OoVoo

What we liked
OoVoo has a sumptuous interface, similar in appearance to Apple’s iChat instant-messaging software. It offers video email, one-to-one live video chat and group video conversations with up to six participants. These features help to make it the most sophisticated free online video service we’ve come across.

Unlike its web-based rivals, OoVoo’s software has to be downloaded and installed before you can use it. However, this is hardly a burden and after filling in a short registration form, you’re away. Video messages can be up to one minute long and although recipients are encouraged to view them using the OoVoo player (which also requires registration), there’s an option to watch them through the website as well.

The real fun starts once a few friends have signed up to OoVoo and start calling each other, either for individual conversations or up to six-way free-for-alls, which can get amusingly confusing. You’ll need a decent webcam and mic (which you can conveniently buy through the online store) to make the most of the service, but it works really well over a reasonably fast broadband connection and is extremely simple to use. Add the ability to send up to 20 files of 25MB at a time and OoVoo is a clear winner.

How it can be improved
It would be nice if OoVoo dumped the software download so that you could run it from any web-connected PC in the world. This would also overcome potential problems with personal firewalls. Additionally, although it seems churlish to complain about something that’s so good, the maximum miserly message size of one minute could be increased.

Our verdict
Flexible, fun and free, OoVoo provides an excellent means of communicating over the net by video. The only real drawback is that the service isn’t entirely web-based, so can’t be enjoyed instantly.

Reviewed: Issue 169 (30 August to 12 August 2007)