WATCH: Anonymity Comes To Social Sharing

It's hard to pinpoint what exactly triggered the recent popularity of apps that let you anonymously or privately confess your deepest secrets online, but you've certainly got your choice .

One of the latest to ride the wave is Secret , which provides a sort of "controlled anonymity ." It works like others in its class: mash your smartphone keypad about your Harry Styles obsession, pick an image, and send it out into the world - except, in this case, "the world" is everyone in your contacts. Co-founder David Mark Byttow compares it to a masquerade ball: "You know who's on the guest list, but you don't know who is saying what," he told TechCrunch .

To blast your thoughts to the public, you want Whisper , the anonymous confession app that caught fire last year . Whisper appears to have a strategy for its content - or, at least, a plan to have a strategy. The poaching of Gawker's viral content king, Neetzan Zimmerman , was the first clue. Zimmerman, as editor-in-chief, will be charged with curating the best Whispers for people to enjoy/mock. And Whisper recently introduced search and topic features .

Then there's Eric Yellin, former VP of marketing and distribution at Hulu. Heywood told AdAge : "We wanted on one hand the editorial perspective that somebody like Neetzan, who's this viral guru, brings to the table as far as packaging and storytelling. And then the distribution muscle of someone like Eric to make sure that story really gets enough eyeballs."

Of course, where crowds assemble online, you know brands aren't far behind. While Heyward says ads will probably come "at some point " to Whisper, Secret already has a player: Gap, who claim they're the first Fortune 500 company on the new network.

Find out more in the latest episode of "The Content Brief " from Freshwire below.

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