We've moved the Google Bar!

We've moved the Google Bar!

After a few long meetings and sleepless nights, we've decided to move the Google Bar. Take a look at the video below to see how things will work with the new page. Let us know what you think!



PS - Try expanding the video to fullscreen so you can get the full effect.

Woah, Something Happened To Startlike!?

Woah, Something Happened To Startlike!?

As promised (and on schedule, I might add), we're rolling out the new Startlike design.

Everything you've grown to know and love is still here but we think the presentation is a lot cleaner. I mentioned last time that version one was kind of "thrown together" but after watching people use SL and reading all your comments, we have a better idea of what you want.

Outside of the general look and feel the most dramatic change is our switch to icon based navigation. Even though we have ideas for a ton of cool new features, we didn't forget that most people use SL because of the pictures and we think the icon navigation provides the same usability without detracting from our daily images. We've even included an icon legend below this posting to give you a jump start.

In addition to the original features, we've added a few little things to help streamline everything:

1. Real Time Comment Feed - Now you can leave the comment panel open and watch comments in real-time. Pretty Twitterish of us, eh?
2. Feedback - We're big on streamlining and Get Satisfaction will help you and us neatly organize your new ideas, bug reports, general feedback and praise all in one place. We think GS is a great place to let everyone know when problems are fixed and using it as a mass communication tool instead of mucking up the comments area with problems and suggestions. We hope you'll find this as useful as we do. (Some users have already taken advantage of GS within 5 minutes of us launching the new site)

It might take a LITTLE getting used to, but once you've used the links a couple times, we think you'll like it better. And since we've never been wrong before...

Anyway, check it out and let us know what you think.

Design Changes are Coming

Design Changes are Coming

We have been working to develop a few design changes.

If you have followed our history you know Startlike was pretty much born out of necessity after a few tactical missteps. Mrs. Necessity is the mother of all invention right?

I won't say the first version of Startlike was "thrown together", but it took about 24 hours to get a prototype live and it has not changed much since (except cramming in text links for new features).

Now that we seem to have a winner on our hands, we must re-work the design to be more scalable.

Our goal is to keep the core of Startlike exactly what you have come to love with the daily photo and start page elements (search, links and news) front and center. However, we also want easy navigation into the more advanced features such as discussions, "Condor", the upcoming archives and the future social additions.

We decided on an icon based navigation scheme to streamline the addition of new features. Once you know what the icons do, we think navigation is a piece of cake.

We have also experienced growing pains related to the way our features "slide in" over the main image. This must be changed before we can make some much needed adjustments to existing applications (ie threading comments to make them easier to follow).

So, in the new design, comments will no longer use the "slide in" feature and will instead load below the primary site image. This should give us more room to make things better and improve functionality in the near future.

Before we can launch the next phases of Condor and the page archive we need to get the new design active and you can expect to see some changes as early as next week.

To give you a preview, click here to see what a channel homepage page will look like.

** Please note: the link above is just a screen shot so none of the navigation is functional. In the live version mousing over the icons at the bottom of the page will explain what they do. Some are more self explanatory than others.

Let us know what you think ans stay tuned for some cool stuff in the near future!!


Post by: JT

What about Privacy?

What about Privacy?

Recently we received two "1-star" (out of 5) reviews on Facebook combined with a complete flaming of our privacy policy.

I knew immediately that the reviewers had just misread something and frankly it made me angry because user privacy is taken very seriously at Startlike.

I always *try* to evaluate feedback subjectively so I took a quick walk, came back, read the comments again along with a thorough review of our privacy policy just in case we botched something.

In the spirit of fairness, there's a lot of "legalize" in the policy and, although it was pretty clear to me, I could see how someone skimming it could miss a few things.

That said, I have now added a "plain english" summary to the privacy policy. I also thought the document was formatted like crap so I tried to clean it up a bit.

Here is a copy of the plain english summary in its entirety:

To sum it up, we won’t spam you and we won’t share your information with unrelated third parties for marketing purposes without your permission.

We host data with various vendors who help deliver our service (web hosts, email service providers, etc) but these entities are not allowed to market to you in any way.

To monitor and improve the service we use a variety of tracking methods to determine how you use Startlike. Basically, if you use it we try to track it but we don’t sell it.

I hope this clarifies things and I hope the two reviewers in question will reconsider their Startlike rating once they understand how seriously we take user privacy.


Post by: JT

New Condor feature release

New Condor feature release

For those who may not know what Condor is, it's our under development user submitted photo application.

The first features were released a few days ago and you can learn more with the original blog post.

Today we are excited to roll out the next set of features as we move towards letting you create your own Startlikes from A-Z.

Now when you upload a picture you will be able to re-size, crop and position your photo exactly like you want it. The coding to accomplish this is actually a bit complicated and I'd like to personally recognize Jim for making it very intuitive (at least we hope) and simple.

Feel free to use the links below to see the new features in action.

Outdoors

Golf

SCUBA

Great Escapes

Skiing


Please note: If you previously uploaded a photo it is not YET possible to see those photos or edit them using the new features. Therefore you will need to start over if you want to use the same photo again. We will be adding features shortly that allow you to see your previously submitted photos and edit them accordingly. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause in the meantime.


Post by: Jeff

MOVE THE GOOGLE BAR!!!

MOVE THE GOOGLE BAR!!!

If you have spent much time on the Startlike comment boards you have likely seen this suggestion pop up (perhaps you have even made it yourself).

To directly address this suggestion, we have no plans to move the Google bar in the short-term. The rational for this decision boils down to two reasons combined with time constraints and testing required to find an equally acceptable alternative (which we discussed in an earlier post here).


So, here are those two primary reasons:

#1 - Startlike is intended to be a browser start page. It is not a photo site and the daily photos are intended to be relevant backgrounds for the page elements while stimulating discussions and general user satisfaction. That said, the overwhelmingly most utilized element of a start page is its search engine and that's why Google is given the most prominent placement on Startlike. Just like the background on your computer desktop, the primary Startlike elements are intended to rest on the image.

#2 - We hope to form a deeper strategic relationship with Google to help provide more relevant content and monetize the project long-term. In order to make this happen we must first demonstrate our ability to create a lot of monthly searches for Google (1 million plus as a starting point). If we move the Google bar to a less prominent position it will cut heavily into the search volume and make a deeper partnership with Google much more difficult to achieve.



Please understand it is our intention to listen carefully to user feedback but in areas where the feedback points away from Startlike's strategic focus we must note it and press on.

Only time will tell if our decision not to move the Google bar at this early stage in Startlike's development is right or wrong. We hope you understand our vision (to be a start page but not a photo page) and our need to form a deeper relationship with Google. Even if you don't agree with the decision at least you can appreciate it was thought out and based on a broader strategic focus.

Here is another harsh reality. If users leave Startlike in mass because of the Google bar placement then our core belief, that many people want a dead simple and relevant start page, would be proven horribly flawed. If that happens, we'll have to iterate again...PhotoLike maybe?


Post by: JT

Condor is up! (User Submitted Photos version Alpha)

Condor is up! (User Submitted Photos version Alpha)

We have named our user submitted content project "Condor". We didn't have a name until 10 seconds ago so it didn't get much thought to be honest.

In it's final form Condor will allow members to submit photos, add hotlink tags and essentially create a complete Startlike page. Then, other members will be able to browse these pages, offer comments and vote on their favorites with the best ones making it to the homepage.

We envision this project taking most of April to complete (*crosses fingers*) and we are trying to break it into chunks and get out new pieces of the puzzle along the way.

We just pushed the photo submit page to the live server. It doesn't look like much but all of the database architecture is now behind it and we can start making the magic happen.

Right now you can submit a photo with details and suggest some hotlinks. We might grab a few member photos while development continues and make them a channel homepage so we just wanted to have enough info to make that happen.

Soon, you will be able to come back and add hotlinks to your photos and essentially finish a complete Startlike page. Then, we'll do the directory and voting stuff.

So, if you have been waiting to submit that awesome shot for homepage consideration, jump on over to Condor and send it in!!

Submit to Outdoors


Submit to Golf


Submit to SCUBA


Submit to Exotic Escapes


Submit to Skiing


Submit to Space


Thanks all!


Post by: Jeff

Why does Startlike use Facebook Connect?

Why does Startlike use Facebook Connect?

We have received a mixed response on our use of Facebook Connect as the login mechanism for Startlike. I’d like to take a few moments to explain why we chose to use it.

We are really big on open source and sharing in general here at Startlike. We are also big fans of web standards and portability. We hate the fact that browsers like IE and Firefox can’t get along and that every website you use requires an entirely new sign up process, and if it’s social at all, creating a new friend list.

While we can’t do much to make IE and FF play nice, there are a few solutions working to streamline the process of a single login across multiple sites. Several of the bigger sites have a solution and there is "on again off again" momentum behind the OpenID project. That said, the clear leader in this effort is Facebook. They are first to market with a stable and robust solution and their extensive mapping of the “Social Graph” (your friend list and friend of friend connections) gives them a clear advantage to be the long-term winner.

So, given our desire to adopt an “open” login system only one choice seems to make sense right now. We support the broader Platform initiative from Facebook and we look forward to future iterations.

So those are some of the main reasons behind the choice. Now I’d like to address a few common questions we've heard.


Does Startlike have access to my Facebook login and password?
We understand that to some users the idea of connecting your facebook account might be a little unsettling at first but facebook connect is quite secure. We here at Startlike have exactly ZERO access to your user credentials to sign into facebook. When you see the facebook login prompt you are actually logging in, over a secure connection, to facebook. All your information is encrypted and as secure as an e-commerce transaction at Amazon or Apple. Facebook has put security first so they can retain you as a user, protect your information and increase their brand's recognition and trust.


My employer blocks access to Facebook, can I still use the Facebook Connect enabled Startlike features?
Not currently. We do plan to offer our own registration option in the future for people who might not be able to access Facebook Connect (ie. if their employer blocks Facebook) but we hope this will serve as a secondary option with Facebook Connect being the preferred choice for most users.


Will Startlike spam my friends?
If we do, we’ll get kicked out of the Connect program by Facebook, but even if we could we wouldn’t. Our brand is important to us and we would never spam your friends list. The only contact Startlike will ever have with your friends is something you initiate like inviting them to check out the site or one of your favorite photos and we’ll never “force” you to annoy friends to use a Startlike feature.


Why do I have to “connect” with Facebook to use features like My Links and the custom News Feeds?
While we could allow you to customize these options without requiring you to identify yourself, these customizations would become disposable. Meaning, when your browser cache is deleted all of your customizations would be lost. By utilizing Facebook Connect we can keep track of a unique account for each user which allows us to recover a user's personal settings once that information has been deleted. Facebook connect gives our users the advantage of having a user account, without the added hassle of an additional username and password for yet another website to keep track of.


I hope this info is helpful.


Post by: JT