The first beta of The Venice Project, the new web TV offering from Skype founders Janus and Niklas, is now fully cooked – and the first invitations are being dispatched to people who expressed an interest by signing up online.

“We had a bit of a last-minute frenzy to get the user interface shipshape,” admits chief exec Fredrik de Wahl on the project’s blog, “but all is well now.” Among the latest features added to the beta are a “seek” tool for finding and browsing video content (um, what’s wrong with “search”?), along with tweaks to the installer and user interface.

Being a dedicated follower of Skype and its founders, I signed up for info yonks ago, so I should be getting a beta invitation soon. Can’t wait to find out Janus and Niklas are as good at putting TV on the net as they are at cutting my phone bill. We shall see…