Video voodoo

Mark Gibbs' Web site tips, plus network applications news headlines

Today’s topic is only tangentially a Web application, but it is so amazingly cool that I felt I had to include it here in the Web Applications newsletter.

The object of my enthusiasm is ooVoo, a video calling and conferencing system that raises the proverbial bar quite remarkably.

OoVoo installs painlessly on Windows 2000, XP, or Vista (OS X is due for release in the near future) and works with any standard USB camera and Windows sound system microphones and speakers. After installation you need to create a new ooVoo account, which requires at the very least an account name (AKA your ooVoo ID), account password, and your e-mail address.

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Future features will include the OS X support already mentioned, address book importing from the likes of Plaxo and LinkedIn, and an API so that developers can extend the range of ooVoo’s services.

The tangential Web application side of ooVoo is that you can generate a gadget to include on any HTML Web page so you can be called with a single click by any ooVoo user (calls from ooVoo users you haven’t confirmed generate a confirm request while non-users are offered the ooVoo download). You can find my gadget on Gibbsblog – give me a call – really, I’m interested in talking to you …

Here’s the really cool part: ooVoo is free! Eventually monetization will be achieved via advertising and a range of premium services including ad suppression, VoIP integration (the intention is to support six video sessions and six VoIP to PSTN sessions simultaneously), MMS video messaging, broadcasting, and more.

OoVoo’s feature and performance voodoo may well make it the breakthrough product that brings video calling and conferencing to consumers while it is pretty much a slam dunk for ooVoo to become a corporate fixture in double quick time.

Read more about software in Network World's Software section.

Mark Gibbs is a consultant, author, journalist, columnist and blogger.