by Marshal M. Rosenthal
Most people who create Web sites aspire to the day when they're able to place an ad banner on their page — providing not only "credibility" but revenue for the site. Finding the clients willing to advertise is only the first step: you have to run online ads that can attract and hold the viewer's attention. Creating the ads hasn't been an option for many Web site owners with minimal programming or design skills, which is why many will find MicroSites a godsend: it offsets both graphic and programming deficiencies to help the user create professional looking, multimedia-rich ad banners, yet retails for an affordable $99.95.
MicroSites is designed to make animated ad banners using a simple interface with drag and drop capabilities; the end result is a banner that can display text and sound, move images along a predetermined path at a predetermined time, and react to a user's mouse clicks (the rectangular size of the banner can also be varied or even embedded into a page design). It's a straightforward process that lets you choose between assembling the elements on your own or using a series of "wizards" to do it for you, and there's plenty of samples to try out: graphics, animations and an exhaustive supply of buttons, knobs and other Web "clip art" stuff. No plug-in is required because a Java player is first downloaded — and then followed by fast-loading streaming media elements which play a scene while the next loads in the background.
In addition, click-throughs can be configured which don't take users to another site, but instead bring up new graphics on the banner, thereby keeping the user right where he or she is. "Essentially what is happening is that MicroSites is taking care of the Java programming while the user creates the banner through the interface," says Randi Barshack, Director of Marketing for the Israeli-based Zapa Digital Arts, which created the program. To prove her point, she gives as an example one of the simplest features of the product — dragging an item along a motion path: "If you were to do this in Java programming, you'd have to mathematically input all of the points on the path without viewing the banner," she says. "But here, dragging the item along the desired path sets up the parameters for you, and if you want to make a change, you just drag the point on the motion path again."
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