Why did I create Vidmuster.com?

I use YouTube a lot. There are so many times I wished there was a way I could get more information about a particular video. I frequently went to Wikipedia or google to find out more about the video. Before I knew Lady Gaga, for instance, I would after watching “Alejandro” google why she sang the song and under what context. As I more frequently did this, I decided I could just create a website that sums all the information about a video and presents it easily to the user. That’s how vidmuster.com was born (mustering videos alongside information).

I created vidmuster.com mostly for educational reasons and absolutely not for any pecuniary reasons. The construction of the site served as a way to familiarize myself with various technologies including but not limited to: HTML5, CSS2 & 3, advanced JavaScript, advanced jQuery (and extensive use of plugins), including the creation of some custom jQuery plug-ins to power some features (like the Accordion video menu the user can use to manage his playlists).  It, furthermore, serves as a way for me (and others who are working on the site or who will work on the site in the future) to practice some software development & planning as we update/improve and even revamp the site; in the process we would, inadvertently, become pros. in our various fields able to face technological problems on the horizon. Ok, enough!

Succinct list of features on the Site:

• YouTube instant Search: This is not the main feature. It’s already been implemented by feross.
• News and Tweets instant Search parallel to YouTube instant search: The app. gets info about a video (the currently searched term) from freebase, google news, and twitter via their REST API’s.
• Playlist Management: I felt video playlist management goes hand in hand with video viewing because a user would want to, occasionally, save his searches and go back to it or share it.
• Sharing Videos: The user has to be logged in to share videos and/or play-lists. The user could share the videos (individual videos) on his/her play-list by clicking on the share button next to the video thumb in the play-list Accordion area. He or her could share videos with friends via Facebook, twitter, or google buzz.
• Sharing Playlists: The user could share whole play-lists by correspondingly sharing unique SEO-friendly urls via Facebook, twitter, or google buzz or just manually (as in copying and pasting in emails, in forums, while chatting, et al.)
• Facebook OAuth 2.0 (Authentication): The user is able to login via Facebook. Easy. Fast. Reliable enough. We only use your email to as does Facebook, uniquely identify the user. Nothing else. We don’t care about what friends you have. And we don’t plan to send you a confirmation email on registration.
• And other features I can’t readily remember or that is either not that important or somewhat inconspicuous.

How to use some Features

How to use the Instant Search Feature

To search for videos on the site. Just easily use the search bar. Use the links in the freebase, google news, and twitter links to refer back to the original full articles/tweets concerning the currently Searched term.

How to use the Playlists

A major part of the app lies in the playlist functionality. It enables the user save some videos for reference sake or that he wants to share with friends. Just drag and drop a thumb in the Search Trunk (each thumb represents a video) to a playlist you’ve made on the right of the Trunk. That’s it! It would be added to the specified playlist. Should you want to delete a video in the playlist, just press the button, delete. To add or delete whole playlists, use the Play-list lightbox. Click on the manage button on the header bar. You would see a lightbox in which you can add/delete/share playlists.

At the moment, there isn’t too much functionality. But we’re growing and would continue to maintain the site, adding more functionality with time and if necessary and useful, cleaning up any redundant features, beautifying the site, and securing it the more.

Please support this site by Visiting it. Here are some interesting things I found out about pop culture since I started using the site:

• Lady Gaga wore a meat dress (a lot of people already saw it; but I didn’t). Check it out now and see what others are tweeting about Lady gaga or her meat dress: Lady Gaga at Vidmuster.
• Eminem has a total of 13 Grammy awards and he is the first rapper to win best rap album for three consecutive LP’s.
• Rihanna is Barbadian. Maybe a lot of people already knew this but I didn’t.
• And many more introductory, fun, intriguing, and sometimes pesky news.

Thanks.