25 posts tagged “social”

Social search is still in unmarked territory, as no single winner has been crowned for their attempts with semantics, online behavior, and human power. But there are those out there that are determined to make it happen, and I very much enjoy exploring new ways to search and discover, based on a number of associations brought about by every new technique that emerges.  Here is Part II of the Niche Search series, profiling Prefound and Searchbots .

Read Part I here.

Prefound

Prefound is a site that has amassed its users searches and provides their previous experience to help your new search flourish.  It's a human-powered search in the sense that it relies on the community to organize search results on a given query.  They are basing your search on other's experience to give you something more relevant than a crawler can find.  Until technology has formed an artificial intelligence to match that of human intellect, human-influenced experience will continue to drive many in the social search realm.

Searchbots

Searchbots has been a project (work in progress) for some time now, and has taken the act of search and turned it into a bit of a game.  Your Searchbot is a personal buddy that will tailor its search results to fit your needs.  It's dynamic in its interactions, so the more information you feed it, the more relevant your search results become.  The bot's battery life will actually get low if you don't feed it with more info!  You can search by mood, color, keyword, and all sorts of things.  The search becomes tangential in this regard, as it incorporates a bit of StumbleUpon tactics and betters its results based on your reaction to a given website it has provided.  Not to mention, you can customize the look of your little Searchbot.

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With the extreme popularity of Twitter, and the talk of how it should be acquired soon, it only makes sense that similar services emerge and gain traction as well.  Jaiku is Twitter's most relevant rival, and I can clearly see why.  I first mentioned Jaiku here, as an offering to those looking for a Twitter alternative. My favorite aspect of Jaiku is the ease with which any feed can be added to your account, for your own purposes as well as your friends'.   And with Jaiku's growing buzz in the blogosphere, I'm happy to have had a chance to catch up with Jaiku's co-founder Jyri Engestrom .

How did Jaiku come about?

In 2006 the two founders - Jyri Engestrom and Petteri Koponen -realized we both wanted a better way to share what we were doing in real life with our friends online. Although we spent a lot of time on blogs and Web services built by our friends, like Flickr, we felt they were too cumbersome to update and difficult to read on our mobile phones. We decided to make a service that regular people would use every day, that was quicker to update on the go and would enable all of us to see what our family members, friends, and colleagues were doing simply by glancing at our handset.

Last summer we met Mika Raento and Teemu Kurppa, two talented mobile developers who shared our passion to bring people closer together by enabling them to share their presence on phones. Mika had already written pretty ingenious code for Symbian phones, that solved some the hardest technical problems related to always-on client-server communication (such as power consumption) as part of his PhD studies. Teemu was one of the key developers in Nokia's Core Applications team, where he had written parts of the Calendar and other core Nokia applications. With Mika and Teemu on board, we decided to build a mobile client and a Jabber back-end for Jaiku.

Later in 2006, we raised seed funding and hired two great Web developers: Andy Smith from Flock, and Juha Törönen, who joined us from the leading Helsinki Web design company. With Andy and Juha we started developing the Web components, support for text messaging, and the ability to embed RSS feeds from other services to your stream of Jaikus. We put an early beta version out quietly last year, and formally launched Jaiku at the O'Reilly ETel conference in March this year.

Where do you see online behavioral trends going, considering your service really allows for the constant updating of user behavior?

We believe that online social behavior as a whole is moving towards groups who are in a state of constant connectedness. This means shorter, more frequent, more personal updates that assume the recipients already know a lot about the sender and context of the message. The amount of communication increases but it contains less noise because we know more about the context of our peers. For example, in trials of the early research prototype of Jaiku Mobile, the amount of missed calls between the users dropped by about 15 percentage points, because on Jaiku the caller can see when the recipient is busy already before they try to reach them.

Just as a recap, the posts on Jaiku are simply called Jaikus. They are shorter than blog posts. Because their content is usually about what you're doing, how you're feeling, or where you're going right now, their value typically also degrades more quickly over time. On many Web services the interval between new updates from a user is a day or more, but on Jaiku the updates are more frequent. When you browse the profiles of Jaiku members, you'll notice that a Jaiku that was posted an hour ago can already be outdated by several newer ones. The content of Jaikus is also often more personal than on blogs. Although many share their Jaikus publicly, a lot of people prefer to share them privately with their friends.

Oh, and a short digression on the name: We came up with the name Jaiku because the posts on Jaiku resemble Japanese haikus. A haiku is a short poem about the moment that a person is living through even as they are writing it down. In Finland too the nomadic Lapp people share stories by singing Joikus. We liked the name Jaiku mainly because it had a fun sound to it. Those who want can also read in it a little reminder that actually the need we're addressing isn't anything new. The basic desire to tell others what you're up to, and have a sense of what they're doing, has been around forever and in all cultures.

Jaiku can really be seen as an aggregator as well as a distributor of personal information.  What are the main directives you were aiming for with Jaiku?

Our general aim is to bring people closer together by enabling them to share their presence (what they're doing, how they're feeling, where they're going). Jyri calls this social peripheral vision: the ability to have your finger on the pulse of your friends, family, and colleagues. Once you know what the people you care about are up to, you notice opportunities for social interaction that you would probably otherwise miss. Even just the simple knowledge that your loved ones are ok can have a lot of emotional value in an increasingly unstable world.

We think our key discovery has been to find an interaction model for posting and commenting across different channels. Jaiku posts can include embedded media like icons and photos. The service supports threaded conversation, and works smoothly from Web, to IM, to SMS, and clients. It integrates automatic updates like changes in your location, availability, etc. from the phone with Web feeds and manually posted Jaikus.

Our accomplishment especially on the mobile has been to bring the contact list to life. Presence information can be used to turn static, "dead" contact lists into dynamic, live ones. Some of our users have remarked that Jaiku Mobile makes the traditional S60 phone book obsolete. Once you start using   live contact list and seeing what your friends are up to, it can feel pretty lame to return to using a standard phone. It's exciting to imagine how presence information from Jaiku would enrich other Web services and desktop applications.

How is communication facilitated between users? Can you get a feed of someone else's Jaikus, or even a feed of your own Jaikus?

You can get feeds of your own and other people's Jaikus in RSS and Atom format, or using our APIs. In a few weeks, you can also use your IM client t  follow your Jaiku contacts and post new Jaikus.

Also, the next release of Jaiku Mobile for both S60 and Java phones will display the Jaikus from your contacts and support commenting. Commenting has become a central part of the service, so making that work smoothly across all clients is very important to us at the moment.

You've recently introduced your beta version for the Nokia S60.  How's that going so far?

Starting with S60 was a conscious decision for us. It was the best platform for developing an application that enabled people to share their presence from their phone on the Web. There are over 100 million Nokia S60 handsets out there,  and we knew we could do something that most people though  was impossible. We're now working on a Java version that is compatible with a lot more handsets. It is currently in private beta.

That said, our interest is not to monopolize the clients. Rather, our vision from the start has been to use open protocols like Jabber and develop APIs so it'll be easy for other people to write clients and connect their own Web services to Jaiku. Large chuncks of the S60 client have been open-source  and we're going to continue contributing to relevant open source projects. We think it'd be cool if in the future people could also write their own visualizations etc. for mobile handsets in e.g. Flash or Python using our client APIs.

Did you have to break a deal with Nokia in order to create this beta version?

Jaiku Mobile does not rely on any proprietary Nokia APIs - the nice part about Symbian and S60 is that it's much more open than just about any other major mobile platform. Aside from that, Nokia has shown a lot of positive interest in what we're doing, and we try to keep in as close touch as possible with our contacts there. One of our developers, Mika, was recently appointed a "Forum Nokia Champion" due to his pioneering work in building the Symbian development community. Quite a few Nokia employees are Jaiku users, and their feedback has been invaluable to us.

What complications did you have in creating a mobile application for Jaiku?

Making a back-end that can support mobile clients is a lot more complex than building your average Web site. It makes developing some features slower, but it's also a competitive advantage because we've solved some pretty hard problems that enable efficient client-server communication. On  the S60 side, porting for S60 3rd Edition took longer than we expected. We found quite a few bugs in the S60 platform and had to work our way around those.

What's next for Jaiku?

The next step is to open a developer section with documentation on how to use our APIs, so the independent developers who are working Jaiku desktop clients, making mashups, and developing mobile clients for other platforms get better support. This will be released by early April.

In addition to the APIs we plan to introduce a bunch of new features in the next couple of months. These include connectivity to existing IM services, a Java client, and support for groups. We've also been experimenting with media sharing and SMS notifications. Once the basic feature set is ready, we plan to start working with our local user communities to offer versions of Jaiku in different languages. We'll also be working to improve our integration with the coolest other online services.

   Here's an interesting niche social network that has been formed around July 7, 2007.  The date is significant to the 31,000 + couples getting married on this day, more than doubling the average for a summer Saturday wedding.  So there are two very interesting facts that have combined here: a huge surge in weddings for this lucky day, and an online community that is dedicated to it. WeddingPlanner777 has installed a Digg-like system to promote the most useful information to the top.  They also have journals (read: blog) and a directory of resources.

Of course there are a lot of questions to be raised, such as, what will they do once July 7th has passed?  We've seen an interesting increase in sites that are built for one purpose, such as countdowns or a movie premier.  WeddingPlanner777 is unique in that it's taken a highly sentimental aspect of life and provided a hub of resources for all those involved.

Below is my interview with Michael Moorefield of WeddingPlanner777.

Your site is dedicated to weddings that are to occur on 7/7/07.  What's the significance of this date, especially for weddings? 

July 7^th or 7/7/07,  is being called the most popular wedding day in history by industry professionals.  There are many reasons the date is so significant.  7’s are universally considered a lucky number, three 7’s on a slot machine usually wins the jackpot, 7 has rich religious and secular meanings as well.  Plus, the date falls on the first Saturday in July, which is traditionally one of the most popular wedding days of the year. 

USA Today recently reported that more than 31,000 couples getting married on the date are registered on TheKnot.com alone.  The average for a single summer Saturday is 12,000.

 
What's the story behind wedding777? 

Being so unique and so popular, the 7/7/07 date has created a lot of buzz in the media.  It’s kinda one of those novelty news items and it caught our attention.  As I was searching for more information on the date I quickly realized that the content is everywhere.  We recognized a need to find 777 wedding ideas and content more easily.  WeddingPlanner777.com is our attempt to help couples who share the date find and connect around this content in one central place.

 
Do you have to be getting married on July 7th, 2007 to participate and  gain value from wedding777?

No.  While the site is targeted towards the 7-7-07 date, a lot of the content pertains to weddings in general.  Since the site is targeted to 777 brides, the 777 content is going to be the most popular and therefore featured on the homepage.  But those who go beyond the first layer will find great ideas and content for weddings of any date. 

In fact, the community gains a great deal from non-777 users.  Those married before the date can share their experiences and advice with brides-to-be.  Those getting married after the date will benefit from the experiences of the 777 brides.

Wedding777 sets out to provide resources for couples getting married.  How did you decide on your main site functions like your "Ideas"  ranking system? 

With the popularity of the date and numerous wedding forums & communities online, 777 wedding content is scattered all over the web.  Many brides already have personal websites or online journals at popular sites like theknot.com, brides.com and others.  Our goal isn’t to compete with these sites, but to create a community where couples can connect around the great content that already exists.   

The ideas section is the center of our site, where users can submit and vote for relevant wedding content from around the web.  The feature works similar to digg.com where the highest rated content automatically moves to the top.  

 
How is the wedding industry responding to the 7/7/07 date, and how are  you addressing this response?

The date is so popular that the demand on products and services for that day has driven up prices.  By sharing information and resources within the community hopefully couples can save a few bucks.  The ideas section, for example, has links to some great do-it-yourself tips and planning checklists from industry professionals.

 
What will you do after 7/7/07? 

All wedding sites face the challenge of engaging the users after their wedding date.  Our challenge is unique since it focuses on a single date, but that niche will also work to our advantage.  I believe users will feel more connected to the site since they share something so special in common.  We plan to keep the focus on 7/7/07 couples even after the date. 

I think the users will give us a better idea of which direction to go as the date approaches.  Whether it involves releasing new features to the existing site or launching a sister site that caters to newlyweds and married life, much like theknot.com has done with thenest.com. 

 So what's next? 

Given that the date is rapidly approaching, we are constantly working to improve the site and its features.  We are working right now on revamping the homepage to increase the focus on the newest and most popular ideas and on the bride roll call.  We expect to launch the updated homepage very soon. 

We’re also working to create a standalone section for the bride roll call.  Right now it’s just a forum thread which limits the functionality.  The idea behind the roll call is to show just how popular and diverse the date is by asking all 7-7-07 couples to “sign” the list.  There are no official statistics on the number of couples getting married on this day, so the roll call is a simple way to see how large of a list we can create.   

The directory will likely be replaced with a “mall” section that features deals on relevant products and services.  We’ve had a good amount of interest from vendors and service providers who would like to reach our highly niche audience.  Instead of the general directory we’ve decided to take a more selective approach to our partners to ensure they offer a value to our audience.  We’re working to negotiate some exclusive offers for our users that are not available anywhere else. 

HomeAndTell is an online social network that creates neighborhoods for you to converse and share ideas, hopes, and desires regarding your home.  Need advice on where to find a certain product for your yard?  You can go to HomeAndTell to get the advice you need, see what other people are doing with their homes, and get ideas from real people.  While established companies and publications such as Better Homes & Gardens produces a magazine for home life, there is little interaction, and one can often feel as though they cannot relate to what's being shown in a magazine.  HomeAndTell aims to break down the barriers between people and offer a space for the sharing of home ideas from those that have experienced it, and are continuing to seek beauty within their environments.

See Allen's write up of HomeAndTell on CenterNetworks here.

I recently got a chance to chat with HomeAndTell co-founders Christine and Jay (very early one morning!).  Below is our interview.

What's the mission you have with HomeAndTell?

To be a place where everyone can share their home and everything they love about it. Their favorite furniture, or even the experience of buying ur first home, which is incidently how we started the idea.  We were looking through magazines and found we couldn't really relate to what they were showing, and we didn't know anybody who lived in places like that, and we felt like something was wrong there. There was nothing genuine. So we built on this, and felt that HomeAndTell could offer something more genuine and relatable.

How's that going?

We're excited. We have a lot of people on the board and contributing. We're diferentiating ourselves by being more open and warm, so we have a community manager that's been in the industry for 16 years, and she really makes sure we have a warm and homey feel.  In terms of how people are using the site, there's a ton of content on the neighborhood boards and people are excited about finding a place where they can connect. It's interesting when you look through the things people are posting; someone will showcase their house and people will ask about how something was built, or ask for advice. There's this interaction you can't get from a magazine. 

How are you going about making the site homier?

It's in the little things. How u invite people to do participate. We're analytical, so when we asked people to participate, it was very structured. But our community manager is really the voice of our website and delivers a particular message.  She delivers it in such a way that it really gets across to our demographic.
It's really through the way she's just warmed the site through the copy you read. It's like having a very helpful hostess that really makes you feel comfortable.  It adds to the type of service users get, and it attracts the crowd we want. We're going after the average person.

What are the key social components of HomeAndTell?

It's a great place for people to add ideas, and people's homes are unique, so it's really a reflection of who you are at that point in your life, and your environment is very important.  It has more meaning than just a roof and walls.

People can rate homes, and it's not just 1 - 5 stars. We didn't think that was appropriate. We want a positive environment. We have a lot of ways to comment.  We're looking to allow anyone to comment without registering.  They'll be able to ask advice and other questions. You can send private messages to another person. You can also rate neighborhoods.  we try to keep it simple. We don't want the technology to be the center of the site. 

We also have a home library section where we sell content that we've purchased for the site, and we really want to open that up to the community. We're going to be adding articles about us.
 
The interesting thing we'd like to build on is the ability to look for ideas.  When we get more content we'd like to be able to searach. For example, say you want to do something in your yard. Normally you'd surf the web or grab a magazine and look for ideas there. But once we get more content, you'll be able to do just that on HomeAndTell, for a very narrow search (weekend project for a certain price, etc.)

You're sort of taking the most enjoyable aspects of the home and putting them into an online social network.  How are you finding your users are taking advantage of the features you have at HomeAndTell?

It's what we'd hoped for.  People are asking questions and people that put the posts up are coming back and answering questions.  People are really proud of what they've done and they're very open. 

What features are you looking to add in the future?

We have a few ideas, but anything big we do will be based on what the community wants. We don't want to assume what they want.  I think we're going to do survey's to find out what people want.

MySpace will be launching a site as an aggregate of U.S. presidential hopefuls in an effort to raise political awareness for a demographic that is easily out of touch with much of what goes on in the world of politics.  MySpace Impact hopes to provide a channel for its users to promote political interaction, giving information on all those that are running for president '08 and even offering a 1-click payment option for donations and fund raising.
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Will MySpace have a great influence on voting next year?  Those running the political campaigns are very keen on leveraging social networks and dedicated blogs for furthering their reach.  As strange as it is to see Hillary Clinton's MySpace profile and Barak Obama on my friends list, it does provide a very simple way to stay abreast of what's going on.  Perhaps this could even facilitate better communication between political figures and the masses.

Here are some other sites worth mentioning that are using online networks for political purposes:

Open Congress
A political news aggregator of sorts, aims to make the process of passing bills more transparent for the public.  Their site truly facilitates communication around the very basics of political edification and will hopefully become a fixture for political review, especially with the upcoming elections.
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FirstGiving
Allows you to create a fund-raising tool to be placed on your personal website, blog, or social network profile to raise awareness and funds.  This personalization of fund-raising coupled with the integration of their widget with our growing online presence broadens the reach and effects of bringing political issues to the forefront. Their service offers a way for others to donate directly to you or your associated organization.  It's a great way to not only spread the word but to raise money for your cause.

Tipstrs is one of those sites that may slightly confuse you when you first happen upon their homepage; only in the sense that they have a liquid format that is flexing to the users' manifestation of the site.  That being said, their name says it all.  Tipstrs is for tips.  Whether you found something interesting on the web or have some knowledge you'd like to share with a general public, Tipstrs can be used as a bookmarking site or a place to share the wealth.  It's on its way to becoming a conglomerate of Internet features, like voting up the best content or searching for an answer about your favorite video game. 
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Rick Lansky launched Tipstrs at the beginning of the month, and recently took the time out to chat with me about his start-up.

What exactly is your service all about?  Are you like Digg for tips?

It occurred to me to you could combine the discovery of the social bookmarking sites with the ease of content generation found in other sites and if you did it well (remains to be seen), you could have it cover a very wide range of topics such that it would end up as a content repository… and you’d have to do this without overwhelming people. The result: tipstrs.

• It can be used to find information on a given subject.
• It can be used to poke around and find new and interesting things.
• It can be used to share your knowledge with the world.
• It can be used as a social bookmarking site.
• It can be used by people to promote their sites or products.
• It’s conceivable that it could even be used as a blog of sorts.

• The ability for users to enter limited HTML in their entries. 
• Further development related to discovery of new content. It’s currently based on the content itself and not the user. I may explore making this more personalized.
• Better search.
• If there tends to be usage that is related to geographical locations, perhaps a map-related mash-up.