I had an opportunity last week to chat with Joe Heitzeberg and Lori Roth of Snapvine about the Snapvine API, which launched today. The Snapvine API, now freely available at www.snapvine.com/api, uses lightweight JavaScript that can be implemented in a minimal amount of time and gives website owners immediate benefits:
- Increased engagement by allowing users to add their voice to any photo or text element, through the mic on their computer or by dialing a telephone number from one of 15 supported countries.
- Viral distribution of content with a ‘share’ button for users to easily post photos and voice content to MySpace, Facebook, or other web sites.
- Increased site traffic and enhanced SEO (search engine optimization) via a branded link on all shared content that takes users back to the originating website.
- Quick and easy client-side integration with media hosting and bandwidth provided by Snapvine.
And with the announcement of their API, Snapvine also announced a mittful of partners. After all, an API with no developers isn’t worth much.
Now I have to say that Snapvine’s product offering — the ability to be able to create recordings and add them to different web components — doesn’t do the company’s vision justice. Today, however, with the release of the API, we get an inkling of that vision. And here, in CEO Joe Heitzeberg’s own words, is more elaboration.
They’re a bunch of internet guys, who think that voice has a place in every application, and that the way to voice enable a social network is through the voice interface we already all have — the phone. Hallelujah!
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
