Yoono Community

About a month ago now we announced the most significant update to Yoono since releasing version 5 over a year ago. In the past month, we’ve continued to improve product based on your valued feedback via our support community (link to GS) and Twitter (@Yoono). Today, we’re announcing Yoono 6.1 which will polish the experience with new features, usability improvements and bug fixes. Additionally, we’re excited to announce a partnership with real-time search engine, OneRiot.

OneRiot and Yoono are a great example of two technologies that work perfectly together to enhance the user experience. Yoono is about delivering your realtime social stream to you wherever you are on the web. OneRiot is about helping users find the pulse of the realtime web. By crawling the links people share on Twitter, Digg and other social sharing services, then indexing the content on those pages in seconds, OneRiot delivers search results that reflect what our friends and other people are talking about, sharing and looking at. And of course with Yoono it’s easy to share your OneRiot discoveries across all you social networks at once! We’re excited to have OneRiot as a part of Yoono’s seamless experience connecting users to the realtime social web.

There are a few other features that we think you’ll find highly rewarding in Yoono 6.1. First of all, we’ve updated the user interface of Yoono to maximize vertical screen real estate and improve usability (and of course to make it look even cooler). The changes are subtle but we think the new look is simple and clean and will have you saying, “wow!”

Additionally, there are some usability improvements that just make sense based on user feedback (and btw, thanks for all the awesome feedback so far!). Highlighting my favorite, prior to version 6.1, new updates would automatically scroll your updates list even if you were in the middle of reading an update or sending a reply, causing you to “lose your place” in the stream. Now, if you’re not at the top of your updates list, a notification will politely appear at the top of the updates section notifying you how many new updates are available. A simple click will refresh the list of updates. This minor tweak makes a big difference to daily usability.

Finally, the Discovery Widget in Firefox 3.5 (which will hopefully be shipping in final form soon!) now supports private browsing (discoveries will not be pulled when in Private browsing mode) which should be a welcome benefit to users. This stuff plus myriad bug fixes, tweaks and minor updates that will improve your happiness, make Yoono even easier to use and solve some of the issues you’ve been (kindly) telling us about. And of course we’re already hard at work on our next release! Enjoy!

We’ve received all of your feedback over the past week and we’re pleased to announce a small but very valuable update to Yoono. Below are the release notes. This add-on will be available via Yoono.com in just a few hours.

Yoono Version 6.0 includes numerous improvements and new features. A partial list of upgrades include:

- Redesigned Friends widget interface to make the product easier to use
- Fixes for connection problems to Facebook, Twitter, and IM services
- Support for new Facebook OpenStream API > new update types, see comments (add comments directly in the sidebar coming soon!), improved reliability
- Twitter improvements – see Mentions and Direct Messages separately, easily retweet
- New share feature that allows you to share links, images, videos and text from the webpage you’re viewing across all your social networks
- IM improvements – add and remove contacts, see your groups, update your status separately for each IM service
- Discovery Links feature that allows you to select text on a page and instantly access Yoono Discoveries
- Registration with Yoono no longer required (optional)
- Improved performance and stability; reduced app size

Version 6.0.1 adds some minor bug fixes as well as:

- Facebook comments can be added directly in the Yoono sidebar
- Facebook comment threads (see more comments) can be expanded directly in the sidebar
- “I like” support for Facebook
- Twitpic links on Twitter show a preview image in the sidebar
- Unfollow capability for Twitter users

Visit the all new www.yoono.com for more information!

Today we are excited to launch Yoono 6.0, a huge upgrade to our product!  If you’re already a Yoono user, we’re confident you’re going to be very happy with the upgrade and if you’re a new Yoono user you’re going to find it much much easier to get started and begin enjoying having all your social networks and IM services in one easy to use sidebar.  As much as we’d like to, we’re not going to exhaustively list every new feature and improvement in v6.0 but we do want to highlight some of the key updates:

• Simplified and improved user interface –   we’ve heard your feedback and made Yoono better looking and most importantly easier to use

• Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace improvements – new, better connection solutions for your services, more types of updates supported, retweet, mentions (@replies) and direct message support for Twitter and much more

• Sharing awesomeness – easily select and share links, images, and videos from the page you are viewing on Facebook, Twitter and more – simultaneously

• Tons of IM improvements – fixes to connectivity problems experienced by some users, add or remove contacts, set your status for each instant messaging service separately and much more

• Discovery Links – highlights or lets you select words on the page you’re viewing to easily access and share related websites, images, videos and more

You may have also noticed that we’ve completely redesigned and relaunched yoono.com as well – let us know what you think via the Feedback tab you’ll see on the right hand side of the website! You can find more information about the features listed above and other enhancements by clicking on the Features tab on yoono.com.

As part of this update to the website, we have also redesigned our customer support process to make it easier for you to find the help you need.  To get help, click on the Help tab and you’ll see a list of frequently asked questions.  If you don’t see your particular question, you can easily search our database of questions powered by Get Satisfaction or ask us a question on our Get Satisfaction page.  We promise to answer promptly!

But enough talking about it – if you haven’t already, please check out Yoono 6.0 here and let us know what you think.  We’re already hard at work on our next update and would love to get your feedback to incorporate!  More to come on this important release, including new screencasts highlighting how to get started and use some of Yoono’s key features.

The Yoono Team

We’re launching a very big update to our website in a few short days so I wanted to simply say that the blog may look and act a bit weird for a days as we transition to a new website.

We have some very big changes coming shortly and changing the wordpress theme to a simplified look & feel will help us in this transition time. Thanks for your patience.

.

.

.

South by Southwest is this week. It’s already started in Austin, TX but my favorite part which is the Interactive leg of the conference kicks off this Friday (The 13th). A tech and web conference means that there will be HUNDREDS of parties / events around the event. Every year, more and more parties happen and each year all of them are completely packed with people. I’m excited to announce a simple but useful calendar that can help you keep all of this under control.

.

You all know SocialCalendario has been around for nearly 5 months and has helped bay area tech fans find all of the parties without digging through dozens of party lists. Well, I decided to spend an hour a day for the last 4 weeks collecting SXSW parties and I’ve added over 300 parties to the calendar between the 12th-18th of this month and all of them take place in Austin Texas. I noticed that there weren’t any tech parties taking place in San Francisco this week so I spent the last 12 hours today compiling these SXSW parties onto my calendar. I hope you enjoy!

.

Check out SocialCalendario SXSW 2009 Events List!

.

Download the List to Outlook, Entourage, Google Calendar and Apple iCal

.

Subscribe to The SXSW Party List via RSS

.

.

We’re super excited to announce the launch of our completely redesigned Discoveries widget in Yoono version 5.4.  We’ve taken your feedback (much appreciated, as always) and the team has been working really hard on this update – we think you’re going to really like it!  The new Discoveries widget really makes exploring the web so much more fun.  Maybe too much fun – you may find yourself doing so much exploring that your productivity at work suffers…so use with extreme caution, especially in today’s economic climate.

.

So what’s new?  Yoono Discoveries now recommends related websites, news, videos, products, images and more – all in one sidebar panel!

.

♦ Content You Love – Great recommendations for related content from Yoono and trusted partners like Google, Amazon, eBay and more.

.

♦ Easy to Use – Simply browse the web and watch discoveries automatically update or enter your own search directly in the sidebar.

.

♦ Everything You Need – Get related websites, news, blog posts, videos, images, products, wikipedia entries, Google searches, product reviews, and social network posts, all based on the site your are viewing or a search term you’ve entered in the Discoveries search box.

.
The update is available now and can be downloaded at the Mozilla Add-Ons Page. We’re always listening and always improving our product so leave us feedback on Twitter or in the comments below.  And stay tuned for more great stuff in the very near future.

.

The Yoono Team

.

We’ve tallied up the votes and contacted the winners. Of course everyone is a winner so if you didn’t qualify for one of our three prizes, you still get a Yoono t-shirt and some stickers. We’re so excited to have so many talented artists using Yoono. Thanks to everyone who submitted their skins.

I’ll be announcing the winners sometime next week. Stay tuned.

First off, let me introduce myself.  My name is Todd Pringle and I joined Yoono in December of 2008.  My background is in product marketing/product management and I was brought onboard to help Yoono do three things:

.

1. Make the product GREAT.
2. Continue to grow our user base.
3. Help build the Yoono business.

.

I’m really excited about tackling all three of these challenges.  As someone who considers himself a “product guy”, helping to turn a really good Yoono product into a great product is particularly exciting to me.  Great products aren’t easy to create.  They take skill, discipline, hard work, a willingness to listen to users, and a great team.  I believe Yoono has these attributes in its DNA and in 2009 we are going to be better than ever on all these dimensions.

.

So where are we headed with the product in 2009?  Before we answer that question it’s probably useful to talk a bit about what I’ve been up to in the time I’ve been at Yoono.    We’ve been reading every bit of feedback we can find from users – in the Mozilla add ons directory, in the IE add ons directory, in direct email to Yoono, in the Twittersphere, the Blogosphere and more.  We’ve run focus groups.   I’ve talked to our founders and everyone in the company.  I’ve personally been getting friends to use the product.  And of course I’ve been using the product myself every day, all day.    What have I learned about our product?  Well quite a bit but a few things in particular stand out: .

.

• Our product can benefit significantly from a “less is more” approach that focuses on our core value propositions.
• We have some great opportunities to improve ease of use with some low effort changes.
• Some of our best features can be made more discoverable to users.
• We can simplify the process of getting started using Yoono to benefit new users.
• We have a large group of folks who clearly LOVE the product.

.

Given this, a large part of our 2009 product roadmap will be dedicated to simplification and focus.  We’re going to take the features that users love the most and we’re going to make them great.  The things that users aren’t as excited about or don’t fall into our core focus will likely go away or be greatly de-emphasized.  Some users will undoubtedly miss some of the things that will go away, however rest assured that we will make these choices carefully, with both new and existing users in mind, and all with the intent of making the things you care about most work flawlessly.  It’s also worth mentioning that we’ll continue to improve the basics – performance, stability, and reliable connectivity to your services.  So which areas are we going to be focused on? .

.

Social Aggregation

A fancy way of saying our Friends feature which allows you to centralize all your social networks and IM services.  We’re going to make Yoono the easiest, most powerful way to stay connected to your friends wherever you are on the web. .

.

Discovery

Our discovery functionality that allows you to get personalized recommendations for related websites, products, videos, and more is going to get a MAJOR facelift in 2009 and I think you’re going to be blown away by it.  I’m using it right now and it is super cool. .

.

Sharing

We’re going to make it dead simple to share anything you want with your friends on your social networks. Wherever you are on the web, whatever you want to share – links, images, videos – you’ll have one consistent and simple way to share across all your social networks.  It’s the bridge between Social Aggregation and Discovery.

. .

How are we going to do all this?  Well that’s a subject for another post.  Stay tuned. .

.

Todd

We’ve had a lot on our plate lately making Yoono even better but I wanted to take a chance to highlight the best skin submissions and allow our users to vote for their favorites. We’ve assembled a panel of judges who will have the final say on the winning skins but we wanted to make this a community effort and get your input as well.

Head over to our Flickr Set and a comment counts as a vote. You may only vote once. Thanks to all of the talented designers who submitted their skins.

VOTE NOW!

In the coming weeks Yoono users will, in addition to new features, begin to see advertising within the Yoono product.  It’s always a challenge for companies to strike the right balance between making money and providing a great user experience and it won’t be easy for us either.  That said, we wanted to use this blog post to do a couple things, namely:

1. Give our users a heads up that ads are coming
2. Communicate our goals for advertising within Yoono
3. Make sure there is an open channel between you, our loyal users, and Yoono on the topic of advertising and monetization more generally

Since 1. has already been accomplished in the preceding sentences, let’s talk about 2.  Why are we putting ads in the product now and what do we want to accomplish?  The most obvious answer is of course to make money so we can continue providing great products.  During 2009 we’ll be experimenting with several different ways to generate revenue and advertising will just be one of those ways.  With advertising in particular, we would like to:

 

• Provide relevant ads that are contextual to your browsing behavior.  This would be done by matching ads to keywords on the page you are viewing.
• Be as unintrusive as possible – we don’t want to get in the way of a great user experience.
• Be flexible – adjust our approach based on what’s working and what isn’t as well as direct user feedback.

These things sound relatively simple but in practice they are not easy.  In particular it’s likely that early on our ads may not be contextual and thus their relevance may be hit and miss.  Rest assured we’ll be working to improve relevance over time as it’s in the best interest of both our users and Yoono.  If you have questions or suggestions, as always, we’d love to hear them – shoot us an email at support@yoono.com anytime.

Thanks again for using Yoono!

The Yoono Team