Abazab, a mobile video-sharing tool, launches; backed by DFJ
Updated:
 |
Abazab is a new Silicon Valley company (Campbell) that launches today to give bloggers and other Web site owners an easy way to let people instantly share video snippets from their mobile phones.
You can sign up for a beta (testing) account here. If you’re at a concert with your camera phone, you can instantly send video, photos or other data to your blog or someone else’s site, and then your friends can see that and respond with their own content. The company’s announcement is here.
It works via a web-based messaging “widget,” or on any Web site that can accept HTML snippets. That simplifies things because there’s no software download.
The company says it is trying to play off the current craze for video sharing, and will give musicians and other artists a good way to get feedback.
Abazab says it is backed by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Advanced Equities and Geneva Ventures.
Abazab says its small team is an offshoot of the team that produced Festoon, originally known as vSkype, which let Skype users (and subsequently Google Talk users) connect via video in large numbers, or up to 200 people, and which also let you share other types of data and applications during a Skype call. It was also backed by DFJ, as was Skype.
If you try it out, let us know what you think.
Separate Skype action: Speaking of Skype, you can now make Skype calls over any mobile phone — via a service offered by Soonr, a Silicon Valley company that has specialized in letting you access your desktop via your mobile phone. Called SoonR Talk, it is currently mentioned on SoonR’s home page.
Clarification: Some people were asking about Abazab’s relationship to Santa Cruz Networks, which was the company behind vSkype/Festoon. Essentially, this is a reformation of the the same company, a so-called “recapitalization,” where things are reset, investors reinvest, and employees get a good stake in the company again. In this latest incarnation, it has raised $4.1 million from the investors mentioned above.
Santa Cruz Networks’
Next Story: Google's Internet access investment, Current, raises $130M more; Mountain View WiFi delayed?
Previous Story: Rumor: Google negotiating to buy Olive for $70+M
About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
