Widgets and desktop enhancements

YouCams: Video chat + social networking

We saw a lot of work and business tools for conferencing and collaboration come out of Under the Radar last week, but what about when you want to have fun? YouCams is a slick little embeddable video, voice, and text-chatting tool that's a mix of fun and business. The entire app runs in Flash, and users can jump in and join a discussion without the need for registration. The tool is aimed at social network users (mainly the MySpace crowd) as a way to communicate and interact with one another. Something that will likely get them blocked from the service, like what happened to competitor Stickam.

If you've used Stickam before, the Webcam functionality is a little similar. And by a little I'm being generous, because YouCams is much more full featured. There are two tiers of service, both free and paid. Basic registration is fairly generous, giving you voice, text, and video broadcasting privileges. Upgrading to the premium level turns YouCams into a full-on conferencing tool, allowing you to video chat with three other users at the same time, and own a personalized URL with the option to host your own conferencing room.

An interesting addition to YouCams is integration with YouTube, and a large variety of widgets. These float around on the interface, and require no extra installation. It feels a little bit like YourMinis. The Space Invaders widget in particular nearly kept me from finishing this post. Likewise the YouTube integration is well done. Video links pop up in a conversation bubble, and won't start until you click on them. Like the widgets, they float around and can be resized on an ad-hoc basis.

There's also a social networking component integrated in the service. Users trade 'stars,' which act as credits to buy into various features. It's an interesting take on user involvement, although I'm not sure it'll catch on until users have a real reason to get involved. Maybe giving them access to premium content like music or movie downloads would be a good hook. In the meantime, casual chatters will likely get a kick out of YouCams for its slick interface and ease of use.

I've embedded a YouCams module after the jump. It might not run if you're using Firefox. We've been in contact with the YouCams team about this, and they're on it.… Read more

Under the Radar: Caring is (screen) sharing

Fax machines, couriers, and e-mail are old news. Today's reviewing and meeting apps use the Web to share desktops, photos, and live video.

ConceptShare is a neat reviewing tool. We have reviewed ConceptShare before. VH1 used the professional version of this tool to redesign its Web site. ConceptShare's demo was really slick, showing the crowd a step-by-step brainstorming session on a design for a business card. ConceptShare focuses on asynchronous communication, meaning users note suggestions and changes without the need to have people in the room. It's almost like passing around a story among copy editors. It'… Read more

Office 2.0 mashup tools: Longjump, Proto Software, Teqlo

Under the Radar's start-up group kicked off this morning with presentations from Longjump, Proto Software and Teqlo. The general theme of this group was building business solutions with easy-to-use mash-up tools. For small businesses, it's a little bit like buying lumber verses chopping down a tree.

Longjump is a subscription-based marketplace of customizable Web-based apps. Each app can be built-up and edited with drag and drop creation, and custom tailored for small groups. Longjump also provides tools and utilities to upload and integrate the data you already have. Longjump breaks down applications by category, and users can comment … Read more

New YackPack widget does VoIP walkie-talkie style

YackPack, the group Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) chat and messaging service we covered last month, has launched a new zero-configuration widget to complement its chatting service. The new widget can be placed in blogs, Web sites, social networking profiles, and forums--practically anywhere embeds are allowed. It's dead simple with a single button you push to talk with others. There's no registration, and no need to install any software--it just works.

The widget has three flavors: one that starts live (meaning you hear others chatting whether you want to or not), an opt-in that requires user input to begin, and a custom URL version that will work across your entire site, no matter how many different pages you embed it in. In all the versions, there's a small number in the bottom right-hand corner that will let you know how many other people are using the widget. If you've had enough of their chatter, there's an X button on the top right to put the widget to sleep.

The Walkie-talkie widget joins YackPack's YackPlayer widget, which lets users embed and share audio messages in a way similar to Jaxtr's VoiceBlast, which we wrote about earlier this week. See also Snapvine.

We've embedded the widget after the break to speed up our page load, so just click "Read More" to begin chatting with other Webware readers. … Read more

Yahoo speeds Widgets with version 4

Yahoo on Thursday released what it said is a faster and less memory-hungry incarnation of its Widgets software that allows users to run small applications that appear on their desktops.

Widgets 4, now available for download for Windows or Mac OS X, also has a dock to keep the applications organized. The dock can be automatically hidden or can be attached to any side or corner of a user's monitor.

Also new is a Flickr widget that lets users view, upload and tag their images at the Yahoo photo-sharing site. And Yahoo updated the 21 widgets installed with the … Read more

MediaMaster takes your music library online

MediaMaster is a Web-based jukebox service that launched last week. MediaMaster gives users free storage space to upload their tunes and listen to them anywhere they have Internet access. The interface is clean, simple, and intuitive--if you're used to iTunes or Windows Media Player you'll feel right at home. Users can upload their tunes with two uploaders, a simple one for a few tracks and an advanced version that lets you simply drag and drop files from file folders right into the uploader.

Once your tracks are uploaded, you can create and manage playlists, rate individual songs, and … Read more

The Freewebs forum widget is handy

Freewebs is a Web site creation and hosting service that's been around since 2001 and has served more than 17 million registered users. Besides hosting photos, blogs, and user profiles, they've also got a group of customizable widgets that can be added to any site or social networking profile. This morning, they rolled out a widget that lets you host your own discussion right on the page, complete with admin controls that can be accessed without having to go off site. In fact, users can register, reply, and browse through threads without ever leaving the widget.

We've … Read more

YourMinis puts widgets on the desktop via Apollo

YourMinis, the popular single page aggregator service, has launched desktop integration with its library of over 14 million widgets, using Adobe's Apollo technology. After installing the Apollo runtime and the YourMinis Apollo plug-in on your PC or Mac, you can simply click on any widget in the YourMinis library and click "Add to Desktop." Likewise, there's the option to send any widget to the Web if you'd prefer it to stay on one of your YourMinis pages. It's really well-done.

Once they're on your desktop, you can drag them around, change colors, transparency … Read more

Web update roundup: Box.net, MySpace, PreFound, Netvibes

Box.net gets new design. Box.net has gotten a face-lift that shows more files and menu choices in the same amount of space. They've also completely gotten rid of the sidebar (which once housed navigation options), and added some neat previews for any photos that have been stored. There's also the option to send any file that's on there to one of your Box.net widgets without having to leave the page. Previous Box.net coverage here.

MySpace partners with Bodog. Online sports gambling, TV, and music service Bodog has partnered with MySpace to tweak the … Read more

Google home pages get more personal

Want to add some pizzazz to your Google personalized home page? This week Google is offering six themes that people can use to decorate their page. Google typically prefers simple, clean, text-only pages for its sites, with the notable exception being the doodle on its main search page. With this announcement Google is recognizing that some people might want to add some some color to their personalized home pages.

The themes include a beach, a cityscape, a Japanese tea house, the four seasons, the sky, and a bus stop. They will change dynamically, depending on the time of day and … Read more