ShowDango Provides Webinar Indexing
Showdango is online with functionality to let visitors search, sort, and click through to upcoming webinars and webcasts. It's still in beta mode, and I usually try to wait on reviews until I know a site is completely stable and ready for prime time, but the site's creator gave me permission to write about it on my blog.
I figured it was a good time to give my impressions, since KillerStartups.com put up a mini review and I added a comment that spurred at least one angry response.
I'm all for the basic functionality offered by showdango (the branding is lowercase only). I have long been an outspoken proponent of the need for a centralized search portal for web seminars. I even created my own version as a side venture a few years ago, but it never blossomed and I let it expire with the hope that others would take up the concept and make a better go of it. Apparently CartoSoft had the same thought process and is trying the same technique of building the website as a "side project" (the comment on KillerStartups mentions this, so I don't think I'm giving away privileged information here).
Functionality is fairly basic at this stage. Event producers can register and then submit upcoming webinars to the listings database. Paid subscriptions are available that give providers a highlighted background and featured status in the listings. Visitors to the site don't have to log in... It works in the same way as most other specialized search engines. You can do a lookup based on keywords or you can choose to see listings in four labeled categories (Arts, Business & Marketing, Science, Technology) or the catch-all of "Other." You can also ask for events that have been posted recently or for events that are coming up within certain time periods (today, the next week, next month, next year).
Events are listed with a title, category, tags, short description text, date/time, and cost. Times are listed in whatever time zone the submitter used and there is no conversion function, so you need to do the math yourself. The title of the event links to whatever landing page the provider specifies... usually a registration page. There are also buttons to add the event as a calendar entry in Google Calendar or Outlook-compatible calendars with an ICAL entry. I am having a problem with version incompatibility on my computer... It won't open the ICAL appointment. This is apparently a known problem with certain implementations of Outlook and ICAL appointments, but I hadn't run across it before in my use of calendar appointments.
I'm a little disappointed by the cosmetics of the site. Hyperlinks lack visual cues to tell you what is clickable among the text items. For instance, it is not immediately apparent that you click on an event title to go to the event's landing page. And there are messages sprinkled throughout the site that say "click here to register" but only the word "here" is hyperlinked, even though it looks the same as the rest of the sentence. You end up moving your cursor around the screen, waiting to see when it changes from arrow to hand. I found the run-on nature of the listings a bit confusing at first -- Events are separated by a blank linefeed, which doesn't provide a lot of quick visual separation.
What got me in trouble in my comment on KillerStartups was my contention that the first thing your eye is drawn to on the site is big black boldface type at the upper left saying "The world's first webinar index." When I first corresponded with showdango's creator a little over a month ago, I pointed out that he was preceded by my attempt (a dead site, so not worth arguing about), EventSpan, Finervista, and Insight24. I have reported on each of those other indexing ventures in this blog. You will find recorded webcasts of mine on Insight24 (which concentrates on recorded content, usually in conjunction with paid services for client promotion and syndication). Finervista is primarily a web-crawler, looking for events automatically. I also do a lot of listings on EventSpan, which has the best set of features for my uses and interests. I mentioned some of them in my comment to show what showdango has to do to compete successfully in the space. For this, I was accused of selling out and writing a blatant sales pitch/PR blurb for EventSpan.
I'm going to veer off the subject of showdango for a moment to do a sidebar disclosure of my business relationship with EventSpan, just because it seems to be necessary and I have zero to hide. EventSpan is owned by Aperio Networks, which also owns Conferencing News and Webinar Wire. I edit and contribute to Webinar Wire. Should Webinar Wire ever turn into a profit center, I will make some money from it for my work. So far, it's a community service project. I sometimes get my stories or upcoming events featured on Conferencing News if they seem to be of value and interest to the conferencing community at large. That's a decision they make with no input from me. I have no association with, control over, or financial interest in EventSpan. I am a satisfied user and that's it.
That said, back to showdango. Just as there are many different generic web search engines, there is space for competing special-interest search engines. Each has to find its own niche and compete for business based on features, usefulness, attractiveness to its user base, and superiority over other offerings. Showdango is still in beta and may develop killer features that raise it above the crowd. But for now, that crowd needs to be acknowledged and I don't mind mentioning implementation comparisons and inaccurate marketing as I see them.
UPDATE, April 9: The fine folks at showdango responded quickly. They have changed the top of page tag line to "A pretty cool little webinar index". The prosecution withdraws its objections. Nice responsiveness and a fun sense of whimsy shown there!
EventSpan is a joke! As a leading webinar provider, we contacted EventSpan no fewer than 6 times to try and have events and speakers listed and never received a single reply. Not a single email or phone call came back from Eventspan. They act like an underfunded project done in someone's spare time.
Plus, most webinars are very focused and are targeted at a specific audience. Does an aggregator really bring any traffic to these webinars? I would love to see real facts about what traffic they drive. Right now they all seem like a place to find webinar prospects rather than an audience builder.
Posted by: Ray Harris | April 16, 2008 at 09:36 AM
Correction to my previous post:
I have been contacted by an anonymous editor at EventSpan demanding I retract my statement. Apparently they did not like being called a "joke". It also appears that, according to their records, my company only contacted them twice and not six times. While I stand by the six, I guess they are within their rights to state they only ignored our contacts twice and not six times.
I stand by my statement that we contacted them on numerous occasions and were never contacted back.
I do retract calling them a joke. There are more accurate words to describe a company who first ignores potential clients and then makes blog retraction and censorship demands to cover up their actions.
Posted by: Ray Harris | April 16, 2008 at 12:36 PM
To anyone following this, we think the actual communication below will set the record straight. For Ray Harris to say we're demanding a blog retraction and censorship "demands" is just a joke. Read our actual note - and apology for not contacting WebCastGroup back for what is an automated user-generated content service - below...
Hi,[Ray Harris]
We read your comments about EventSpan and us on the WSuccess blog. First off, we apologize for not responding to you, as there are some changes going on at EventSpan as you can read in the note below. Secondly, we request that you ask Ken to modify or withdraw the comments, for the reasons we outlined to him below. Thanks.
- CN Editors
This was the original note below:
Ken,
Contrary to what Mr. Harris says about contacting EventSpan "6 times" the number is actually 2 times that they requested us to contact them. The other times were to send messages to us, one of which was quite complimentary. Moreover, when Ray Harris contacted us once, as he did to you below [Harris rant note redacted], it's evident he was quite mistaken about what he was talking about. In addition to the odd, emotional rant, he's mistaken as to what site he was actually on. In other words, he blames EventSpan for a "landing page" that we don't control the content of and indicates we get revenue for things we don't get revenue for. We also find Ray Harris disparaging remarks about us and how we "act" to be both wrong and impolite.
We'd request that such an inappropriate comment be withdrawn or modified. Calling EventSpan a joke is no joke. We're not perfect and there are things happening in the next round of development (a changing business model) that have made us a bit unresponsive, but such ranting, particularly when one is mistaken, isn't good for anyone. ...And we're not going to sit back and be disparaged like that.
Posted by: Bonnie Belvedere | April 16, 2008 at 02:51 PM
The facts are simple.
1. We contacted EventSpan numerous times.
2. They never replied.
3. Their responses to my post was to try and bully and NEVER deal with the fact they acted in an incompetent manner.
4. They reply with an anonymous email. What do they have to hide?
How is stating the facts be interpreted as "disparaging". Stating they will "not going to sit back and be disparaged like that" is a direct threat!
This is old school business. A company is exposed for incompetence and to cover their incompetence they threaten the whistle blower.
Our industry has suffered enough from incompetent service providers without having people enter our space who hide their identities and don't perform what they promise.
EventSpan you need have a promising site with poor customer relations. Threatening one of the leading webinar providers is hardly the way to add content to your site.
Based on EventSPan"s incompetent actions, their attitude, anonymity and threats, we will NOT be listing our events with them and we will NOT be telling our clients about them.
There are other sites that offer the same service without the lack of real people, the threats and the incompetence so we will chose to align ourselves elsewhere.
Posted by: Ray Harris | April 17, 2008 at 10:30 AM