Magnify.net has introduced a plugin for Movable Type and WordPress that attempts to minimize the effort required to add multimedia content to a blog. Magnify.net is a video discovery and broadcast platform that provides a hosted framework for video distribution.
The plugin, called Magnify Publisher, allows bloggers to search and embed content from over a dozen media sites including YouTube and Flickr without ever leaving their blog’s admin panel. Publisher also allows bloggers to upload videos from their computer, and to record clips on a webcam (sort of like seesmic). After choosing a video or picture, users are free to rearrange and resize their media from within their blog’s WYSIWYG editor.
Magnify’s CEO Steve Rosenbaum sees the plugin as a gateway to an online ecosystem where bloggers are the curators of multimedia. While there are a number of other blogging plugins that offer similar functionality, Rosenbaum says that Magnify Publisher is the first to integrate media search, upload, and webcam features. Magnify hopes that this combination will spur bloggers to regularly include more multimedia content in their posts.
I’m a little less optimistic. The plugin works fairly well and is easy to use (though the generic gray buttons really need a facelift), but it isn’t going to pave the way for a media revolution. Bloggers don’t typically include loads of media in their posts because it can be distracting - not because it is overly difficult to find an appropriate photo or upload a YouTube video. That said, Publisher is a handy tool that cuts out tedious steps and will appeal to many bloggers who aren’t tech-savy enough to fiddle with embed codes. Just don’t expect it to change the face of blogging forever.
I agree with you. I think it’s really nice to have the easier functionality to add multimedia, but also that most bloggers are not likely to want to add enormous amounts of multimedia to blog posts for aesthetic reasons. Still it’s a cool app to hear about. Thanks.
I have not tried Magnify yet, sounds like a interesting tool. MessageDance is been doing this for a while now. You can send video from YouTube directly to your blog, no plugin needed, You can send pictures from Flickr to your blog , no plugin needed either and you can blog right from Facebook message compose, Google Reader, Amazon etc. digg, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, Outlook etc.
why aren’t there any plugins for blogger?
Magnify.net sucks; it’s a leech company that bases its existence on other services like YouTube, Flickr, etc. It amazing though how much of the press attention they get with their non-unique products.
Angela, we’ve reached out to Blogger - currently they don’t have any way to allow applications or plug ins, but we’re hopeful they’ll find a way to include Publisher for their users.
Bill - ouch that seems pretty pointy. Not that we’re going to win you over, but we offer our own video upload, storage, delivery, all free for our sites. We do power aggregation - but ‘leech’ seems to not really understand our vision. We think that a video about - for example - “Native American Culture” is probably appropriate for any number of sites who want to embrace or explore Native American issues, history, culture, politics and more. Are you saying that video on YouTube or Blip.tv should only be seen there? Isn’t discovery core to what the web is all about? Isn’t Google fundamentally a company built by turning intent into results (called search).
Is there something in particular about Magnify.net that you’d suggest to help make us a better service? We’re open to your feedback.
I personally think it’s a step in the right direction - more media and content-rich posts and greater ease of the creating those posts
I don’t know what Bill’s going on about - the service offers quite a few advantages including: Ability to upload video, ability to resize WYSIWG and ability to search and browse - all this without leaving the blog interface 
thats interesting, but you can use a plugin like this - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7215 - that is much simpler
@ Angela
We’re making one. (coming soon)
“not because it is overly difficult to find an appropriate photo or upload a YouTube video” … especially as blog platform start to integrate features to embed videos directly from the editor, without the need to go to the HTML source.
As it’s the case for French platform over-blog.com…
Pierre