Drafts: The EasyBib Blog

The easiest site on the Web? Google thinks so!

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:36:57 -0400

According to Google, when people think of “easy” they’re looking for EasyBib!

If you go to http://www.google.com and start typing “easybib,” by the time you finish typing “easy” you will see us pop up to the top of their auto-suggestion list!

(According to some readers, it helps if you’re in the US, and possibly logged out of your Google account). In any case, thanks Google!

Bibbin' just got better: MLA7 and public sharing!

Fri, 29 May 2009 11:09:16 -0400

Hey bibbers,

Over the last month we’ve gotten a number of requests to support the latest edition of MLA. Well, we’re happy to announce that EasyBib now supports the 7th edition of MLA, free for all users!

To format your list in MLA7, just click the “MLA 7” button at the top of your list.

By default, your lists will continue to be cited in MLA6 unless you click this button. We’re supporting both formats because there are still some schools making the transition and may be confused by the new style. We’ll switch to MLA7 by default over the summer.

Also, for you Twitter / Facebook fans. You can now share your bibliography with your friends by clicking the share link located at the bottom of your list. We’ll give you a short URL that you can quickly paste into your Twitter or Facebook profile. Your friends & colleagues will be able to see your citations, save them to their own list, or even email & print them out.

We’ve also included a wide assortment of bugfixes, including our Parenthetical Citation Wizard for MyBib Pro users, and some backend changes that should make the sites run faster and more efficiently. Again, thanks for using EasyBib - your support & continued usage of our service keeps us in business =)

You rock, Sharon!

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:08:03 -0400

At EasyBib, we’re always happy to help you out with all your bibliography needs! And every so often, there are fans who help us out! We love it!

Check out the following presentation done by Sharon Elin! Thanks so much! :-)

Citing Sources with easybib.com

View more presentations from Sharon Elin.

200,000,000 citations!

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:36:54 -0400

That’s how many we hit earlier today. Or rather, that’s how many you bibbers have typed in over the last several years.

For more numbers, check out our stats page.

And of course, keep citing! Next up, three hundred million =)

Some bib updates

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:05:49 -0400

Hey all,

We’ve pushed a few minor changes to the site.

Clear list from homepage: If you’re in a public setting (like the library) and someone has previously used EasyBib to create a list, you can start fresh by clearing the list right from the home page.

View online formatting: Copying and pasting from the View Online page led to some text color inconsistencies, which we’ve resolved.

There are some other minor bugfixes throughout. We’re prepping for a bigger release later this month - stay tuned.

New source added

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:13:59 -0400

Hey bibbers,

Just wanted to let you know that we’ve added a new source to EasyBib - check the source list to find out .. :D

New help features!

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:12:00 -0500

Hi guys,

We are happy to announce that we have released new EasyBib help features. While EasyBib expedites bibliography creation, there are many small rules, such as how to properly capitalize titles, that our service could not automatically fix. Now, when a data field is selected, you will be provided details and guidance on how to properly enter information, ensuring that your citation is properly formatted. If you find that you do not need the additional help, you can always close the EasyBib Help bar. We hope you can continue supporting our free services by spreading the word on EasyBib!

Bibbin' just got better

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:57:45 -0500

Hey all,

Another fresh round of updates, including Chicago style!

First, features we’ve launched for everyone:

Email your bibliography: This has been a major feature request for some time now. After you’ve finished your bibliography, you can now email it to yourself. In the email, you not only get your bibliography, but we also include a link to the RTF file if you want to download it.

Advanced editing: If you want to add custom information to your citation, you can use our advanced edit form. To get there, just click “Edit” on any citation, and then you’ll see the advanced editing link.

Sorting options: We’ve always ordered bibliographical citations in alphabetical order. Now, you can choose to sort your list differently - either by date ascending (oldest first), or date descending (newest first).

MyBib Pro updates (learn more):

Chicago style: We’ve implemented Chicago Notes-Bibliography style (15th edition), also known as Turabian style (7th edition). If you’re a Bib4School or MyBib Pro user, you automatically got the updates. If you regularly use EasyBib but have been waiting for this style, it’s now available for you.

Footnotes wizard: We’ve made creating footnotes on MyBib Pro a lot easier. Now, you can enter in the specific page you are citing, and we dynamically create your footnote for you. Also, you can keep track of your citations by saving them in your footnotes history.

Thanks again for supporting us everyone!

Cheers,

The EasyBib Team

MLA 7

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:45:06 -0500

EasyBib currently provides free MLA formatting based on sixth edition of the MLA handbook. In April though, MLA will be releasing their seventh edition of their handbook. We plan to incorporate these new rules for the 2009/2010 school year, as to not confuse any users by changing our system in the middle of the year.

Some interesting rules to note with the new edition:

No more underlining. Instead, MLA will recommend italicizing titles of independently published works.
No more URLs. While you will have to provide the core data for online sources, a URL is not required. However, you are encouraged to add the URL if the citation data provided does not let the reader easily locate the source

In the meantime, we will continue to improve our core services. Always feel free to contact us if you have any ideas or suggestions!

Citing the Inaugural?

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:08:00 -0500

We’ve received a few emails asking how to cite Barack Obama’s Inauguration speech, so we’ve included a suggestion below:

Obama, Barack H. “Inaugural Address.” 2009 Presidential Inaugural. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C. 20 Jan. 2009.

If you missed the speech, check out the video on YouTube or the full text at the BBC.

Cheers!

EasyBib just got better

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:57:20 -0500

Hey Bib users,

We know you’re probably winding your semester down and prepping for the holidays but we wanted to introduce you to some cool stuff we’ve been working on over the last several weeks.

New Web Site Autocite: If you’re familiar with our book ISBN search, you may like our new Autocite tool for online sources. Just enter in your URL, and the page title, site title, and date accessed fields will be filled out. This is just a start - we’ll continue to update the service to make it more efficient for you to cite online sources on EasyBib.

Online database-only source: With the earlier version of EasyBib, you could only cite sources indirectly found in a database, like magazines, newspapers, and journals. Now, if you need to cite something from say, the Opposing Viewpoints database, you can cite it directly through our online database form.

Updated forms interface: We’ve had a lot of questions about how to cite sources in online databases and other indirect publications, and so we’ve updated the forms to make it cleaner and clearer to use. Now, there are tabs for each publication type, and options on whether the source was found directly or indirectly.

Easy copy and paste: Some of our users just create one citation on EasyBib for their projects and have asked to make it easier to see their latest citation and copy and paste it into their paper. Well, now when you create a citation, we show you your latest citation right up top. You can highlight this and copy and paste it immediately.

Delete all: If you use EasyBib in a multi-user setting, this button may help. It clears all the citations of a list that someone prior to you has been working on, so you can start anew.

More prominent export features: We’ve had questions on whether EasyBib can export to Microsoft Word. Yes, we can =) We’ve now added icons to make it easier to find.

Some backend stuff: To make your experience faster and more reliable.

Happy holidays from the EasyBib team!

EasyBib partners with TrialPay

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:29:00 -0500

If you guys are anything like we were in college, money wasn’t exactly lining our pockets.

Of course we understand, when you do come across some extra coin, the first thought in your mind may not be upgrading your EasyBib account to our premium MyBib Pro service.

We make every effort to keep our paid service at a price point we hope is affordable for everyone. At $7.99, our goal is to provide the best citation service online, at a price that will pay for itself after one use.

Times are tight, and since school comes first, we want to bring you another option to get MyBib Pro.

We’ve partnered with TrialPay who works with trusted companies that like Ebay, Blockbuster, Amazon, and GAP who will pay for your upgrade to MyBib Pro, if you sign up for one of their services.

If you’ve ever considered upgrading to MyBibPro but didn’t want to pay for it directly, here’s your chance to get around that. As always, thanks for using EasyBib, we appreciate the support.

More efficient web browsing w/ ChunkIt

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:14:00 -0400

EasyBibbers,

I’m sure it seems like every website you visit these days is loaded with
fairly pointless advertising.

At EasyBib, our goal is to bring our users the most complete, and accurate citation service, period. Though advertising is a part of our site, we make efforts to partner with companies offering services that we feel can actually benefit our users.

While working on your bibs, you may have noticed some banner advertising
ads for a tool called ChunkIt!, a recent sponsor of EasyBib.

You know all those links you have to click and manually scan on Google searches, and academic database like LexisNexis, JStor and Science Direct? ChunkIt! automatically does that work for you.

With a single click it will instantly search and extract the relevant “chunks” of information hidden behind the links on any web page, and bring them forward with all your keywords highlighted.

Beyond academic databases, I found that ChunkIt! works well on sites that contain a lot of links I’ve used it on Yahoo, ESPN, and Wikipedia and it really helped me find relevant information.

We know EasyBib users appreciate efficiency, and ChunkIt! will make searching for relevant sources that much easier. It¹s free, and can be download here.

Thanks,
Emry

Experiencing heavy traffic

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:57:26 -0400

Hi guys,

We’ve been having intermittent downtime this week. This is due to a significantly higher than expected volume during midterms season.

What basically happens is, everyone tries to use EasyBib at once during peak hours and the concurrent usage can overwhelm us.

We are working around the clock to deploy a more robust setup. In the meantime, we suggest you use the site during off hours - before 9pm EST or after midnight EST.

Thanks for your patience.

Darshan

Columbus Day site updates

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:14:00 -0400

Hi all,

Happy Columbus Day! Hopefully you are resting on this school holiday, but if you have to work, maybe the updates below will help (though we’d guess you’d prefer the day off…):

Internet Explorer Parenthetical Citation Wizard fixes: If you’re a MyBib Pro user, you may have found that the wizard did not work for you all the time. We’ve fixed this issue.
Exporting your bibliography to Word: We’ve made the option more prominent (click Export to Word when you’re viewing your bibliography) and we’ve also made a separate landing page so you can retrieve your RTF manually if you need to.
Speed improvements by way of PHP opcode caching: Last week we hit some pretty severe traffic - among other smaller adjustments, we’ve added a cache to make our servers work more efficiently under higher loads. It’s called APC.

Debate watching

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:13:00 -0400

Hey everyone,

As election season nears we’ve been asked a few times how students can cite the presidential and vice-presidential debates. Using the TV citation form, it’s simple. Here’s an example:

2008 Presidential Debate. CNN. New York. 26 Sept. 2008.

Personally, I’ve always found the weeks leading up to an election exciting. The twists and turns this race has taken have been no different. Here are some links I like to check out:

C-SPAN debate center
Electoral-vote.com
Miss a debate? You can find it on Hulu

And of course, for everyone out there that’s of voting age: regardless of your politics, it’s important you participate. Be a good citizen and register to vote - click here to learn more.

Downtime resolved: 8pm-midnight on 10/6/08

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:09:14 -0400

Hi all, If you tried using our site last night, you may have experienced intermittent downtime. We had significant concurrent traffic on our system that ended up locking up some of our front-end servers.

We’ve resolved the immediate issue, but are taking steps to prevent this from affecting us long term:

Two additional front end servers to be deployed this week
Additional RAM upgrades across front-ends
Exploration into cloud-computing solutions to handle traffic spillover

Again, apologies for any issues you may have experienced and know that we are working our hardest to keep downtime at a minimum.

When we reach out to educators to talk about EasyBib and hear...

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:30:00 -0400

When we reach out to educators to talk about EasyBib and hear their feedback, we come prepared. One thing we do know that all educators (and ourselves) have in common is that we all love books. This is the button design we’ve given out. We hope that EasyBib can be loved as a close second to books =D Let us know if you have any clever art ideas on the type of artwork we should create!

Citation tweaks, speed improvements, & more

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:14:57 -0400

We deployed some updates to EasyBib today - here’s a brief summary:

Citation source updates: We’ve added the “vinyl recording” type to the musical recording citation form (thanks Emily!), and the Book of Proverbs to the Bible form (why that was missing the first time around we have no idea - thanks Timothy and Daniel for pointing this out).

Interface updates: A lot of people have been asking if they can export their citations to Word. Even though we’ve had that option since we launched, it was slightly buried. We’ve moved the links around a bit so it should be easier to find (thanks Tom, for this and all of your other great suggestions).

Bib4School tutorials: For our new Bib4School subscribers, we’ve added a number of tutorials to the administrator control panel that help walk you through the process for creating teacher and student accounts.

MyBib signup reminders: When you sign up to a MyBib account, we’ll email your login and password information so you don’t forget.

Speed improvements: We’ve optimized our database, and that’s made our pages load a lot faster. We hope you notice the difference.

Photo

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:59:00 -0400