Update: Animoto Mojo

While we are on the subject of using programs like cooliris to dazzle family, friends, and clients, I wanted to remind all of you about Animoto, a slick "web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos... [in] a widescreen format... [that] have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer." They are out of beta now (after one full year of development). A few quick stats pulled from their blog:

- 4 million videos have been made on the Animoto platform

- More than 250,000 users in 200-some countries have registered on Animoto.com

- Animoto vids have been watched over 50 million times on Animoto.com, blogs, social networks, video sharing sites and web sites around the world!

Finally, here's an excerpt about Animoto from a blog I wrote in January:

Now here's an online service to get excited about. It's called Animoto and it creates MTV-style movies out of your photographs, music, and video clips. Writes EMorton, G4TV:

"It's like tossing a bunch of steel, glass and leather into a box, shaking it up and then opening the box to find a brand new Ferrari."

I agree. It's beautiful, well-designed, and exceptionally user-friendly. And your finished video can be posted all over the Net -- on YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, iGoogle, Blogger, and gobs of other websites that support embedded videos...