A Review of Cowbird, a Free Storytelling Platform

By Wei Cen

One of Cowbird’s best features is its simplicity.

Once signed in, the user can begin telling a story by just clicking the  button in the upper-right corner of the page. Cowbird will then bring up an editing board with a clean interface and self-explanatory icons.

On the left panel, the user can click the  icon to upload an image or the  icon to upload an audio. The buttons on the right panel allow users to add data to the story, including who, what, when, and where, which will connect the story to communities of similar themes and make it easier for other people to search for stories through key words. In between the two panels is the editing area for the story. The user can type the title in the “Title” box and the content of the story in the “Your story” text box. Another convenient feature of Cowbird is it does auto spelling check and misspelled words will be underlined with red waves.

During the editing process, the story can be saved at any time through the blue “Save draft” button. Once the story is finished, the user can click the “Publish” button to officially share the story on the Web.

Cowbird also allows users to share stories on Facebook and Twitter, message the author, and love, comment on, email or embed the stories. These functions can be realized through the bar at the bottom of the webpage when a story is viewed.