SlideShare Moves into Web Conferencing with HTML5 Tool Zipcast

SlideShare, a service for sharing PowerPoint and Keynote presentations online, is expanding into web conferencing with Zipcast, a fully browser-based tool for creating video conferences. The new product is in beta, but there is a free option so you can jump in at any time.

The main advantage of Zipcast is that there is no need for software downloads and installs along with all of the problems associated with this. Since it all happens in the browser, all you need is a relatively modern one - no IE6 - and you're set.

"Four years ago, we launched SlideShare and defined the way you share presentations on the web. SlideShare was the first site to let users share PowerPoint and Keynote files on the web, and the SlideShare player has impacted everyone who has come since," Rashmi Sinha, cofounder and CEO of SlideShare, wrote.

SlideShare is now used by 45 million people, the company says. But it is now moving beyond presentations, though not that far away, into web video conferences.

"Today we are launching something equally ambitious – we want to redefine web meetings and make them as simple and easy to use as SlideShare itself," she added.

"Have you ever wished you could jump into an online meeting from anywhere? Or start meetings instantly? Now you can. No need to download software or wait five minutes for a meeting to start. Open your browser and with one click you’re in a Zipcast meeting!," she explained.

The basic Zipcast service is free to use, the only problem is that the conferences can't be truly private, if you want to use a password to control who gets in you need to move to SlideShare Pro, which goes for $19 per month.

Zipcast uses a combination of HTML5, web sockets for communication, and Adobe Flash to handle the online video part. It's not a fully featured web meeting tool, as compared to stand-alone software tools, but it saves users a lot of the hassle.