Plugin Review: Vozeal

At a local WordPress meetup I attended, an attendee asked what would be the best way to show videos on their site? We dismissed using YouTube because when the video ends, it would most likely show video suggestions that had nothing to do with the topic at hand. We recommended that he use Vimeo. Earlier this week, I was contacted by the developers of a plugin called Vozeal that based on their pitch to me, would solve the problem of YouTube videos recommending videos outside of the user’s channel. I gave it a shot and this was my experience.

Normally when someone pitches me a plugin to review, I expect everything in the plugin as well as the website to work correctly. The only time I don’t expect that is when the plugin is in beta along with the company’s website. Before I continue the review, I want you to read the pitch I received.

I am co-founder of Vozeal. We give bloggers technology to better engage their audience. We have developed plugins for bloggers to change the youtube suggestions that come. Our plugin ensures that all the suggestion appear from publisher’s own youtube channel. We are rolling out with blogs like sportskeeda.com, phandroid.com, indiatimes.com on board.

We would love to get a review from you guys

Plugin Doesn’t Deliver

The first thing I did was check out their website. Their site delivers the bare minimum of information needed to figure out what their plugin does. However, I couldn’t find any information on their website dedicated to their WordPress plugin until I browsed their footer. This is where I found a link to their blog with a post from September explaining how to install their plugin.

The plugin is very easy to install and only contains one setting. In order to use it, you’ll need an authorization key that is provided after you signup to their website. Their sign up form looks like this.

After registering, I didn’t receive the typical email that accompanies signing up to a website. I did receive a block of code that I was supposed to add to any template file I wanted the widget to show up on. I added the code to a standard Text widget and nothing showed up.

At this point, I have no idea what’s going on. So I visit the Vozeal website and click on the link that states, Click Here to Know How Vozeal Work!. Unfortunately, that doesn’t provide much help. In fact, this is what I see.

Conclusion

At this point, I give up. There is no sense in continuing. Nothing shows up when I put the code into a text widget and it’s clear that the Vozeal website needs a lot of work. The statement about this plugin that interested me the most was, our plugin ensures that all the suggestions appear from publisher’s own youtube channel. This is a feature that would be helpful to a lot of people, especially to those that publish their Google Hangout recordings. At this time, I recommend avoiding Vozeal at all costs until they get their plugin, and especially their website under control.