Slideshare launched a new product feature last week, Zipcast. Just going through their product demo I could make out how it solves a few of my problems. Quite excited by their features I thought I should share with you. I would be talking about the benefits I can see as an end user. However, I have put the video where the slideshare team, headed by Rashmi Sinha, explains all the Zipcast features and future enhancements.
Coming to the end user benefits straightaway:
1. I often attend webinars and for the same reason each time I had to download a software as not all people use the same application. Sometimes a Citrix software, next time some other software, and most of those software are supported only on Windows! I never understand WHY! So, at home, where I use my Linux machine, I wasn’t able to attend the webinar. Zipcast solves that problem – it works in the browser, no application download required. No dependency on Windows or Linux. Sounds perfect isn’t it.
Yeah, there is that small catch – it works on Flash and if you are an Apple fan – you wouldn’t be able to use it, at least as of now. As Rashmi says, they would soon build on it.
2. Situation : You are expecting an important mail. So you keep an eye on the tab in which you’ve opened gmail. I can see the number of unread messages in my tab header and don’t need to scroll back and forth between the mail and the other tab in which i was working. But while attending the webinar, that was gone. I had to switch between my browser and the application to check my mails. With this application, that headache is gone. I can attend the conference/webinar and keep a tab on my mails as well. Too good, loved the idea that everything works simply in the browser!
3. How many times does it happen that the webinar becomes boring? Or how many times have you felt during the webinar that
I wish I could see all the slides and see if there’s really something useful for me or I should go ahead with my work?
Well, to me it has happened a few times where I am on a tight schedule and have to take a call whether to attend the webinar or go ahead with my work. Most of the times, when I know the presentation will not be available later on, I stick around for the entire duration of the webinar. And yes, a few times it has happened that I find out in the end, I made a mistake by sticking around. Zipcast brings relief from such a situation. Yes, you can scroll through the entire presentation even when the presenter is talking about slide 1. Happy to see this feature, as you don’t need to wait till the end and then wish that you’d seen the presentation earlier! Awesome feature.
4. If you are a techie or on less ram and care about memory usage all the time. This will keep you happy as no separate application running means less memory utilization for you 
5. The most important thing – its FREE! And you can make your presentation private or public too!
Lots of other features as well, go through the video posted above to know them all. Am sure i have not thought about a lot of points so why not you share with me what feature did you find interesting and/or useful for you.
