Lip-Syncing Cute kids version

The Sensitive Version

The ‘Sounds a bit like Michael Jackson’ Version

And let’s not forget another version that topped the Hot 100 top channel  in the past…

The ‘We Are So Talented’ version

….and just in case you’ve been living in a cave lately, this is the original version.

Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra) – official video

In the video below you can see Ryan Seacrest and Justin Bieber are pretty sure they found the recipe to create a viral video.  Not surprisingly, this video has in fact gone viral….

So, now that you know all that, can you tell us why these follwing videos were the most shared on Vodio in the past week?

A Frog Sitting on a Bench Like a Human

Seriously, how weird is this?

Lion at the Portland zoo goes crazy trying to eat zebra kid

Next time, think twice before you take your baby to the zoo…

Slow Jam The News with Barack Obama: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Does this effect your opinion on the 2012 elections?

Ethan W and Piano Man

This kid took us by surprise!

Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm (BRAD)

Wouldn’t we all wish we had our own BRAD?

Ashton Kutcher dating video

Is this a new Ashton Kutcher start-up?

Steve Jobs The Lost Interview Trailer

Do you plan on watching this?

Feel free to share your thoughts with us.
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Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Channels

This was one of the most popular requests by our users. It seems users really enjoy the video experience Vodio offers, so naturally, they wanted to enjoy that same experience with their personal social channels.

Channel Limit is Now 20

Many of our users wanted to have the ability to place more than 10 channels at once in their main channels’ screen.
So good news – the limit has just rose from 10 channels to 20 channels! With this enhancement at hand we believe our users will watch much more video content.

Super Fast Loading

Vodio app loads now faster than ever. The video loading was also improved a lot. You should really try it. Believe us, we were surprised to see how fast it works now.Pad Retina Display.

The New iPad Retina Display

Vodio is now fully optimized for the new iPad, and guess what, it is really beautiful!

Profile 

We added a Profile section to allow our users to manage all their social accounts and activity channels in one place.

We really think Vodio users will enjoy this new version. Feel free do to comment or drop us a line on Twitter or Facebook.

Our new T-shirts.

Come meet us there, maybe you’ll get your own Vodio T-Shirt

This is the story of Vodio.

About two years ago, while working in another company, myself and Uri Twig, one of my two co-founders, were spending hours talking about developing a service related to video content. We were both frustrated with the ways there were to find and explore great video content at the time and thought we really need to come up with a great yet simple solution for it.
We knew we shouldn’t be frustrated; we shouldn’t need to search so hard for content all the time and we had to come up with a truly easy to use tool to solve this problem. After all, if we were faced with it, surely others were too.
Essentially, we wanted to offer a solution that delivers all the content we love, accessible and ready for us to enjoy, at any time.

At first we started working on a browser add-on that enabled users to save any video from the web into a designated area in their browser, visible at all times. It was kind of reminiscent of what Pinterest does today in principal.
We also wanted to enable users to get all their video content from their Facebook, Twitter and YouTube feeds.

There were two main problems; the first was that in order to enjoy it, you had to first start saving or ‘bookmark’ videos as you go. As a result, you were only able to view videos you’ve collected along the way (as opposed to a community that shares collections with one another), which was in fact, lame.

The second problem was related to the fact that you don’t necessarily enjoy what your friends share, so even if you had access to videos from your social accounts, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’d end up enjoying them.

So, with these notions, we quit our jobs, grouped with Ishay Weinstock which we knew from the before and formed Vodio. We decided upon joining The Junction which is an open house for entrepreneurs in Tel Aviv.
Being at The Junction gave us literally everything we needed to know in order to start our own company and develop our product; office space, mentorship and professional advice, fellow entrepreneurs as well as free Wi-Fi and all the coffee needed to actually get any work done.
Within our three months there, we had many arguments, thoughts and changed our minds pretty often but everything was related to the problem we aimed to solve – How could one easily find interesting video content?
We managed to narrow it down to two main points:

1. Video content should already be there when a user joins.
2. Order is key to simplify the user experience.

Addressing the first point was rough since it took us quite a bit time to further understand the depths of it and the real meaning of having great content as soon as a user joins the service.
We thought the best thing to do is to let the crowd decide for our users, and if it already is a crowd, why not let the best ‘experts’ or ‘trusted sources’ do the job?
So the solution was to create an engine which tracks videos uploaded and shared by tens of thousands of sources – experts in their fields; from networks such as CNN, NBC & ABC through professional blogs such as Mashable, TechCrunch & The Next Web to celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber.

The system tracks the videos, classifies and ranks them to create the most interesting, relevant and updated video streams in many different categories.

The second point was achieved through breaking down the video content into category-centered video channels as well as keeping the user interface with as less buttons as possible. We believe that anyone using Vodio can immediately see these two points are encoded in the DNA of the product.

Along the process we managed to raise a seed round of funding from Kima Ventures that allowed us to deepen our algorithm abilities and strengths, ensure the product’s scalability and further evolve it.

In the past 3 months since our launch, Vodio managed to receive some great reviews in the media such as on USA Today, TechCrunch & PC World as well as secure significant partnerships such as with the Euroleague.

In conclusion, much of the work is yet to be done in order to transform our vision to reality – offering a personal exciting video experience anywhere and on any device, but taking our user’s feedback into consideration, we’re certainly on the right track.

Vodio will be part of the Demo Fest 2012 at Microsoft’s Think Next 2012 event, taking place in Tel Aviv on 22/4/2012.

* This post was written by Jonathan Messika and originally appeared on Microsoft Israel R&D Center’s official blog.

In Vodio tradition, we’ve rounded up a few videos that have stood out above the rest with Vodio App users. Some you may have seen, others are not to be missed.

Google’s Project Glass

In the not so distant future, Google wants us to wear Android powered glasses, to experience the world around us like never before.

Jimmy Kimmel talks to kids about Politics.

How can this possibly go wrong?

Hot Music Track

We couldn’t get through a day without music here at Vodio Labs. One of the tracks we’ve been playing on repeat is Just Bieber’s Boyfriend… OK, Not really, but it is seriously trending. One track that does have us cranking up the volume is David Guetta’s Turn Me On.

Let these videos and music guide you into the weekend. Don’t forget, we’d love to know what you’re watching. Share it with us over on our Facebook page, and hit LIKE while you’re at it!

Every week, we’ll round up 3 videos we think are a cut above the rest, due to their viral impact, quality, amount of views or just vides we really want to share with you. Let’s kick it!

The Flying Birdman

This video will probably go down as one of the greatest hoaxes of all time on the web. The Dutch ‘bird man’ who posted a video showing a successful ‘test flight’ of a wing suit contraption has admitted that the amazing feat was a hoax all along.

Iranians, We Love You

Let’s put the political message aside. The medium of video is one that we’ve long believed can bring message or peace. Ronny, a concerned father from Israel proves that point beautifully with his video to the people of Iran.

Prometheus Full Trailer

Is it a prequel? Is it something entirely different? I guess we’ll have to wait for the movie to come out to find out, but one thing’s for sure, the movie looks extremely intense!

 Turning it back to you

Have a favorite clip you’d like to share with us? Let us know in the comments or reach out to us via Twitter or Facebook! We’d love to hear from you.

Haven’t downloaded Vodio for iPad yet? Grab it from the App Store – Free!

Before we jump into the latest features available in this version, here are a few highlights you might find interesting. We sure did!

• Over 100,000 hours of video consumed.
• Over 4M videos were viewed.
• Most watched Channel: Are Buzz, Sports, Tech and Entertainment (all default channels)
• Most watched non default channels:  Apps, Apple News, Trailers, Fail and Viral.
• The most shared video: KONY 2012 although it had the same number of views as The iPad 3 Concept, and the Invisible Mercedes
• 18% of the users watch videos until the end

So far, we’re very pleased with the user engagement we’ve been seeing, and we feel that this new set of features will build up on the trend.

App Downloads

The first major update involves integration with the App Store. While watching videos within the various app channels, viewers will have access to purchasing apps related to the videos they’re watching, directly from the App Store.

A completely new section has also been added, dedicated in full to mobile app videos; reviews, trailers, gameplay and also content from well-known brands in the arena such as Appsfire as well as others.

Watch Later

The newly added “Watch Later” feature allows users to save videos from any channels they might like to watch, but may not have the time to do so right away.

Another great feature is the addition of the “Activity” view, which gives Vodio users the option to review the videos they’ve seen in the past, liked, shared as well as added to the “Watch Later” feed.

To improve the communication between Vodio’s end users and the Vodio Labs development team, Vodio 1.5 now includes a feedback dialog system. This system allows users to directly communicate their feedback, bugs, and experience with the app.

Lastly, the latest version of Vodio includes an improved co-browsing feature, which allows users to gain more information about videos, while they’re already watching a video in the player.

There’s a lot more on the way

In the meantime, we would love for you to download the latest version of Vodio, and share your thoughts with us here or over on Facebook. Above all, if you truly like the app, please share a positive review on the App Store!

Jonathan Messika, Vodio Lab’s CEO had this to share about the partnership “We’re extremely proud to announce that, as of today, we’ve included the addition of Euroleage Basketball to our lineup of sports content. This means that our app’s users can benefit from the world of Basketball related content, at their fingertips.”

This addition of targeted Basketball content for sports fans delivers more of what the app’s core audience is tuning into. Vodio users can access all of the Euroleage Basketball content right now, under the “What’s New” section as well as in the Sports Section.