Mini-Robots Refresh your Site’s Thumbnail on MyBlogLog
It's now really easy to refresh the thumbnail screenshot of your site on MyBlogLog. We added a link that will instruct our mini-robots to surf on over to your site, take a mini-screenshot on their mini-browsers and upload it for you to your community page.
Look for the link on your site's "Settings" page, click refresh to add you URL to the queue or "upload" if you want to roll your own.
Now's your chance, refresh your screenshot and let's get rid of those ugly, grey boxes!
MyBlogLog Search and You Shall MyBlogLog Find
Steve has been working with some proprietary Yahoo technology to serve up better search results on MyBlogLog.com. The fruits of his labor are now complete and you can enjoy said fruits by using the search box in the header up top on the site. For an example of what we can find, check out this search for knitting. It never ceases to amaze me how many knitting communities there are on MyBlogLog!
I'm tagging this post as a "bug fix" because the search results that we had before were kind of hit-or-miss. But now things are smoking! Not only is search fast, it's also much more accurate. We search across several fields:
- Members - screen name, nickname, member ID, and tags
- Communities - display name, site name, site ID, site URL, and tags
The index supports alternate spelling (color and colour) so you can be sure to get both results.
We'll be adding more features (including support for UTF8) over the next week so stay tuned. As always, let us know via the Contact Form if you see anything out of whack.
Who has two thumbs and is the community manager for MyBlogLog?
Hey y'all! I’m Tilly, your new resident community manger here at MyBlogLog HQ. Let’s get this party started and break the ice. To show how much MyBlogLog loves you, we offer all sorts of ways we can get to know each other:
* We start at the basics, a simple FAQ page. Full of, well, frequently asked questions! Inside you will find all sorts of how-to's and tips for making your way through the MBL world. It sure could use some love though! Keep your eye on this page, as we have plans to spice up this page in the coming weeks.
* The gang here has got some mad love for Twitter. Just follow @mybloglog and get all the news and releases, hot off the press from here in HQ. Or, in times of crisis, give a SOS out to @mblsupport and someone will come to your rescue. If you wonder what we're up to, check out our Crowdstatus page.
* Find yourself in a tricky spot while optimizing your MyBlogLog experience, and are looking for more personal, one on one help? We are never more then a click away to guide you in the right direction and get you hooked up! Just drop us a line at our contact form and someone on the crew will personally get in touch with you.
* Ever had one of those moments, commuting home from the office, or standing in line at the grocery store, where all of a sudden, OMG, you have a great idea for mybloglog? We have just the place for you. Check out our suggestion board where you can add new suggestions or vote on others. We never stop looking for ways to make MyBlogLog more fun to use and are always up for a challenge.
* Are you a hardcore, serious MyBlogLog uber-member? Our Yahoo Group is your place to shine! Stop by and point to cool sites, share a clever trick you picked up while playing with our widgets, or just come by and drop us a love note. Think of it like our own little online living room, where no one will ever tell you to take your feet off the coffee table or make you use a coaster.
* And, oh dear, I save the best for last. Check out the one of the coolest new things we just got involved with here at MBL HQ, Get Satisfaction. Its a site where customers, companies, employees, heck, anyone can get together, share ideas or help each other out! We liked the concept so much that we’ve used their shiny new API to bring their service into our site.
We want you guys to know how much influence you have when it comes to what we do here at MyBlogLog. Everyday our service is evolving into more than just widgets and stats . It's community, it's lifestreaming; it's as technical or as basic as you want it to be. Let us help you find out how to make the best of what we offer. This is our pact, this is our inspiration.
So, what are you waiting for? Drop me a line and let’s get better acquainted.
MyBlogLog Friender uses Master Graph to Suggest New Contacts
OK. Everyone have time to sort through their Pending contact requests after yesterday's announcement? Ready for the new coolness? Go your Contacts page by clicking on the add/manage link under your contacts. We added a new tab called Friender. You can also go there directly.
What is it? It's basically a list of friends you know elsewhere and others they know in a rank ordered list for you to connect with. As you add new contacts or hide those you don't know, you can quickly fly through the list and grow your network. We look at friends of friends too. Chances are, if someone knows five of your friends, you probably know them too.
The cherry is that it's done in real-time! See that little "recalculate" button? After adding your third contact, the whole graph gets recalculated based on your most recent connections. Friend recommendations, adjusting in real-time, based on a dynamic list of your identities across the web. MyBlogLog calculates the shortest route to people you know.
Welcome to People DNS.
MyBlogLog Contacts: New, Improved and Un-limited!
Today we released a better way to manage your contacts on MyBlogLog. Click on the add/manage link below your Contacts to see the new screens. It's pretty straightforward. If someone adds you as a contact, they will show up on the "Pending" tab. You have the choice to then add them as a mutual contact, keep them as a "Follower" or "Block" them and never hear from them again.
Those of you who have asked for a way to quickly sift through your list of "admirers" (now called "followers"), your prayers have been answered. Hit your MyBlogLog profile page and up top you'll see notification of how many pending contact requests you have waiting. Now you can sort through that list, friend those you like, block out any spammers, and help clean up your neighborhood. The better your Contact list, the better the signal on the stuff you see in your New with My Neighborhood page.
Because there is a better way to control your Contacts and you've always been able to limit who can leave you messages (just your contacts, or everyone), we've lifted the 15 contact requests/day limit. Yay!
So take this opportunity to clear out your Pending Contact list. We've got something really kick ass in the queue and it'll be even better if you clear the plate now so you can see how it works.
Yahoo Answers, Google Reader, and Seesmic added to MyBlogLog Lifestream
We just set loose a new batch of gophers that will now go out and pull in your updates from Yahoo Answers, Google Reader, and the hot new micro-video startup, Seesmic.
Specifically, whenever you:
- post a question to Yahoo Answers
- share an item on Google Reader
- post a video on Seesmic
MyBlogLog will post those events and make them part of your New with Me page.
If you have shared your Service IDs in your Profile, the updates should start showing up. If you haven't added your Answers, Reader, or Seesmic IDs, whaddya waiting for? While you're there, check out the Find My Other Services button - it's a pretty neat trick.
As usual, if you notice anything odd or unruly, drop us a line.
UPDATE: Stuff already updating. For example, check out Cathy Brooks' page for Seesmic, Mani Kumar's page for Google Reader, and Santanu Chatterjee's page for Yahoo Answers updates.
Add Services Shortcut, a new service from the Keystroke Conservation Front
The Services tab on your profile can be daunting at first. With almost 50 services to date, it's a pain to think of all the profile IDs that you'll need to enter just to fill out your profile and reach Profile Zen.
Today we made it a little easier for you.
Most people use the same handle for all of their accounts. If you've either updated your default profile url or entered two or more Service IDs, our script monkeys will go out and ping all the services to see your handle exists on any of the other services so you can add them all with a single click.
Make sure it's you though - this service works great for folks like Rocking April but less so for the John Smiths out there.
MyBlogLog and OpenID
Starting now you can use your MyBlogLog profile URL to login to any site that supports OpenID. Visit the Yahoo Open ID site to learn how.
For those of you with big, long fugly default urls, visit the Change your Profile page to pick something short and sweet and get one step closer to Profile Zen.
Why would you do this?
Let's say you come across a site that accepts OpenID for authenticated comments. You can use your MyBlogLog profile here so anyone wanting to click through and learn more about you will go to your MyBlogLog page and see all your blogs and latest updates on your New with Me page.
Many thanks to Shreyas Doshi, Allen Tom and the Yahoo Membership team on helping make this happen.
UPDATE: Once you add your MyBlogLog profile URL to the list, you don't need to use your entire profile URL. Just type "mybloglog.com" and we'll take it from there.
MyBlogLog hCard & vCard: More Microformats, More Portable Data
Those of you that follow MyBlogLog on Twitter got an early preview of a new feature the MyBlogLog team rolled out today. (To badly paraphrase Ferris Bueller, "If you aren't on Twitter, I highly recommend setting an account up. It is so choice.")
So, what's new? MyBlogLog has added the ability to quickly add your contacts and other MyBlogLog members to your address book. Simply click the new hCard or vCard icon that is displayed on each member's profile page (see screen shot at right) to get started.
So, why two icons? Today, most users will likely want a standard vCard -- the white icon on the left. This should automatically open your default address book application (Outlook, Thunderbird, Address Book on Mac, etc.) and prompt you to add the new contact.
Many advanced users have setup custom processing in their browser for hCards and will prefer to use that format -- linked by the green icon on the right.
What's more, hCard is a microformat. Like the other microformats we have added to MyBlogLog recently -- XFN and Rel=me -- hCard makes it easier for members to use their MyBlogLog information at other services around the internet. As the hCard wiki entry says, "hCard enables applications to retrieve information directly from web pages without having to reference a separate file."
But wait, their more... The MyBlogLog team has incorporated member's privacy settings directly into the hCards/vCards. If a member chooses to share their email address and phone number only with their contacts, the information will only be included on the hCard/vCard when clicked on by their contacts. Everyone else (and other services online) will only receive the public information the member has shared.
Finally, the team wants to thank Chris Messina for his continued help in getting MyBlogLog microformatized (new word?) and even more open. You rock!
@MyBlogLog on Twitter
MyBlogLog is about connecting to people, where ever they may be. When we took a look at the number of you who have added your twitter account to your profile, it was obvious that this was an important channel for communication. We all have our own accounts but we felt it's important to have a unified voice for the product.
To let you know we're here, we've added a script to follow everyone that adds their twitter account to their MyBlogLog profile. Some have wondered if we're a bot but I assure you, it's nothing that fancy. Just a few blokes trying a little experiment.
You can follow us on twitter.com/mybloglog for occasional updates. We'll use this channel to let you know when we've got something special to announce or the occasional tidbit or shout out. We'll also reserve this as a Bat Phone should something go wonky on the site and we need to keep you posted.
All of us at MyBlogLog HQ will be watching this account if any of you want to contact us via this channel. We'll do our best to get back to you but I can't promise immediate responses (we do sleep sometimes) but if you have a quick question or comment, try us out.
As always, if you have a detailed question, please check our FAQs first or the Contact form where we'll be more disciplined about getting back to you.
See you on the 140-character web!
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