Pop in for a QWIKI… Review That is.

Happy Tuesday’s Eve readers! Congratulations on making it through yet another dreaded Monday.  Today on Oneupweb Reviews we are taking a look at the quirky new content sharing tool: Qwiki!

My Qwiki first impression? Not so favorable, thanks to some auto-generated Qwiki’s I found while poking around on Bing.  For example, just a few days ago, when you performed a search on Bing for, let’s say, yearbooks, a link to Wikipedia would appear and underneath that a link to “watch the Qwiki” about your search query. The user could then watch a short multimedia clip (Qwiki) showing them what a yearbook is without ever leaving the SERP.

This would be a pretty cool feature if it weren’t for the creepy robot voice and potential for inaccuracy within Wikipedia.  So, via Twitter, I asked Doug Imbruce (the CEO of Qwiki) how exactly these mystery Qwiki’s came to be.

He responded “[they are] auto-created by our API based on data from Wikipedia….”

You Don’t Say.

My response:  “@dougimbruce Ah. Is there a Qwiki for every listing on Wikipedia & if we update our Wikipedia will a new Qwiki be generated to reflect it?”

Irritatingly, I have yet to get an answer for this one, but I’m #RELENTLESS (as we all are at Oneupweb) and I’m going to get to the bottom of this.  For all of you SEO peeps out there — I tossed Mr. Imbruce this knuckleball as well: “@dougimbruce Also, what can you tell me about Qwiki’s impact on SEO? Curious and excited about the potential….”  And, once again nothing, but I remain (relentlessly) hopeful and dedicated to finding the answer.  I’ll keep you posted.

But – this brings you to my second impression, which is a little more fun and far lighter on the criticism.  After moving past my annoyance over the shoddy Wiki Qwiki’s, I went to the actual Qwiki site where I was pleasantly surprised and excitedly intrigued.  I had no idea I could actually create my own Qwiki!   Super!  I’m always a little apprehensive when I set out to learn a new social tool.  Each one is so different (and I tend to have a high degree of user error (doh)), but I was relieved to find the site very easy to use – there’s a straightforward interface and instructions that make sense!

I know you’re dying to see my Qwiki…patience, dear readers, patience. Here’s some notable things about Qwiki before I share my own:

1. Qwiki users can draw content from files on their computer, URL links, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, Map, Twitter, Instagram.

2. Content can be narrated by uploading an existing video, using a webcam or entering text which will be converted to speech via the built in Audio Generator (aka creepy robot).

3.  Timing of content can be programed to reflect narration.

4. Qwiki provides a decent list of songs which can be unloaded to accompany narration and multimedia content.

5.  Qwiki’s may be edited after publishing (a key feature if you ask me).

Okay, I know you’re all holding your breath so – without further ado – my (Sarah Peschel’s) Qwiki.  It’s ok if you laugh.  I did.