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Wengo Releases Flash Softphone For Web Pages
Posted by
kdawson
on Sat Dec 16, 2006 10:07 PM
from the talk'n'browse dept.
from the talk'n'browse dept.
bolsh writes "Wengo, a French company specializing in VoIP and instant messaging, and patron of the OpenWengo project (previously featured in Free Software magazine and here on Slashdot), has just released WengoVisio — a Flash softphone that you can download and embed in your Web page, to allow readers to call you when you're available through their browser, without downloading any software. (Disclaimer: I work for Wengo, on the OpenWengo project.) It's functionally cut down from the full Wengophone, but it's enough to be able to make a phone call in a Web page for the first time."
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Wengo Releases Flash Softphone For Web Pages
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sounds cool (Score:4, Funny)
Sounds cool, but why did you name it after a Microsoft Office component?!
Links don't work! (Score:3, Informative)
"Offer 141 doesn't exist!"
Now that sucks big time! Not good PR if you are promoting your stuff.
Weird name & interoperability Q (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.pobox.com/~meta/ | Last Journal: Sunday February 29 2004, @09:19AM)
Also, can Wengo interoperate with Gizmo and/or iChat? If not, why not?
What's the purpose? (Score:1)
I can see one or two rare situations where this would be of use, but generally, uses are there for this type of technology?
Re:What's the purpose? (Score:4, Insightful)
Honestly, I don't see a real use for this. If a company wants to leverage their telephony infrastructure, they can post their phone number in an easy to find location. If they want to cut down on costs, they can simply post a direct number and not a toll-free number (which cost extra).
Real phones have the advantage of not disconnecting if a user closes their browser window, their laptop suddenly goes into standby, Windows decides its time to reboot for updates, or Spyware decides to show 20 popup windows.
Cool idea, I just don't see much application for this.
Re:What's the purpose? (Score:4, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday November 21 2005, @12:24AM)
Re:What's the purpose? (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://theravensnest.org/ | Last Journal: Sunday October 07, @07:05AM)
That was fine for me, I type quickly, and I'm at home with text (and I liked the ability to keep an exact record of the conversation). A lot of people, however, prefer to use voice for that kind of thing. Imagine putting a link on your support site saying 'click here to talk to a customer support representative,' and having it just work. You can route it to any SIP phone, or to a POTS line, and the customer doesn't have to know any of the technical details. If I were setting up support for a company these days, I would want to offer both solutions; text for those that don't have a microphone, voice for those that do.
My hosting company uses iChat for support; I can bing-bong them with quick queries, or have a full video or audio chat if that's more useful. Having the CEO and CTO on your Jabber roster, and the ability to bitch at them directly when things break, provides a certain level of confidence in a company that you rarely find these days.
just a deeply disturbing concept... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.overclockingwiki.org/)
Advertisers will love this (Score:5, Interesting)
Should attract a lot of impulse buyers.
No Software Download Pbbbt (Score:2)
What are your experiences? Wengo links. (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.futurepower.net/)
Does anyone have experience with Wengo? Skype is excellent, of course, but not open source and not compatible with standards.
Wengo Links:
Wengo French [wengo.fr]
Wengo English [wengo.com]
WengoPhone [wengophone.com]
OpenWengo [openwengo.org]
Wengo consulting [wdeal.com]. Sell your technical knowledge over the phone.
"Who is Wengo? [wengophone.com] People like you all over the world
and the team: 35 people in France keeping you in touch."
Wengo started in 2005. "Wengo is a subsidiary of the group neufcegetel."
Confusion: It is difficult to find their telephone service rates pages [wengophone.com]. The one linked is for the countries beginning with B.
Debian Wengo: Package: wengophone (2.0.0~rc5-svn8108-2) [debian.org] "SIP-based software telephone with video and chat features."
Observations: Their web site is confused. The site is incorrectly translated to English in some places.
Why I like OpenWengo (Score:3, Informative)
2. it's free software (yes, free as in speech or freedom)
Skype is neither free nor uses a free protocol, Gizmo Project is not free (at some point it had a big disclaimer when you installed it, something along the line of: "we don't guarantee that it doesn't contain a virus or that doesn't contain adware" -- No, thank you.
This is similar to Camfrog (Score:1)
This is similar to Camfrog Web [camfrog.com], except with Camfrog you can have multiple open chat windows and can carry on a convo in text while communicating via webcam and voice.
The downsides are last time I checked it came with a hefty price tag ($9000 for unlimited users) and operates exclusively on Windows servers.
I really hope this WengoVisio project produces something of similar quality. I've been seeking ways for my organization to communicate with its deaf clients, using sign language, over the web. There is a desperate need for this sort of thing within the deaf community and those organizations serving them.
As an example, it could possibly be used for on the spot translation services. Imagine a nurse in an emergency ward needing to urgently communicate with a deaf patient, then browsing to an online translation service using this technology. The deaf patient can sign with an online interpreter who would then translate everything into voice and vice versa.
(No, pen and paper wouldn't always work in this instance.)
It apparently does not work on LiveJournal... (Score:2)
(http://www.moremayo.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday January 16 2007, @10:07PM)
ISR (Score:1, Offtopic)
Did anyone else read it as... (Score:3, Interesting)
I guess I need to have my eyes. Of course, the way people are addicted to Web Tech these days, I may be on to something - so to speak.
Too bad Wengo's dialer doesn't work (Score:2)
(http://www.eyrie.org/~robotech/index.html | Last Journal: Thursday August 26 2004, @12:10PM)
Which means it's not going to be useful to me. Pity.
No Go on MySpace (Score:1)
(http://www.myspace.com/dirtyrhodes)
One word. . . (Score:1)
Not the first time it was done (Score:1)
(http://m1210screenfix.blogspot.com/)
Not true. FWD (FreeWorldDialup) had an activex implementation that allowed you to do the same. Here it is http://account.fwdnet.net/fwdtalk/ [fwdnet.net]
I have used it before and it works fine.
Another thing - this wengovisio looks suspiciously similar to meebo styling...
Re:WengoVisio? (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Thursday April 18 2002, @07:50PM)
Wow, you're right. I read it as WengoVision. So. It's just audio then? Not a video phone? If it were a video phone, WengoVision might be a better name for it.
There is no shame in self-promotion. (Score:2)
(http://www.futurepower.net/)
Wengo a Skype replacement? (Open Source, SIP) (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www.futurepower.net/)
However, here is the question that is important for most Slashdot readers: Is WengoPhone a good replacement for Skype?. WengoPhone [wengophone.com] is open source and SIP compatible.