TinyChat, the simple, free web-based chat room we wrote about here, is now adding video conferencing and screen sharing to its list of features.
Once you create a chat room on TinyChat’s site, TinyChat will generate a unique URL that you can share with whoever you choose to invite to the virtual chat room. When users click on the link, they will enter the interface and will be able to input messages, change their usernames and enable video and audio conferencing. Powered by Adobe Flash, the video conferencing feature allows up to 12 different users in the chat room. TinyChat also lets you share any type of file with other members of a chat room. Similar to the site’s previous version, you can embed a badge on other sites and forums to spread the link to the chatroom. The video conferencing feature is very easy to use and the quality of the video isn’t terrible.
The startup has also rolled out a premium account, which is $20 per month, where you will be able to add screen sharing to members of the group. Once you enable screen sharing, you will be given a picture window, which can be dragged to the tab or screen where you want the webcast to take place. Additionally, the premium service lets you record and save video conferences as an flv file. The pro account also lets you create passwords for room privacy and offers higher quality video than the free account.
Of course video streaming and web conferencing is old news and there are significant amount of services that do the same thing including Cisco’s WebEx, Stickam, Ustream and a host of others. Entrepreneur Daniel Blake, who created TinyChat, TinyPaste and ControlC, says that TinyChat is aimed towards individuals and small businesses who don’t normally use these services but want an easy (and cheap) way to connect with others over the web. Blake also says that he’s hoping to sell the service to social networks like Facebook, to enable video chatting from the site. The interface of the new and improved TinyChat is still very spartan, but for a company or user who is looking for a free service and doesn’t need a whole bunch of bells and whistles, it could be an easy option for video conferencing.
love this tool…i’ve been looking for something to use for online video therapy. the URL invite makes it perfect for this purpose.
Mebeam was the first to do this – i think it can do 16 users per room – using a simple url -
I’m in the process of making something similar and simpler. But probably I think I took too much time just thinking about it. But still I would give it a try
… as competition is always good.
Hats off to Daniel Blake, looks like a great product that he and his entrepreneur team have put together. This is a product that I will recommend to SMBs as well as try myself.
Unfortunate. That rec is like a death nail for tiny.
I found a better video conferencing and chat tool for SMB,
http://www.nefsis.com
serious!
I have a lot of family that live in different parts of the world (or USA). What is the best multi-screen (4 to 6 separate feeds) platform out there. It doesn’t even have to be free.
Any ideas?
I like the clean interface. Nice work!
Just another Flash Media Server based product …
Jeez talk about innovation …