Introduction

Clearspring Launchpad allows publishers and developers to quickly distribute content as sharable widgets.   Launchpad encompasses three powerful yet easy to use products:

• Launchpad In-Widget: Standard – tool for creating viral widgets with tracking capabilities
• Launchpad In-Widget: Advanced – Application Programming Interface (API) set to embed viral and tracking capabilities into a widget
• Launchpad On-Page: Web Publisher – configurable sharing menu to enable any Web content to be distributed and tracked

This guide provides insight into each of the Launchpad offerings and how to select the appropriate offering for a specific use.

Audience for this Guide

This guide is for publishers and developers who are tasked with evaluating the Clearspring Launchpad product family.  

This guide assumes the reader is familiar with widgets and is seeking an easy, scalable method of distributing them.  If the user is unfamiliar with widgets, they should review the Widgets 101 guide located at: http://www.clearspring.com/widgets101

Clearspring Launchpad

Launchpad enables rapid distribution of content as shareable widgets.  The widgets are portable across all the leading social networks, such as MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, etc., without the burden of creating a widget for each network.  

Each product offers comprehensive analytics and reporting.  The widgets activities can be monitored with Launchpad’s real-time management console, providing the ability to understand where the content has been distributed.

Launchpad In-Widget: Standard

Using Launchpad In-Widget: Standard (Launchpad Standard), Flash widgets and Web content can easily be enhanced with sharing and tracking.

Web content, such as Flash, HTML and images, can easily become a widget using Launchpad Standard.  The content is “wrapped” in the Launchpad Standard container to create the widget. This container frames the content, leaving the content in place, and provides the “get & share” dock.

The container provides contextual intelligence to its contents.  This allows the content to behave differently based on where it’s placed. For example, the container can pass the viewer’s network connection to the widget, allowing it, in turn, to serve content appropriate for that connection speed – a broadband user might get HD video, where as a dialup user would receive lower quality standard definition video.

Viewers who wish to grab the widget can simply click the “get & share” dock to display the services menu.  This menu displays the current list of destinations (e.g., social networks, bookmark sites, etc.) to which the widget can be shared.

Driving visibility and ultimately usage of the widget is important to all publishers.  Using Launchpad Standard, the widget can optionally have a customizable widget homepage that complements the publishers’ seeding of the widget.  This widget homepage provides another place for search engines and widget galleries to find the widget.

Launchpad Standard also supports one-click publishing to popular widget galleries, such as Google, Live, and more.   Widget galleries expose the widget to a larger audience quickly and easily.  Once published, the widget continues to maintain the features of Launchpad Standard, allowing the widget to be grabbed and shared.

The analytics of Launchpad Standard widgets

Launchpad Standard captures widget views, interactions and grabs.  These user actions are delivered as detailed real-time reports. The reports show where the widget is being viewed, from where it is spreading and how users are interacting with it.

As the widget spreads across the Web, Launchpad Standard measures the widget’s virality.  The analytics system provides insight into which sites drive the most views and grabs of the widget, aiding the publisher in determining where to target the widget for growth and engagement.  This allows publishers the ability to have visibility into the usage and viral nature of their widget.

Why use Launchpad Standard?

How do you know if Launchpad Standard is right for you?  The following questions should be used.  Do you:

1. want to syndicate widgets or content?
2. need to track widget/content usage across the Web?
3. want to maximize the reach to services without the development burden?
4. have a widget that does not have to load before Launchpad Standard?
5. have a Flash widget that does not require access to level0, as this is the Launchpad Standard container?

Using Launchpad Standard, it’s really that easy to create, distribute, track and ultimately monetize Web content as widgets.

Launchpad In-Widget: Advanced

Launchpad In-Widget: Advanced (Launchpad Advanced) is an embedded viral sharing solution built for widget developers who want full control of their users experience.   

The power of Launchpad Advanced widgets

Launchpad Advanced is a comprehensive API that provides viral sharing, runtime contextual intelligence and widget tracking, enabling developers to fully customize the widget sharing experience.

Unlike Launchpad Standard, which provides a container with all the sharing services immediately available, Launchpad Advanced is a set of APIs that are embedded into a widget.  Developers can create their own user experience while including the power of sharing and tracking. In addition, Launchpad Advanced loads after the widget code, proving the developer the ability to configure services at runtime.

Launchpad Advanced consists of the following libraries:

• Context: provides run-time context to the widget
• Menu: invocation and configuration of the Flash-based sharing menu
• Share: allows posting to and retrieving from the services available in the sharing menu
• Track: logs user behavior in a widget session
• Widget: allows for registering and updating registered widgets dynamically

To help jumpstart Launchpad Advanced development, the widget console provides a quick and easy tool for generating “stub” code with the appropriate libraries.  Launchpad Advanced APIs are available for Adobe ActionScript 3 (AS3), AS2 and JavaScript.

Launchpad Advanced allows developers the flexibility to leverage the power of the Clearspring platform while providing their own custom user experience.

The analytics of Launchpad Advanced widgets

Launchpad Advanced provides most all the analytic information as Launchpad Standard.  By default, when the widget invokes Launchpad Advanced, the core tracking capabilities are included.  This means that the widget will automatically gather information such as views and grabs as a user interacts with the widget. 

The tracking API allows the developers to capture additional information.  Developers can record custom events, such as a user clicking a specific button on the widget.  The custom event information captured is available in the Clearspring Analytics console, allowing developers to easily understand how users interact with their widget.

In addition to custom events, the developer can track user clickthroughs.  If the widget provides links to a home page or other useful sites, the Launchpad API’s URL redirect service will track the user request.  As with all the tracking information, reports appear in the widget console.

The power of Clearspring Analytics is readily available to widget developers, allowing for custom user experiences with built-in easy to use tracking.

Why use Launchpad Advanced?

How do you know if Launchpad Advanced is right for you?  These questions should be used. 
Do you:

1. need to fully customize the widget experience?
2. require control over where the widget can be placed?
3. require tracking specific user actions with the widget?
4. need the widget to load prior to the sharing menu?
5. require the context of the widget’s placement at runtime?

Using Launchpad Advanced allows for greater control, but requires development effort.

Launchpad On-Page: Web Publisher

Launchpad On-Page: Web Publisher (Launchpad On-Page) enables any web content to become a portable widget and be distributed to social networks via the share menu.

The power of Launchpad On-Page widgets

Launchpad On-Page allows the Clearspring Share Menu to be added to any type of web content making it shareable.  The customizable sharing menu can be placed on any Web site allowing users to grab and post the content on their social network, bookmark site and start page.

By default, all available sharing services are displayed in the Share Menu in alphabetical order.  Using a simple configuration API, the Share Menu can be fully customized, from which services to display, to re-ordering services, to displaying a single service, and more.  In addition, the Share Menu’s appearance can range from a simple button that “pop ups” the default menu to a menu with specific fonts, colors and backgrounds, by defining a cascading style sheet (CSS).

Launchpad On-Page provides a way to seed Web content on to social networks, bookmark sites, and start pages.  Once a user grabs the content, via Launchpad On-Page Sharing Menu, it is placed on the site.  However, viewers of the content placed on the posted site do not have a way to subsequently grab the content.  When the desire is for content to virally propagate across sites, Launchpad On-Page should be used in conjunction with viral widgets, such as those using Launchpad Advanced.  This increases the probability of a grab on the seeding site while the embedded menu in the widget allows for subsequent grabs away from the initial seeding site.

Launchpad On-Page enables any Web content to be grabbed and shared.

The analytics of Launchpad On-Page widgets

As with the other Launchpad products, Launchpad On-Page provides detailed tracking tools to monitor the distribution of widgets. When Launchpad On-Page is loaded the core tracking capabilities are initiated.  This means that the menu will automatically gather information such as views, unique views, and grabs as a user interacts. 

Launchpad On-Page has some analytics limitations because of the power provided by easily allowing any Web content on a page to become distributed.  Analytics such as the virality of the content and interactions are not available. 

As mentioned, Launchpad On-Page is best suited for seeding content to other locations.  The sharing menu does not follow the content, which limits the virality of the content.  However, when used with Launchpad Standard or Advanced widgets, it maximizes the initial grab.  The widgets in widget-sharing menu provides for further grabs beyond the seed location allowing for a viral widget.

Clearspring Analytics enhances the distribution of Web content by understanding what content is important to the users.

Why use Launchpad On-Page?

How do you know if Launchpad On-Page is right for you?  The following questions should be used. 
Do you:

1. want to enable Web content to be distributed to services such as social networks, bookmarking sites, start pages and more?.
2. have content you would like to syndicate or distribute?
3. want to track how users grab your Web content on the site?
4. have a widget that you want to promote and syndicate?
5. want to enhance the seeding location of a Launchpad Standard or Advanced widget?

Launchpad On-Page makes Web site content viral in 20 minutes or less.

Questions / Comments / Concerns

We welcome and encourage all feedback.

Please feel free to contact us.