posted on Friday, May 02, 2008 7:57 AM
by
PetePrestipino
SproutBuilder In Review
An Interactive Application Maker for Everyoneby Pete Prestipino
The transition from the static Web to one rich in interactive multimedia has
been swift and significant. There are hundreds of sites that give website owners
and marketers the tools necessary to include functionality to improve the
experience of their users. Take YouTube for example, which enables anyone to
share videos with others and even integrate them into a website.
Leveraging video and audio and making this content interactive gives websites a
significant edge. Realizing this shift is important and understanding how to
incorporate interactivity on your own site through applications is essential to
your success. This is why SproutBuilder, a solution dedicated to help anyone add
rich, sophisticated and yes, interactive multimedia Web content, is such an
important resource in the Web landscape.
Building Sprouts
SproutBuilder provides dozens of pre-built templates and even offers users the
ability to start from scratch. Drag-and-drop shapes, text, images, video, and
include components such as slideshows, jukeboxes, and countdown clocks, even
interactive services such as chat (Meebo), phone (Ribbit), and fundraising (ChipIn).
Publishing Sprouts
Publishing your “sprouts” couldn’t be easier. Cut and paste sprout code into a
Web page or use the “quick post” feature to place the freshly-built application
into blogs and social networking sites. Sproutbuilder even allows for publishing
on its distribution partners, including Clearspring, Gigya, and Spring Widgets.
Sprouts Are Viral
The beauty of Sproutbuilder is that these applications have a tendency to go
viral quickly. Site visitors can spread the application to their own Web pages
and into other communities, providing an evangelical force for your creations.
Sprout builders can also track usage stats, such as number of copies made,
number of times a sprout was viewed and more.
SproutBuilder in Action
There is no better way to see the power of SproutBuilder than to throw caution
to the wind and create your own. Website Magazine has done just that. In an
effort to promote our Replace A Tree
Foundation (ReplaceATree.org), our staff has created a SproutBuilder widget
(based on one of the examples provided by SproutBuilder) that promotes
forest conservation and accepts donations through PayPal. You can see an image
below of that Sprout and in action at
www.WebsiteMagazine.com.
