CoverItLive
Rating: 
Paul Bradshaw looks at CoverItLive
What do they say it is?
“CoveritLive’s web based software takes your next live blog to a new level. Your commentary publishes in real time like an instant message. Our ‘one-click’ publishing lets you drop polls, videos, pictures, ads and audio clips as soon as they come to mind. Comments and questions from your readers instantly appear but you control what gets published. Try our software for your next live blog. Your readers will love it.”
What do I say it is?
A Twitter-meets-chatroom-meets-poll that you can embed on your site.
What’s great about it?
The combination of different technologies makes for a compelling mix. In particular the comments feature transforms into a chatroom of sorts. Using this to cover JEEcamp I found users were chatting to each other about the event they were following, creating a second level of coverage and discussion. It also enables multiple author coverage (we had four authors posting on separate laptops simultaneously), and more easy and flexible embedding than Twitter. The polls are a nice touch which also enables more dialogue with ‘viewers’, and you can embed video and images.
What could be better?
They are working on searchability, apparently, and have already made it possible to export onto your own site. It has also crashed previously, while embedding may not be simple for everyone (it worked on a Wordpress-hosted site). Tagging and geotagging could be added. Adding images and video could be easier - integration with a live video service such as Qik would make this incredible.
How is it going to make money?
Once they have a foothold, advertising is an obvious option. But more promising would be a ‘freemium’ model where users can pay for extra features. Most likely we’ll see a combination, with the paid-for version being ad-free as well.
Should I pay it any attention?
Very much so. Publishers will find this incredibly useful in covering live events. Entrepreneurs should pay attention to what looks like a potential profit-maker.
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1 comment March 26th, 2008