Social aggregators like Flipboard, Zite, Pulse and News.me are getting a lot of buzz these days for showing you what your friends are reading, but a new crop of lesser-known companies like Shelby.tv, Plizy and Deja are creating tablet apps that do the same for video.
Shelby.tv left private beta today and rolled out an iPad app that pulls together video that your friends are sharing across Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. “When we initially thought of Shelby.tv, we knew at least one thing… that tablets, the iPad in particular, are a complete game-changer for video consumption,” explained the founders on the Shelby.tv blog.
The app is clean and simple to use (demo video above). Connect your social accounts, watch what your friends have shared, click a clip to see what your friends posted about it, share the clip yourself, and you can bookmark clips to watch later.
Of course, YouTube’s iPad app is burned into every new device, but it lacks the social aggregation features of Shelby.tv. Will YouTube get social anytime soon, especially beyond the confines of Google+? Hard to say.
Shelby.tv was one of 11 startups chosen to participate with TechStars in New York. Founded by Reece Pacheco, Dan Spinosa, Henry Sztul and Joe Yevoli, it has $1.73 million in total funding.