11 things you still can’t do with the new YouTube player.

I have a account with Splashcast. So far, I uploaded two diaporamas: my wedding and the first birthday of some friends'baby. Once in a while, I receive information from this service. But, this time, since it is a comparison with the giant Youtube, I decided to share it with you.

YouTube released a major new feature today, the ability to create and manage what they call Custom Players. These custom players let creators select which video playlists will be available in the player, wrap their players with a one-color border and push updates out to embeded players around the web. In other words, it does a lot of the things we here at SplashCast have been doing since Februrary. While YouTube’s new player is a serious improvement, it’s also surprisingly underwhelming and has generally received lukewarm reviews. I do think they did a lot of things right, I like their advance and rewind buttons.

There are still many things you cannot do with this new YouTube player that can be done with a variety of other services on the market like Blip, VodPod, Brightcove, Vimeo, Magnify, Searchles and of course us - SplashCast. Here’s my list of things that the new YouTube player still doesn’t let you do:

1. Easily reordering videos

These custom players display the videos contained in any favorites list in your account, but reordering the videos is currently really hard if not impossible. Thus, if you’ve got a welcome message you’d like to always play before your most recent videos - you’re out of luck. That’s not the case with multi-video players from, for example, Brightcove, Magnify or SplashCast. I wouldn’t be surprised to see YouTube add this feature in time.

2. Adding links off-site to anywhere other than YouTube

Don’t expect this to change, YouTube has the traffic and aims to keep it that way. SplashCast’s player can have text slides or item links added to any page on the web, allowing publishers to drive traffic from distributed players back to their own websites.

3. Resizing the player

The standard YouTube player doesn’t resize small well at all - but it’s far worse when you put multiple videos in one player and try to make it small enough to put in a blog sidebar or post. You can’t see the titles or the timer well. As you can see below, even slight adjustments to size aren’t pretty. This isn’t a trivial matter to change. The second custom player option, an extra large player with related videos displayed on the right hand side, is so large that it will likely be used in very limited circomstances.

4. Full screen view

The YouTube player has never allowed a full screen view from inside the embedded player and this new version is no different. Blip’s newest player offers full screen, our miniature players do and all our players in the next version will. I’m surprised that YouTube hasn’t added this yet, but the company may be waiting for market saturation by Flash 9, which makes full screen very easy.

5. Multiple sources

Obviously, the videos in your YouTube customized player have to all be from YouTube. That’s not the case with SplashCast, Magnify, Searchles and VodPod. See the current SplashCast player on the right and hit channel guide. Could you create an experience like this with the new YouTube player? No.

6. Multiple file types

All video is all good for some times and places, but if you want to add audio files you’ll have to look past YouTube. Try Blip or SplashCast to combine both video and audio players in the same player. If you want text, photos, powerpoint files and RSS feeds like video and audio podcasts - SplashCast is the way to go. There’s other options as well, but you’ll have to pick and choose a feature set that works best for your needs.

7. Stats in the player

YouTube gets gargantuan viewer numbers, that’s almost its only real advantage over other services (is that all? lol). You cannot see how many views a video has from inside the player, however. SplashCast’s show info page will display this for you; I don’t know anyone else who does. I expect that YouTube will add this in time if the company is willing to sacrifice just a touch of the simplicity of its current display.

Will Your Next Web Application Be a Google Gadget?

clipped from http://www.devx.com/webdev/Article/35007/0/page/1

Will Your Next Web Application Be a Google Gadget?

Learn how to leverage the Google Gadget API to make your web applications more reachable. As an example, you'll see how to build a real-world gadget that fetches and displays the DevX feeds.

Anatomy of a Google Gadget

Developing a Google Gadget (simply gadget from now on) is really an easy task. After all, a gadget is made of XML, HTML, JavaScript, and optionally, CSS.

ince AJAX first appeared, developer interest in JavaScript has increased exponentially—and toolsets for building functionality in JavaScript have burgeoned as well. One of the latest tools for JavaScript-related development is Google Gadgets. Many web sites already provide gadgets built with the Google tools, and you can, too. This article shows you how to develop a Google Gadget that fetches DevX RSS feeds and displays them to the user.

A Wiki toolbox

After blogs, wikis are the most used social webwares. They are really great for collaborative projects and workgroups. Well, I just found an interesting post in Mashable about 30 wiki tools that could simplify your life. Just click here.

You want to use Google Reader?

One of the core technologies behind the Web 2.0 “revolution” is RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Most websites that are updated with any sort of regularity have feeds of at least their headlines, and usually of full articles. Some sites also have secondary feeds listing their comments, videos, links, and other updates as well.

Because RSS is so common these days, keeping up with the rush of information that shapes our lives has become pretty easy (”really simple”, even). Instead of jumping from one site to another, you can keep track of all the content of the sites you visit regularly in one central place.
Why Google Reader?

While there are desktop applications that collect your syndicated content, reading RSS feeds is one task that justifies the buzz around “Web 2.0″. For reading news, keeping up with blogs, even tracking packages, little can compare with Google Reader — its easy to add feeds, easy to read them, and easy to organize them.

Google Reader offers several advantages over stand-alone desktop feed readers. First of all, it integrates tightly with both Firefox and IE7, making it simple to use. Second, you can access your feeds from any computer, and keep your reading in sync between them. Finally, you don’t have to worry about upgrades or performance issue — bug fixes an new features are added “behind the scenes” with no action on your part. And it’s free.

If you already use any of Google’s other services — Gmail, Docs and Spreadsheets, Google Groups, or whatever — you are already signed up for Google Reader; just log in with your existing account information. Otherwise, go to Google Reader and create a new account.

Adding Feeds to Google Reader

Once you’re signed up with Google Reader, there are approximately a zillion ways to add feeds to your account. If you’re already using a web-based service or desktop program to read RSS feeds, you can import your existing feeds from the OPML file those services will generate (look for an “export” feature). But assuming you are new to this and are starting from scratch, there are several easy ways to add feeds to Google Reader.

First, you need to find the feed. Unfortunately, there’s no real standard (or, rather, there’s a lot of conflicting standards) for how to post a feed address on a site. Newer sites tend to use the orange “broadcast waves” box that links to the feed; older sites tend to use a small orange “RSS” or “Atom” tag instead (By the way, don’t worry about the RSS vs. Atom issue — Google Reader handles whatever you throw at it just as well.) Or there might just be a text link saying “RSS” or “Newsfeed” or “Subscribe”. Both Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7 auto-detect RSS feeds and place an orange RSS indicator in your address bar when one is present; click it and both browsers present you with a nicely formatted view of the feed, with the address in the address bar.

Now that you’ve found the feed, add it to Google Reader by doing one of the following:
Add feeds manually. If you know the address for a site’s RSS feed, you can enter it into GR yourself by clicking “Add subscription” on the left-hand side of the page and typing or pasting it in directly.

Use Firefox’s auto-detection. Click the RSS symbol in Firefox’s address bar and select “Add as live bookmark”. The next page will have a drop-down menu at the top giving you several options to subscribe to the feed you’re viewing. Select Google Reader and hit “Subscribe Now”. You can make Google your default reader by checking the box marker “Always use Google to subscribe to feeds”; then clicking RSS feeds will open them directly in GR. (You can also change the default action in Firefox’s options: Tools > Options, select the “Feeds” tab, check “Subscribe to the feed using”, and choose “Google Reader”.) Unfortunately, IE7 doesn’t work the same way; it will open the feed in a nicely formatted page but does not give you the option to add to Google Reader.

Click the link to the RSS feed, however it is indicated on the page. This works the same as using auto-detection.

Look for an “Add to Google” button. If the webmaster loves you, they’ll have put a big “Add to Google” button on their page, usually somewhere near the inscrutable orange box that indicates an RSS feed. Te “Add to Google” button adds the feed directly to Reader.

Use Google’s “subscribe” bookmarklet. In Google Reader, go to “Settings” and then the “Goodies” tab. There you will find the “subscribe” bookmarklet — right-click and drag the link into your browser’s toolbar. A new button will be created; whenever you are on a site you’d like to subscribe to, click the button and Google will look for the RSS feed and open it in Reader. This is a preview; to add it permanently, hit the large “Subscribe” button near the top right-hand corner of the page. This works in IE7 and Firefox, and likely other browsers as well.

Google Reader is not a very good platform for podcasts. Google embeds video and audio attachments in the viewer window, but if you want your podcasts on your mp3 player, you have to manually download the files and import them into your player’s sync manager. This is a task that is much better handled by a desktop application like iTunes or Juice.

For your daily reading, though, Google Reader is great. In a very short time, you can be cranking through dozens or even hundreds of feeds every day with a minimum of effort.

Schoolrack: online teaching site

If you are a teacher, of course, right now, you are on vacations. But, if you can spare a few minutes of your summertime, go to SchoolRack. This is a online tool that will allow you create a fair teaching web site. It is really easy to use (wysiwyg) or you can have a peak at some example made by other teacher. It is well adapted to what a teaching web site should offer. You can upload files and archives. There is a mailing list service to contact parents and your pupils in one click.

Of course, you could also use Moodle. Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities. You can download and use it on any computer you have handy (including webhosts), yet it can scale from a single-teacher site to a 50,000-student University. This site itself is created using Moodle, so check out the Moodle Demonstration Courses or read the latest Moodle Buzz.

As you see, it is a little bit more elaborate. It is a good software. I am doing a post graduate diploma in online teaching at Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires. They constructed their whole online program structure with Moodle.

Google and the non-profit organizations

(via Webware) Today, Google is opening up its educational tier of Google Apps to nonprofit organizations within the United States. Registered 501c3 nonprofits will be able to use and deploy the educational version of Google Apps, which gives organizations unlimited users, free phone support, API integration, and e-mail migration (to transfer existing in-boxes to the Apps version of Gmail).

The company made the announcement this evening at the Google campus in Mountain View, CA where several nonprofits--including Mercy Corps, Idealist.org, NTEN, and the East Bay Community Recovery Project--announced their planned adoption of Google Apps.

The move is the latest in Google's public service programs, which include

Google Grants and Google Earth Outreach.

Google analytics for Facebook

clipped from mashable.com Good news for the developers of Facebook applications. Now they get Google Analytics for their apps, for better monitoring and maintenance of activity on Facebook. Most important is the new FBML tag, allowing application publishers to embed the Google Analytics tracking code for the Analytics account of their choice. There’s also a rating system that developers can now see, alerting them to the “spaminess” of their applications. This pertains to the notifications and feeds systems on Facebook. Now developers know when they are approaching high levels of spaminiess, and will hopefully be able to modify accordingly. This is important, as Facebook is pretty strict when it comes to spaminess, and now developers can see the data that backs up Facebook’s actions, should an application be reprimanded or suspended due to over-activity.

Is blogging dead?

This is a serious question and some people think that it is actually dead. But, to paraphrase Frank Zappa, I would rather say: Blogging is not dead, it just smells funny.

With the increasing presence of social networking tools like MySpace and Facebook, some people really wonder about the necessity of using individual communication tools like blogs.

But, still, there are an incredible number of blogs poping up every minute. So. Is blogging dead?

If the question interests you got to this interesting article in the Read/Write Web.