I recently went to buy a new copy of SnagIt and noticed that TechSmith has a new product they are toying with called "Jing". It combines much of the good parts of SnagIt, Camtasia and a *free service called ScreenCast (Also owned by TechSmith). See a quick video of what exactly Jing is and how it works here...

Getting Started With Jing Video

Ideally Jing will be customizable so that I can use an existing YouTube, Yahoo Video or other type of account. I imagine though that they will inexorably tie it to ScreenCast. I'll post a question about this in the Jing Project's forum.

*Actually ScreenCast isn't 'free', but if you sign up through Jing during the experimental phase, they grant you an non-time limited trial account. From the Jing site...

"Jing files are hosted on Screencast.com. To use Jing, you'll need to sign up for a Screencast.com account. This will provide you with 200 MB of storage and 1GB per month of bandwidth. The normal trial account for Screencast.com has a 60 day limit, but to get the most out of the Jing Project, and to share our appreciation for your feedback, we're offering a trial account with no expiration until the end of the Jing Project (date to be determined). Enjoy."

I assume that "no expiration until the end of the Jing Project" means that while the Jing Project is going, you can get a trial account that doesn't ever expire. However, I could be persuaded that it means that my trial account won't expire until the Jing Project is over.

In any case, the Jing product seems like one of those "Killer Apps" that I didn't know I needed until I saw it. I currently use Camtasia to record the screen, and SnagIt to capture screenshots. Then I have to do a little post-production, FTP the results up to a useful place and send out an email. Jing seems like a huge timesaver for those frequent times when you need to demonstrate an issue that is hard to explain. I forsee a future where most of my FogBugz cases will feature Jing links.