Why Catch Popfly? « Beyond the One Way Web: From Publishing to Participation

Why Catch Popfly?

Microsoft Popfly is a set of visual tools that can be used to build everything from web pages to mashups and can even manipulate information that is already being broadcasted throughout the web through services such as RSS feeds. These tools allow the user to pull all sorts of information, ranging from pictures to videogame scores to any type of information that is distributed via RSS and then incorporate this data into a variety of applications which can then be embedded in any web page you wish.

The true beauty of Popfly is the power that it gives the user to embed any type of creation from slideshows, to games, to videos anywhere that the user wishes and has access. Perhaps even more importantly, this can be accomplished with little or no additional coding by the user. This allows anyone to take advantage of the powerful tools in Popfly, rather than just the experienced web developer and programmers.

My favorite application was the “Whack-a-mole” game. Ever since my first visit to Chuck E. Cheese’s as a child, I have had a prolonged love affair with beat the heck out of anything that pops out of a hole (permitting I have my trusty over-sized mallet within reach). This game can be embedded anywhere, including facebook. It consists of a set of holes and provides the user with control of a mallet. The caveat is that the user is not rushing to hit moles that are popping out randomly from these holes. Instead, the moles have been replaced with a predetermined set of pictures! This provides a subtle and fun way to entertain the user as well as transmit a little underlying propaganda against whatever subject the pictures may contain.

-Brian D.

See Popfly Here!