YourTrumanShow is a video blogging initiative which allows
ordinary people like you and me distribute great stories via video
diaries.
In September 2007, we took a look at the new application
coming from YourTrumanShow: The VideoMap widget,
which launched at DEMOFall07 and has since been in private alpha mode
for
development and testing.
YourTrumanShow is known for giving you a place
to video blog your life story. Today marks the release of VideoMap on
FaceBook.
Does It Live Up To The Promise?
We wondered if the application’s official release would live
up to
the promise of its debut, and the answer is mostly yes. During DEMO the
creators of YourTrumanShow
promised the VideoMap would offer a widget that would work with
YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace and more.
They said the widget would offer a
graphic representation of your video connections and collections across
social networks.
No Application Spam
I installed the FaceBook
application as soon as it came out this morning to give it a whirl. As
with any FaceBook application it was fairly simple to install. To its
credit it did not want to spam every friend in my FaceBook account with
invitations.
On every screen where invitations were possible it gave a
very clear and simple way to opt out or skip the process and go right
to the application to start playing.
Importing From YouTube
Once the application was installed it took me to a screen to
import
any videos I had on YouTube. I don’t have many, not being a video
blogger, so the process was fairly quick for me. As soon as
the upload
was finished I was taken to the VideoMap screen, where I could see my
user icon in the centre and my videos in a neat row below.
Once you’ve added your videos, you can click on the little
Contact
icon in the upper right corner to add your friends. This is where the
ease of use started to slide a bit. It offered me a way to integrate
friends from FaceBook and YouTube,
which is fine. I wondered where the promised MySpace integration went,
but decided to just try it out.
Limited User Friendliness
Clicking on FaceBook called up a list of my friends with their
user
icon next to their name. Right away I was disappointed that there was
not a way to bulk add people. It’s nice that they don’t force you to
spam your friends and invite them, but it went very slowly having to
add everyone one name at a time, clicking several buttons and options
to do so.
If an application is going to make it to my permanent use on
FaceBook, it has to be easy, not spam my friends and above all, be
fast. I have very limited time to play on FaceBook.
Once I had the basics handled, I decided to try it out. One
thing I
noticed right away: VideoMap resizes YouTube videos into a larger view.
That isn’t good. YouTube quality is poor enough in its original window
size. Blowing up the video only makes it worse. I did not like that at
all.
Relationship Bubble Map
Once I’d had a chance to add some friends, their icons
surrounded
mine in a kind of relationship bubble map, complete with trails back to
me.
Holding the mouse over any of their icons reveals any videos
they
may have and gives you a chance to tweak how they interface with your
VideoMap. It is a bit visually cluttered once you get past 20 or so
friends – it will be interesting to see what happens once they start
adding more videos and playing with VideoMap more themselves.
I was quite disappointed that the MySpace
integration isn’t included yet. The promised portable widget seems to
still be in development as well.
That might prove to be the selling
point for me, being able to take my VideoMap and place it on blogs or
other social profiles, adjusting who it displays as I move it to each
one. As of now that isn’t on its capabilities list.
Conclusions
I found the VideoMap to be a bit visually displeasing as far
as
colour scheme goes. It is quite a loud shade of pink that isn’t easy on
the eyes at all. I looked for a way to change it to a custom colour
scheme, or at least to FaceBook’s default, but that isn’t offered yet
either.
All in all, I think the concept is good, and the release isn’t
bad. They definitely could improve it by offering a way to take it
portable, a way to bulk add friends, and a way to change the colour from
hot pink to… just about anything else, really.
This article is based on a Profy post written by Leslie Poston.
