Webware

Just bought a domain and don't know what to do with it? Maybe you need to set up a blog, or are in the midst of hiring a designer. Don't just let it sit there while you get your act together--get a page to let people know what's going on. A service called LaunchSplash is offering a simple tool that does this for you.

All you have to do to get started is drop in a simple headline and description. The site provides an RSS feed people can subscribe to in order to get updates, or a simple mailing list that you can use to send out a blast when your site goes live.

Mapping the new landing page to your domain is pretty simple--you just plug in a special address provided by LaunchSplash into the management page where you bought the domain. From then on it will send visitors to your landing page instead of a blank "server not found" page. You can also plug in Google Analytics to track how many people are coming to your site before it's even up.

To make its cash the site offers a premium service that gives you more complex control over the page including four extra themes to spice up what people see (note: experts can simply tweak the CSS file).The higher plans also let you ramp up the amount of pages you can have up to 50 sites.

[via SimpleSpark]

Make a landing page for a site you're not ready to launch yet with LaunchSplash.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

(Credit: South Park Studios)

South Park fans rejoice, every episode of your favorite show is now available online, legally, via South Park Studios.

This central location for all things South Park is host to every single full episode of the show and around 3,000 embeddable video clips. It's not really clear why you are not able to embed the full episodes as of right now and their reach may suffer as a result. I'm not going to knock South Park Studios too hard for this since it is offering up its whole catalog for viewing, which is a major step. But embeddable full episodes seems like a logical feature and one that would be easy to implement since you can already embed clips.

(Credit: South Park Studios)

South Park Studios is doing a lot of things right, like offering up its entire catalog for viewing, unlike some of the other big names (Heroes, The Office), who only offer a few of their most recent episodes. This is bad news for less-than-legal sites, like Alluc, which lists South Park as its most-viewed TV show.

This is a really exciting time for Web video and, with more big names like South Park embracing it, we are really moving toward a world where it's not frustrating to get your entertainment.

Check out one of my favorite South Park clips after the jump.

MySpace will soon launch more than a dozen branded video channels, featuring content from big names like the National Geographic group, The New York Times, and Reuters. Users will be able to access the video content on branded content microsites similar to YouTube's partner channels with the BBC, NBC, and CBS. MySpace is allowing content providers to customize their content interface, with special backgrounds and color schemes. Expect something similar to Trailer Park, which MySpace launched last month.

The new service will tie in to MySpace's current videos platform, although there's no word yet on whether or not members will be able to embed the new content on their profiles or on outside blogs and Web sites.

Also of interest, MySpace's "Daily Reel" channel. This editor-controlled channel hosts content that is deemed the best on the service. MySpace editors will add their own dialogue, and package it as a top five. From the press release, I can't tell if it's going to be like America's Funniest Home Videos, or Fox's Daily Show ripoff.

Maybe the most interesting news out of this morning's announcement is participation by Reuters and National Geographic. Both content providers are also sharing entire shows on Joost, which could signal overlap from other providers that are currently sharing their content on the competing service. Given the choice between viewing the content on a Web site and installing a program, many users are likely to go for MySpace's approach, or just stick with YouTube.

More on CNET's News.com story.

MySpace quietly launched Trailer Park this morning, a new area showcasing trailers for upcoming movies. All videos are played on the in-house MySpace player and can be embedded on member pages. Trailer Park is launching with five trailers from Lionsgate, Warner Bros., Independent, and Buena Vista Pictures.

The page is designed to feel like a member's profile, with forums, a friends list, and a comment board. The dearth of actual content about a movie (actors, ratings, and so on) can be found at the movie's marketing site, which gets its own link alongside the trailer.

Unfortunately, from the looks of it, trailers only stick around briefly before removal, unlike Apple's Quicktime trailers page where they reside for months after a film's release. Also, there's no option to download the trailers at various quality levels (including high definition) to watch offline.

Not to knock page design here, but the trailer gets about 20 percent of the entire page.

(Credit: CNET Networks)