Tool of the week: Thinglink
What is it? A tool to allow you to add rich media, such as YouTube videos, SoundCloud recordings and Wikipedia entries to photographs.
How is it of use to journalists? Take a look this poster on NME.com and you will see a fantastic example of how a photo can be annotated with rich media.
Thinglink currently allows you to link to: video (YouTube, Vimeo, Ted); music and audio (Spotify, SoundCloud and iTunes); photos (Flickr, Instagram, Imgur); live music artists (Thrillcall); social media (Facebook pages, Twitter); plus Wikipedia, any event on the Eventbrite, products on Etsy, and almost anything sold on Amazon. You can also embed images.
(The below image is a screengrab and not interactive. Follow the link to see how the photo displays video, audio and more.)
Here is a quick test I did using a Telegraph logo, adding a tweet, a link to the newspaper’s Facebook page and the Wikipedia entry for the title.
The base service is free, however upgrading to a Plus or Pro plan gives you improved statistics, more uploaded images, and the ability to turn your Thinglinked images into Facebook tabs.
This tool was recommended by Luke Lewis, editor of NME.com. To recommend a journalism tool email me using this link.
16:52 Friday 27 April 2012: Updated to correct our assertion that a paid upgrade is required to embed pictures.
Hi!
Thanks for the review. Just a small correction: images may be embedded already at the free tier. Paid plans bring you improved statistics, more uploaded images, and the ability to turn your Thinglinked images into Facebook tabs.
/Janne, CTO, Thinglink.
Thank you for a great post and we must say we love the attention we’re receiving from journalists.
I wanted to highlight that ThingLink offers embedding and basically all features free of charge. Upgrading to a Plus or Pro plan gives you more ( branding free) ThingLink functionality for your Facebook Pages.
We’ve also created a handy presentation of all our Rich Media Image Tags – http://www.slideshare.net/ThingLink/thinglink-rich-media-tags
Best wishes
Jonas Forth
Creative Director
ThingLink
Thinglink is changing the way it operates to basically screw its free users. The icons are being moved and changed. This will screw previous images and make future ones pointless. It’s ok though – you can sign up for there $250 per month account. They are just totally unrealistic prices. I will simply go elsewhere or code my own.