November 21, 2007 at 22:18Songza - A Fresh Look At Music Search
The Web has recently become one useful and interesting startup more. This is Songza search engine music service with an elegant and user-friendly interface. Although it could not be otherwise, because the idea of the site and its interface was invented by Aza Raskin - the son of the founder of the Apple Macintosh and just interface guru Jef Raskin.
Songza service was created in one month by the efforts of both Aza Raskin himself and Scott Robbin from Humanized, owned by the same Ruskin. The result was something like YouTube, only with music, not video (although not without it :). The site is a search service and at first glance is no different from the mass of other similar resources, but just click on a track, you can immediately see the differences that highlight this service.
Songza searches by song title or artist. When you click on any song found under the mouse cursor, an elegant menu appears with various sub-items: "play", "add to playlist" (add to playlist), "rate" (rate) and "share" (share). With the first two points, everything is clear, but a couple of the remaining ones are worth a little talk. By hovering over the menu item rate, a window pops up in which you can vote either for or against the track - the place in the search results will depend on the number of votes. As for the share item, when you hover over it, a window also pops up allowing you to give a link to the track to a friend, just copy the link to yourself, copy the code to paste into your website, or watch a video clip on YouTube.
From Last.fmSongza’s site is different in that it allows you to listen for free (you can’t download tracks, of course) exactly those songs that the user chooses, and also does not contain the excessive functionality that Last Radio has - it is not needed here. And of course, Songza stands out for its very comfortable and lightweight design. In general, if I had unlimited Internet, I would use this service. Moreover, the site does not infringe on Russian users in their choice - the tracks of Russian artists are as excellent as foreign ones.
Songza service was created in one month by the efforts of both Aza Raskin himself and Scott Robbin from Humanized, owned by the same Ruskin. The result was something like YouTube, only with music, not video (although not without it :). The site is a search service and at first glance is no different from the mass of other similar resources, but just click on a track, you can immediately see the differences that highlight this service.
Songza searches by song title or artist. When you click on any song found under the mouse cursor, an elegant menu appears with various sub-items: "play", "add to playlist" (add to playlist), "rate" (rate) and "share" (share). With the first two points, everything is clear, but a couple of the remaining ones are worth a little talk. By hovering over the menu item rate, a window pops up in which you can vote either for or against the track - the place in the search results will depend on the number of votes. As for the share item, when you hover over it, a window also pops up allowing you to give a link to the track to a friend, just copy the link to yourself, copy the code to paste into your website, or watch a video clip on YouTube. From Last.fmSongza’s site is different in that it allows you to listen for free (you can’t download tracks, of course) exactly those songs that the user chooses, and also does not contain the excessive functionality that Last Radio has - it is not needed here. And of course, Songza stands out for its very comfortable and lightweight design. In general, if I had unlimited Internet, I would use this service. Moreover, the site does not infringe on Russian users in their choice - the tracks of Russian artists are as excellent as foreign ones.