Webware

WorldTV is one of the companies making its debut at today's NewTeeVee Conference here in San Francisco. The site is hyper-focused, letting users create custom channels containing videos taken from Google's videos properties, along with AOL and Yahoo's. Once you've added the videos either by URL or built-in search, you can simply pass along the permalinked URL to friends to have them watch your collection in a full-screen player.

Channels can be branded with a text logo that sits to the right of the player, although advanced users can go in and upload an image instead. There's also a built-in Webcam recorder that will let you record your own clips to insert on your channel, although anything you save takes the place of one of your other video segments. The advanced editor also lets you tweak things like video aspect ratio, player background, and playlist order.

WorldTV intends to make money through advertising by adding ad units to player pages combined with a revenue-sharing model that will let users add video ads to their playlists. Unlike YouTube and Revver, which have chosen traffic and viewership for their ad models, WorldTV thinks users are willing to mix in full on video ads in their playlist in the hopes of making a buck. They're also planning to roll out a premium model with a more advanced feature set for users who are willing to pay for more functionality.

While WorldTV is super simple, I think for the time being you're far better off using a more full-featured mashup service like SplashCast (coverage), which works with all sorts of video content from many other sources including text and audio. Also worth noting is YouTube's own playlist creation tool, which lets you add as many clips as you'd like, albeit only from their service. In the meantime, I've put together a test channel on WorldTV, which you can check out here.

Related: Yoink'd creates video playlists in seconds

WorldTV lets you make your own custom branded video player, although it's not as full featured as some of the competition.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

SplashCast is launching a handful of updates to its player this morning. The biggest is inline chat, which was essentially the next step after last month's inclusion of inline text, voice, and video commenting. Although this new feature isn't rolling out to everyone right away--the company is beginning with the branded artist channels launched a few months back. To jump into a chat, there's a simple "join chat" button on the bottom-left-hand side of the player. Clicking it takes you right in to an IRC-style simple chat.

Want to Twitter about the show you're watching? You can now do it right inside of Twitter.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Also new is a feature called FanCast which is kind of like Kyte.TV in that you can give your users an e-mail address to send photos and videos, and they'll go up in an ad-hoc playlist made available to all. If you're the channel owner, you can also moderate that content, keeping some amount of editorial control over what your viewers are adding to the conversation.

SplashCast is also adding integration to Twitter. The service gets its very own icon, which, when clicked, lets you log in to your Twitter account and post a brief note along with a link to the show as a status update. If you're already using another service like TwitThis (review), this might not be so important, but unlike sharing the whole player, you can drill down and share any piece of media therein.

I've embedded an example player after the break. To view it, click the read more button below.

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Video hosting and mashup solution SplashCast is launching an upgrade to their video player tomorrow morning. The most noticeable change is a new YouTube-ish playlist of video thumbnails in the bottom 20 percent of the viewer, which can be pulled up and dismissed at the user's discretion. Previously, users were limited to a channel-view text list (which is still available), but my bet is that users will feel at home with this newer navigation.

The real killer application, however, is the inline commenting system which gives users three ways to leave their feedback: a video clip (from a Webcam or hard drive), text, and voice. All three remain in the same section, and there's no user registration required to leave your two cents. Recording and playing video in the player is really simple, and looks pretty good.

There are a few other mentionable tweaks, including a pause button, an inline "e-mail this" tool to share show segments or entire programs with friends, and a full screen button that remains no matter what type of program you're viewing (not just videos and photos). There's also a new "follow me" button which lets you know when the program's creator publishes new shows. It's a little bit like the channel-creator subscriptions with YouTube.

SplashCast is planning to introduce a mobile upload feature to its platform within a month, so users will be able to drop photos and video clips into their channels from a mobile phone--a lot like Kyte.tv (review). There will also be more celebrity channels, and the potential for Twitter integration and live user chat, similar to Pikspot's player.

You can now check out a video playlist with thumbnails that move a little bit like the dock in Mac OS X.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

NPR lovers looking to listen to public radio while at work, or while social networking have a new way to get their fix on demand. NPR and SplashCast have come together with a new player that contains 12 of NPR's audio podcasts including Car Talk, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!, and Fresh Air. The player will continue to be updated with any new additions to NPR's podcasting lineup.

NPR is also launching a Facebook version of the player that users can listen to as standalone app, or embed it on their profiles to share with others.

This is the latest move from Splashcast in providing branded channels. Last week they launched branded players for number of popular entertainment and recording artists, along with a new platform for creating your own branded player on Facebook. The goal is to give content creators a means to distribute their content, while providing a bit more customization than YouTube or Google Video can offer.

I'm still a fan of subscribing to the shows that I like via iTunes and listening to them at my leisure. But for those that can't, this is an easier solution than digging through NPR's directory. I've embedded the new player after the break. To see it, just click the "Read More" link below.

NPR's new podcast player for Facebook, as seen in its full screen mode. With it you can listen to NPR shows with no download.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

This morning, SplashCast, the media syndication service, is launching MyPodcastNetwork, a new feature that lets users create a single player to aggregate and play audio and video content via RSS feeds. If you're a podcast listener, you might already be using an aggregation service such as iTunes or Odeo to pull in your favorite shows. What's neat about doing this on SplashCast is that you can mix it in with other audio, video, and pictures in one big mashup, then share your creation with others by embedding it on blogs or social networking profiles.

To find podcast or show feeds, SplashCast is also launching a new directory with about 200 programs. If your favorite show isn't on there, you can add its RSS feed, and it will automatically be added to the general directory for others to pick up and subscribe to. I've embedded a player below, with a smattering of podcasts from CNET's podcasting network.

This is really neat, but I probably won't be using it. One of the reasons I use iTunes to subscribe to podcasts is so I can take them with me for listening on the go. However, for people who like to listen to podcasts on their computers, this is a nice way of saving some hard drive space and avoiding the need to install a jukebox application, or visit various sites to listen to, or watch their favorite shows.

Pikspot is a new social network for groups to upload and share media. Each group can create its own themed page and add various pieces of content such as audio, video clips, and images. It's not a P2P network per se, consider it a media-hosting site like SplashCast with extended group features. Will it be the next big thing in media distribution? I'm not so sure about that, but it is launching with a lineup of content from several TechTV notables who have formed a channel called UndoTV. For any Webware readers who have watched CNET TV's new call-in help show CNET Live, this might be right up your alley.

Adding media to Pikspot channels is fairly simple. There's a batch uploader for photos and plenty of options to tag and credit content. Channel owners can also opt to let subscribers (registered users who have added the channel to their subscription list) add their own content. To sort through it all, there's a simple search. You're also able to browse through tagged content in a cloud, which is pretty neat looking.

One of Pikspot's branded pages. Channel owners can easily customize the look and feel of their interface using templates or using the design editor.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Any Pikspot channel or piece of content can be embedded off-site on blogs or social networks. Like some of the embeds we've seen recently with SplashCast and Kyte.tv (hands-on), Pikspot lets users browse through the channel's entire content catalog and interact with other community members via comments without leaving the embedded player.

To customize a Pikspot channel, owners can select from a large selection of templates, or make their own using a fairly full-featured editor that gives complete control over the color scheme and branding. Any site still retains a small banner at the top of the page to bring you back to Pikspot, like you get on Blogger, Ning, and other networks.

The Pikspot experience is fairly slick, but I do have my nits to pick, mainly the upload speed for adding media to the service, which I found to be really slow. I'd like to see the inclusion of a live chat for each channel, as I had a lot of fun with this feature using Kyte.tv recently. That being said, the commenting system is really simple and includes a Digg-like way to vote on which comments are (and aren't) worth reading.

I'm very interested to see which other content providers stick their work on Pikspot. Since anyone can upload content, we're bound to see some copyrighted items on there. If it's anything like Joost, with the right people in charge, we'll see more partnerships and content provider-sponsored channels fairly soon.

I've embedded a Pikspot player below.

Flektor is a new Flash-based content mashup tool. Users can pull in photos from several hosting services like flickr, MySpace, and Photobucket to make slick-looking, embeddable media slide shows for blogs, Web sites or social networks. It's a lot like Mixercast, and other media mashup services like RockYou and SplashCast.

Flektor's interface is drag-and-drop, and has a very short learning curve. To add media to your show, just drag imported media files down to a timeline at the bottom of the screen, where they can be rearranged or removed at any time. There are also "Flidgets" which can be inserted into your show to add live chat, a live broadcast from your Webcam, or cliched film effects like color bars or static. What's really neat is the ability to edit any picture with some easy-to-use sliders that let you do simple, on-the-fly alterations to your photographs--something you'd find on a Web-based photo editing tool like Picnik.

To add a little flair to your show, there are nearly 100 transitions, effects, and filters that can be put on top of or in between your media. You can also edit each effect and change its appearance. Out of the many transitions I've seen on some of these Flash editors (Photobucket's Remix in particular), Flektor has some really snappy and good-looking effects.

The main hindrance in using Flektor is how long it takes to communicate with the third-party services. Flickr in particular takes quite a while to sync up photos from various albums. On the upside, the MySpace integration is very simple; just give it a username and it will pull up photos members have uploaded in addition to any images that have been embedded in user comments. It's also easy to embed your Flektor player on a number of services, with a handy export page that provides special embedding codes for a dozen services (including Google's Orkut).

I've embedded a sample "Flek" I put together using some photo and video clips. For screenshots of the editing interface, keep reading.

[via Mashable]

Searchles, the social network that launched last June, has rolled out a new feature called Searchles TV, which lets you combine multiple clips from multiple services to share elsewhere in an embeddable player. Similar to SplashCast (see previous coverage), you can jog back and forth between clips without leaving the player. Searchles works with videos from YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, Grouper and Blip.tv, and plans to add more partners in the future.

What's neat about Searchles TV is that embedded players will reflect any changes you make to the master feed. SplashCast does this too, and it works really well if you want to showcase different content without having to change the embed code on a blog or Web site. This can be especially helpful in a site like MySpace, where making changes to the code can get a little tedious.

Here's a Searchles TV spot I created in about two minutes.

I would be wary to predict a mass exodus from currently popular social networks, but after playing around with Ning in the last few days, I'd say it could easily steal users from MySpace. Ning lets you create your very own social network, with custom branding, forums, photos, and videos. Everything is fully integrated and customizable with really slick looking themes that put less focus on individual user profiles, and more of an emphasis on group sharing and communication.

Compared to MySpace and Facebook, you still get to create and manage an extensive personal profile. The main difference is that Ning isn't just a network of profiles; it's a network of groups. Each time you join one of these groups, your profile can be customized with information that's pertinent to that group, making your profile a little more dynamic, depending on which users are accessing it. This allows more room for creativity and interactivity with other users.

Webware's Ning page

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Adding media to a Ning page is really simple. Ning hosts videos and photos itself, with really simple uploading tools that let you upload content straight from your hard drive. You can also point to sites like YouTube, Google video, or Flickr to incorporate media from other sites, although you have to jump through hoops to use Flickr (other sites, like MyPunchBowl and SplashCast, make it much easier). There are two core uses for Ning: Mingling with large groups of people who share similar interests, and establishing smaller community groups for your friends. In either instance, you can sign up with your Ning ID, a login that's shared throughout the entire Ning network. It's a little bit like Blogger, which lets you contribute to multiple blogs with the same networked identity.

Ning offers premium services that come at a monthly cost. You can add your own advertising, use a custom domain, and bump the amount of storage and bandwidth for uploaded media. At the free level, each Ning networked site is given 500MB for private content and 5GB for public content, which should be plenty for most small groups but has the potential to fill up with large groups.

Ning has a really fresh feel about it. There is an incredible amount of customization and potential for people who want to create a community site, but don't feel like jumping through the hoops of buying a domain, purchasing a hosting plan, and finding someone to code the project. While you do have to give up some of the freedoms of running your own site, Ning offers a really great sandbox for the casual user, and those seeking more than a sea of profile pages.

Webware's Ning can be found here.