Daikos.Net

Ideas for improved Video experience in WP blogs

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’

Tools to add videos to your Wordpress blog

2007 is bound to become just as exciting as 2006 when it comes to using videos in the blogging space. Wordpress fortunately has a huge community of developers that have made some excellent tools to assist you in videotizing your blog.

Hosting the videos on your own servers is not recommended. In the YouTube and Google Video era it is completely redundant to spend your bandwith and server capacity to host the videos yourself. Use the facilities on those free services to upload your videos and then display them on your blog.
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Google VideoBar with Auto Execute of Random Search

Google has updated its VideoBar with some new features. The most exciting one is the option to AutoExecute searches and thereby change the content of the VideoBar on regular intervalls.

Of course I will update the Daiko’s Google VideoBar with the new feature. I just need some time to consider how it could be best implemented in the widget. Any suggestions are most welcome!

Since my videobar widget is based on multiple search strings and a randomize function I feel it is almost there without to much alterations in the user interface.

Daiko’s Google VideoBar - Tip of the day

Some of you may want to only display your own videos in the videobar. Here is a couple of ways to do it:

1. The obvious way is to search for yourself and put that search term in the widget search list.
2. A less obvious way is to specify the exact videos you want to show by searching for the video IDs and separating them with OR. That gives you total control, and if you have 16 videos you want to show, you can just put 8 IDs separated by OR on two separate lines and users will randomly see the two-times 8 videos. Neat huhh? DOESN’T WORK!
3. Add unique IDs in the info of your videos and list them by separating them with OR in the search string. (Alternative to the above tip that for some reason doesn’t work for most videos.)

Remember to add a link name by putting @ followed by the name. Unless you do that you will get quite ugly links. And of course you don’t have to limit yourself to display only your own videos. Take a look in the massive Google Video archive to display just your favorites!

Daiko’s Google VideoBar Widget v. 1.2 Released

I’m pretty exited to let you know that the Daiko’s Google VideoBar Widget has reached v. 1.2. It includes some of the fixes and feature upgrades that have been requested by the users. Hopefully it satisfies more of you videots out there. The features added are:

• Randomized first search.
• Customizeable Close Text in the pop-up player.
• Custom optional search form above the links.

You can see it in action in the sidebar on the right.

Please enjoy, and upgrade (if you have v. 1.0). The widget is backwards compatible so you can upgrade the rough way by just overwriting the existing widget. I guess the Wordpress guys always recommends you to de activate the plugin first so if you are one of the more cautious kind, please do so. Don’t worry it won’t brake anything.

Enjoy!

Daiko’s Google VideoBar - Did you know that…?

One of the more unspecified features of Daiko’s Google VideoBar is that you can put links in running text and/or in the sidebar that will change the content of the VideoBar. This is also described on Google’s Showcase site for the GSvideobar.

To do this just add a link and instead of the usual URL-link put: javascript:dgvb.execute(’YourSearchTerm’);

The end HTML-code should look something like this:
<a href=”javascript:dgvb.execute(’mac vs. pc ad’);”>Mac Ads</a>

And the links work just like the links above the videobar. Test them and see what happens.

Daiko’s Google VideoBar - upcoming features

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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

Daiko’s Google VideoBar Widget v. 1.0 is ready!

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!

Daiko’s Google VideoBar Widget v. 0.7 released

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.

Daiko’s Google VideoBar Widget v. 0.5 Beta is ready

Go check out the new Daiko’s Google VideoBar here. I really hope you like it. Be back for more features as it develops and other Google AJAX magic is added to the portfolio.

Have fun!