Webware today wrote about a new site that has the potential of being a great way for English Language Learners to create narrated slideshows and talking books — possibly even better than Voice Thread.   However, it’s not there yet.

Goldmail just began this week, and allows you create audio slideshows very, very easily; it will host them for you; and it even lets you insert images off the web.  Voice Thread doesn’t allow you that option, which is a big drawback to its use.  I don’t really understand why they don’t have that feature since so many other Web 2.0 applications do, and they won’t respond to my emails asking why.  You can get around the obstacle with Voice Thread by uploading PowerPoint slides you create with images from the web, but it’s just unnecessarily complicated.

The big problem with Goldmail right now, though, is that it requires downloadable software.  They are in the process of developing an “all-web” application, but I haven’t heard back from them about when it will be ready.

They also have a short ad at the end of each Goldmail.  Of course, you can just stop watching before then.

Voice Thread also just began offering unlimited free accounts to educators, so that would be another feature Goldmail would need to offer to compete in the education community.