Yoono Community

Today we’re launching great new versions of Yoono  – 7.1 for Firefox and 1.6 for Windows, Mac, and (new!) Linux! Yoono is approaching 3.7 million downloads and our most recent release doubled our already substantial average daily usage per user metric.  We are excited to continue that great momentum with these releases.

The major new feature with these releases is the addition of multi-column view in both our add-on and desktop versions.  We think the add-on version is pretty innovative, displaying columns in their own browser tab that doesn’t get in the way of your browsing but allows easy access within your browser.  In our desktop version, the integration of a mini browser that allows you to view links in your stream and easily share them set it apart as a social media browsing tool versus other desktop clients.  For those who prefer single column view, don’t worry!  We’ve left our single column mode in tact and you can access everything you need in single column.  So you have the best of both worlds and can use Yoono in whichever way suits you.

We also wanted to share some public stats that we’re really excited about.  The key takeaway?  If you love Yoono, you’re not alone – we’ve grown dramatically in the last 6 months and our goal is to accelerate that growth even more in 2010 by making our product even better.  Here’s a few stats:

• In the Firefox add-ons directory, Yoono gets more downloads per week (~50K) than the StumbleUpon, Facebook, and Digg toolbars combined – that data is publicly available in the Firefox Add-ons directory

As for what’s coming next, we are actively working on expanding Yoono to new platforms – iPhone/iPod touch/iPad being the top priority as well as working with Google on an extension for Chrome.  In addition, we’ll be expanding our supported networks to include Google Buzz, YouTube, Yammer, and Facebook Chat in the near future.  Have something you’d like to see in Yoono?  Tell us here.

Finally, a special thanks to all of our users who enthusiastically tested our beta versions – you gave us some great feedback!  We’ve taken much of it into account in the final versions of Yoono 7.1 for firefox and Yoono Desktop 1.6 beta for Windows, Mac and Linux.  We’ve also got a lot of feedback to consider for future releases so thanks again – you guys are awesome.

Enjoy!

The Yoono Team

Today, we’re pleased to announce the next version of Yoono Desktop with some exciting new features! Please keep in mind, we’re only releasing the public beta of version 1.6 and the final version will be out shortly but we’re so excited about the enhancements to this version that we just could just couldn’t wait to share it with you!

Yoono Desktop 1.6 w/ Multi-Column View

What’s New in Yoono Desktop 1.6 Beta:

• Multi-Column Support (An easier way to keep track of what matters to you across multiple networks without clicking around)
• Improved UI Elements and usability (Small tweaks and changes that improve the experience and overall usability for new and existing users)
• Linux Support (For the first time, you can run Yoono Desktop on your Linux powered computer natively)
• Performance Improvements (Each version of Yoono runs faster and smoother on older computers. This version is no different)
• Changes to how we connect to LinkedIN that improve security and reduce connection issues
• By popular demand, the old style retweet is now available again (Look for “Edit and Retweet” in the “more” section of the update)
• Easier controls for viewing unread updates and marking all updates as read or clearing all updates for a clean slate

We’re pleased to share this with the community and hope you’ll provide us with feedback so we can continue to improve all of our applications. Yoono Desktop is a free download and available via the links below.

Yoono Desktop 1.6 Beta for Windows

Yoono Desktop 1.6 Beta for Mac OS X

Yoono Desktop 1.6 Beta for Linux

Yoono Desktop Portable (USB)

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For News & Updates on Yoono, be sure to connect with us via the networks below:

• Twitter
• Facebook

Update: We’ve released Beta 2 of version 7.1. This is a public build and further enhances the next version of Yoono with bug fixes and changes based on the feedback from the community. You can download Beta 2 here: Download Here

Looking back at the last 12 months at Yoono it is clear that we have had a phenomenal year. Our product has evolved and changed quite a bit in this timeframe. We released Version 7 last month and have since pushed out 9 small updates with bug fixes and enhancements in response to community feedback. Since version 7 was released, we’ve been hard at work on 7.1 because we couldn’t fit everything in version 7 on time and there are so many great ideas that we want to implement.

Aside from small tweaks and a few enhancements, the killer feature in version 7.1 is a new multi-column view. The new feature enables you to be in more than one place at once (figuratively of course) and have a handle on what everyone is doing without clicking around in a single-column orientation. From our blog post announcing this feature last week:

multi-column clients allow you to set up a series of vertical columns all viewable simultaneously and displaying things like all your Twitter mentions, Direct Messages, or the results for a particular Twitter search term.  The effect is one of a social media “dashboard” that gives you at-a-glance access to a lot of data flowing through your real time social stream.

We’re incredibly excited to be including this feature in our next release. The feature is mostly aimed at power users who want access to many data points without changing gears (clicking various tabs in Yoono) but you can opt to turn on multi-column by simply clicking a dedicated button at the bottom of the Firefox Add-On.

The small column-esque button turns your browser view into an array of columns and you have full customization options to display Twitter & Facebook side by side or a saved Twitter Search. AIM gets its own column and so does Flickr. In a basic configuration of Yoono with all 10 of our services added, there are 1,681 different configuration options available to you and this is pretty monumental because, prior to version 7.1, you only had 1 option to customize how Yoono displays data.

The same feature will be included in the next version of Yoono Desktop which is a cross-platform version of Yoono for Mac & PC. Yoono Desktop will be ready for Linux very soon and will also include multi-column support.

DOWNLOAD INFO:

We are only accepting 5,000 beta users at this time. I don’t have an ETA on when this will be released to the public but you can try Yoono 7.1 Beta 2 today via our Mozilla Add-Ons Page. Alternatively, simply click HERE to download the add-on for Mozilla Firefox.

In case you didn’t hear the news (how could you have missed it amongst all the CES announcements last week??!), Yoono was honored to be a launch partner in the Intel AppUp app store for netbooks! You can read the official Intel press release here.  As part of the Intel Atom Developer’s Program, we were excited to be approached by Intel about making our app work for the AppUp store and of course even more excited to be selected from hundreds of applications to be a launch partner at CES.  Yoono was mentioned during Paul Otellini’s CES Keynote on Thursday and was featured in the Intel booth at CES.  The AppUp store launch was picked up by major press outlets such as the New York Times as well as the Tech Blogs such as VentureBeat, Engadget and Mashable, among others.  Look for more announcements about the AppUp store from Intel in the coming months.

For Yoono, the Intel AppUp store is a great new distribution channel that allows us to reach the large and rapidly growing netbook user base with our all-in-on social media app.  The support from the Intel team has been amazing and we consider ourselves very lucky to be one of a handful featured apps (and one of only 2 mentioned in the keynote!).  We think Yoono’s slim form factor and resource usage make it a great fit for the netbook platform – if you have a netbook, check it out!

Here are a few pictures, a short video clip taken by our very own Regan Fletcher during the keynote, and Regan on Yoono joining the Intel Atom Developers Program:

Title at the top says it all, don’t you think?

Yoono on the netbooks at the Netbook Kiosk in the Intel booth:


Amateur auteur and Yoono employee Regan Fletcher’s video of Otellini’s keynote:

Regan on participating in the Intel Atom Developer’s program:

One of the features that we’ve debated at great length internally is support for a multi-column view similar to what you see on many Twitter focused clients.  For those not familiar (which I suspect will be few who are reading this blog!), multi-column clients allow you to set up a series of vertical columns all viewable simultaneously and displaying things like all your Twitter mentions, Direct Messages, or the results for a particular Twitter search term.  The effect is one of a social media “dashboard” that gives you at-a-glace access to a lot of data flowing through your real time social stream.

One of the key reasons we have not implemented this feature sooner is that this multi-column view has in our estimation been largely a “power user” view and we didn’t want it to over-complicate the new user experience for most users.  While we still believe there is some truth in that view, we also are not ones to ignore user feedback or the general direction of the market for real time social stream applications.  Given this, we’ll shortly be launching multi-column support aka “dashboard view” for both our Firefox add-on and our Yoono Desktop clients.  We’ve been playing around with it internally and if you’re a fan of the dashboard view we think you’re going to love it!  We’ll get it to you as soon as possible and then listen carefully to your feedback to make it better.  Here’s a preview (Desktop version):

A key point is we haven’t changed our integrated single column view, which we believe is the best in the business, to accomodate multi-column.  Single column remains the default but multi-column will be an option so that  effectively you get the best of both worlds depending on your preference.  With unique features like support for multiple Facebook and MySpace accounts (not just Twitter like most clients), support for instant messaging columns, and browser integration on both Yoono for Firefox (obviously!) and Yoono Desktop, we think you’ll find it innovative and more importantly very easy to use.

Stay tuned!

The Yoono Team

The 2nd annual AddonCon takes place next month at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. AddonCon is the only conference designed specifically for people who build and market browser add-ons. Organized by members of the add‐on community, this conference brings together platform vendors, developers and marketers, with the goal of facilitating communication, and sharing knowledge.

Yoono is proud to be a sponsor of this one day conference. We’re organizing a showcase of great add-ons and we need your help: we’re searching for developers of “sandbox” or “experimental” add-ons so we can give them exposure to representatives from Firefox, IE and Chrome. These sandbox developers will be given the opportunity to present their add-on during the first segment of the conference, as well as a 50% discount to the entire event.

You can apply by emailing your name, name of your add-on and a one-line description of it to rfletcher@yoono.com

Are you interested in attending Add-On-Con? Click here to purchase a ticket and use the code, “AddonCon09″ to save $50 off the ticket price!

By popular demand we have created a version of Yoono Desktop that runs off of a USB storage drive.  Take Yoono with you and run it anywhere you go without having to download and install it on new machines.  You can get it here (both Windows and Mac versions are included in the zip file):

Yoono Desktop Portable Version

To use this version, simply unzip the download directly on your USB drive and then launch the version of the product (Windows or Mac) that you want to run.  When you get to the Yoono set up screen you can sign in if you are an existing registered Yoono user or just set up your services  (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, AIM, etc.) as you normally would.

Note: To avoid data corruption, it is best to close Yoono before you disconnect your USB drive.

Check it out and let us know what you think.  In the meantime we’ll get back to work on the next Yoono release – it’s going to be awesome!

Hi everyone! 

Our friends over at Social Media Blog Mashable.com just announced their 2009 Open Web Awards and they’re looking for nominees.  You know where this is going, don’t you?  We’d love for you to nominate Yoono  because, as you know, it’s the best way to stay connected to your friends, discover great content and share it across all your networks at once!

How can you help? Simply head over to the 2009 Open Web Awards website and nominate Yoono! We spent some time looking through the categories and feel that “Best Social Media Gadget” is the most appropriate category for us.  Here’s how to help us out:

Steps to Nominate Yoono:

• Head to Mashable’s OWA page for Best Social Media Gadget
• Connect with Twitter or Facebook
• Cast your vote for Yoono!  You can nominate us once a day every day (through Nov 15th) if you want to!

That’s all you have to do.  The top 5 nominees in each category will then be finalists that will be voted on by the Mashable community to determine winners.  Thanks a lot for your support.

Team Yoono

I wanted to share with you that we have released a small update to Yoono for Firefox. Version 6.2.1 is now available on our website. This version does not have any new features but it may resolve some minor issues that a few users are having involving connectivity to Facebook & Twitter.

This update is recommended for all users and it takes only seconds to install. Please let us know via our Support Forums or Twitter if you have any feedback after updating to 6.2.1. Thank you!

Download 6.2.1 for Mozilla Firefox (Mac or PC)

Please Note: Yoono Desktop for Mac & PC will be receiving an update as well with these fixes. It should be available shortly. Yoono desktop auto-checks for updates at launch so you don’t have to manually download it.