Demo Girl

ProductPlanner gives anyone with a Web service the ability to create easy to follow flow guides demonstrating anything from how to sign up for an account to how to invite friends to a service.

You start off by naming the flow, such as, “How to sign up for a Twitter account”.  Then you can add other titles such as the product name and what type of site it’s for.  Next add the steps that you want to show your user in the flow.  There is a list of pre-defined steps and you can fully customize them with your own titles and images from your own site.  I want to point out that I did find it difficult to figure out just how to customize a flow step, so that may be something they want to make more apparent.

You can choose to share your flows with a URL, which can be password protected, and get the embed code so you can use it on your site.  You can also comment on public flows listed in the gallery and save them to your favorites.  If you have a service and you want a quick and easy way to create a basic tutorial for your users, then I would definitely give ProductPlanner a look.  To see ProductPlanner in action, watch the screencast below:

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Click Here To Watch Better Quality 3m1s

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, so I just wanted to give you a brief update to let you know what I’ve been doing and what the future holds for DemoGirl.

As you may have noticed, there aren’t any ads on DemoGirl (can’t promise that won’t change) and we don’t charge for the screencasts that I create and post here.  The way we monetize DemoGirl is by creating custom screencasts for various Web companies.  On the custom side of things, it’s been a very good month!  Unfortunately, that also means a not-so-good month for posting to DemoGirl.  I would love to live in a world where making money was just a perk and not a necessity, but it just doesn’t work that way.  The great thing is that I still get to do something I love, but it takes away from doing another thing I love – creating screencasts for this site.

With that said, I’m finally getting all caught up and should have some new content for you soon.  Thank you to everyone who is still sending me sites to screencast, keep ‘em coming.  Also, if you create screencasts, I would love to share them here.  I can’t compensate you financially but I have a pretty great bunch of readers that would love to see your stuff.  Drop me a note at molly at vpop dot net.

KwiClick is a Firefox Add-on that allows you to perform searches and look up information without having to leave the page you’re on.  It’s currently an experimental Add-on, so keep that in mind if you’re planning on testing it out.

After you install it, you’ll see the KwiClick favicon in the lower right corner of your browser window.  When you click on it, it will pop open a window where you can perform searches on Google, Google Maps, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, Technorati, Amazon, Delicious, and Friendfeed.

Besides doing searches, KwiClick will also come in handy when you’re on a site that contains Flickr photos or YouTube videos.  You’ll see a set of icons on top of the photo or video that allows you to view the contents in the KwiClick window.  You can also view related photos or video, view comments, and share the media via email or on various social networking sites.  All of this takes place in the pop out window so you never need to leave the site.

I would like to see some more features added like the ability to search for restaurant reviews on Yelp, listings on Craigslist, news stories, and the ability to do a Twitter search.  With that said, KwiClick is in the experimental stage and will most likely be releasing features I didn’t cover in this screencast.  To see KwiClick in action, watch the screencast below:

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Click Here To Watch Better Quality 2m51s

[via Go2Web20 Blog]