Qbox: Social Network Music Revisited
I wanted to revisit a new Web 2.0 tool we reviewed last week called Qbox. At the time, I was impressed with the idea — but disappointed with the fact that, after many attempts, I simply could not get the thing to install and function.
Following that report, the CEO of Qbox — Peter Keum — contacted me and informed me they’d discovered a Firefox compatibility issue that seemed to be the root of my problem. He referred me to a roundabout fix his team had posted on the Qbox blog following our story and assured me they were working on a more permanent solution.
“We do realize that we need to make the product more robust, and please be assured that we are working day and night to make it perfect. Your case seems to be a known issue we’re trying to resolve,” Keum told me.
The fix involves manually downloading two files into Firefox subdirectories, and — as he predicted — it did correct the problem.
With that behind me, Qbox proved itself to be a relatively neat little program. You can type in the name of any artist or song and it’ll pull up a list of social network sites where you can stream it along with various live versions and cover performances. One click later, and you’re listening to your tune.
My only complaint is the interface: The current Qbox configuration requires you to jump back and forth between a web site — where you search for and find the songs — and a separate player application, where you actually play them. This becomes a bit cumbersome; it would be far easier from an end-user standpoint if the functions were condensed to one place.
On the whole, though, I’ll stick with my original conclusion: This is a great concept. I’ve wasted tons of time trying to find specific artists or songs on various social network platforms. With some tweaking and refinement from this beta release to the final product, Qbox has the potential to put that kind of searching behind us and create a very convenient music streaming solution.
