By Julie Blaustein

Bibbil is officially launching its social video platform today to help people easily connect around the world through a magical video experience that you can learn more about here.

“People need an enjoyable and beautiful way to connect with the ones they care about,” said David J. Phillips, CEO and Co-Founder of Bibbil. “With Bibbil, you can now get what you want from video chat – simple, fast, and fun connections to all of your friends and family around the world. There is no downloading, installing, or running of a separate desktop application required. Once inside Facebook, the user is merely two clicks away from video enchantment – and it’s free.”

Bibbil uses game dynamics to reward users and give them access to new features. Starting out on the service a Bibbilittle, a user earns bibbills (virtual points) to unlock new features on their way to the top status of Bibbillionaire. Features include group video chat, party video chat, live broadcasting, and more. The team is also preparing to release its new platform solution that integrates across many mobile devices. To learn how to Bibil visit Bibbil or to learn the 5 easy ways to earn at Bibbills.

The founding team of David J. Phillips, Robbie Trencheny and Jesse Sung have known each other for over 14 years. As serial entrepreneurs, they hold more than a dozen startups under their belts, including a venture backed social discovery service.  To date, the Bibbil team has built its initial version of the application, secured partnerships with leading Web video communications provider TokBox, and ran a successful private alpha launch which spread to over 20 countries in less than 24 hours.

Post and video by Miiko Mentz

At last week’s Web 2.0 Expo we caught up with ooVoo, a company that enables people to connect, collaborate and communicate in real-time through online video. Bubblicious Reporter Jolie O’Dell spoke with Tom Herman, VP of product marketing at ooVoo, about their core products and their new open API that allows developers to build customized applications and widgets for use within the ooVoo platform.

ooVoo enables people to have video chats with up to six people on camera and another six people by audio, as well as screen-sharing capabilities. ooVoo competes against more established players such as Logitech’s SightSpeed, and is an alternative for businesses who cannot afford the higher end solutions such as Cisco’s TelePresence.

Developers interested in building a video app on the ooVoo platform should participate in ooVoo’s developer contest where he or she can win $2,500 by building a creative video widget and embedding it on their personal or company site. Video is a powerful medium and it’s one more way to communicate with readers, viewers, customers, partners, colleagues, etc. Check out our interview with ooVoo:

In addition to ooVoo, the Bubblicious team talked with a few other companies offering social computing applications and services. If you missed yesterday’s video, watch our highlight reel and stay tuned all week for the full interviews with each company. Tomorrow’s video interview is with MindTouch.

by Michelle Lentz

Last week I wrote about how TokBox launched their new video chat for Facebook. This week they’ve brought video chat to your desktop.

Using the recently popular and cross-platform Adobe AIR, TokBox has created an easy to use application that might remind you of IM software or Skype.

From the desktop client, you can access TokBox’s standard features of video calling, IM, and video email. Similar to an IM client, the desktop app also lets you set your status and alerts you whenever someone initiates a chat. Similar to the online version, the application provides a link to send to others so that they may video chat with you, even without the software.

If you enjoy adding video to your calls and email, this is a handy way to access TokBox without having to open the browser.
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Events, news, apps, and more – let me know at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, via Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.

by Michelle Lentz

I’m a little too self-conscious to want to use video chat. That’s an impending part of the Jetsons future that just makes me nervous. I work at home in my pajamas for half the day, after all.

However, I’m apparently in the minority, as video cameras built into computers and new ways to video chat are popping up everyday. TokBox, which currently utilizes its web site for free and easy video calling, announced a new application for Facebook Chat last week. (I think the news sort of got lost in the holiday weekend.) Tokbox has enabled video chat for Facebook as a Firefox add-on.

“We’re incredibly excited by the early feedback on the TokBox Firefox add-on,” said Nick Triantos, TokBox CEO. “This add-on will enable Facebook users to participate in live video calls with their Facebook friends, right from within the Facebook chat user interface.”

The TokBox video calling functionality for Facebook is currently available via a Firefox add-on only. Support for Internet Explorer and Safari will be available in the near future.

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Events, news, apps, and more – let me know at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, via Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.