Google just made Vidista better

Google has recently been implementing a variety of updates to their services, including a new navigation bar at the top of its pages, a web history manager, "iGoogle," and others. For Vidista users, however, one of the most exciting new features may be the addition of thumbnail images for videos that appear in Google Search results. This seems to be part of Google's "move towards Universal Search," which is supposed to combine search results from a variety sources. Since you can use Vidista to search for results specifically from YouTube or Google Video, this new feature can help you quickly and efficiently find the videos you're looking for.

While this feature appears to still be in a trial mode, and may or may not appear for all users, I'm hoping that Google will adopt it as a standard feature.

Try out Vidista Video Search to find new videos to add to your Library.

What does an embedded channel look like?

Vidista not only lets you watch channels that you and others have created, it also lets you embed those videos into other websites and blogs. You can find the snippet of HTML code at the bottom right of the bottom panel once you've selected a channel. Simply copy and paste this snippet into the HTML of your site or blog. If you're using Blogger, for instance, you will need to click the "Edit HTML" tab while composing your post.

Here is what your channel will look like:

If you want to get even fancier, you can make your channel play automatically by editing the part of the snippet that says "auto=0" to "auto=1", and you can start the channel playing with a specific video by changing "index=0" to "index=n", where "n" is the index number of the video (starting from 0).

You could even design a whole website around your channel, and whenever you update the content of your channel in Vidista, your changes are automatically applied to the embedded channel on your site!

All Systems are Go!

Following AdBrite's approval to allow users to post their ads on Vidista, the website is now fully operational. I can't say it's going to be one big shebang launch, but hopefully I'll be able to convince a couple of folks to start using Vidista on a regular basis, and when they get it figured out they'll want to pass it along to their friends.

I've really tried to focus on building a site that users will want to stick with for a while. Once you get the hang of it, Vidista can really suck you in! I've been working on fixing bugs and polishing privacy statements for the last month, but I've often gotten totally distracted just watching my own video collection. I can't wait to see how Vidista evolves as more users start adding their own content and creating channels.

So, if you're just getting started with Vidista (which includes pretty much everyone), welcome aboard, and enjoy the show! I think you're going to like it.

What I'm watching right now:
Funny Skits