This is radically different from the traditional telecom model, and while being very early stage, is a glimpse of what a platform play could look like as these concepts start to take hold in the mainstream. When they do - it's not if in my mind - traditional service providers will have to work a lot harder and faster to shift their focus... More »

VP of Technology Crick Waters demonstrated the upcoming interface and noted that more than 53,000 calls have been made on developer network. The coolest feature is a familiar looking telephone keypad that can be integrated into Web apps and services... More »

For IT managers at small and medium-sized businesses, the words "simple," "inexpensive," and "easy" have seldom been heard in the same sentence with telephony. Now, thanks to the power of Web-based applications, that's changing... More »

Ribbit creates a single online phone that consolidates all your voice lines... Coolest feature-you can download different skins that change the look of your online phone, including this perfect clone of the iPhone... More »

There were many other good companies on display. I blogged about most of them. Some of the best companies I have written about before: Green Plug, Review2Buy, Skyfire, Ribbit and LiveScribe... More »

Amphibian is a new voiceware technology which integrates voice communication into business and personal life and allows users to move easily between traditional telephony and the web... More »

Billing itself as the first phone company birthed in Silicon Valley, Ribbit has brought telephone engineers and software developers together in a bid to meld the Web with voice communications in entirely new ways... The company's first consumer-oriented service, dubbed Amphibian, will let you make calls on your computer as if from your cell phone, and calls dialed to your cell phone can be routed to your computer, or any computer connected to the Web... More »

One company that has already garnered attention is Ribbit, which confidently bills itself as the first Silicon Valley Phone company (a marketing coup if ever there was one). I had a Web conference with these guys last week and their voiceware, Amphibian, was no less impressive today.

Amphibian also enables contacts in social networks thanks to its integration with Google's OpenSocial platform.

To Ribbit: Take this technology into the enterprise and watch it fly. I know it can do it... More »

Amphibian falls under a category called voiceware, which Ribbit defines as a new technology that bridges the gap between traditional telephony and the Web by integrating voice communication into business and personal life... More »

Specifically, you can manage your mobile voicemail like e-mail on your computer and phone, turn your voicemail into text, take and make mobile calls from any browser or Webpage, and use its Caller ID 2.0 to find out what your buds have been doing of late... More »

The focus, thus, is not on enabling just Web-based communications - such as in first-generation VoIP services like Skype - but in helping users navigate between the wired/wireless worlds and the Web... More »

...Demo brought to light a telecommunications trend that must have the major carriers shaking in their boots. Simply put thanks to Web 2.0 and IP telephony, innovative startups are discovering they can create their own phone company and they don't really need the traditional carriers to do it. In the late morning sessions of Demo08 this was demonstrated by two companies Toktumi and Ribbit.

What is the most unusual part of the solution is Web 2.0 Caller ID. While a user talks to a caller on the phone, the system goes out and searches for more information on the person, looking into social feeds and Web sites... More »

Amphibian integrates voice into any number of Web environments including social networking pages, Web-based applications, and mash-ups... The voiceware provided by Ribbit is a new category of application which allows developers to bridge the gap between traditional telephony and the Web. With this, they can also integrate voice communication into the flow of business and personal life... More »

Among the most ambitious here at DEMO is Silicon Valley startup Ribbit, which connects mobile phone users with the Web. Once you've registered your mobile phone at the company's Web site, you can manage all your communications from the desktop. Ribbit's service also provides users with a range of added features... More »

Some people focus on technology's benefits. But the entrepreneurs gathering at a Southern California resort this week are fixated on its flaws...Ribbit Inc., a start-up in Mountain View, Calif., is discussing plans to make voice communications a common feature in Web pages and social-networking sites. Developers using its technology can add functions such as recording, sending and receiving voicemail and making and receiving calls... More »

Ribbit is a new startup based in the Silicon Valley which has been working on developing solutions to enable developers to embed phone-like voice features in a variety of devices and services... More »

It wants to be the platform company for Voice 2.0 applications. If its plans succeed, there will be thousands of new phone apps appearing soon, and they almost all will be Flash apps. In other words, these won't be stand-alone pieces of software like Skype. They will let people make calls right from the browser and tie deeply into other apps and data on the Web... More »

The company has built a telephony switch that can connect Web-based phone calls to a variety of phone networks, including voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, services like Skype... More »

This isn't just a widget for talking to your friends, like Skype and its many "Voice 2.0" imitators. Rather, Ribbit is offering a full telephone switchboard on its server, connected both to the Internet and to the public-switched telephone network... More »

It's a move that's proving remarkably popular lately, with startup efforts such as the Google-backed Android as well as established telcos like Verizon Wireless all offering "open" platforms to programmers. But few companies have given them as much latitude as Ribbit promises... More »

If you strip away the hype... what they have done is built their own Class 5 softswitch and back-end infrastructure and married it to front-end technologies like Flash and Flex from Adobe Systems (ADBE)... More »

A small, Silicon Valley-based start-up with an AT&T heritage is now working side-by-side big partners such as Salesforce.com and Adobe in an effort to revolutionize voice calls as we know them today... More »

One example of the shape of things to come is the new Ribbit for Salesforce workflow integration application, which will enable mobile calls, voice messages, and text transcriptions to flow right into Salesforce's CRM Relevant Products/Services environment on the Web... More »

Ribbit is already showing off the first fruits of its collaboration with various partners. One example is workflow integration with Salesforce.com, a provider of on-demand CRM software. Beta testing with Salesforce began in October and attracted half a dozen early adopters at the time... More »

Telephony startup Ribbit Corp. came out of stealth Monday... More »

Silicon Valley start-up Ribbit Corp on Monday unveiled a technology platform that will let developers put Web telephony in everything from business software to popular social network sites such as Facebook... More »

Imagine Facebook with easy call functions or travel sites that can connect you to destinations at the click of a button. With developers able to write telephone applications with Adobe's Flash and Flex tools for now, they can easily place this capability in a variety of Web sites... More »

Ribbit software serves as an interface between anything from Web sites, e-mail and instant messaging to mobile or regular phones. Developers do not need to be telephony experts to build services with Adobe's (ADBE.O) Flash software, which works on most computers... More »

Ribbit designed its own softswitch, which runs on Linux blades and has been certified in an Alcatel-Lucent lab to meet the capabilities and reliability that telecommunications providers typically require... More »

With Ribbit's SmartSwitch, developers don't have to be a rocket scientist - or pay consultants a ton of money - to integrate voice capability into a web site through some kind of widget. These phone applications have cool features. You can, for instance, receive a voice mail and the SmartSwitch will transcribe it into an e-mail, giving you "visual voice mail"... More »

Another telecoms initiative, Ribbit, launches today with a claim of being "Silicon Valley's first phone company". It justifies the tag by referring to the Valley processes and business models it is bringing to telecoms... More »

Back in September in my Skype Could Trump Facebook in Social Networking post, I talked about how Skype could beat Facebook, but I also discussed how Flash VoIP apps could be a major played in the VoIP space. One company I highlighted was Ribbit... More »

Ribbit, a 2-year-old company whose software integrates cell phone calls with Web applications, is about to unveil plans to become, by its description, "Silicon Valley's first phone company." Ribbit's announcement is slated for next week... More »

Still, the Silicon Valley start-up, which officially opened its Web-based telephony platform to third party developers this morning, is generating a lot of buzz for its Flash/Flex-based telephones (see video below), and rightly so. The company has essentially built a software version of an operator-class telephone switch that connects Internet-based voice communication services with mobile and landline phones and other Web-based phone applications... More »

Smart business model, aggressive and well executed go-to-market strategy, and providing real solutions to developers. Hmmm... could Ribbit be the company that finally is the disruptor that shakes up the entire telecom ecosystem - the first true Voice 2.0 carrier?... More »

The point is that while Ribbit is cool, and can embed telephony into any Web application, it's ripe for some open source competition. I wrote just last week about how Appcelerator is aimed directly at Flex, only licensed under the GPL.... More »

Under the Radar is happy to announce the category winners for our Business of Web Apps conference. It was a great event with great presenting companies - thanks to all our startups who got up on stage and told us why they're great. Business Calls - Judges Choice: Ribbit... More »

Talking about developers, check out Air Phone, an iPhone for your desktop. Built using the Ribbit API, I think it will be hit among Amphibian users. The Amphibian will easily work with your favorite webtop, like iGoogle or facebook... I know I will have that Air Phone... More »

Ribbit - As an online phone company which enables you to use your mobile phone via the Web. It also offers widgets which can be added to you start page thus putting your mobile contacts in constant view and at your fingertips... More »

DEMO participants Toktumi and Ribbit worked to prove their versions of the future of communications by showing products including software tools to organize and connect calls, voice mail and conferencing, as well as solutions to merge and integrate mobile communications with online social sites... More »

Ribbit's new Amphibian product for managing voicemail through an internet interface is based on Adobe Flex and AIR technology and has 2500 developers signed up working on interesting extensions such as an iPhone on the desktop... More »

Here's a heads up on Ribbit, a company that has a telephony platform that combines mobile phones and the web. It has published its API and spawned a developer community around itself... Ribbit has been very innovative in its courting of external developers. As such it may get traction and compete strongly... More »

DEMO 2008 brought 78 companies to the stage for six minutes each. It's speed dating for venture capitalists, and a testament to the short attention spans of today's market. After not quite three days, here are four themes:

We have too many devices

A raft of new entrants want to integrate all my friends, phones and content, regardless of where I am or what I'm using...Ribbit puts phones everywhere... More »

It has completely rethought telephony within the context of our modern world. Ribbit offers a telephony platform that enables developers to craft innovative telephony solutions within current applications, and also create completely novel applications. A good demonstration of what can be done with this platform is Ribbit's Amphibian service.

But the impressive thing is that Ribbit also offers developers an e-commerce system that lets them charge users for their applications. Developers need only focus on creating great apps, Ribbit provides them with the e-commerce infrastructure. Brilliant... More »

It's a powerful technology that will allow developers to do cool things with voice services, without dealing with traditional telephone switches and cantankerous phone companies... Amphibian does new stuff like pull up the social network profile pages of people when they call you. Creepy. But cool... More »

Ribbit, a Silicon Valley startup has just launched Amphibian, an online platform that acts as an extension to your mobile phone. You can send and receive calls, check your voicemail, and much more, all without requiring your mobile phone in-hand. All you need is access to the web... More »

The software will also pull in "opensocial" feeds for the user while you're talking to them. Ribbit claims thousands of developers who've used their API to create new Web phones and other utilities; one created a beautiful iPhone interface. The company didn't mention pricing, but it looks like a very useful service... More »

...Basic Amphibian services will be available to consumers for free. That means lots of your employees will get to play with it, learn to depend on it and then toss it your way to help Amphibian jump into mainstream corporate IT... More »

Ribbit has released another end-user application called the Amphibian. If you were impressed by the Chalkboard phone, then you will be wowed by Amphibian...It is just the sleekness of the interface and how all the different functionalities are seamlessly integrated that makes Ribbit beautiful... More »

...One of its coolest features blends Web 2.0 features with caller ID--Ribbit calls it Caller ID 2.0... So you not only know who's calling, but you know what they've been up to by seeing what they've Twittered or by looking at their status message.

I happened to be sitting next to Gary Morgenthaler, general partner at Morgenthaler Ventures... He confirmed my own first impressions when he turned to me and said "That's really cool!" after Ribbit's demonstration... More »

You can click on a phone icon on a web site and actually use the mouse buttons to dial a phone number...You can also answer calls to your mobile phone via the phone embedded on the web page...This works because you forward your mobile phone to Ribbit, which treats it as data that it can route...The application is code-named Amphibian because it can thrive in different environments... More »

Another great thing about Sprout is the way they're partnering with 3rd parties to offer components. They will have a Meebo IM component, a Ribbit phone component, a Yahoo Maps component and others that let users very easily add advanced functionality to their Flash applications... More »

...Sprout overcomes this limitation in part by providing a library of "components" that can be integrated into a given creation. The company has lined up general components such as video, slideshows and RSS feeds in addition to components from 3rd party web services such as Meebo, Yahoo Maps, PollDaddy and Ribbit... More »

Ribbit is on my SVW 2008Watch list. It is a very impressive company with a spot-on business strategy and technology for leading the telephony sector in enterprise, and in consumer sectors...Amphibian provides a mobile phone user with unprecedented control over their incoming and outgoing calls...Ribbit has built a totally new type of telephone company with a flexibility to offer services and applications that weren't possible before... More »

With Amphibian you can finally - Manage your mobile voicemail like email on your computer and on your mobile phone;...Experience Caller ID 2.0 - dip into the social web and know not just who is calling but what the caller has been doing; Have scores of web developers working at internet speed building new phone applications for you. This rocks my world... More »

Ribbit? A web voice system that is "an extension of my mobile phone" - looks like it does nice organizing of calls...Intriguing...this one's getting a lot of buzz, in part because it has the potential to inspire an ecosystem around it. Looking forward to trying it out when I get access to the beta... More »

Mobile and personal web communications together. Can answer your mobile phone anywhere, including on a web page. Ribbit Amphibian Desktop. Ribbit messaging is rich. It has voicemail as text messages, which makes them searchable...This is cool. I like the centralized management of my cell phone calls and messages. The voicemail system on Sprint is terrible. Maybe this would be better... More »

Amphibian is a consumer telephony application that marries the web and the handset. It sports features like visual voice mail, drag and drop call routing, and something they've called Caller ID 2.0, which fetches information about callers from the social network, as the call is coming in. It's also extensible by third parties. From where I sit, this is a tremendously ambitious project... More »

Erik's wonderful post today jogged my memory about Ribbit and the edge of the network. In Erik's post, he's asked to describe the difference between his service, Lypp, and Ribbit, and gives his honest appraisal of the environment in which edge applications live:

The edge of the network is a nasty place. Bandwidth issues, carrier packet shaping, lack of end user control and costly redundancy solutions make it nearly impossible to deliver a predictable and reliable telephony service.

Ribbit's API is an Adobe Flex API, which at first gave me pause, but upon reflection, I like. Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) are the future of desktop applications, and although there are still many choices for which technology will win (Flex, Ajax, etc), there's no doubt it's going to be one of them. Given that, there are lots of programmers who will know and understand this programming approach - good to see they now have an option... More »

Just checking out a new tool for managing your messaging: Ribbit...I can't wait to try this. There are so many things here that I'm already using in one form or another it would be great to consolidate them all into a single application controlled by a single UI accessible from any web browser or web enabled mobile phone... More »

Both companies should be applauded for developing Voice 2.0 platforms... In addition to just sending and receiving calls, Ribbit is packed full of interesting features such as the ability to see a social network like profile of the person calling you and voice mail eavesdropping with barrage...Honestly, the only thing I see that is similar between the two is that they are both pushing the envelope of what is possible with Voice 2.0 services and doing a darn good job at it to boot!... More »

I can say the number of features they offer is impressive, together with a new approach in offering some services to the final user... The feeling I'm getting from Ribbit is "integration", something that makes me think that everything I need to communicate is there, at my fingertips... More »

DEMO 2008 kicked off in Palm Desert, Calif., today, and has already yielded a week's worth of news...Among the launchings and unveilings, Ribbit announced its voice-web product Amphibian... More »

I have had a few people ask me to describe the differences between Ribbit and the Lypp API...First let me begin by saying I know Ted Griggs and I respect him greatly, he has a great track record for building innovative companies that push the boundaries of technology and communications... More »

Recently, Ribbit - a newly established company in the Silicon Valley - launched a technology called Amphibian that allows people to combine their online life with their mobile phone number, and this unique combination reveals to be a totally breathtaking experience... More »

My biggest problem with the large proliferation of messaging and VOIP applications is that in order to communicate with everyone on their favorite, I have an ever increasing number of resource hogs running. Ribbit has promised to conquer the communication apps bloat with an new product called Amphibian... More »

Amphibian is also a very good example of why I continue to be really excited about what AIR offers... AIR isn't about replacing what you're doing inside the browser. It's just another option for your users that's easy to create because the programming technologies for each platform are the same. The guys at Ribbit are showing that perfectly. And as cheesy as it sounds, I think this frog is close to finding the proverbial princess and turning into a prince of Silicon Valley... More »

Startup Ribbit is preparing to launch in impressive looking internet telephony service in a few months. The company's Amphibian phone service provides a ton of features, but in a nutshell you could describe Amphibian as a cross between Google's GrandCentral and Skype with a few extra bits thrown in like an open developer platform and some social networking features... More »

That's right - the annual new products show is kicking off today. Over the weekend, Ribbit VP Don Thorson pinged me to tell me that they would be showing. TechCrunch and GigaOm are both giving previews of the Ribbit offering... More »

I'm sure by now most of you have heard of Ribbit and their Flex based VOIP service... One of its main features is that it allows you to aggregate all of your different phone numbers into one rich dashboard experience. Another feature I found particularly interesting was the ability to gather a person's "feeds" (flickr, their blog rss, LinkedIn etc...) while you are talking to them... The best part for us is that it's still Flash based so the developer community can build additional services and make them available through the Ribbit market space... More »