Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Nicholas Sereno

Ribbit, which was purchased by BT in July, this week launched its development platform and announced a $100,000 Killer App Challenge.

"Although the Mountain View, Calif. company makes useful applications like the recently-updated Ribbit for Salesforce, the most exciting part of its technology is the platform, which promises to allow anyone to add phone capabilities to their web applications," writes VenturaBeat's Anthony Ha. "The platform has been in beta testing for the last few months, and there are already more than 7,500 members signed up in Ribbit's developer community."

"Developers will be able to gain access to Ribbit's voice over IP SmartSwitch software, as well as a community site and support, monitoring, and management capabilities," writes CNET's Marguerite Reardon. "The Ribbit platform will allow these developers to design, test, deploy, and manage voice and communication features used on the Web or within other applications. Developers will then be able to sell their applications through a Ribbit Store."

"To spur further development, the company is launching a $100,000 contest for the best business productivity, media, social network, and next-generation applications," writes InformationWeek's Marin Perez. "The company also is implementing a Bring Your Own Network program, which enables other carriers to use the Ribbit software for applications on their own voice networks."

"Ribbit's software, which is a cloud computing application that uses the Web as its foundation, lets programmers duplicate landline and mobile phone calling features for Web sites," writes eWeek's Clint Boulton. "The idea is to add a voice communication element to sites that goes beyond e-mail or instant messaging, allowing users to hear their contacts."

More here from VoIP News ... more here from Mashable ... more here from ITProPortal ... more here from TMCnet ... and the press release is here.