August 6, 2008
Clearspring, a Virginia-based startup, offers a number of widget solutions for publishers and advertisers. I got to catchup with Clearspring Community Manager and genunine good guy, Justin Thorp as he "tells all" about the widget making startup. Is Clearspring soon to be acquired? Watch the video and maybe you will find out.
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Sphere ItFiled under Acquisition Advertising Business Clearspring Content Internet Somewhat Frank SOMEWHAT FRANK TV SomewhatFrank SomewhatFrank.com Washington, DC Web 2.0 Widgets
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Hi Frank:
I'm using ClearSpring on a project and wanted to clarify something Justin said (no slight to Justin; hard to be nuanced in a quick ad-hoc interview.) Justin said you can use "everything from flash, html, javascript & images" in a widget. While that is in general tru, there are many destinations that they can only support with Flash. So, for example, if people want to be able to place their widget on Facebook or MySpace well, there'll be no html and javascript for them; only Flash and images will do!
While that limitation is imposed by Facebook and MySpace and not ClearSpring it nonetheless is a significant limitation when one submits a bid to a build the Widget in HTML+Javascript and has that bid accepted only to find out that ClearSpring doesn't support HTML+Javascript in Facebook and MySpace which were definite client requirements. Flash was the only way and was quite a shock for this consultant who did not yet know Flash or even own a copy.
That said, this consultant ended up learning Flash (actually learning Flex.) OTOH I've definitely acquired two new skills that my clients find valuable; programming Flex and building widgets with ClearSpring. (BTW, while ClearSpring supports Flash very well it does not (yet) support Flex nearly as well which is really too bad because Flex is so much more flexible and easier to develop in.)
-Mike Schinkel
P.S. What event were you at?
Posted by: Mike Schinkel | Thursday, August 07, 2008 at 02:29 AM
Mike, thanks so much for the comment. You're a valuable member of the Clearspring developer community and have provided invaluable feedback which will help with the improvement of our products.
The event was Graphing Social Patterns East in Washington, DC. Clearspring had a booth.
Frank, Mike is correct. We do support Flash, HTML, JavaScript, and Image widgets but there are limitations based on what file type you choose. We typically encourage our users to develop in Flash because it has the greatest level of support.
Here is a chart which breaks down the different destinations that we support and what types of widget they support.
http://www.clearspring.com/docs/tech/distribution/destinations
We are working to make sure that we inform our users as much as possible about the potential limitations around making different development choices. It's an ever evolving process and we continue to look to how we can make the process as easy as possible.
That being said, we are always looking for feedback about how we can make things even easier. All are welcome to drop me an e-mail at any time - justin@clearspring.com
Posted by: Justin Thorp | Thursday, August 07, 2008 at 09:35 AM