TokBox Offers Free Live Video Talk Functionality
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 07/16/08
##AUTHORSPLIT##<--->
A new plugin called TokBox, from a San Francisco company of the same name and funded by YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, allows users to talk with each other over live video. A component with a "Push to Talk" button can be added to a social network profile, blog, or personal Webpage. A visitor clicks the button to connect to the host in real time using live video and audio.
The service is free and requires no chat client, just a computer with a camera and an Internet link. When a user signs up, the service generates a link that can be forwarded to friends. Host users control who can and can't see them.
TokBox also recently released a Firefox plug-in that allows Facebook users to do free video conferencing. When the plug-in is installed, the host user can hold multiple video conversations, each in a separate window.
Finally, a new public video feed from the company allows users to post video mail to friends or to all users of TokBox.
Get daily news from THE Journal's RSS News Feed
About the author: Dian Schaffhauser is a writer who covers technology and business for a number of publications. Contact her at [email protected].
Proposals for articles and tips for news stories, as well as questions and comments about this publication, should be submitted to David Nagel, executive editor, at [email protected].
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.