14 DAY TRIAL // This time I decided to put aside all the serious software you can find on Softpedia. I am going to deal with more entertaining software. One can find all sorts of short movies on the Internet. But only for a few years there appeared some web sites dedicated to collecting this media into one place so that it will not take you an eternity to search for them.
Some of these web sites have millions of visitors every day. One of them is the well known Metacafe. They provide you mainly with all sorts of short movies. The company has developed a software that will enable you to search and download those funny files more easily. The name of the software is none other than Metacafe.
The software is developed by Metacafe Inc. and the installation file has 6.27MB. What is its purpose? The application is designed only for entertaining. It will create the link between you and tons of fun.
The interface of the software is nicely drawn and its main feature is the interactivity between the user and the Metacafe content.
On the left side of the application there is the search bar where you can look for all sorts of videos, image or games. Just enter a topic in there and Metacafe will display all related results. In the middle of the window you will notice three tabs: New items, Old Items and Saved Items.
In New Items you will find all the items that the software has downloaded or those that are being downloaded. After the download is complete, the user can choose to view the images or movies inside the software or save them on the computer.
In the Old Items tab there are all the items that have been moved from New Items in order to make room for more recent fun stuff. The "fun" in here will be automatically deleted when you run out of disk space. If you find stuff you want to keep, after downloading it, you can right-click and send them to the Saved Items tab. This tab is not considered as part of the disk space.
Just opposite to the search bar there is the Submit an Item button that will allow you to post interesting stuff for others to enjoy. Once you have submitted an item a new tab will appear (My Submissions) that will display every item posted by you.
The Search Results tab will be displayed after you have typed something in the search bar. As the name says, it will bring the results of your search.
The application's settings menu can be found in the right upper side of the main window, right before the minimize button. Clicking that little down-oriented arrow will display a context menu that allows the user to customize the channels (we'll bring them to the discussion a little later), set the options and the advanced search.
The channels are displayed in the left side of the application and they are practically categories of fun. The categories are Video, Images, Games and Others. Depending on the search phrase entered you can look for pictures, movies or other type of category (articles, newspaper clips, etc.) related to your search.
I forgot to mention that the application window is divided into three vertical areas. So here it goes, from left to right: the channels' section, the items list and the selected items field. The channels can be customized. In Channels every category has a sub-category and you can subscribe or un-subscribe to any of these categories (e.g. in Video there are the Funny, Amazing and Cool, Movie Trailes, Sports related and News Related - you can give up any of these categories and thus your search results will be more accurate).
If you have kids and you have granted them full access to the computer, well?this is one software where they can learn a lot (basic human anatomy, utter stupidity examples, pranks, violence, explicit language, etc.). You have browsed the website and you know what the Internet can provide you with. You know what they say: "Better safe than sorry". Metacafe is aware of the damage the content can do to your kids so they have given you the Filter Family options.
Here you can set the software so as not to display items that contain explicit images, language or violent content.
In the Languages and Countries menu the users can choose the countries they want the items to be downloaded from.
The Options menu contains application related settings, such as setting a password for opening the program, run it on startup, using the Metacafe screen saver (all this in the Application menu). View menu allows you to turn on and off the Family Mode and choose to be prompted for password when disabling the Family Mode. You can also make the settings for the items (show downloading items, keep the items in the Old Items tab, etc.).
In the Disk Space tab the user can set a greater value of space used by the software. The application requires hdd space only for the Old Items. The stuff in this directory (which is also user definable) will be deleted only when the limit is reached and there is no space for downloading new items.
The Traffic tab permits you to control the amount of new items, limit the download speed and resume the paused traffic.
In the selected item field the user will come across a lot of useful information. You can see the number of views for the item, its rating, the comments of other viewers and you can even add your personal comment (but for this, you have to complete the My info form in Application, under Options).
The Good
The password setting and the Family Mode are, in my opinion, the most important features of the software.
The videos, as well as the other stuff can be viewed in full screen mode (here it is called TV Mode) inside the application.
The Bad
The Options menu is placed in a low visibility area of the application window and the users may spend some time looking for it.
The Truth
The new items just keep on coming and the fun never stops. The software can give some sort of addiction, but I guess we are all fun-junkies.
Metacafe is the most relaxing way to spend your time after a hard day's work. Just sit in a comfortable chair, relax and see what other people are doing. I guarantee that you will find videos that'll make you laugh till you get cramps in your belly.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
