Verb Exchange to launch Tabrio

In anticipation of launching Tabrio, a consumer application for mobile and online communications, Vancouver’s Verb Exchange attended Ad:Tech in San Francisco last week to unveil it to publishers, advertisers and search providers. What is Tabrio? Tabrio promises to makes it easy and affordable to stay in touch with anyone, anywhere, on any device. It uses Verb Exchange’s VoIP network, so people can make low-cost long distance calls with excellent call quality. It does two-way SMS, for sending and replying to global text messages at local rates. And it functions as a contact manager as well, by maintaining a global address book that syncs automatically. But why Ad:Tech last week? Tabrio’s low-cost calls will be supported by highly targeted ads – their advertising engine promises to combine ad delivery, inventory management and analytics in one platform. In an effort to make Tabrio super user-friendly, Verb Exchange has partnered with Nitobi for the design for the desktop and web interfaces. The interactive user interface is being developed with Adobe Flex, a Flash-based rich Internet application (RIA) development framework, and the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), a platform that enables RIAs to run on the desktop. Smart move. Tabrio is set to launch next month and will be giving away $5 in free calls to everyone who subscribes to their launch email alert.