For a few years there we were knee deep in smart tagging news with Helsinki-based Thinglink and Kiosked making noise and grabbing publications, each in their respected niche. But both companies have been notably more quiet this year with the silence broken by Thinglink acquiring St. Petersburg based video competitor Smartag (domain expired) for an undisclosed amount of money. With the acquisition, Smartag CEO Alexey Solomatin will join ThingLink’s Palo Alto office and CTO Andrey Lyuberg will join ThingLink’s developer office in Helsinki.
After taking a look at their blog Thinglink has been honing in on their platform this fall, giving quite a few updates to their video and image platforms. With the official launch of Thinglink Video (perhaps something to do with the acquisition of Smartag), content creators can add in additional information, images, maps or whatever rich content you want to appeal to the ADD inside of all of us. The platform supports YouTube and Brightcove videos, and you can see an example of how it works below.
And on the image side, Thinglink has added in rich text options, so if you want to bold some text it’s finally possible. Additionally premium users have the option to add in more expressive “action” icons, or to directly subscribe to a Youtube account through a rich media tag.
Currently Thinglink lists brands like Discovery Communications, CBS Interactive, and New York magazine as users of the case. The company is positioned for these big media houses – a premium account (allowing you to use most features) will run you $250/month and a corporate account with even more bells and whistles comes in at €1,500/month. But for those with smaller traffic or looking to test out the service can get started with their starter package that allows up to 10,000 views for $50.
