Most mobile companies are looking to make the Internet wireless, giving their customers a chance to search for information on their favorite stock or movie wherever they are. Spyonit, a subsidiary of 724 Solutions Inc., is taking mobile media one step further, offering its customers access to information on the Internet-and on television.
What if, Syponit asks, CNN breaks a major story about a company in your portfolio, just before the close of trading? Or what if-in an even more dire situation-you don’t find out who was Luke’s long lost brother on General Hospital?
Now, through a deal between Spyonit and TVEyes.com, mobile users will have access to the TV and Internet information they need or want.
“What we’ve built is a notification architecture that we can plug a lot of devices into,” said Dick Costolo, senior vice president of notifications for 724 Solutions.
Spyonit’s architecture-which works with pagers, e-mail, mobile phones and even instant messaging services-watches the Internet for a user’s keywords, such as a company name, and sends an alert whenever that name comes up. The company’s agreement with TVEyes expands that service to television, alerting users when keywords are spoken on TV and providing an URL to the entire TV transcript. (Note to readers: Before you send your TV-watching resume off to TVEyes, just know the company uses closed captioning transcripts, not a bank of loyal couch potatoes.)
The real-time service tracks keywords on network, cable and satellite television broadcasts. It also offers varying levels of notification, from just one word to a full transcript.
“Providing consumers with instant access to the customized information that matters most to them, from a combination of the two most pervasive media in the world, elevates notification technology to a new level,” said David Ives, TVEyes’ founder and chief executive officer, in a release.
Joyce Kim, vice president of marketing for Spyonit, said the service is mainly aimed at Internet portals and health care and financial institutions. TheStreet.com and RealMoney.com are among Spyonit’s customers.
“We’re working with lots of different customers,” said Costolo, adding that Spyonit will soon begin marketing the service to major wireless carriers.
However, Costolo said, merging the two most prevalent types of media in today’s society isn’t the end of the road for Spyonit.
“This is part of a larger strategy for us,” he said.
Eventually, the company hopes to monitor all kinds of media, including newspapers, radio and anything else carrying information.
