Another Timeline Tool: Dipity TimeTube

By Raj DashForum

Last month, I wrote about various timeline tools and how they’re a great way to present temporally-based information. I’ve been using SIMILE Timeline and MyTimeline for a number of projects. (MyTimeline is built on SIMILE Timeline.) Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to embed videos into the timeline events in SIMILE Timeline.

Now there’s TimeTube from Dipity [via NewTeeVee], which is all about presenting videos on a timeline. Enter in keywords, click the Build TubeLine button, and you’ll get back an interactive timeline, aka a TubeLine, of YouTube videos tagged with your keywords.

TimeTube TubeLines have a very interesting presentation, which you can embed on a page, but there’s no refined control over it. For example, here’s a TubeLine for Saturday Night Live videos on YouTube:


You can actually link to specific events in the timeline – something you can’t do with SIMILE Timeline. However, what I’m really looking to do is to present a timeline of all the SNL cast members since 1975, with a select video – if available – of each member. So for getting finer control, I’m sticking with SIMILE Timeline. I just wish I could figure out how to embed videos in its events.

5 thoughts on “Another Timeline Tool: Dipity TimeTube”

  1. Follow-Up: Inspiration: Dynamic (Company) website content with live UGC or CGC timeline

    I’ll show you a great live example for a product timeline

    Out of fun (because I am a fan) I have added a nice product timeline for Gorillapod mini-tripods using a mashup of UGC and CGC. As I have not the rights to post script code I can only recommend to follow the link at the bottom of this article. Search performancing.com for Gorillapod to see about which product I am talking about.

    Check the live example and you can see how you can add great dynamic content for your content niche or to (company) websites (More…)

  2. Markus: It looks very interesting on your site. In fact, it suddenly made me realize that you could set up a Twitter alternative if you’re generating a stream of event information. The timeline could display rich media into each ‘message’.

  3. I played around with dipity.com and created two timelines as a test. The comments on the one timeline I am using to note ‘Dipity live’ bug reports and feature requests (until I find to commit to the support system). Check it out; I am combining a Hamburg blog feed and my related del.icio.us Hamburg tags.

    Resume: Usable but not really finished

    Tipp: It looks like TimeTube is adding user generated timelines automatically to the Dipity database as user ‘Time T.’. So if you have content to promote go ahead.

    Dislike: Check the license part for intellectual property. For some people Dipity might take a little bit too much.

  4. Zack: Thanks for the tips. That clears up a lot. Looking forwards to playing with TimeTube more.

  5. Hi Raj! Thanks for the nice words about Dipity.

    TimeTube is intended as a YouTube mashup/viewer. If you want to create a timeline about _anything_ else, then visit Dipity.com, register for an account (30 seconds), and click “Create Timeline”. You can build a timeline with any information you want, including YouTube videos.

    Thanks again!
    -zs

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