Los Angeles — Facebook fans who wished there were truly another way to connect with friends [face to face] on computer screens can now rejoice, as a new start-up called SocialEyes on Monday debuted a service that lets people have one-on-one or group video chats with friends from hot online community Facebook.
The mastermind behind digital-media pioneer RealNetworks has launched another app ‘two-way video service’ that lets people video chat on Facebook.
A trial version of SocialEyes, which made its public debut in California at a DEMO conference for technology startups, was established by Rob Glaser and Rob Williams, who know a thing or two about digital video from their days as executives at RealNetworks.
SocialEyes, which is unleashed now, delivers live video for several people at once to Facebook users and others so they can collaborate on work, chat about common interests or even learn to play an instrument remotely.
“It is a way to connect with friends, in real time, on your social graph,” says co-founder Glaser of his first venture since he stepped down as CEO of RealNetworks last year. He remains chairman of Real.
“This is a richer way to connect,” Glaser says.
The app provides video chatting for up to nine Facebook users straightaway, through an Apple FaceTime-like interface. Once you allow the app to access specific Facebook information, you can instantly connect to Facebook friends or video chats related to Facebook Groups and Pages. The app ideally caters to video conferences of five to seven.
“Users can commence or enter as many groups as they like so they can easily connect to like-minded individuals around common interests, hobbies, Facebook networks, families or anything else. It is easy to join a group by searching for a topic or joining one of the recommended groups,” the company said in a press release.
Glaser started RealNetworks in 1995 and quitted as its chief executive last year after a sometimes stormy tenure. He remains chairman.
SocialEyes was described by some as a more sophisticated version of Chatroulette, which randomly connected users in vidchats in a service that became known as a stage for bawdy antics by strangers. People can sign in to SocialEyes using Facebook Connect. Once they sign in, they see their Facebook friends and can begin conversing with several of them at once, one by one or in a group. Interestingly, if someone is not online, users can leave a video message.
SocialEyes users can create chat groups, so a family planning a reunion could create a permanent group, or strangers with shared interests could find one another and video chat. Moreover, users can keep the windows open so the friends can see and hear one another even when they are not conversing. They can mute or pause specific conversations if they do not want their friend to see or hear them, but it can be a little menacing, especially if someone forgets that a chat is still going on.
“SocialEyes expands the social networking experience to the next level by enabling people to connect with their networks and meet interesting people who share common interests through face-to-face communication or via video messages,” said startup co-founder Williams.
Its sudden, global popularity proved that many people had front-facing video cameras on their computers and were interested in casual chats, Williams said. But Chatroulette sessions, which could get repulsive, also proved that people didn’t necessarily want to chat with random strangers, he said.
“We discovered that really exciting, but you really need identity in order to make it work,” Williams said. That is why SocialEyes connects users by making use of their Facebook Ids.
Several services–including Skype, Apple’s FaceTime and Google’s video chat in Gmail — allow people to communicate via video. SocialEyes differs in that it offers a social element, Williams said. “Most of the value is building a community around my friends,” he said.
The San Francisco-based SocialEyes established by Williams and Glaser has raised $5.1 million in capital, with $600,000 coming from independent “angel” investment and the rest from a round of funding led by Ignition Partners.
The other founder, Rob Miller, is a former senior vice president for music products at RealNetworks and co-founder of Avogadro, an instant messaging system.
“The Internet has brought us all closer, but SocialEyes takes social medial networking to a whole new heights by connecting you face-to-face with people, not usernames,” said DEMO executive producer Matt Marshall.
“It completely changes the way we communicate with and meet new people.”
The technology, demoed on Monday at the DEMO emerging technologies conference in California, is based on Adobe Flash 10 and peer-to-peer video connections.
SocialEyes envisages a prime business opportunity to provide live video chats and taped video messages for more than 500 million Facebook members who, on average, have 150 friends each.
The founders mentioned they want to wait until SocialEyes has a substantial numbers of users to figure out how to make money. But advertisers could use it to recruit customers to evangelize about their product in SocialEyes videos, they said. Or if people start using it in the workplace, they could eventually sell a premium version to businesses.
“I have had experience with both of those, and the common denominator of either is building a huge user base and making sure it has a viral element,” Glaser said.