What would make Apture better?
I recently started taking Apture for a test drive. I twittered a comment on it stating that I liked it but thought it would likely be a lot of work. Apparently, Theresa at Apture monitors twitters as she dropped me a comment on my blog that asked...
I saw your status message on twitter, actually. Was it as time consuming/difficult as you thought? How could we make it simpler?
Here is my response. Yes it is as time consuming as I thought. More on that in a bit. First how it could be made simpler. I realize this is a Beta product and Apture is understandably working on getting this out the door in the most agnostic way possible but since you asked.
- I was going to begin with stating that the complete list of FAQ questions should actually have content behind the FAQ. The day I went to install and start using Apture about half the FAQ links were not hyperlinked to anywhere and I was really interested in the one such as 'Is there an Apture API?' I just checked again and now it seems most of the links actually hook you to an answer of some sort though 'Is there an Apture API?' just comes up and tells me "Coming soon...". Out of context the reader may assume that means the API is coming soon but I think it means the answer is coming soon as others questions had the same response.
- More clearly state how to create the Apture links. The assumption in the docs is that everyone is using a web browser to generate their posts and thus indicates like 'Just hit 'e' to edit an Apture link'. Hit 'e' where? I'm a pretty technical guy, aging but technical, and it took me a while to figure out that I had to go out to the page after I published and start doing round two of markup to really use the tool. I knew I couldn't hit 'e' inside Windows Live Writer but couldn't figure out where the heck I made these entries. It was very much unclear. I spent a half hour, I assume, puttering around inside the Apture site trying to find a control panel or better explanation of what to do. Nowhere was there a darn screen shot that I could find of actually doing the markup. Only of the results.
- THIS IS A BIG ONE--- I must be able to title the content I embed inside Apture. I added an MP3 file from .NET Rocks (with permission from .NET Rocks) but as you can see from the screen shot below it shows the physical name of the file on the little blowout window. That means nothing to me much less the casual visitor. There was no way I could find to title the entry. I could add some text description but that is not what shows in the blowout. I need to be able to title the content.
4. I want to put in a URL that is not searched for media but would simply be a snapshot of the page and link to it. I want an image of that page more like snap.com would give me, but of course without you violating someone's patent. I don't like seeing something like the below to link to a blog or other non media URL. If I am going to have the Apture do-hickey come up I want it to contain nicely formatted links to all the content for that link. See below for what I get now pointing to a blog. I don't like it but can live with it for now.
5. As I mentioned this is a beta but you did ask and you did ask me what I wanted and this is what I want. I want a tie in to Windows Live Writer so that to use Apture I don't have to edit my page twice. Once in Live Writer then post it and mark it up with Apture.
6. Auto links are not enough. I surely hope that part of the goal is context driven media with more insight than just a Google search but that if I link certain videos to a word or phrase you take notice and the next person that does so sees what others have linked to for the same word of phrase. I don't want to reinvent the wheel each time. The feedback loop is important. Just as important, once I link to a phrase for my account if I add that phrase elsewhere in the future and mark it for linkage I want all the content I have ever linked to for that phrase to be included by default- again I don't want to have to generate connections all over again. Perhaps this latter comment happens already- I honestly haven't tried. UPDATE*** I just tried this after posting and here is what I got. What a relief! It's not everything but better than I thought.
7. In line with #6 I want to be able to include some content and mark it is held. To be attached permanently to the link but for other content to be dynamically changing so that more high ranking links to content for the same phrase could displace some content that exists.
8. Along with 6 and 7 I want to lay claim (such as with a concept like Claimspace) to my identity and thus provide an official multi-media set of link recommendations for people that may be linking to me. So they get recommended recent and valid context for my name, blog, website etc.
9. DID I MENTION? Yes, but it is worth mentioning again-- I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO MARK UP MY PAGE TWICE AND WANT AN EASY PLUG IN ARCHITECTURE. Or at least a Live Writer plug in or API so I can hook it into Live Writer myself.
10. I don't want the response to all these requests to be. 'We plan to do that.' Don't talk to me about it just do that parts you will do in the time you can do them. These are only suggestions after all. I'm not a patient person and lose interest quickly in things not returning value. Not directed at you but more of a general musing-- I wonder how many times a day I must say "I don't want to talk about it anymore. We can either talk about it or we can do it. Let's just go do a part of it and discuss the results"
11. Look at all of the above screen shots. Nowhere can I find a means to allow the reader to click a link or button and get a set of results for a query on content for the same phrase (such as Mike Azocar-- I put this in only to test a feature of Apture) I am linked to. I don't want to link to the world but I'd like to have the world readily available to the user. They should see be able to click through to a search results screen just as I do when adding content. Maybe they can but I don't see it as an intuitive option on any of the above images. For those not using the tool. This is what I see when I click 'Add Related Media'
Why Do I not see even all the video content I linked to. Did you learn nothing when I linked Mike's name to two videos. You don't show but one of the two. You should have captured that contextual relationship and next time anyone looks up Mike they would at least find everything I linked to. I don't even see everything I linked to. Oddly- I have come to find out but I am not sure how it is that I can get stuff I linked to in some scenarios and not in others(see earlier comments in bold).
12. When I search for media I want to not have to go to another window to do a REAL search engine search and bring back the results. Let me search right inside the Media Hub window on any of the major search engines for content. For those of us doing more than just showing videos of Lonely Girl 15 (btw... I just decorated the prior link with the autolink class... let's see how it works when I publish) or a cat playing with string we will often not find our content on YouTube.
I could go on. All in all I really like the premise and the look. I do hope that it becomes less burdensome and more contextually valid based on applying the contextual relationships all the users create. I think it looks smart but I am not certain if enough 'real' people have used the software. It seems evidenced from the very limited search function that this has not been put through its paces enough with day to day users. I expect that will come. I just hope you have some kick ass database guys and smart folks to make the contextual linking be what I would want it to be if I were building the tool.
To others, not Theresa, try out Apture. If not for you then for me. I want your contextual connections to content. BTW... Theresa, I want microformats and semantics.