Official Blog of Twidl.it

Twidl.it becomes PicLyf, sort of.

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:12:28 -0400

We here at Twidl Inc. embrace change and evolution in a big way. That is why we decide to be open as early as 2 months into forming the company. Since then we have evolved along with our product based from feedback from our cool early users as well as our advisers. Our product, Twild.it, has evolved so far from its initial concept that the name, as cool as it is, has become a source of confusion. So we have decided to rebrand it and schedule a soft-launch sometime during April. The new brand will be PicLyf, and the name gives clue to what kind of product we are going to build moving forward. And let me tell its going to be very compelling not just from a social media maven perspective but for companies too.

Anyway back to Twidl.it, it too will change into something very very close to the two words that comprise the brand. :) Expect to something very delightful on the homepage of Twidl.it around August. Thanks and subscribe to the PicLyf launch notification form or follow @piclyf to be early birds for a very delectable web app.

hiten: via i.imgur.com

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:04:07 -0500

hiten:

via i.imgur.com

hiten: joeconyers: I really like this idea - applying Creative...

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:14:04 -0500

hiten:

joeconyers:

I really like this idea - applying Creative Commons style icons to business plans. Clarity and understanding are the ultimate goals of any business plan.

New website for This Week in Startups coming.... thoughts?

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:54:12 -0500

jasoncalacanis:

Dharma aka ver 0.9 approaching

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:06:20 -0500

Twidl.it HQ has been buzzing the past few days for a big big splash next week. We will call it ver 0.9 since it will be all about the user experience. the big 1.0 will be when mobile access is enabled and the editor leveled up. So for Dharma, watch out for the following;

New login system!
Front page revamped.
NEW dashboard!
Userpage evolved
and small little tweaks to pages

We will start the buzz next week so finally more people will be able to hear about Twidl it!

Vote for Twidl it! over at oneforty.com

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:42:42 -0500

onforty.com is a twitter app directory with tons of cool features for both Twitter enthusiasts and developers. Naturally, we listed Twidl it over there at this link:

http://oneforty.com/item/twidl-it

Please rate and leave an honest review. WE will appreciate it by dancing while chanting your twitter username.

reTwidls & sources!

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:25:00 -0500

New FEATURES! the late part of the COOLIO update. Here are the latecomers.

RETWIDL - remix a twidl by reusing the image and adding your own version. Think you can do a funnier, better or awesome-r twidl? Now, you can!

Sources - This will automatically determine where the image came from. We love to give credit where credit is due so made it automatic for you! :)

Delete - you can now delete a twidl on your activity stream in your dashboard.

Cooli Update: Likes & Faves

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:55:48 -0500

Sorry we are late but some interesting stuff happened along the way here and we lost two packages namely the dashboard updates and retwidling. You 1/3 of the development force had to take leave. Fortunately, its for a very joyous reason -he became a father! So congrats to Mark Twidl and his wife for a healthy baby. Unto the updates.

Likes! you can now like a twidl. Show a twidler some love. When you like a twidl, it will appear in the reaction list below along with the comments and faves.
Faves! If you really like a twidl you can fave it. ITs like a bookmark. a new Faved tab will be appearing in your dashboard soon so you can keep track of new comments, likes, faves and retwidls on your faved twidls.
FIXED: no more duplicate @mentions of yourself when you comment on your own twidl.
Some design tweaks on the sidebar, tags are now highlighted. and some of the buttons on the twidl page have been reshuffled.
URL in tweets are now iconized to solve a long-form url problem. ITs a very early version and it will be improved later.
colors of elements in a tweet are tweaked for visibility.
Community page are now slightly improved.

The next update will be named Dashing and will be all about the dashboard and editor enhancements. :)

me likey! staff: After several weeks of parsing through your...

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:31:56 -0500

me likey!

staff:

After several weeks of parsing through your feedback and making adjustments, the new Dashboard nav is up!

Just two things to note:

To fix the issue with unnecessary unread counts on blogs you’re already following, we now only show unread counts for private blogs.

We’re about to totally overhaul the Directory, along with the Activity page and Tumblarity which power it. In preparation, we’ve taken both of these pages offline while we make changes. More soon!

Add-ons Showdown: Topsy vs. Tweetmeme

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:23:34 -0500

One of our core features here at Twidl.it is to make sharing of twidls very easy. One of the components of this is the retweet button. There are two notable competitors in this space. Tweetmeme and Topsy. I will recount why we chose the former.

++ people are already familiar with it therefore it will likely be used by viewers
- the default url is too long (thankfully you can use bit.ly)
+ the buttons look nice beside facebook share button (topsy has the same color as FB)
+++ the traffic to their site is above 1m
+ the intent of tweetmeme.com’s audience is to DISCOVER things to view. topsy SEARCHES for specific stuff.
- tweetmeme’s api allows 3rd party to integrate analytics. (not sure if topsy supports this)

WINS!

next match: wibliya vs meebo bar!

Why is Twitter Flatlining?

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:11:07 -0500

Why is Twitter Flatlining?:

A couple of points regarding the article;

the chart is US only. How come everytime Facebook traffic is measure its global then Twitter is US only.
Would be more interesting to see global trends
As many social media/tech watchers have pointed out. Twitter is protocol-like in the sense that a LOT of apps and website access it thru their API, those traffic are not accounted for
The chart is a more accurate metric for measuring new users in the US which is stagnating.

A more salient point is how the new Retweet, List and stability has failed to impact growth in the US. I am willing to bet that API firehose open to all, localizations and more creative apps like our http://twidl.it will be better drivers of long-term user growth.

Twidl.it version 0.89999 (Birdwatch)

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:51:33 -0500

Starting now, every release will be named with words in alphabetical in order. Birdwatch is being rolled out right now. It will be followed by Coolio (dashboard and community page polish). Unto the new stuff for Birdwatch;

NEW: WEBCAM snaps are in! its like Dailybooth.com but on top of Twitter!
NEW: profile photos are in! from dashboard - click on ‘My page’ then click on “change profile photo”
NEW: front page(duh). its a day old design so I have no clue if its good in the morning. but we are bleeding edge that way. :)
IMPROVEMENT: refined logo! gradients are out, twitter logo cloning is in!
NEW: community page is live but don’t look! she is naked.
NEW: The following pages are up but have not given a 2nd pass - whytwidl, terms of services, privacy, aboutus.
IMPROVEMENT: Dashboard has been refined further but has most of its panels not working.
NEW: help message system is in place. should reduce the learning curve by 10 degrees.
NEW: POST A PHOTO secret mode- just leave the tweetbox blank to just upload a photo without tweeting.
IMPROVEMENT - next and previous buttons for easy browsing.
IMPROVEMENT - more twidls from user now showing the 2 previous and 2 next twidls.
FIXED - duplicate @mention if owner comments on own twidl.
FIXED - long comments now showing in new activities
IMPROVEMENTS - larger medium thumbnails
FIXED - webkit browser css glitches.

Phew! Please try our web app and give us feedback so that we may inject more kickasser in it. Thanks!

Very nice! eypurir: Twitter Avatars set

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:02:13 -0500

Very nice!

eypurir:

Twitter Avatars set

Very Useful & Very Simple htaccess Hacks

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 06:06:53 -0500

Very Useful & Very Simple htaccess Hacks

Updates on the next update

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:00:22 -0500

We have decided to roll all the new updates into 1 big major update that will include the following new stuff;

snap a webcam photo
profile photo (the initial static version)
help messages
toolbar tweaks
new front page!
dashboard improvements
community section
fave a twidl (think bookmark + subscribe to twidl updates)
like a twidl (think facebook’s like)
browser compatibility fixes

should be ready around the weekend.

Snap a photo from webcam feature is almost done along with the...

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:17:31 -0500

Snap a photo from webcam feature is almost done along with the dashboard flow. Lots of things in the dashboard are not functional but we will push them out anyway cause we are gung-ho that way.

Updates will be rolled out shortly

Site Migration is Complete!

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:09:53 -0500

Migration Complete! We are very sorry for the very short downtime. But we are now on a new hosting company on more powerful servers.

Let me tell you the story of why we migrated — Just before Christmas, we won a LIFETIME! free cloud hosting over at PowerVPS courtesy of Jason Calacanis’ show - This Week in Startups. (If you are interested in being an tech entrepreneur its a must watch web show.)

Anyway, we were hosted over at VPS.net for our cloud hosting but as much as we were satisfied with them, we had to migrate to the new servers (since its free forever). So we once again employed the services of Somerset Tech Solutions for the migration. And as expected they provided the server setup in record time! IF you run a startup and want to focus on building your product and not on learning system admin stuff, HIRE THESE GUYS!

So, we are back. Harder, better, faster, stronger and with the new front page next week, prettier too!

Downtime scheduled in about 7-8 hours from this post’s...

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:16:44 -0500

Downtime scheduled in about 7-8 hours from this post’s time. We are moving cloud hosting servers. New update after the move, just bugfixes and small tweaks. :D

Twidl.it version 0.7 Release notes baby!

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:12:24 -0500

The New Year starts with a big bang! version 0.7 of Twidl.it is done. Tons of new stuff.

New logo - less edgy more cuddly! Twitter inspired font plus the Twidl icon now in top billing right above the letter I.
New layout - lots of white makes you feel like your up in the clouds. Rightly so since Twidl.it lets your tweets fly to new heights!
Dashboard - Still a work-in-progress but is now future proof for all the cool stuff heading your way. :)
Twidler page - the twild user page now sports a humongous (empty) profile pic. Why? because it will be ALL about YOU. Once we have coded in the stuff to let you upload your pretty face in it you will be very pleased by a surprise feature.
Import From URL - You can now use photos or images already uploaded somewhere else just by pasting the URL. To get URL of images on Facebook just right-click and choose Copy Image Location (firefox) or Copy Image URL (chrome) then paste into the text field.
Zoom Photo Button - Take a closer look at an image/photo with this (magnifying glass) button found underneath a twidl.
Comment section redux - makes you want to comment to death.
Reply-to list in the comments - this will list the users present in the comment thread and reply to a particular person. The default is the owner of the twidl.
More twidls from user block a.k.a. the MTFU is now online on every twidl page.
TAGS! - the 1st version of tags is now ready. Type in tags to organize your twidl and make them appear along with other twidls with the same tags.
recent tags are listed on the front page along with recent users and twidls.
1st pass on compatibility with Webkit based browsers such as Google Chrome and Safari. We are aware of some glitches and we are on the case.
Popup now fixed in Internet Explorer browsers (switch already! you laggards. :)
inactive buttons and subtle clues on what will be functional in the near future, namely;

fave button
reTwidl
report violation button
snap a photo on webcam
profile photos
image source
twidl Score
preference page
welcome messages
editor improvements

Thanks to the people using Twidl.it and giving us great feedback. We hope to get to version 0.8 soon and make your Twitter experience more colorful and creative. 2010 is looking good!

Major update imminent

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 04:43:03 -0500

updates to the inner sections of Twidl.it in the next hour. The release note is long. :D