So for some strange reason, CoverItLive will initialize on my Windows machine using FF 2.0, but not my Mac. Seeing as if my Windows machine is acting wonky right now, this isn’t good. I’m still going to try it though.
Hmmm. Maybe I should backtrack a bit. I’m not a big fan of liveblogging. Either I take part in something (and enjoy it) or I liveblog: I can’t do both. Via The Next Web, I learned about CIL, which may make liveblogging a tad bit easier for me. I decided to try it out today.
One uh-oh about the service is that, at least according to CIL’s website, the iframes in the code don’t play nice with WP. Actually, that should be reversed: WP doesn’t play nice with iframes. CIL recommends giving your users the actual link to the code instead of the embed. Users paste the link in the browser and the liveblogging session pops up in a window. Not really keen on that.
In any case, I’ll try to test this thing out some more.
I’m about to call it a night, but not before giving props to James Andrews of The Key Influencer and Lisa Price, owner of Carol’s Daughter, for pulling off something that I hope more businesses do: holding an online video forum for customers.
Carol’s Daughter is a line of hair and skin products primarily for women of color. James set up a session on ustream for customers and soon-to-be-customers to speak with Lisa about her business and her life. Lisa also has a Mother’s Day promotion going on at Carol’s Daughter TV.
The session was a wonderful way to put a voice and face to the woman behind the products. Also, in the Cluetrain vein, the session fomented two-way communication. Viewers could call in or type in their questions.
I called in and talked to Lisa, asking her a few questions about the availability of her products in Europe and for some hair tips. She was extremely gracious.
There were a couple of hiccups, like the mics being way too hot when folks laughed and we got started late. But other than that, the session was fab. Businesses, take note.
Also, I’ve got to send a shout out to Lynne Johnson. I wouldn’t have known about this unless she’d sent me the e-mail.
By way of Kathryn Corrick, I found out about searchme, a visual search engine with which you can see the actual web pages that come up during a search. I signed up for a beta invite and have been using it quite a bit over the past two days.
Not sure if the results equal Google, but I doubt anyone starts a new search engine with the intention of being a Google killer. The ability to actually see the pages is frightfully cool and I’m a big fan of the scrolling (think Piclens).
There are only two things I have issues with so far:
1. Setting the speed of “flip throughs” : I wish I could adjust the speed of sorting through the pages.
2. Browsing by placing mouse on either side of the screen: I would love to browse by doing this instead of using the scroll bar at the bottom. Does that make sense?
Other than that, I like what I see. If you’re interested in testing it out, sign up for an invite at the site.
