Resource Review 8 - Jing, the 3-legged dog??

This is an interesting review from TechCrunch, a blog "dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies":

Riley, D. (2007, July 19). The Jing Project: The 3 legged dog of screen captures and screencasting [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/the-jing-project-the-3-legged-dog-of-screen-captures-and-screencasting/

The author admits that Jing is free, so he shouldn't be too critical, but he definitely had some major issues with the program. The first problem is that Jing only saves screencasts in Flash .swf files, which do not work well on video sharing sites such as YouTube. He describes Screencast.com as "horrible," stating that he was unable to view some test screenshots he had created. Another drawback listed was that Jing does not offer any html codes to easily embed screencasts on a website. Overall, the author says that if you don't mind the limited features, it's a decent tool, but "the Jing Project is just like a 3 legged dog; you can easily love it, it barks, but it just can’t do everything a 4 legged dog could and should do."

An important thing to consider is that this blog entry was written in 2007. Jing itself has probably not changed much since then, but more video sharing sites are accepting a wider range of video file formats. YouTube claims that you can upload almost any type of video file, although some formats do work better (mpeg, etc). Also important, and as the author stated himself, is that Jing is a free program. In my opinion, the quality and types of features available with this software are quite good for the price or lack thereof. Jing may not be perfect, but it is a simple, easy to use program that anyone can access for free, ideal for those of us who are not as technologically savvy or cannot afford more advanced types of software.