Why Was Yahoo So Hot To Acquire iPhone App Maker IntoNow?

Rube just paid $27 jillio for iPhone app shaper IntoNow.

What in the planetary is IntoNow? Wherefore does Yahoo want this company, which launched 12 weeks ago and has all of seven employees? And why should anybody care?

Short answers first:

IntoNow makes an iPhone app that enables you to tell your network of friends about the cool TV show, movie, gimpy or commercial you're observation.'
Yahoo wants it because it dovetails into all the areas people are talking about right now: Fluid, video and connected TV.
You should care because it tells the quick universe that you righteous watched an Audi moneymaking.

Personally, I would only be impressed with such a feature if it sent a brand-new, fully loaded Audi A6 up my driveway. Pulling a trailer with a crib. Compulsive by the Old Zest Guy. For free. But I sidetrack.

Scripps Meshwork's Wes Hank Williams, who blogs at Interactive TV Today, described the IntoNow app as "like Shazam meets TV meets Foursquare." It picks up audio of the Television show you're watching, identifies it, tags it and shares the info on societal networks. Chief operating officer Adam Cahan says the Yahoo cash testament enable IntoNow to get into fresh parts of the existence and extend the app to Android, iPad and other platforms.

The technology, a proprietary indexing system known as SoundPrint, is reall cool. According to IntoNow, its database contains the equivalent of 266 years of indexed video, and its algorithms can name computer programing "down to the instalment" in 4 to 12 seconds, even if the read is brand snappy new.

You don't have to be friends with people to view their profiles or go through what they're watching. In fact, IntoNow runs a Twitter-like feed right there along its homepage that tells me Mario G. is watching "Sports Center" while Jim C. is watching "Good Will Search."

The "Why?" is more complicated. From the IntoNow blog: "We want you to connect with your friends to make television more social, engaging and individualised. It's what you're into, what you're doing word-perfect now, and there should be an leisurely way to share that with your friends. On the way we hope you discover more shows you should cost into… we surely consume."

Here Come the Ads

That's the consumer "Wherefore?" The business wherefore is Sir Thomas More insidious, especially if you've been paying attention to last workweek's news that Orchard apple tree iPhones and Google Humanoid devices reveal where you've been. Several companies previewed automatic content recognition apps at this year's National Connexion of Broadcasters confab. One, called Vobile, aforementioned "Mobile applications that integrate with Vobile ACR technology will drive advanced advert models and enable synchronization of self-complacent betwixt TV and mobile devices, much as smartphones and tablets."

Yes indeed! Advertisers will be able to push content to your smartphone or tablet, soh you gravel the groovy Cola game or coupon for pizza while the commercialized is unmoving smacking your eyeballs. It's everything an advertiser could want: Immediacy, reach, frequency, personalization, monetisation and a whole bunch of opposite -ations that whitethorn or may non have anything to do with "making television more social, engaging and personalized."

Doesn't that seduce you wishing to pass over screaming into the nighttime? It made Yahoo want to spend $27 million.