Something New to Play With: CircaVie Photo Timelines

Hi folks -- got a couple of entries in the hopper. Right now, though, I'm just testing a new AOL product that just launched yesterday -- it's called circaVie, and it's a way to do photo timelines (the "times of your life").

It'll probably be easier if I just show you -- we made sure it was added to the Journals whitelist of sites we allow embedded objects and Javascript code from, so you can embed it into your Journal:


This one is a quick and dirty test timeline that I made, using photos that I'd taken on campus (and that you've seen before) over the course of the year so far.

It uses Flash, and it's another kind of photo album option for you. What you do is:

1. Go to the circaVie site, sign in (you can use your screen name), and hit "Create a timeline."

2. Add photos to the timeline (specify the title, date, description and tags, then upload the photo from your computer, or if it's already online, the URL)

3. Hit "Embed this timeline" to get the embeddable code, which you can then copy-and-paste into the HTML view of your Journals entry.

I will do a full tutorial when I get the chance, though it may not be necessary -- someone named "Demo Girl" did a circaVie tutorial screencast (a screencast is a video of what's on your screen, usually with a voiceover talking you through it).

Please note that circaVie is a public beta (like most releases these days); I'm still playing around (I can't get my timeline title to stick, which is why it still says, "Give your timeline a name." -- not sure if this is a bug or user error. [Update: Most likely user-error -- just hit the enter key to save your timeline title, though I guess they'll be looking for a way to expose a "Save" button."])

Anyway, play around and let me know what you think.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol journals, circavie, photo timelines