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If You Can't Be A Real Guru, Be A Bubble Guru

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with RealSatisfied

Want to introduce yourself to your readers?

Want to highlight an upcoming event?

Bubble Guru may be just the right way to draw attention. It's beta 3, so it's still a little buggy. But if it's working you saw a little video pop up in a bubble on this page. It will only pop up the first time you visit this page for any session. So, if you didn't see it, you were probably on this blog once already today. Close your browser and come back. You should see it.

bubble guru logoI created mine in less than 2 minutes, from sign up to position in my settings here on AR. Then I recorded a different video and it updated automatically. So, changing your message doesn't require that your edit any existing code.

Step 1: Record Your Video

Step 2: Set Your Playback Options

Step 3: Add their tag to your description. 

Now... would I leave it up all the time? Probably not. I'd want to use it to highlight something important. I'm going to leave it up for a while and change the messages, just to illustrate how it works, but after this trial period, I'll only use it when I have something important I want to say. Or when I want to flirt with TLW. Whichever comes first.

:)

Wordpress Update: when this code is inserted into the html code of a single post on a self hosted Wordpress blog, it works. The bubble only pops up the first time that post is viewed, whether that is on the main page of your blog, or when you are directed to it. It will not pop up a second time when you click on the post to comment. This is a good thing. I have yet to get it to work by inserting into any index, post, header, footer or other template. For now, I can only verify that it works with insertion into a post. My guess is that someone will build a specific plugin for this one.

TypePad Update: I have not been able to make it work at all in TypePad. I tested inside a Notes TypeList and inside a blog post and neither initiated the Bubble.  I will continue testing.

Wordpress.com Update: This will not work with a Wordpress.com blog. 

5.14.07 UPDATE: I HAVE TAKEN THIS OFF, SINCE IT APPEARS TO BE CAUSING PROBLEMS WITH SOME ON INTERNET EXPLORER 7. IT WORKS FINE WITH FIREFOX. AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED THIS IS JUST ONE OF MANY REASONS TO STOP USING IE7. I HAVE SENT SUPPORT MESSAGES TO THE GURU'S AT BUBBLE GURU AND I'LL LET YOU KNOW WHAT COMES FROM IT. YOU'LL KNOW IF THEY'VE MADE A CHANGE BECAUSE MY FACE WILL POP UP AGAIN! 

 

 

Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
By the way... you shouldn't have to be on firefox now. Come back in IE7.
May 14, 2007 02:27 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
TLW [SVW]... go view this link in IE7 and tell me if you can see the bubble. http://www.bubbleguru.com/tour.html
May 14, 2007 02:30 AM
"The Lovely Wife" The One And Only TLW.
President-Tutas Towne Realty, Inc. - Kissimmee, FL

Hey. Hey...

I'm in through IE 7 and that POP link works great.

However you are much more enjoyable to watch. That other guy is just "annoying" and I want to POP his bubble :)

No new computer. YET. Birthday coming with lots of presents. It's a big birthday this year :)

I'll talk to Code Monkey about Firefox.

May 14, 2007 02:52 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
OK... so it breaks here on AR, but NOT on BubbleGuru.com. Interesting. See if Code Monkey has any thoughts on that. I think this is a great little tool to make announcements or deliver special greetings. I'd love to use it here on AR if possible.
May 14, 2007 03:10 AM
"The Lovely Wife" The One And Only TLW.
President-Tutas Towne Realty, Inc. - Kissimmee, FL

I think the best thing to do is to ask Code Monkey to come read this post and the comments.

This way if he has an answer to the problem the two of you, and anyone else that understands geek speak, can read the solution to the problem :)

 

May 14, 2007 03:39 AM
Ben Wiseley
Kirkland, WA
So - you want my comment?  IE SUCKS!  :)  Oh - you wanted something constructive?  I'm on a Mac and have IE6 installed via parallels - I'll boot up my "beater box" later today which has IE7 on it and try to decode any smoke signals and determine if this is an AR issue or a bubble issue (kind of doubt they'd release something that didn't work in IE7... probably some onload conflict with our friendly (not) editor TinyMCE and and d'Bubble).
May 14, 2007 04:24 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA

Ben... here is the first response from BubbleGuru... I am going to turn this back on for them to test in a few. 

 

More than likely, the problems are being caused because of the
incorrect placement of the Bubble Guru Tags within your Blog.

Unfortunately, we can't review your page now because it has been taken off,
however, if you place the BG Tags into your Blog, and then view source on
the page, we could take a look and see where your Blog tool is actually
placing the Tags.

It's very important that our Tags ultimately are placed at the end of your
HTML source, just before your closing </body> tag.

In some Blog engines, it's hard to know where to properly place our Tags.

In Wordpress for example, you need to place the tags at the bottom of :

Presentation > Theme Editor > Main Index Template

And we suggest you use turn the autolaunch feature off and then use an
anchor within your comments to enable launch. Something like this:

<a href="javascript:showBubbleGuru();">Click here to watch</a>

May 14, 2007 04:28 AM
Jackie Colson
Homeward Real Estate - Tampa, FL
Miller,Tampa Real Estate - www.RealEstateSizzle.com

Jeff:

I love that thing...do you have to use a webcam or can you use a video camera?

May 14, 2007 04:28 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
BTW... Ben, I like you even more now that I know you use a Mac. 
May 14, 2007 04:29 AM
Martin Rodriguez
Pacific Funding - Valencia, CA
Senior Loan Consultant

Jeff

Woo Hoo, I can finally leave you a comment.  Unfortunately I was unable to comment on the bubble before, because it was crashing my browser.  

Here's what I think was happening.

When I clicked on your post to leave a comment, the bubble pops up and the streaming video begins to play.  However the end of video file, or streaming video stop signal would not register in my browser, causing the system to hang with an open browser.  It's as though it was expecting more streaming video and the browser remains in an open state.  It would not allow me to click on anything on the page.  

Martin

May 14, 2007 04:30 AM
Ben Wiseley
Kirkland, WA
Jeff - if I have time today I'll implement something I've been meaning to do for ages, which is multiple editor options, including a plain jane html one ... TinyMCE (the editor we use) is pretty evil towards HTML and mangles it pretty consistently.  
May 14, 2007 04:31 AM
"The Lovely Wife" The One And Only TLW.
President-Tutas Towne Realty, Inc. - Kissimmee, FL

LOL @ Code Monkey...

Constructive? :)

Now I am seeing that my best foot forward is to dump IE 7...

Tool Boy is going to have to de-code the rest of all that for me :)

TLW...ROAR!

May 14, 2007 04:34 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
This has been loaded again for testing by BubbleGuru.com.
May 14, 2007 06:19 AM
Ben Wiseley
Kirkland, WA
BUBBLE HEAD!
May 14, 2007 06:24 AM
"The Lovely Wife" The One And Only TLW.
President-Tutas Towne Realty, Inc. - Kissimmee, FL

Woof Woof :)

Okay... 

Mr Bubble Tester :)

I am back to having to come in here through Firefox. This is not working on IE7 ...

The comment boxes do not finish loading.

TLW...ROAR! 
 

 

May 14, 2007 06:41 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
OK... it's off again. The BubbleGuru.com folks have captured the source file for placement and are testing. They have been fabulous on this. 
May 14, 2007 06:52 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
Who you callin' Bubble Head, Code Monkey?
May 14, 2007 06:53 AM
"The Lovely Wife" The One And Only TLW.
President-Tutas Towne Realty, Inc. - Kissimmee, FL

Well think about it.

Your head is in a bubble. POP. LOL.

May 14, 2007 06:58 AM
Jeff Turner
RealSatisfied - Santa Clarita, CA
May 14, 2007 07:11 AM
"The Lovely Wife" The One And Only TLW.
President-Tutas Towne Realty, Inc. - Kissimmee, FL

It doesn't work.

Goes to page and spins while it repeatedly tries to connect

May 14, 2007 07:13 AM