Squrl Lets You Collect And Organize Video From Multiple Sources For Free
April 14, 2011
The proliferation of video-sharing sites makes remembering where you saw that perfect video that much more difficult. Now a new service, Squrl, has come online to organize our digital lives like never before. It lets us collect and organize videos from different providers all in one place. Best of all, the universal Squrl app makes viewing those videos on the road possible too.
After signing up for a free Squrl account either online or through the app, the fun begins. Videos can be collected either from other websites (on a Mac or PC) or through the app itself.
Sharing videos online is done through a simple-to-install Squrl It Browser Button that works a lot like Instapaper or Readability does for reading and collecting online articles. Once you find a video you’d like to collect for later viewing, simply hit the Squrl It button. The video is automatically saved to your Squrl list of videos.
To collect videos within the Squrl app, you must click on the Discover icon and find your video by source. From there, you can select the Squrl It button, which is preinstalled within the app.
Each time you save a video, you will save it to an existing gallery, or you may create a new one. Each gallery can contain multiple collections.
For example, I have decided to organize my videos by source and then by a collection called “My Stuff.” However, how you wish to organize your videos is really up to you.
Currently supported sites include Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, Ted, and 12 others, although that number will likely grow in time.
The Squrl service/app is not without its faults. For one, the app isn’t always reliable, which is probably a sign of growing pains. For example, instead of enjoying videos on my iPad 2, I’ve been greeted with a message more than once that said the service was down.
In addition, I have noticed the Squrl It button doesn’t always work, depending on the site. While I have had no problem collecting videos from YouTube, for example, I have yet to succeed on ESPN.com.
Overall, however, Squrl is worth a look. The free universal app is available in the App Store.
What do you think? Leave your comments below.