AOL has announced that they have acquired Userplane, a company that builds communication software for online communities.
Userplane applications are primarily developed in Flash, using the Flash Communication server. This makes it extremely easy for developers to plug it into their websites.
The Userplane suite of software includes:
- Webchat - a multi-user Flash-based chat interface, that can be easily plugged into any website
- Webmessenger - a Flash text, voice, and video instant messaging application
- Webrecorder - a Flash-based audio and video recording app for recording and playing audio and video messages
- Sitesearch - a user search engine
- Presence - live user tracking, enabling you to see who is on your site right now.
The best part about Userplane's software is that there is no installation needed. It fits extremely easy into existing websites. It should be really interesting to see how AOL plans to align and integrate these tools into community sites, and how they will get these products in the market more. Userplane is currently used on Friendster, Date.com, and MySpace, and many others.
Update: Read Download Squad's
exclusive interview with Userplane CEO Michael Jones.
