The start-up Wibbitz has unveiled a new tool that converts online text into short videos–allowing web surfers to watch video instead of reading a longer piece of writing.
Wibbitz CEO Zohar Dayan in the video interview embedded above (complete with a short demo of the service): “Basically, we analyze the text, we create a summary out of it, we only extract the most important parts of it, we analyze it and bring the most relevant images and video clips from around the web and convert all the text to voice. So basically what we come up with is a cool, interactive video that you can just lean back, hit play and watch.”
Even though the tool is in its early stages, Dayan pointed toward a worrisome trend in the economics of online content: “Websites like video because it’s much more monetizable.” It may take a few years, but this technology has some scary implication for readers and writers. Will unprofitable activities like reading and writing ultimately be threatened by the Internet?