Check out this new media technology: BubbleGuru, which is a website that—if you sign up by May 1st, it’s free—allows you to make video blurbs that you can then embed into emails or your website, and they don’t take up any more space on your website. Hmmm. What do you guys think?
If nothing else, I think the name, BubbleGuru, is really cool!
I feel like this is a really good example of how the Critical Art Ensemble’s ‘sight machine’ still controls a lot of our motivations. We like to see what's going on, who is talking to us, and what the face behind the voice we're hearing online looks like.
How is this different than a video phone? (I guess a sense of control is enabled with BubbleGuru because you can chose when to record your message). I feel like with the rise of video cameras and especially webcams, the whole "people don't want others to see them while talking to them through the internet" mentality we've talked about in class is sort of being diminished. Although, I still don't really like the idea of seeing the person you're talking to online, but am I in the minority??
Ugh. Maybe I'm just a grouch, but I think this is everything that's wrong with web design today. Sure, it's cutesie, but what's the point? Why not just have an autostart video embedded in the normal design of the page, instead of a floating bubble? What if the user wants to pause or fastforward? A simpler coding that simply embeds a video would allow this, but the bubble doesn't. I doubt this will be a huge hit.
While I usually ascribe to the methodology of one "KISS" (Keep It simple stupid), in this case I have to follow the opposite course of action. While the bubble video makes a really, really cool sound when you start and stop it, the lack of control is a major factor. KISS does not mean retract viable controls like stop and play, but gimmicky skins and unneeded extras. Then again, that "woosh" sound is really cool.
I love how you notice the sound effects on BubbleGuru and rank them as just as important as the feature itself!! I think that might be indicative of how large a role video games have played in your life . . . maybe??
I just get easily distracted.