Ribbit injects phone, voicemail features on to Web

By Eric Auchard

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A Silicon Valley start-up that lets software programmers embed phone-like voice features in everything from Web sites to computers, to phones themselves, unveiled its first product for consumers on Monday.

The company, known as Ribbit, is introducing a service called Amphibian which plays on the notion that its technology works in and out of the water -- making voice features found on phones accessible on their computers or via many Web sites.

"We are merging computers and telephony in a true sense, said Crick Waters, Ribbit's vice president of strategy, who played a key role in starting several Internet businesses at former employers AT&T Inc and NorthPoint Communications.

Amphibian -- set to be launched during the first quarter -- will be announced this week in Palm Desert, California at DEMO, a semi-annual conference that serves as a launch pad for new, up-and-coming technology companies.

Consumers can have two-way phone conversations through Web pages. Incoming calls can be sent to voicemail for automatic transcription, allowing them to be read back or forwarded like e-mail on computers or on mobile phones. This feature is made possible by voicemail transcription service SimulScribe.

It uses Flash and Flex design software from Adobe Systems Inc, allowing developers to build "virtual phones" that run as computer applications or work on Web sites. More than 2,500 developers have signed up to build Ribbit services.

In a telecoms industry dominated by proprietary software built and controlled by individual network operators, Ribbit presents an alternative using standard Web development tools.

As a start-up with limited resources, Ribbit must move carefully in a market that not only incumbent phone equipment makers Cisco Systems Inc and Avaya Inc covet, but where Google Inc and Microsoft Corp have becoming aggressive players.