You scour YouTube and Truveo for videos of interest. But your collection is nothing more than disconnected bookmarks. Along comes uvLayer, a new web application that makes it easier to discover, watch, collect, and share videos. The product is in beta but my first experience with it suggests that these guys are on to something. Here’s what you need to know:
- Finding videos across delivery platforms was seamless and lightening fast. Right now they’re using the YouTube and Truveo API’s
- The interface leverages drag and drop metaphors which seem more appropriate for “collections” of visual media than a keyboard approach. There were a few times when I just got lost — “where do I click to…” — but I imagine with more user feedback this will become a smooth experience.
- You need to install Adobe Air – a cross-operating system run-time for web application developers that incorporates HTML, Javascript, Flash, and Ajax – to get uvLayer up and running. Co-Founder Michael Hoydich told a group of us at Web2NewYork that a complete Flash-based install is forthcoming soon.
- The idea of sharing and community are at the core of the product, with Facebook doing the heavy lifting.
- Sharing a “collection” of video is powerful because it separates content from storage. Open the collection and the application retrieves each video from its host — YouTube or Truveo for example. This has real potential in the corporate world, particularly public relations and investor relations.
Some quick screenshots of uvLayer in action:
 |
This is what it looks like in the uvLayer application – all nice and organized |
 |
This is what it looks like on the public facing website. Rather jumbled but all quite playable. |
Rather than force you through a download and install of Adobe Air as well as a download and install of uvLayer, you can watch this collection online and get a sense of what’s possible. Quick note to the viewer: I was inspired by watching a director’s cut of “Donnie Darko” so I hope you like old British New Wave music and young Jake Gyllenhaal.
Links:
Adobe Air – great overview, obnoxious video that begins when as soon as you open the page Truveo API Page – how to incorporate third party video into your site YouTube API – how to incorporate YouTube content in the form of Google Data feeds
You might also be interested in these related posts:
- Understand the semantic web in 4 minutes.Mike Wesch is a digital ethnographer. An academic who combines the study of Media Ecology...
- What is AJAX? Why do your internal customers want it?AJAX is a series of interrelated technologies that power the so-called Web 2.0: Asynchronous communications...
- Hacking the iPhone to see what’s coming up in version 2Because of the confusion surrounding the right or lack thereof to unlock your iPhone and...