RADUS (pronounced “radius”) is a new media hub that serves as an aggregator for content that includes RSS feeds, videos, photos, and music. And while the site certainly isn’t the first to bring all of these together, it does so in a very slick way and makes for great eye candy.
The site’s interface consists of a large media viewer on the left situated next to a smaller panel for browsing file types. Written content (like blog posts from RSS feeds) is displayed in a multi-column format that resembles a magazine article. Similarly, the media panel displays videos and images where appropriate. Unfortunately the sidebar isn’t very effective when it comes to searching for content, as it doesn’t leave enough space to describe a given video.
At launch the site is drawing content from a number of sources including Flickr (for photos), Hulu and CBS (videos), and over a hundred hand selected RSS feeds (you can add your own if one you like isn’t on the site).
RADUS probably won’t appeal to power users already set in their ways with daily visits to Google Reader and Hulu – it simply isn’t very efficient when it comes to consuming content. But for users just looking for some media to pass the time, RADUS makes for a good (and nice looking) alternative.
The company says it is currently porting the RADUS platform to new media devices, with desktop and mobile support underway.
Note: RADUS says that users of Firefox 3 should use www.radus.com (no http) to access the site.
(Editor’s Note: The original byline on this story was by Robin Wauters, but that has been changed to Jason Kincaid, the actual author of the post. Due to technical difficulties, Wauters had to publish the post last night and put it under his byline by mistake. Sorry for any confusion).
Lol … “radus” pronounced “radius” except there is no “i” and http://www.radius.com is taken ? Why not just call yourself “radus” – then at least you can stop the confusion in brand promotion ?
Indeed, RADUS is actually pronounced, “radus”
This should go into the Hall of Fame of dumb branding ideas…
I see it as “Raid us”
A raid is a military tactic whereby a sudden attack is effected by a small group behind enemy lines. A raiding group may comprise of personnel specially trained in this tactic (such as commandos or guerilla fighters), regular soldiers, or any organized group of combatants. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid (military)
that is funny
no one can pronounce my name either so they call me “that girl”. Bad branding.
YEah Agree with Tcruncher2
I don’t see the confusion here (parent post), my name is paul but it’s pronounced ben. Simple really.
I agree.
Just like my name is spelt Luxury-Yacht, but it’s actually pronounced Throat Warbler Mangrove.
Well I’d say that was conclusive – new service albeit not aimed at power users and the first 4 (now 5) comments all concentrate on the completely insane thinking behind its name.
Its radus pronounced radus guys.. live with it. Reminds me of a UK comedy where one character was called Mrs Bucket (pronounced bouquet)
Haha, I used to love that show! ‘Hello, Bouquet residense, Lady of the house speaking?’
dictionary ftw.
It held my attention for about 20 seconds. Not a big fan of replicating an application UI in a browser.
I thought it was pronounced Eye-Gore.
Prime example of “2.0″ brand-naming failure. Radius has no extraneous letters to drop, and dropping the “i” seems almost counter-cultural in an era when people seem inclined to ADD an “i” to their brand.
Even Google could have gotten away with calling themselves Gugl. TechCrunch could have been Tekrnch. But when everybody else is correcting you on the spelling of your own property, you’ve already lost them with your attempt to “brand”.
We live in a globalize world; when people pronounce a brand name and it seems to be in English they use American English.
For me, when I saw the main post on Techcrunch’s main page it was “radus”….
Btw…
- why cant we open the non www url on FF 3?
- why is this application so heavy. It took alot of time to load….
- why cant this people scale the image without pixelate them.
- where are the basic video control buttons???
I actually gave it a whorl as well and agree with all of these questions. It made me feel claustrophobic. Perhaps are feedback will help.
Can’t spell, need sleep.
My interest lasted about 2min. the buttons are shinny.. Usually when something is to shiny, there is nothing behind the gloss.
1. I wish it was a clean white design, next time hire a professional designer and let them call the shots.
2. Why is this thing slowing down my laptop? Next time use HTML!
Another fail..
Maybe this conversation about how completely silly calling your brand something that is not phonetically converted was Radus’ plan all along? But then again would Radus’ be pronounced “Radius-eses” or just “Radius-es”…
Saw Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist last night, and they talked about naming bands and “The Beatles”. Hindsight adds a lot. Plus if marketing is to create buzz and you get something like 20 posts talking about the name… As for the post about how dropping an “I” is “counter-cultural”, have you checked out RCRD LBL a great download site
Yeah I suppose, but then there is ‘buzz’ and then there is 100% of the ppl leaving negative comments about the service and or brand name and basically just laughing it into the dead pool. I know which I would prefer..