SplashCast Media Widget – A Review

SplashCast has just launched an ambitious service that lets you broadcast content channels (made up of video, RSS feeds, text, music, photos, etc.) to a Flash widget that can be embedded on blogs or profile pages.  Modifying a content channel via your SplashCast control panel updates that channel wherever it appears around the Web.

Functionality wise, the SplashCast widget is not all that different from the Box.net widget.  Both services allow you to share various types of media via a widget. 

Marketing wise, however, the two services very different.  While Box.net is about file storage with file sharing as an added bonus, SplashCast is all about creating full on media shows.  With SplashCast, you can do neat things like set the transition time between media types, choose between automatic playback and user initiated playback, and upload background music.

To test the service, I built a show called “Widget Primer.”  I created three text files related to various widget resources, and embedded a video of Engadget’s Peter Rojas talking about 2007 as the year of the widget.  You can check out this show here:

One disappointing aspect was that I had to choose between including a single RSS feed OR a combination of text, photo, audio, and video files.  This prevented me from including a snapshot of Sexy Widget headlines as one of the views on my SplashCast.  Ideally, I would have wanted a couple of text files, a video file, AND an RSS feed.

The SplashCast control panel is all Flash, which takes a little getting used do.  Where they do a very nice job is in providing various options for each media type: for example, for videos, you are able to upload a video, grab a video from YouTube, or record your own video on the spot using a Web cam.  There is also some slick drag and drop functionality that allows you to set the order of your various media files.

One other thing to note from a widget blocking and tackling perspective: SplashCast does a nice job enabling new sign-ups and widget grabbing within the body of the widget.  Try it yourself by clicking "get SplashCast" in the widget above.  You can sign up for SplashCast and subscribe to the Widget Primer show without leaving the page.

 

Overall, SplashCast is a pretty powerful tool.  It is now possible to broadcast multiple media types in a single footprint, which is a real benefit for folks who have only limited sidebar real estate to work with.  I do wish these guys would spring for SplashCast.com so I don’t have to look at that stupid parked page again :)

For more on Splashcast, see TechCrunch.  You can leave your own review of the Splashcast widget here.  Update: Josh at Webware has a nice write-up as well.

Comments

[lawrence]

I may have jumped the gun a little bit on this review. Has anyone played around with some of the tabs on the widget? There's a lot of functionality in this thing... rating, emailing, flagging, commenting... and that's in addition to the sign up and widget copy that I talked about. This is like a little embedded Web site.

[David Rodriguez]

While it maybe like an embedded website - there really isn't anyone who uses that capability. I've used SplashCast on my website since February and only one of the founders of SplashCast actually commented on a show.

SplashCast has changed a lot over the last couple of months but these comments and such need to appear more prominent if they are to be used by the average viewer.

[jaluzi perde]

keep up the your great work. thank you.

[pire ilaçlama]

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