After I moved to the East Coast a few months ago, a few of my close friends and I became fans of video chatting via Google to keep in touch.
But as fun as it is to crack the laptop open alongside a bottle of wine while we catch up on gossip, there are some snags that make the experience less than pleasant.
For example, you can chat with only one person at a time — which, given my circle, means you aren’t getting the full, juicy recap of the previous night’s antics. And then there’s the problem of the dueling screens. Say one party starts watching a YouTube video during the chat. An irritating soundtrack blasts through the other end at full volume, sans the video stream. And even if your chatting partner sends you a link to whatever snippet she happens to be watching, you can’t simultaneously watch without audio interference.
Watchitoo, a start-up based in Israel and New York, offers a simple solution to that problem. On Tuesday, the company is publicly introducing a service that combines the concept of live video chatting with the sharing of content like videos — all in a single Web browser.
Screen shot of Watchitoo.The service, which has been in private testing since May, allows Watchitoo users to create shows or rooms that can either be open to anyone or limited to a few invitees. So one member of the room can search for the latest Lady Gaga video or a clip from the BET awards on YouTube in the shared browser window and everyone can watch the video simultaneously — all while chatting via video or an instant messaging client embedded in the same browser.
“We’re taking the concept of collaboration from business and applying it to content,” said Rony Zarom, founder and chief executive of the company. “But beyond that, it’s about a new medium for watching TV and commentary on the Internet.”
Mr. Zarom, who founded Watchitoo in 2007, acknowledged that there were already a handful of competitors on the market, like Skype’s screen-sharing feature, Paltalk and View2gether.
The biggest drawback to using a service like Watchitoo is the lack of content: it’s great to watch portions of a show or a Keyboard Cat video with a friend, but it might not be enough of a lure to keep users coming back.
It’s also worth noting that several earlier social viewing initiatives introduced by CBS and MTV with a few of their hottest shows never really seemed to take off.
But Mr. Zarom is spurred on by the popularity of recent social viewing events, like CNN’s pairing of Facebook status updates with the live stream of President Obama’s inauguration. He hopes to eventually integrate his service with Twitter and Facebook, and broaden the slate of content partners, currently limited to Photobucket and Yahoo for sharing images, and YouTube for watching videos.
Mr. Zarom also says that Watchitoo’s patent-pending technology allows for a synchronized, stutter-free streaming experience that sets the service apart from the pack.
The service is free, but the company plans eventually to offer premium features for a fee.
Watchitoo is backed by seed funding from Decima Ventures, an investment firm established by Mr. Zarom in 2001, when he sold his first company, a mobile Web start-up called Exalink, to Comverse for $550 million.
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