When we launched Twitmatic six weeks ago, we knew we could answer the question "What are you watching?" But since then, we've been asking the question "Do you care?" The 1200+ following us @twitmatic are the most vocal of the group, responding emphatically "Yes!" Beyond that though, you told us Twitmatic has potential to be a regular stop on your social media day (thanks for all the emails & DMs!), and that's why in this version were trying take Twitmatic from a novelty to a truly useful tool. Based on all our users' feedback, here's what we've added to this latest version:

- Real-time video search
Instead of "all videos shared on Twitter" or just filters for Twitter Trends, you can now perform your own search (results sorted by recency) and save those searches to track in real time.

- Integration of "Log in with Twitter"
By logging in with your Twitter account, you can save your searches, mark videos as favorites, and follow people who share interesting videos. In our testing experience, this has been a very helpful tool
to discover new people on Twitter.

- Toggle between video and tweet view
You can now see a Twitter-like list view of the 20 most recent results that match your search (If only so you can easily see how distinctive our results are from other video search engines you currently use)

So what's the answer to "What are you watching?" Twitmatic.com, of course. If like the direction we are headed with this (even if the implementation is still rough around the edges), please tweet "What am I watching? Twitmatic.com, of course"

Makes it easy to incorporate video directly into a social network strategy

Santa Monica, CA – May 7, 2009 – From the Digital Hollywood conference, ffwd (pronounced “fast forward”), the company making the ever-expanding video web easier to navigate, today released an application for celebrities, companies, organizations and their fans to make relevant video content discoverable through their social networks. Built on the Facebook Platform, ffwd’s new application continually imports an existing web video collection, no matter where it resides, to a Facebook Group or Page. The announcement reinforces ffwd’s support of the vision that web video must move toward a form of audience-driven social television.

To install a free beta version of the application, go to http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=75733927201. After installation, page managers tell the application where on the web the existing video collection resides and it will automatically and continually pull from that collection to create a live feed on your Facebook page. Initially, ffwd will support videos hosted at YouTube and Brightcove, but will soon support over 250 other video sources and general RSS feeds.

For brand and group managers looking to easily package relevant programming into a virtual TV channel based on what is meaningful to their Facebook audience, ffwd now helps them incorporate that interactive content messaging directly into the user experience, which means instant video for their followers without ever having to leave Facebook.

“Facebook Pages are one of the best ways for real people to express the relevance of a brand in their lives, and ffwd now makes it easy to enrich that relationship with video,” said Patrick Koppula, CEO of ffwd. “Based on conversations with existing partners, I firmly believe that ffwd is creating a disruptive opportunity for brands on Facebook. Anyone who cares about establishing a broadband social media presence should incorporate web video into their Facebook Pages and ffwd makes it easy to do that right now.

A new television experience by and for the Twitter community

San Francisco, CA – March 11, 2009 – At InteractiveTV Today’s TV of Tomorrow Show, ffwd (pronounced “fast forward”) today launched Twitmatic, a destination powered by ffwd.com that lets users watch a real-time stream of videos being shared on Twitter. Now, the company that introduced hundreds of thousands of consumers to the idea of a personal remote control for web video is bringing its channel concept to millions of Twitterers – go to www.twitmatic.com and check it out.

“Twitter, as the dedicated real-time communications platform, is the best place and audience to demonstrate how ffwd enables an instantaneous community-driven television channel,” said Patrick Koppula, CEO of ffwd. “Plus, it’s just so much fun to watch the visual stream of collective consciousness take shape!”

ffwd has already received an incredible amount of user feedback on its Twitmatic release and looks forward to making further enhancements including:
•    support for Twitter trending terms;
•    support for filtering by usernames/people you follow;
•    support for filtering by ffwd channels;
•    search by keyword;
•    a comments stream; and
•    permalinks

Twitmatic is built on ffwd’s MyTV infrastructure, a beta platform to increase the stickiness of your blog, website or social profile by creating a channel based on it. In just a few minutes, the MyTV Widget lets you now build an embeddable "TV station" that plays an engaging sequence of hundreds of videos based on your site topics (or any topics you choose for that matter). To get started making one specific to your own community, visit the MyTV creation tool at http://www.ffwd.com/widget/create. The ability to integrate the player with your look and feel is coming soon.

Bonus:  For those who are unable to make it to SxSW, don’t just read what’s going on, watch it in real-time starting Friday, March 13th at http://www.twitmatic.com/sxsw. To know when the stream has started, follow @twitmatic on Twitter or subscribe to blog.ffwd.com. If you are posting video from SxSW to Twitter, be sure to include SxSW in the tweet so this channel can pick it up.

ffwd closes the loop between what a consumer wants to watch and where they want to watch it

San Francisco, CA – January 6, 2009 – ffwd (pronounced “fast forward”), the company empowering tens of thousands of consumers with a revolutionary personal remote control for channel-surfing video on the web, today announced that it is releasing an application programming interface (API) to aide in delivering ffwd’s award-winning adaptive channel intelligence to any web-enabled video device, including living room and mobile hardware, and within the manfacturers existing user experience. Groundbreaking open source media center Boxee plans to use the API to integrate ffwd into forthcoming versions of their products.

The ffwd developer API tools will provide standards-based methods of interacting with the ffwd service including:
•    making requests from the ffwd site using a standard XML-based protocol;
•    linking ffwd accounts directly into other applications, widgets and mashups;
•    and, getting live updates on what people are watching on ffwd.

The announcement comes right off the heels of another significant ffwd enhancement to the media service designed to reflect a user’s lifestream:  the ability to post videos found on any website directly to Twitter using a bookmarklet, as well as make posted videos available as passive recommendations in a Twitter-like stream on the users’s ffwd channel page.

“Building upon our vision to be the connector, or glue, for the  entertainment ecosystem, ffwd channels now have the potential to drive a truly ubiquitous experience that is accurate, relevant and consistent over social networks, living room hardware and mobile devices,” said Patrick Koppula, CEO of ffwd. “We make it possible for individual developers to access programming functions, and even apply them at the level of a single viewer – something that used to require a staff of hundreds to do.”

Licensing fees for the ffwd API have yet to be set. Developers interested in the ffwd platform can apply for free limited-time access to the API and read about ways to use it at http://www.ffwd.com/developers.

Comprehensive, easy-to-use video recommendation platform enriches and engages the Twitter community

San Francisco, CA – November 25, 2008 – ffwd (pronounced “fast forward”), the company empowering thousands of consumers with a revolutionary personal remote control for channel-surfing video on the web, today released  an enhancement to its media service designed to reflect a user’s lifestream:  the ability to post videos found on any website directly to Twitter using a bookmarklet. Posted videos are also now available as passive recommendations in a Twitter-like stream on the user’s ffwd channel page.

“Twitter is one of the best ways to share timely information and ignite a conversation around it,” said Patrick Koppula, CEO of ffwd. “The fact is, video is best enjoyed as a conversational experience so while it was obvious for ffwd to build on the Twitter platform, we are especially happy with the well-integrated result of the service offering – it’s like we were baked right in from the start.”

ffwd’s new Tweet-friendly release includes innovative functionality that encompasses:

• ffwd Bookmarklet – the quickest way to discover and share videos from nearly anywhere on the web. Users can post once using the new “share on ffwd” bookmarklet, which provides a consistent UI and allieviates the need to find and learn the sharing function for multiple websites. Friends also now get to see videos in a clean and consistent page template that puts shared videos front and center.
• Twitter Connect – allows users to populate their Twitter stream with useful information such as a ffwd channel or video from elsewhere – skipping the email step altogether – and creating Twitter Television, virtual television channels that translate what audiences talk about into an always-updating collection of shows and clips that can be followed.  In much the same way that Twitter is a useful source of links to web pages, ffwd users can now be sources of video recommendations.
• User Channels – once a user adds their Twitter account to their ffwd profile, they can share to Twitter – essentially creating a virtual television channel based on videos they’ve shared, saved, and tweeted, as well as any ffwd channels they’ve subscribed to. Instead of scrolling through lists, viewers of a channel just click the ffwd button to bring up the next video – basically, channel surfing through the content discovery. Most importantly, friends can subscribe to a user’s channel much the same way that they can follow individuals or groups on Twitter, propagating video recommendations socially.

About ffwd
For people who enjoy short-form digital entertainment and want unlimited choice and power over their experience, ffwd (www.ffwd.com) is your personal remote control for the interactive video web that makes navigating your options as simple as channel surfing and more powerful than search. Freeing you from the information overload of the web and “one-size-fits-all” approach of the cable companies, ffwd offers audiences a personalized adaptive lineup of channels organized by the entire web video audience and available from any web-enabled device. ffwd was founded in 2007 and has headquarters in San Francisco, California.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--At DEMOfall08 today, ffwd (pronounced “fast forward”) released the beta of ffwd.com, the web implementation of its revolutionary web-meets-TV service. ffwd’s vision encompasses a radically simple way to navigate the video web, an expansive digital television experience, and a media service that reflects your lifestream. ffwd can be found at Station #38 in the DEMOfall08 Pavilion and is currently available for sign-up at http://www.ffwd.com.

“Television and Internet technologies are converging and colliding, and so a close look at ffwd is absolutely in order. I invited the company to introduce this product at DEMOfall08 because it points to the future of television and to the rich social interactions this convergence will enable,” said Chris Shipley, executive director of the DEMO conference. “The ffwd solution fits squarely in two major themes of this year’s conference – ‘Television Meets the Web; Web Meets the Television’ and ‘Getting Embedded with Social Networks’ – and in doing so points to the innovative thinking of the ffwd team.”

ffwd aims to connect viewers to online video through personalized adaptive channels of videos from all over the web – replacing 500 channels and nothing on with custom channels for every viewer. Each channel combines the editorial wisdom of the entire Internet audience, the viewer’s social graph, and behavioral targeting, to sort through the limitless web video catalog with the click of a button.

“ffwd was inspired to create a way to navigate the video web as simple as channel surfing, yet more powerful than search,” said Patrick Koppula, CEO of ffwd. “By building an index of videos based on channels rather than individual videos, and constantly updating it with new discoveries made by the entire web video audience, ffwd will be the only channel you’ll ever need.”

ffwd builds standard channels based on topics or themes, favorite programs or a personality type. Early adopters will have over 500 standard channels available for creating their custom channel lineup – the raw material for creating a personalized adaptive channel. Then what a viewer skips and what a viewer watches will influence what they watch next and the overall makeup of their channel. Similarly, your social network profile or lifestream service can automatically program your ffwd channel, leveraging the information already provided by your online persona. Future viewers can save time and take advantage of the wisdom of crowds by simply subscribing to channels of viewers they’ve found to be similar to them.

As ffwd continues to implement its vision, you can expect:

• an API that will un-tether your ffwd channel from ffwd.com, allowing developers to create thin client applications that allow an even more ubiquitous, accurate, relevant and consistent web video viewing experience over multiple platforms, including living room and mobile hardware
• a social experiment where viewers create community around a shared interest and interactively decide what video content to watch in real time
• a subscription-based premium version of the service

About ffwd

For people who enjoy short-form digital entertainment and want unlimited choice and power over their experience, ffwd is your personal remote control for the interactive video web that makes navigating your options as simple as channel surfing and more powerful than search. Freeing you from the information overload of the web and “one-size-fits-all” approach of the cable companies, ffwd offers audiences a personalized adaptive lineup of channels organized by the entire web video audience and available from any web-enabled device.

ffwd was founded in 2007 and has headquarters in San Francisco, California.

Founder of revolutionary social music service (iLike) sets sights on socially personalized on-demand video from multiple sources

NewTeeVee Live, San Francisco – 7:30AM PST, November 14, 2007

Recently funded San Francisco startup, ffwd (pronounced “fast forward”), started accepting applications today from potential beta users. The beta program will begin on November 30th, 2007 with 2,500 users and last for at least 6 months. The announcement was made at NewTeeVee Live and the instructions for applicants were posted at www.ffwd.com.

All beta users will have access to a full-featured version of the service and will be invited to give feedback on the following components of the product roadmap:
• Online, cable and broadcast content syndication (millions of channels)
• Tracking favorite videos of friends across multiple social networks
• Pushing recommendations to your TV or mobile device
Select users will also be invited to preview features “in the labs” and participate in the product planning process.

Patrick Koppula, former co-founder/COO of iLike & GarageBand.com and now CEO of ffwd, will be available throughout the day at NewTeeVee Live to discuss the program. Please email press@ffwd.com or call 415.873.3881 to schedule an interview.

About ffwd
ffwd was funded by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and founded by veterans from iLike & CNET Entertainment. The team, which also includes veterans from Eveo and Rock You, will deliver a service (previewed at www.ffwd.com) to relieve the information overload caused by the on-demand video content explosion.

About NewTeeVee Live
Presented by the GigaOM Network, NewTeeVee Live is a the premier, one-day event showcasing the online video industry's hottest topics, most talented video producers, promising technologies, leading innovators and top funding executives. NewTeeVee Live is also the culmination of NewTeeVee.com’s highly popular summer Pier Screenings series. The conference will bring together 500 of the most influential executives in the emerging online video industry on November 14, 2007 in San Francisco. The full conference website is available at http://live.newteevee.com.

About NewTeeVee
NewTeeVee is the leading chronicler of the reinvention of television. The site points readers to hot online video technology and startups and traces the talent, money, code, and data across the network. It combines the signature GigaOM skepticism with a healthy sense of wonder for all the rapidly changing developments in the online video industry. Daily web video industry coverage is available at http://www.newteevee.com

About the GigaOM Network
GigaOmniMedia’s network of sites provide one of the leading daily online news reads for the key influencers in the emerging technology market place. We deliver technology news, analysis and opinions on topics ranging from broadband and online games to Web 2.0. Founded in 2006, we now serve a monthly global audience of 1.5 million consumers and professionals interested in the latest news in the world of high-tech. Built by experienced journalists, the GigaOM team spots the trends and applies a professional journalistic perspective to provide the reader with a definite point of view. GigaOM reports the news and makes the audience smarter through informed analysis. GigaOmniMedia’s network of sites have received multiple accolades from BusinessWeek, CNET, Forbes, PC Magazine, Technorati and Hitwise. More information is available at http://www.gigaom.com.

Keywords
ffwd, NewTeeVee, video, iLike, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, beta, cable, broadcast, recommendations, Patrick Koppula