Alle Artikel der Kategorie Innovation
Small Adjustment for External Videos
Our developers have added a little extra to our “Embed Object” video codes. Effective now, it is possible to activate the full screen mode for the external player without having to use JavaScript. PlugIn developers should pay particular attendtion to the embed line to see how the parameters for the allowfullscreen=”true” have been modified:
<object width="500" height="403">
<param name="FlashVars" value="slxml=en.sevenload.com"/>
<param name="movie" value="http://en.sevenload.com/pl/WBcAJcy/500x403/swf" />
<embed src="http://en.sevenload.com/pl/WBcAJcy/500x403/swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500" height="403" allowfullscreen="true" FlashVars="apiHost=api.sevenload.com"></embed>
</object>
Of course, the external flash player will also work without this additional parameter function and it also will continue to have the full screen mode option- and the player’s range of functions through embedding via JavaScript will remain unchanged by this little modification. 
New RSS Feeds
This topic might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but we felt it was necessary to bring up in the context of enhancing our support of Web 2.0 features- that’s why we decided to integrate this new feature onto sevenload:
As a response to requests from several sevenloaders, we’ve decided to “pimp” the RSS Feeds on sevenload.
Under the section “My sevenload” you’ll find a large selection of general and also personalized RSS Feeds that can provide you with the information you want to have. The adjacent screenshot with its numerous options speaks for itself.
Don’t forget that the RSS Feeds always refer to the current page on sevenload: on a photo page for example only the RSS Feed for the comments of each of the respective photos will be displayed in the central option menu for the RSS Feeds.
Our developers and designers have also incorporated a graphic with the famous RSS icon for every functional box in the lower corner, so that when required the information from the box can also be conveniently viewed in the feed reader– as shown in the screenshot below.
Alongside the RSS Feed we have also integrated an RSS Feed corresponding to the new episodes of the specials on every sevenload channel, e.g. sevenload TV. This makes it possible to compile exactly what you personally want to see on sevenload from the large selection of feeds in combination with the new RSS Feeds.
We would be delighted to include your ideas and wishes in our to-do list– send us an E-mail or make a comment here in the Blog. We will be starting to work hard on developing the features as soon as time allows! 
Update: the individual RSS feeds for the Channels will possibly be adjusted afterwards. However, this should pose minimal problems for the users. We’ll keep you updated!
About the Search Function…
sevenload’s search function is a vital feature that sevenloaders need in order to have a good overview of the surplus of photots/videos on sevenload. It’s already possible to combine more than one word/term with another. In order to really filter out the best search results it’s often necessary to use not just one search term, but rather a combination of at least two.
I’m going to use an example from the Web 2.0 scene, BarCamp Hamburg, as a means of demonstrating the various possibilites for searches which can be done on sevenload- and what sort of results they return:
- A search for “barcamp” only, produces an immense amount of results in which the word barcamp is used as a tag for the photos and videos. Sorting the results by date is a helpful way to see what the newest uploaded photos/videos are.
- If you’re looking for a particular BarCamp, such as the BarCamp Frankfurt or Hamburg, would usually enter “barcamp frankfurt”. The results for such a search is a mix of the tags “barcamp” and “frankfurt”- however, a real mix of the two words will not be generated.
- A search for “+barcamp +hamburg” reduces the results to a minimum number of photos and videos which are linked to both tags.
- Likewise, it’s possible to use an asterisk (”*” – the star) in order to receive so-called “wildcard” results for the search. For example, a search for “*camp*” will return results with photos/videos taged with things such as “barcamp”- basically words with the word camp included in them.
It’s possible that some of the functionality of our searches were not easily/well understood by some users. Therefore, we have decided to continue to work on optimizing sevenload’s search functions because it’s really important to us that sevenloader’s not only understand our features, but that they find them useful. Community feedback is therefore also very important to us (as it always has been) for us to better enhance the site.
Blog Launch: German sevenload Community Blog
That’s right folks! If you’re interested in the German sevenload Blog, we’ve got a new goody for you! There’s now an official/separate German language Community Blog! *For those of you bi-linguals out there, this could be something really interesting for you…
More Info about coComment on sevenload
A few weeks ago, we were able to integrate coComment on sevenload. Due to technical reasons, we have decided to adjust coComments integration for sevenload users.
Effective immediately, coComment will be deactivated for sevenload users as a standard- this does not mean however, that the service will no longer be available on sevenload. On the contrary, whoever wants to actively use coComment on sevenload simply has to go to the “My sevenload” section of their account and activate coComment (which is found under Communications Options)- or of course, de-activate it again. Any other future changes that are made to coComment’s accessability on sevenload will be discussed here on the Blog. We already gave a brief introduction/explanation of coComment in this Blog entry.
Tip: Tagging Photos and Videos
Tonight, I’m going to give the sevenload Community something to read. A lot of users have been asking about how to properly tag photos and videos lately. Tags are the search terms and keywords with which you can “collaboratively index” your photos and videos in the sevenload Community. The search function on sevenload can only be optimally used by other users when well selected and relevant tags are used.
Your photos and videos can only be found on sevenload when they are linked with tags. Tags may be added to photos/videos even while they are uploading. In addition to serving a search function, tags also help describe the photo/video in a way that doesn’t always show up in the title. But it’s actually such tagged “moments” in a video for example, that make it catch a user’s attention. *Something important to note here: this is why it is so important to properly and relevantly make tags for the actual contents. Irrelevant or biased keywords such as “sexy”, “women” or “funny” are not reletive to a photo of a white beach and though it might make the user happy to have some many views of their pics it is actually tag misuse and is misleading to the other users searching for particular contents.
Whoever misuses tags (and let alone doesn’t tag at all) makes their photos and videos difficult to find for their friends and other users. Your content viewers could quickly lose interest in viewing your photos/videos when they discover that the actual contents of your works are not as they were described. A beautiful landscape photo can be something truly moving, but when such as photo is tagged with “funny“, well it just doesn’t fit. In fact, in some cases, our Support Team will delete such misused tags for you- and sometimes, in more extreme circumstances, they might write you a warning about misusing tags.
However, correctly tagging is the best way to share your photos/videos with other users and for the whole world to be able to find them. Because of this, sevenload has made it possible for any user to add tags to a photo/video- however, the photo/video’s user has the ability to delete any other users tags at any time. sevenload’s large Community is all about togetherness and we are always happy to see new results pop up in search results- sometimes tagged by the user themselves and sometimes by their fellow user.
P.S.: You can find further information about tags on Wikipedia (here too).
New Friends? New RSS-Feeds
Another new feature? Our team has once again tackled sevenload’s usabilty for enhancements.
As of today, registered users are able to subscribe to RSS Feeds from all of their friends on sevenload. Feeds are available for all new photos and videos from your friends or you can subscribe to just photos or videos from your friends. If you’re already subscribed to sevenload’s RSS Feeds, you can also easily add these new feeds which are available when you are on the “My sevenload” page.
coComment: Track Comments on sevenload
For quite some time now, we’ve offered our users the chance to follow what’s going on for all comments made on their photos/videos on the “What’s New?” page.
As a small addition to this (to add a bit more Web 2.0ness to sevenload) we’ve decided to integrate coComment onto sevenload. coComment allows users to track not only their own comments being made, but also those by others (made on other users photos/videos).coComment makes it possible for people to follow various comments made on websites, blogs and forums (even those that are already months old).
For most users, this feature is not something that is an absolute must-have, but we hope that it will prove to be both a handy and welcome tool addition for both bloggers and non-bloggers alike.
How does coComment work on sevenload?
The easiest method of properly using coComment on sevenload is to create a user acocunt on coComment and then install the extension or plugin (for example, for Firefox). But, simply signing up with coComment does not mean that it will automatically work on sevenload, but rather insured that you have access to coComment and also that it is compatible with your internet browser. In order to it to work on sevenload, go to your account settings and under notifications. Under Communications Options you will see the option to use coComment. After selecting yes and saving the changes, you will be able to track comments made on any photos/videos by checking off the “Track this Conversation” button (which is found just below the comment box for the corresponding photo/video). After that, you may look at the overview of all tracked comments on coComment itself.
Conclusion
If you are already using coComment on other blogs and forums should already have an idea of what it should be like on sevenload. If you are not yet familiar with coComment it might help to take a look at their getting started section. Adding coComment is surely a good addition in supporting more Web 2.0 features on sevenload.
Tip: Sorting Search Results
We’ve made our search results even better! You can now customize the way search results are displayed (for example “sevenload“). This includes all of the following criteria:
- upload date
- best rated
- most comments
- most views
In order to change the way search results are displyed, simply cllick on the corresponding “Sort” button – as shown in the above screenshot. We feel that this feature allows users (in particular our “power users”) to conduct searches more easily. Have fun hunting!
sevenload Trailer: Beta Version
As Ibo already mentioned, the sevenload team, in particular Phillip, really put a lot in taking the sevenload Trailer out of the Alpha and putting it into the new, longer Beta Version. The result speaks for itself.
Link: sevenload.com
