Slide.ly is a brand new site that is still closed to
the public (but you can find an invite if, as I did, you just search for
“Slide.ly + invites” on the Web and you’ll find a number of tech blogs that
have free invites), but it looks very good — and very similar to Animoto.
You can search for photos online or use your own, and easily
combine them with music to create musical video-like slideshows. I’m adding it
to The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Videos (Using Someone
Else’s Content), and I also have a link to that list on The Best Ways To
Create Online Slideshows. It is a website suited for people who want to show
off their interests, favorite photos and music in a different way. As the
name of the website already suggests, Slid.ly allows users to create free online
slideshows using your favorite photos and music and then having the option to
share it with your friends on popular social websites like Facebook, Pinterest,
Twitter, etc.
Slide.ly can transform your pictures from Facebook,
Instagram and Flickr into a video slideshow that you can share online.
Having grown up with a photography and music background, Tom
More aspired to create a product that would help people tell their stories in a
creative, emotional way. That’s why his company, EasyHi, created Slide.ly, a
free, simple way to instantly create personalized video slideshows with your
favorite photos and music to share with friends and family.
Since launching in June, users have created 1 million video
slideshow and shared 40 million photos on Slide.ly. The average user creates
two or more videos in their first 15 minutes on the site, most of them related
to celebrations and important events such as weddings, birthdays, proposals and
vacations.
Creating a Free
Online Slideshows on Slide.ly is fast and simple. Users can upload
photos from their computer, Instagram, Flickr, Google Images and other
websites, and then add messages and a range of effects such as “old film” and
“orange glow” to their photos. For the background music, they can browse songs
on the web or upload songs that they already own on their computer.
Now, just in time for the holiday season and New Year,
Slide.ly has introduced a one-click video maker that quickly turns Facebook
albums into personalized free slideshow as well.
Best Choice
For the longest time, I would use something like iMovie to
create projects like this, and as much as I like to use it, I always felt that
there had to be an easier way to get a photo slideshow up and running. Slide.ly
does exactly that, it provides a way for the average person to gather photos
and make a very good looking slideshow that they can share with others. They
don’t give you too many features to overwhelm you to the point you don’t want
to use it. I loved that I could create a slideshow in under 5 minutes if I
wanted to; it was really that easy. The social aspect of the app is also a
welcome feature, which adds a layer of interaction, which I believe is natural
for something like this.
As it stands right now Slide.ly is a solid slideshow maker creating
app, which really doesn’t need many more features to make it better. With that
being said, I would love to see a couple of things added in the future. It
would be nice to be able to possibly add video to your online slideshows and maybe some other paid
features. As of right now, as far as I can tell Slide.ly is free to use and is
not making money. I would love to be able to pay them for some added features
so that they can keep the product sustainable for the long term.
Personal
Thoughts
I truly believe that Slide.ly is a great app that has a lot
of potential. For one, they make it so that just about anyone can understand it
and create a quality slideshow and two, it is web based, which means you can
make these on any computer. If they can find a way to stay sustainable and gain
more traction with users, I really see this taking off. I would highly
suggest you go and try it out for yourself and see how easy it is to use.
How to
start
To start, the user can either do a quick sign-up by
connecting Slid.ly with your Facebook account or by signing up for an
individual account on Slid.ly.
When you create a new slideshow, you have the ability to
choose from well-known sources on the Internet such as – Facebook, Instagram,
Flickr, Pickplz, and Picasa, as well as Google Images, photos from your friends
or those from your computer. You then mix that content with music from
SoundCloud and YouTube and add some effects to spice it up.
Once the music and the photos have been added you can “save
and publish” your own slideshow to popular social networking websites.
