April 10, 2007
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April 10, 2007
After reading a story about netvibes throwing a party at the TechCrunch site, I decided to go check it out. Since this isn’t a post about netvibes, I’ll just describe the site as a sorta Yahoo-like customizable page where you have all of your RSS feeds, etc.
The thing I wanted to discuss was my experience with my Weblin avatar. For those of you that don’t know what it is you can do a search on my site or google, or just go check out Weblin. The experience was interesting to say the least. On the Netvibes site I noticed two other Weblin Avatars kinda walking around. Since this was my first experience seeing another Weblin Avatar outside of the weblin homepage I decided to spark up a conversation. I said hello to both weblins. One responded by yawning, the other, we’ll call Gizmo opened up a private chat box. I started the conversation asking about the netvibes site. “How do you like it? What can you do here? Do you have a Netvibes account?, etc.” It was a typical conversation about his or her experiences with netvibes.
We then starting discussing Weblin, and our experiences so far with it. Since I didn’t really interract with anyone until then, I didn’t really have much to tell. But I can tell you now, this initial “non-test” experience brings up some interesting points.
I’m not ready to give up my Yahoo, Google, or AIM messaging clients, but using Weblin can definitely be a new, fun, and engaging activity. I just hope they can address the issues related to privacy, ethical behavior, social divide, age appropriateness.
Sphere: Related Content Posted by Rick Garcia in Social Media, Instant Messaging No Comments »
April 10, 2007
I’ve spent a couple of days creating and testing both a CozmoTv widget, and a SplashCast Player. Both of these media players, essentially embedable widgets, have the ability to take YouTube videos (shows), and create channels out of the shows. Users are then able to create widgets out of selected channels, and embed the widgets to webpages and social networks. This is pretty much where the similarity of the two ends. The difference between the two are evident in intuitiveness, user functionality, and ultimately effectiveness as tools for the social media marketplace.
On the Cozmo.tv homepage, viewers are able to browse through selected channels and shows. Once a cozmotv user logs into the system, users can create content for widgets. The idea behind cozmo.tv widgets is for users to create personalized channels based on their specific interests and share their channels with the cozmo.tv community. The cozmo.tv user screen basically duplicates the look and feel of the home page with the additional ability for users to create and edit channels and widgets.
From here a cozmo user can browse through such featured channels as the CBS Channel, Weird Al Yankovich Channel, or Extreme boarding channels, etc., each of which have associated related content (CBS Shows, Weird Al Shows, Extreme Boarding Shows). For right now, the shows are really YouTube videos that reside on the YouTube server. The difference is multiple YouTube videos can be assembled into a channel, multiple channels can be assembled into a widget, and different widgets can be embedded into different web pages depending on the application. The widget I created for my MySpace profile consists of several different channels.
In the spirit of simple web-user interfaces, otherwise known as ugly interfaces ala YouTube and MySpace, the Cozmo.tv interface fits right in. I joke! I joke! I do understand that the site is in BETA right now, so I realize that there will be changes, but I have some immediate, can’t wait concerns. (Alex Rowland of cozmo.tv was kind enough to shoot me off an e-mail asking for any feedback - I gave some first impressions and he already responded with changes…Thank you Alex). As of this writing the interface definately can use some work. On the channel menu, you have to move the cursor to submenus very slowly, or the submenus dissapear. On the Account menu, you’ll be lucky to get to the submenus unless you have superfast response (good thing I am skilled in the fined art of rapid mouse movement). These submenus give you the options of editing channels or widgets, but the clicking on your channels and widgets, I noticed that any I created were not visible. Subsequently, through my countless efforts of trial and error, I’ve ammased a modest collection of widgets, all of which I can no longer edit. Once I was able to embed a widget on my page, I was presently surprised that I could navigate through the widget thingy which was user friendly. I’m looking forward to Cozmo.tv implementing future revisions of their interface. I used the MySpace bulletin feature within myspace to announce to one-hundred friends, my new, and greatly appreciated tool.
The Splashcast Media home page has the same basic features as the Cozmo.tv home page. There you can find information about SplashCast Media, featured channels, and a catalog of channels. It’s useful to find a blog about SplashCast and related news.
The differences of the two really become evident once you launch your SplashCast Console.
The SplashCast Console not only provides an enjoyable user experience, with it’s intuitive interface, it also has a very classy and attractive look to it. What a welcome change to the typical Web 2.0 site. Ok, let’s talk about functionality. The SplashCast Console goes far beyond the initial Cozmo.tv interface. Users can view their personal show stats by view or rating, and also channel stats. The menu section of the interface allows users to create and manage SplashCast shows, channels, and players.
The differences are even more apparent in the content of shows. While Cozmo.tv seems to be marketing a new way to share videos that the user deems relevant, users of SplashCast have the ability to add audio, images, videos, and documents such as powerpoint or acrobat documents, all of which can be either streamed from the source, or uploaded to the SplashCast servers. These different media formats are then arranged into shows - shows into channels - channels into players. An example show which I created from different media sources can be found on this page which I created as my personal anti-Sanjaya endeavor.
The last contrast is in the usefulness of the widget or player. The SplashCast player is unique that it adds an RSS button to allow subscribers to be notified of any changes to the channel. Random viewers browsing blogs, social networks, or any other webpage with SplashCast players embeded can grab the embed code right from the player or even e-mail the show to whoever they want to know about it. The built in sharing tools make the player far more attractive from a viral marketing perspective then the Cozmo.tv widget.
With all the things that I appreciate about SplashCast, I still have some suggestions. The first would be the ability to set timing for individual show items. Right now, you can set the show to transition either one set time between show items, or have it so that viewers must manually advance through the show. I would also suggest that audio backgrounds can consist of more than one track, the track can be shortened or looped as needed, and a visual representation of the track(s) accompany that of the visual elements (show items) that have been added to the show.
I think that both SplashCast Media and Cozmo.tv have compelling offerings that should give individuals, companies, and social media marketers an entirely new reach, especially to take advantage of today’s different social media outlets. Being a promoter of social media, I would’ve liked to see more community building features built into the two offerings - friendlist, forum links, etc; perhaps this is something that both companies are considering. Because of the superior look, feel, and functionality of the two offerings, the upper hand clearly goes to SplashCast Media.
Sphere: Related Content Posted by Rick Garcia in Social Media, Social Networks, Widgets, Video Sharing Sites, Distribution, Viral Marketing 1 Comment »
April 9, 2007
After reading a post on the socialmedia.biz webiste regarding the departure of collumnist Bambi Francisco from MarketWatch amidst a conflict of interest controversy, I decided to investigate further. Since Ms. Fransicso was leaving to head up Vator.tv fulltime, it made sense to start there.
Basically, Vator.tv is a site that targets entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and investors with the aim at having entrepreneurs pitch their ideas through video, and the community (other entrepreneurs, VC’s, etc) give feedback. I see both pros and cons of the basic concept of the site, if I understand it correctly.
Pros - entrepreneurs and/or startups can receive feedback in the form of strategy, praise, constructive criticism, strengths and weaknesses of concepts or strategies, knowledge of existing competitors, etc. All of this feedback could then be translated into crafting strategies, creating business plans, attracting investors, or evaluating the business viability.
Cons - and this is a big one in my opinion. Let’s say JoeShmoe has a great idea and wants to get feedback on it. Although the idea is simple, it’s also revolutionary —it summary, it’s a completely viable idea. The problem is how now do you protect that idea from the copycats, or even the first movers? Someone now can take that idea and run with it.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not about to let everyone know of the next best thing since YouTube or Myspace (and I do have that idea :). In any case, I wish Bambi the best in her endeavors.
Sphere: Related Content Posted by Rick Garcia in Social Media, Development No Comments »
April 8, 2007
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April 7, 2007
It was just a few days ago when I heralded CozmoTV as the next coming of widgets that would revolutionize the use of social networks as a viable tool for marketers. Uh, wait a sec. So you say I should try Splash Cast Media? Ok, lemme give it a whirl.
After testing Splash Cast, it’s clear that CozmoTV wasn’t the only one thinking of the idea of allowing users to widgetize their own selected content. While CozmoTV does an excellent job of letting users create channels, add channels, etc., Splash Cast goes one step further by adding the additional ability to add audio, Flickr images (or a number of other image types), and even documents to your channel shows. While the additional creative aspect to creating shows is welcome, the most compelling thing about the Splash Cast Widget is the addition of an RSS Feed subscription button. Subscribers to your Splash Cast Widget will be notified of any additions to your channel. Very cool stuff.
An example of this widget can be found on my home page . Both the CozmoTV widget, and Splash Cast Widget are very innovative examples of video widgets. Try them both to see which one you like.
Sphere: Related Content Posted by Rick Garcia in Widgets, Video Sharing Sites, Distribution No Comments »
April 6, 2007
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April 6, 2007
Yahoo roled out a new search site called Yahoo Alpha (beta) . At first glance, it has a kinda simplistic, Google-like appearance to it. Testing it out with my Yahoo account, I was able to customize the look and feel of the search page. It was a nice feature being able to search on my “keeeeez” name and see the all the relevant search results come back in their individual areas - Yahoo SERPs, Flickr results, YouTube results, etc. Also interesting to note the complete lack of advertising on the page, which I’m sure will change. It was a very welcome change to my typical Google searches.
Sphere: Related Content Posted by Rick Garcia in Search Sites No Comments »
April 4, 2007
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April 4, 2007
In the latest effort to pimp out my myspace page, I’ve added a cool new gizmo called CozmoTv. The CozmoTv hub www.comzotv.com is basically where users are able to create their own portable widgets, add channels to these widgets, and embed the resulting code into their portable social network pages (right now it looks like myspace pages only).
In terms of marketing to the masses on these networks, this widget has tons of possibility. Corporations that want to extend their reach to these networks can create channels on cozmotv, and let the users of myspace spread their messages virally. Kudos to cozmoTv for creating something cool.
For a look at CozmoTv in action visit http://www.myspace.com/keeeeez (I know my page loads slow! Old school HTML programming with lots of tables!)
Sphere: Related Content Posted by Rick Garcia in Widgets, Social Media Marketing, Video Sharing Sites, Distribution 1 Comment »
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