve put our hearts and souls into this project and we have so many awesome features in the works, I can’t wait to release it.”

There will be a new feature called ‘Party Mode’ that Kelly says is awesome.

“Using Buhz, you select a feature called “Party Mode” and, for the rest of the night, if you meet someone new or interesting, all you need to do is bump phones and it will automatically add you and that user’s Familiars.” 

“For students who don’t own an Android device, we are building a Buhz web app that will allow anyone with Internet access on any device to try it out,” Kelly said.

The web app is now nearing completion and the team is hard at work on an iPhone app, as well.

 

For more information visit: www.buhzhyve.com