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October 11, 2005
CNET news visualizer
CNET news visualizer: This data-fed SWF example got passed around the office here today. I'm not sure when it went live. It apparently looks into CNET's news resources and constructs a live changing graph, linking selected articles, the topics which contain them, and the companies mentioned in the articles. The interface provides a way to drill down into CNET's large resources of tech reporting. I'm not sure of the mechanics... the SWF is written dynamically into the page via JavaScript, and the GetBigPic() function seems to be the main SWFfy part. Anyone else have observations on how this piece is put together...?
Posted by John Dowdell at October 11, 2005 11:47 AM
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Comments
It looks straight out of the book "Flash MX Application & Interface Design". It's most likely the same dynamic XML data they use for their RSS feeds, and just married it into this interface. Just a guess though.
Aside from that - WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?? This gets a "F" for usablility in my book. Goes back to the adage that "just becuase you CAN build something, doesn't mean you should".
Posted by: MKmultimedia at October 11, 2005 12:46 PM
to put it nicely, it sucks :)
Posted by: eokyere at October 11, 2005 02:11 PM
It's powered by LivePlasma.com. They had a different visualizer before that I thought would be better with some design finessing.
Posted by: omit at October 11, 2005 03:46 PM