I got the opportunity to chat with Daren Gill, VP/GM of
Veveo about
vTap for Blackberry. We featured
vTap here last week. Here's the result...
Hayden: How long has vTap been around and was BlackBerry always a part of it's vision?
Daren: vTap launched on September 10 to deliver the value of Veveo's technology directly into the hands of consumers. Our vision is to make it incredibly fast and easy for users to find what they want wherever they are. Web video is growing at an unprecedented pace due to the active participation of millions of users uploading on sites such as YouTube, MySpace, Beebo, Metacafe etc. This activity is creating a whole new corpus of online content and information which is exceedingly difficult to navigate or browse, yet increasingly valuable. Wikipedia is another huge corpus of information that is continually growing through the active participation of millions of users. Although much easier to navigate in its online form, Wikipedia is still difficult to search from a mobile device. vTap is indexing all of this content (video and wikipedia) in real-time and making it readily accessible to anyone, anytime, anywhere.
Blackberry has always been a part of the vision as we feel the Blackberry user places a high priority on efficiency and access to real-time information. Today, the Blackberry user can use our Wikipedia application. You’ll be amazed at how effective it is for winning that trivial bet, or helping your kids with homework...once you realize how quick and easy you can get access to the world’s knowledge, it’s exciting to see the different things you use it for. As for the video content, we are hopeful that it will be available for Blackberry soon.
Hayden: How soon do you expect a to have a BETA version of vTap ready?
Daren: I assume you mean the video content on vTap because the Wikipedia search is available for Blackberry today. For video on a Blackberry device, we estimate the technical work to be no more than a few weeks after we gain access to the necessary APIs. Access to those APIs involves a partnership discussion which is more difficult to estimate. I am hopeful that all the positive feedback vTap is receiving in the press, the blogosphere, and actual users will help move things forward to gain the necessary access.
Hayden: The vTap feature posted on PinStack received quite a bit of attention from PinStack's members. Many indicated expectations they have as per features and functionality. Regarding their posts, what are your thoughts?
Daren: I have reviewed the posts and most users are just waiting to see the service available on a Blackberry device. For a few users they played with our Wikipedia search app. That was an application some Veveo engineers pulled together and people within the company really liked it -- it's great for winning a bet on a disputed fact or trivia, or helping your kids with their homework, etc. Anyway, we had such fun with it that we decided to include it in the vTap offering. We hope to offer more useful, fun applications that leverage the power of the vTap index and search technology.
Hayden: What will be the key selling point(s) of vTap to the Blackberry market?
Daren: The vast world of web video at your fingertips? You don't have to peck out entire words and phrases? Incredibly fast search response time? Seamless, smooth video delivery? I think it will be a big success in the Blackberry market.
Hayden: Will vTap in the end be a free service, one-time cost or paid subscription?
Daren: Time will tell, but we firmly believe that vTap is the user's service. We want to stay focused on the value to each individual user and reach as many users as possible. To that end, we are hopeful that vTap can remain a free service for all to enjoy.
