I’m adding a VOIP category to cover Skype, Vivox, Gizmo and emerging Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) products and services. There’s so much happening in this space as it directly relates to dating and social networking sites that it deserves it’s own category.
Ether launches: From Ingenio, who powered Match.com’s discontinued profile help service. Provides a free anonymous phone number you forward to your regular phone #. Set your rate and availability and market yourself. If I’m an expert in dung beetles, call me to ask questions about the mating habits of the dung beetle and I’ll charge you $5.00 per minute. Looks extremely interesting, great platform supporting lots of business models. Closed beta.
Vivox is chairing a pre-con Summit at the Spring VON event in San Jose the week of March 13th. A great opportunity for players in the dating industry to hear more about the technological advancements in IP communications, as well as learn more about the business benefits of implementing.
TelTel raises $8M, takes on Skype. Why care? Silicon Beat tells all. In short, Skype is proprietary, everyone else uses SIP protocol. I’m liking Gizmo these days. Whoever gets multi-user video to work with these services will win a huge chunk of users from Yahoo and MSN chat.
Business 2.0 just names Vivox to their Next Net 25 list as one of the top 25 start-ups that are reinventing the web.
Nate Elliot (who owes me a call for an interview), tells Businesweek he is enthusiastic about the prospect of niche-oriented networks like TripConnect, which aims to convert travel advice into a business.
Finally, I fixed the sidebar width problem in Safari on OS X.
Technorati Tags: ether, teltel, vivox
