Archive for the 'Google Video' Category
October 12th, 2007 by Daiko
I’ve been working on a Google Video Widget with similar features as Daiko’s YouTube Widget. After playing with the amazing search feeds you get on Google Video I think the following features can be added:
- Display thumbnails of the videos.
- Play in ThickBox player, or Daiko’s VideoPlayer.
- One-click subscribe to feed in iTunes (will only display Google Videos as podcast episodes).
- Link to copy into other podcast readers
- Download link on individual videos (depending on availability)
One of the things I have to decide since this is a Google Video search based widget, is how to handle the YouTube and videos from other sources. It will be easiest to just take out other results, but the coolest would be if it worked with all.
Stay tuned and suggest features!
Have a nice Wordpress weekend!
September 12th, 2007 by Daiko
Dear Daiko’s Video Widget fans!
It has been a long wait for all of you wanting a new and improved Video Widget. I’ve reviewed the comments from all of you and I’ve over all found that the current version is stable and working well. Not to say that there isn’t room for improvement.
In the upcoming version (you can check it out right now right here…) I’ve been working on a solution to play the videos in a larger popup-layer. I’ve found that ThickBox and swfObjects does the trick without overloading you with code. Check out the working version of it in the right sidebar. Click the link Play big version! and comment on it’s functionality.
I’m a bit uncertain whether I should add ThickBox and swfObjects as separate plugins or include/incorporate them right in the widget. For those of you that already have them on your website it might interfere with them if I include it in the widget. On the other hand it is easier to install if it is part of the package.
Anyway, have your eyes open and tune in for the upcoming release. Sidebar Video has never been easier…..
January 22nd, 2007 by Daiko
I have updated Daiko’s Video Widget with a bug fix addressing the appearance of the Google Video Simple mode player in IE (surprise!?). As a hardcore FF and Safari user I wasn’t aware of this bug and ask all users for forgiveness in being late with this update.
Now it is fixed so please enjoy the new version 2.05 of Daiko’s Video Widget.
January 18th, 2007 by Daiko
This is a video shot by my brother-in-law Rolf Gullik Sarre during the Moose hunt last fall. I think it is one of very few shots of a White Moose. It is from Kárášjohka/Karasjok, Norway. The exact location is not indicated, but the moose has been spotted numerous times last fall, and as far as I know it did survive this years Moose hunt. This is the first time I’ve seen this phenomenon on video though.
Enjoy!
Watch big version - Pop-up player!
January 9th, 2007 by Daiko
Just as Steve Jobs announced the stunning new iPhone at the MacWorld in San Francisco, I’m ready to give it my full support by releasing an update of Daiko’s Video Widget.
Watch the presentation closely and note that iPhone does widgets. So do I!
I’m just not big enough (yet) to be asked to join the board of Apple Inc. (note the name change) or been asked to come present my widget during the keynote.
What the heck… I’ll just keep on doing what I do, and hopefully I’ll some day come up with something that will stunn the world.
Enjoy version 2.04 of Daiko’s Video Widget in the mean time!
(By the way did you notice the battery life of the iPhone? 5 hours talk time!)
December 29th, 2006 by Daiko
In preparing for the development of new video widgets and enhanced versions of the existing ones, I’ve been considering various apporaches. One of the killer features in the current version of Daiko’s Google VideoBar is the pop-up video player. The player certainly lifts videos out of the cramped sidebar on to the users desk regardless of the width of the sidebar.
One serious drawback of the VideoBar is that it is relatively difficult to control the results down to a detailed level. Several users are struggling to make the searches relevant to their site. Basically the results are limited by Google’s GSVideoBar interface.
I’ve earlier mentioned the possible merger of features from the Video Widget and the Google VideoBar. Exactly how that should work is still not decided and any suggestions are welcomed.
A Video Plugin that only displays thumbnails and uses the pop-up player is also a possible new feature that can be combined into a full blown Daiko’s Video ToolBox featuring video tools for WP.
Continue reading ‘Ideas for improved Video experience in WP blogs’
November 23rd, 2006 by Daiko
I have made some small (but visually important) updates to Daiko’s Video Widget. The Google Video Player has not been very pretty in narrow sidebars. Now Google has added a Simple mode to the player and that is now an optional value for you to choose in the widget control panel.
This brings the widget up to version 2.03.
A next idea/project is to make a pop-up player for the video widget to, so that your users optionally can get the same functionallity as the VideoBar users. The response to the pop-up player has been very good, and I’m considering making it simple for people to use the same pop-up player for videos from Google and YouTube as well as from MySpace. The idea is to make a simple javascript that people can call from within posts and pages to play videos via a simple link.
Another extension of the Video Widget is to give users the ability to page through the video list and/or have the same kind of link-list as Daiko’s Google VideoBar has. Keep the ideas coming and I’ll see what I can do!.
November 16th, 2006 by Daiko
I have a couple of requested features that I will add to the next release of Daiko’s Google Videobar. I’ll put the list up here so you can add feature requests and take part in the ongoing development of the VideoBar:
Randomized first Search-term. Just like Daiko’s Video Widget picks random videos from a list, the VideoBar should be able to select randomly from the list of search terms. This gives variety and life to the site.Editable close-text above the video. Today it says “i’m done watching this”. That could be anything and I’ll add that. Still bearing in mind that the control panel should not be over crowded.- Multiple VideoBars. This is something I’ve been hesitant to include. It is possible, but takes more time, because I’ll need to make sure that the widget doesn’t load to much in your header, and the dynamics between the various VideoBars and the VideoPlayer must be streamlined for all possible scenarios. The final issue is that it has to work regardless of which VideoBar is put on show on which pages, and someone has to be the master and so on…. But as I said I’m working on it.
Add an optional search box to give the user the option to search for videos. The results will change the videobar accordingly.
I will strike them out as they are done so you can follow the development.
Anything else? Drop me a line and say it!
And thank’s to Google for the blog-post on: Google Ajax Search API Blog
November 12th, 2006 by Daiko
After extensive research and even some moderate hacking of the Google javascript for Google’s GSVideoBar, I have reached version 1.0 of Daiko’s Google Videobar. The main problem has as always been getting it to work with Internet Explorer. Someone should take Microsoft to court for not complying with the standards. I’m afraid that more resources world wide are going into developing fixes and hacks for Internet Explorer than spammers will ever cause. Simple standard based functionality that programmers easily can obtain with CSS and xhtml is almost impossible to do in IE.
Market power discussion and a humble leisure time programmer’s frustrations aside. Please enjoy the updated version of Daiko’s Google Videobar, and hopefully I’ll have the strength to come back with an explanation to what I had to do to fix the pop up player to work with IE (including 7.0).
I know it looks somewhat weird still in Opera. I haven’t put that much effort to iron out that, but I’ll get back to it at some point. If you want more features, just drop me a line, and I’ll consider it. Have a wonderful week!
November 10th, 2006 by Daiko
Some of the problems with the first release of Daiko’s Google VideoBar (0.5 Beta) have now been ironed out, and version 0.7 is now released.
Go check it out and keep me informed of bugs. I’m closing in on the z-index problem in IE (still a problem in 7.0), so stay tuned.
