Layers is a social networking service with an enhancement, annotating the web. You can extend the usefulness of Layers as a social bookmarking tools too. That is how I feel about Layers the first time I saw their about page. Anyway, here’s an excerpt from Layers official about page

Layers is a new service that enables you to speak your mind, overlaying videos, images and texts on top of any web page, and then to share it with anyone you want.

And now, it’s time for a review :)

I. Landing Page

A simple themed landing page. I’m always a simple design lover, there is no hiccup at all when loading the landing page, and I believe, US and European based user would have an amazing speed to load up Layers.

Registration is simple and you will have to confirm your email address first, standard stuff, although it would be easier if Layers provide a registration based on either Twitter,Facebook or OpenID.

After the registration, you will have to fill out the main setting page, like Name, a little biography etc. And I believe you can skip this page to edit it later, even I haven’t tried it yet (My bad, always not thinking out of the box).

And again…Transparent PNG picture is not fully supported on Layers, resulting to a blackened avatar of mine.

II. Dashboard

The dashboard is again, simple. I believe you wouldn’t have any trouble finding your way in here. And I really like the idea to show all the comments from your Layers directly on the dashboard, one thing though, how will it be looks like when there are hundreds of comment in there ? Maybe they will cut the comments into the most recent with an option to view all the comments available.

Another thing , No auto scroll/unlimited scroll, which is good! I hate that auto scrolling feature. I prefer to click read more rather than auto scroll.

Let’s go on with the main feature for Layers, annotating the web, social networking way.

III. Features

To start annotate the web, just copy and paste a URL into the designated box. You can start to add picture or video annotation that will overlaying the web page. Give your layer a title and a small description or anything you would like to the Speak Your Mind box, click share and you are done.

A new pop-up window will start to show your Layer, so remember to allowing pop-up from Layers. So how will your Layered page looks like ?

There will be two main control for any layer, one is the floating tools

and the other one is the main toolbar.

To start annotating the layer, click the speaking balloon on the floating tools first. A new pop-up window will open, the same thing as the start layering box on previous mention. One thing that bugged me a lot is that you will have to upload your picture somewhere else first and then paste the link there, why not making it uploadable to Layers’ server ?

Let’s try to add a picture annotation,video annotation and a plain text annotation.

Pretty nifty, huh ? One thing that I think is needed from the annotation feature is the ability to determine the annotation opacity/transparency. This is one function to avoid too much dragging the annotation box or clicking the minimize button, just to read something that have been already overlayed (just imagine an overload layer which required you to click the minimize button over and over again). Or at least add a short excerpt at the minimized annotation, to let user know, what’s inside the annotation.

You could also started to highlight any words just by clicking  the pencil icon on the floating tools. After you click the icon, just block a few words on the layered website, and you are done.

Remember to click the Update button on the main lower toolbar to save your annotation, if you forget to click it , then you can say good bye to all your change you have done before.

The main lower toolbar real function is actually needed very much when you viewed someone else layer post. You can start commenting, sharing annotation, email the layer to your friends, reporting abuse or just telling the layer poster that you like that layer.

Let’s try sharing some annotation. Click the + button first and choose to make a blank layer based on the opened layer or reply to the current layer. Replying a layer will make your annotation visible in the current layer when you click “Layers on this page” on the main toolbar and choose Show My Layers. Don’t forget to click Share after that.

To tell you the truth, I think an option to show all layers (annotation) is a good thing , since that way, user can interact each other using annotation and also comment system, or, by using a new system of commenting each annotation one user made, not just one overall layers comment.

One thing about the reply to layer function, It seems that I can’t find my friend layer reply anywhere in a layer I created, even when I clicked the “Layer on this Page” and choose My Friends Layer, the same when I click the reply layer indicated on the dashboard, there’s no indication of her newly created annotation on the “Layer on this page” , but weird thing is, I can saw her annotation.

All in all, Layers is a good and revolutionist WebWare. All this time, I’m using one of Firefox add-on to make annotation on the fly. But with Layers, I could annotate and also sharing information with any user available. You could also use Layers to bookmark any web page you want, another function of Layers. Speaking of which.. , why don’t Layers make a Firefox add-on ? :P

Visit Layers Here

PS : I note something interesting into what my fiancee said about Layers : “I wish they’d have a doodling annotation features, it will be more fun sharing doodles with many users”

About Anangga Pratama

This guy loves to review WebWare/Web 2.0 Apps. Located in Depok, Indonesia and still trying to grasp the real feeling of Internet :)

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