We’ve come across the latest in Slide’s series of projects developed within Google, VideoInbox – a combination daily newsletter/Facebook app that basically centers around the viewing, sharing and cataloguing of viral videos (proof that it’s from Slide here). Sign up for VideoInbox with Facebook Connect and you’ll get a daily email with “hand selected” viral YouTube videos like “Slow Loris With a Tiny Umbrella,” ”Rubik’s Cube Robot Is Smarter Than You” or “Bollywood Pizza Hut”.
Again exhibiting the autonomy we’ve now come to expect from the Google-owned Slide, the app uses, amazingly enough, the Facebook API to allow you to share videos with individual friends on Facebook or post them to your Facebook Wall. While the button is there its Twitter OAuth aspect seems to be not yet implemented. The app also allows you to watch the top 5 viral videos from yesterday, as well as “Favorite” videos for watching later.
While VideoInbox is still very “work in progress,” despite its rough design, it’s kind of delightful. I mean I am so lucky to have had the experience of “Accidental Convertible” added to my life, and yes, I just shared it with a Facebook friend that I thought might like it.
Slide has been super productive since Google acquired it for $182 million back in August, coming out with a series of iOS apps including Photovine, Pool Party and group messaging app Disco in recent months. Prizes.org, a Slide-backed platform which allows you to create contests for money, like Video Inbox, heavily implements Facebook Connect.
However it’s still unclear how Slide’s churn of products is contributing to Google’s overall ambitions and strategy. Also: Why aren’t they formally pitching the tech press with this stuff? Honestly, some of it is actually pretty cool. And it’s getting to the point where it hard to keep track of them all.
Slide, founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, makes widgets that help people express themselves. The company took a big risk in 2006 when they gave users the ability to auto-insert slide shows into their MySpace pages and blasting bulletins out to all their friends. They did this by asking users to hand over their MySpace credentials, and doing all the hard work for them. This is a clear violation of MySpace’s terms of service, though, and most people...
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