Every week I read thousands of blog posts. Here, for your weekend enjoyment, are some highlights from my recent reading, for you.

	On Starting Up… http://venturehacks.com/articles/sean-ellis Great tips from the guru of startup marketing.
	On Design & Product Experience… http://www.noupe.com/how-tos/web-design-trends-testimonials-design.html The trending shape of testimonials to come.
	On Modular Innovation… http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2009-11-19-n30.html Modular Innovation wars… heating up.

Have a great weekend!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

It was a rainy day in November. A day not unfamiliar to many business travelers. But, this day was different, the destination was not the goal. It was the journey that was to hold center stage, bathed in a moving bicoastal spotlight, through an immersive marketing engagement with both social, as well as other, media.

"to know me is to fly with me" (Ryan Bingham, Up in the Air)

Recently, I had the unique opportunity to look at various cross-promoted products by way of film and social media and speak with many of the people behind them when I, as a VIP Guest, was…

• invited to an exclusive cross-country private screening of Paramount Pictures’ film "Up in the Air," staring George Clooney, (a great, funny, emotional, must-see movie <– for those who know me know this is VERY high praise)
• while enjoying free GoGo InFlight Wi-Fi,
• on American Airlines,
• with an overnight stay at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport.

And, out of this very awesome bicoastal adventure, I found many lessons that can benefit all in the marketing and promotion of their own products, in both online and offline worlds.

It started like this…

Saturday, November 14
3:50 PM, The Terminal
This airline terminal, of American Airlines, has now filled with many different types of people, from such industries as movie, journalism, technology, business, etc., all contributing to the pervasive spirit of reserved elation and excitement – as networking and introductions ensued, in wait for a nice, bubbly party.

4:10 PM, Taxiing Begins
… for our scheduled 4 PM flight as I scour underneath rows of seats looking for the elusively scattered, power plug. Being sure to, like in the "Up in the Air" movie premiere we are about to be party to, not overlook these quirks that many the frequent traveler grows to not loath, but rather welcome as numbering among those endearing qualities that cement one’s affections for another, or makes that quirky place, even one as transient as air travel, the experience, altogether, your home.

It is this sentiment that the movie seeks to capture, and does so superbly. It is this experience, and many more, the traveler’s experience, that resulted in American Airlines’ substantial involvement in this project.

 

4:21 PM, Lift-off
It starts off a rainy day as the journey begins, flying into the thick of clouds. The darkness brought about soon, rapidly disappears as the plane emerges into the dusty blue sky, with hints of setting sun. The sounds, the dull roar of peace settling over the cabin as the festivities, the reason for this journey, are about to begin.

 

Here, everyone is a stranger, much like typical business travel with which we are all most familiar. Although, in this case, invited by either American Airlines or Paramount.

And, it ended like this…

7:29 PM, Touch-down
… 11 minutes ahead of schedule!

    

Sunday, November 15
4:45 AM (next day), Breakfast @ Hilton
… consisting of a turkey sandwich and a venti white mocha.

6:03 AM, Return
I began my journey back to NYC, the final leg of this adventure, by heading back to the airport in preparation for my un-delayed, non-VIP, Economy class flight.

First Class Experience

… from my vantage point in Economy class on this AA Charter flight. American Airlines’ social media program is still somewhat new, making for a great study subject. I started out by sitting down with American Airlines’ Billy Sanez, Director of Corporate Communications and Advertising & Promotions, and Chris Vary, Social Media Director, to begin my look into the inner workings and sharable lessons of this event.

On Social Media Strategy

American Airlines (AA) identifies two basic social media types that they seek to reach out to…

• the very engaged / engaging individual, and
• the reader / listener.

In the process of attracting these individuals, they ‘follow a lot of people,’ …

• targeting following customers, as well as what they follow,
• cultivating friendships with communities that are friends with their passengers.

Billy refers to all this as "family building." By doing so, they see themselves as creating a community of engaged people. Their social media goal is in building a community consisting of people "with real voices and opinions" who "talk about it (AA), enjoy it (AA), tell us (AA) how to fix it (AA)."

On the "Up in the Air" Movie and Premiere

Among American Airlines’ considerations for getting involved in this project were they…

• felt the story was "real," and the people of AA, and in-turn, their customers, could easily relate to the story, travel quirks and all, and
• saw the overall project as a great way to show off their product, what they do — that they can take "him" (Ryan Bingham, the main character in the movie and on the broader stage, the generic traveler) there.

On Pitfalls to Avoid & Advice

Some great advice Billy Sanez had for others seeking to launch a social media initiative boiled down to commitment.

Launching a social media initiative should be done because it is good for business, meets the needs of the business and product, not because it is cool, not because everyone else is doing it, not because you feel like you have to do it.

For American Airlines, the social media initiative is a great way for them to reach out to target audiences across a diverse array of channels that the various social media participants represented, everything from business and entrepreneurial, to fashion and consumer electronics.

When launching a social media initiative the company "must commit to it." You are setting yourself up for failure if you do not approach the social media initiative as a long-term strategy — much more than a brief initiative for a single event.

Being committed to a social media initiative is more than planning for the long-term, but also making sure to have the proper and sufficient resources behind it. For example, having enough resources to monitor all the content out there that pertains to your product, can be seen as a good start.

Lessons from 20,000 Ft

This successful move premiere was driven by a very effective social media campaign and all-encompassing event. Some takeaways that everyone with a product can learn from this strategy are:

Smart

• Create an immersive product experience.

Most effective about this first ever movie premiere in the air was the totally immersive experience that they, American Airlines and Paramount Pictures, sought to envelope everyone in, simultaneously reaching out to and leveraging diverse social media communities. I became the main character in the movie, I was Ryan Bingham (George Clooney)!

Immersing the user, or event participants, in the product experience makes more relevant the product’s characteristics, its benefits, its purpose for existing, while founding a strong and lasting emotional connection.

• Leverage diverse social media communities.

The organizations behind this event did not limit themselves to movie and celebrity outlets. They reached out to key community participants and buzz makers across a variety of industries, a variety of market influences. In addition to myself, some of the other opinion makers at the event were…

Sherri Smith
Specializing in Consumer Electronics, Video Games
From Black Web 2.0

Samantha Ewers
Specializing in Fashion, Beauty, Entertainment
From I’m Not Obsessed!

Tom Limongello
Specializing in Mobile, Advertising, Business
From The Upper Westside Journal

Alex Billington
Specializing in Movies, Hollywood
From First Showing

By not limiting themselves to only the generic movie channels, American Airlines and Paramount were able to reach out to a much broader audience, generate more buzz across more spheres of influence. Anywhere there were individuals primed for either or all products being promoted, American Airlines and Paramount Pictures, increased their chances of reaching them.

Should Do

The products of American Airlines and Paramount Pictures where excellently showcased and thoroughly enjoyed by all at this premiere in the air. Some steps that can be taken to further build upon these successes are…

…as to the event…

• Have a pre-flight get together to introduce key players, American Airlines and Paramount responsible for assembling this trip, and those who will be available throughout the course of the event, as well as their VIP guests, and consider even allowing for a brief group Q&A to get the reporting and social media juices flowing.
• One of the parts of this trip that everyone was talking about, and I was particularly looking forward to, was the live in-flight concert by Sad Brad. Disappointingly, while I could clearly see Brad, hearing the concert on the plane proved impossible for all but those sitting right next to him. But, this quirk of air travel, and of trying something new, and something that should definitely be attempted again, provided a good learning experience — such as testing out the more technically challenging components of the trip beforehand. It would have been great to have been able to listen to the concert by plugging our goodie bagged Bose QC 15 headphones into the entertainment system.
• An often overlooked aspect of scheduling social media events is the "down time" for the participants to engage their social media audiences, work on their article writing, etc. For this event it would have been very helpful to have had built-in down time at the hotel, the night of the event, as well as the day after for writing and posting, before sending everyone on their way home — exhausted from the travel, thereby delaying the desired product buzz building.

…as to the target audiences…

• While I had access to Wi-Fi on my flight back from LAX to JFK, I did not have access to power. And, without access to power I would not be able to avail myself of the Wi-Fi or get much work done on my bicoastal flight, like working on this article. For both the event and the audiences being targeted by the event’s products, the biggest ‘Should Do’ relates to access to power. Prior to takeoff on the first leg of the trip, I was able to secure power, but only after crawling around on my hands and knees looking for the seemingly, randomly placed power outlet (my assigned seat, as well as its row, did not have an outlet). If you are targeting business travelers, social media types (the creators as well as the readers) your perks need to consist of more than Wi-Fi, but must include power at EVERY seat, not scattered throughout.
• Providing free Wi-Fi is essential, and was successfully accomplished. Beyond the necessity of easy access to power for such devices as laptops and cell phones, essential on a non-stop bicoastal adventure, it is worth considering, to encourage people to engage their audiences better by…
  • advising people to spread out their coverage over days / weeks, leveraging various familiar mediums (e.g. text and pictures) and their respective services (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.) to further support the buzz building, and
  • depending on budget and other capabilities, provide devices that encourage posting, twitter devices, Internet enabled digital cameras already connected to the plane’s Wi-Fi, etc.; because the more effort your remove from the process, the broader and more sustained will be the coverage received.

Supporting

Of all the perks and quirks surrounding this adventure, of all the planning and preparation done on all sides, at the end of the day, it came down to the core, the support, the backbone that made everything run smoothly, with which I was most impressed. I do a great deal of traveling for my consulting and have had many an unpleasant and apathetic encounter with customer support. On both this trip, as well as my standard Economy class flight back to NYC, as well as when I had to call the 800# to make last minute travel changes, the customer support, the flight attendants, were entirely and consistently helpful and attentive from one coast to the other, and back again.

No matter what your product is, no matter how cool the immediate event is, always remember that it is the support infrastructure that your clients, your product’s users, often most frequently interact with, that sets the tone for the overall product experience, leaves a lasting, influential impression, that will have a direct impact on current and future opinions is the customer support.

Your social media endeavors and product events pale in relation to having a sound support infrastructure, cheerful, accessible, helpful individuals, like American Airlines’ Jenny Harrington, there to help your product’s consumers throughout their product experience. Every product needs at least one Jenny Harrington.

"warm reminders that I am home" (Ryan Bingham, Up in the Air)

Fly, Fly Again

I turn down requested product reviews on this blog all of the time, but this one, universally unique, had me at ‘movie premiere on an airplane’. My advice to other companies looking to replicate much of what was done here …

be immersive,
encourage social media engagement, and
foster emotional ties between the product and those participating

… in your product campaigns and announcements and you will be able to have similar, repeatable successes as was done at the "Up in the Air" movie premiere with American Airlines and Paramount Pictures as we flew from JFK to LAX.

Also, I’d love to know how the lessons from this experience have benefited you and your product, or changed the way you are thinking about your next marketing / promotional endeavors. Leave a comment, email me, tweet me.

Enjoy & Share!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

Every week I read thousands of blog posts. Here, for your weekend enjoyment, are some highlights from my recent reading, for you.

	On Starting Up… http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/08/funding-season-ends-next-week/ On the start of the venture capital black-out period.
	On Design & Product Experience… http://designm.ag/inspiration/30-web-designs-with-amazing-attetion-to-detail/ Amazing design… it’s often the details that matter.
	On Modular Innovation… http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/11/10/my-first-month-with-google-wave-cant-even-stand-on-the-board/ What does Google’s Wave contribution mean for the future of Modular Innovation? You decide.

Have a great weekend!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

A big thank you to everyone who made it to our second meet-up of The Product Group, as well as to our sponsor, Balsamiq Studios! We all had a blast discussing Product People-oriented topics and enjoying Wonderful food.

Over the 2 hours we discussed…

Product Management Career: resources people use, how everyone go to where they are, and much more

Yahoo: the strategy of ‘all in one place,’ and its larger implications for the Internet and companies like Google and Microsoft

… and more …

View Larger Map

The Product Group meet-ups are an opportunity for Product People (managers, strategies, marketers, etc.) to come together to meet, interact, and network in a roundtable setting. It’s awesome to meet fellow Product People in a laid-back, conversational gathering like this one and I am looking forward to seeing everyone, new and familiar, at our next meet-up …

Thursday, Decmber 3th @ 7PM
@ Wonderful @ 172 8th Avenue (bet. 18th and 19th St)
NYC

If you would like to attend our next meet-up, RSVP today or visit our group webpage at…

http://meetup.com/TheProductGroup

Enjoy!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

P.S. If you or an organization you represent would be interested in sponsoring an upcoming gathering of The Product Group please contact me.

Add to Social Bookmarks:

This is part 6 of a short story of personal exploration and development by one new to the daily employment of Gmail, long resisted, long desired, and eventually brought to conversion by an Android.

Part 6: To Resist

Recently our journey began. From the humble origins of Outlook to the portable synchronicity of the Windows Mobile platform, I did travel, did evolve, as needs, desires, and demands of communication and productivity so evolved and changed. Through the darkness of masked potential so emerged new and exciting opportunities. But, to fully grasp this fortune, these new degrees of productivity, it is important to pause, take measure of, and understand the crux at the heart at the core of the resistance to Gmail.

I am often asked, more so in the days since my recent conversion to Gmail, what is was, specifically, precisely, that caused me to build up such a strong aversion to a product such as this. And, the final piece, pieces, that made whole, almost immutable, my resistance to this conversion where the slowness, and the abundance of the little things.

Tiny Things

My on again, off again relationship, my basic resistance to Gmail was many-fold and lasted only until most recently. It was often the tiny things that got under the skin and kept us apart.

These things that grate at our well being, drive us apart when everything else feels surmountable, like pebbles, individually dismissible, together formidable, and in this case, significant in their contribution to the resistance heretofore exercised in the prelude to my conversion to Gmail.

Enough

Such infractions within this relationship had a cumulative effect:

Of course, to a much lesser extent than those explored in prior weeks, nonetheless, one of those pebbles, was the lack of customization of Gmail and Gmail related products (e.g. Google Calendar). And, by customization, I am referring to the abilities of plug-ins and other functionality aspects of these products whose counterparts in Exchange and Outlook had proven a comfortable harbor — one which I did not long to depart. Sure, calendar coloring by category is a tiny feature, a tiny thing, but one that I had grown accustomed to, one that has been there for me in helping me group and highlight important or critical elements — the similar offerings from Google Calendar, colorizing by calendar, not category, did not pass muster.

Another, inconsiderate act upon which I was frequently subjected, and even continues to this day, with greatly decreased frequency, relates to another notable series of infractions. Gmail never meant me any harm. I know that. It, I have believed, has always had the best intentions in trying to meet my needs, even trying to protect me from harm. But, its rigid treatment of spam, its very powerful spam filtering, … some interruptions occurring mid conversation … has resulted in me losing more than a few messages over the years.

It’s the tiny things that served as a persistent reminder to the Gmail resistance, individually minor, almost insignificant, but there nonetheless, unchanging, unmoving, and reminding me of all the other bigger things, that too persisted in like form. It’s the daily, tiny things that, when the larger ones fade from sight, serve has reminders to all the problems in the relationship that remain, remind us and eventually succeed in ensuring a persistent divide unbridged…

…that is, of course, unless, until you have the chance encounter, with an Android.

The Next

And, these propellants of reluctance, delayers of adoption, the fundamental causes of my resistance to what would eventually be overshadowed and forced aside, through the coercion of an Android to my conversion to the ways of Gmail, will, my friends, have to wait until next week.

Subscribe now (click here) to make sure you don’t miss any part of this series exploring the eventual adoption of Gmail in one’s daily life, by one once thoroughly addicted to, dependent on, the primarily client-based solution of Microsoft’s Outlook,

what brought about this conversion, (1) (2)
why it took so long, and (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
what should be done to encourage greater Gmail adoption. (8)

Enjoy & Tweet!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

Every week I read thousands of blog posts. Here, for your weekend enjoyment, are some highlights from my recent reading, for you.

	On Starting Up… http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/03/are-business-plans-still-necessary/ Are business plans still necessary? The Product Guy says, "YES!"
	On Design & Product Experience… http://www.myinkblog.com/2009/11/02/6-ways-to-take-your-webdesign-from-good-to-great/ Great advice on giving your product that extra bit of zazz.
	On Modular Innovation… http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2009/11/cloud_keynote.html Yahoo speaking on accelerating Modular Innovation in the cloud.

Have a great weekend!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

This is part 5 of a short story of personal exploration and development by one new to the daily employment of Gmail, long resisted, long desired, and eventually brought to conversion by an Android.

Part 5: To Resist

Recently our journey began. From the humble origins of Outlook to the portable synchronicity of the Windows Mobile platform, I did travel, did evolve, as needs, desires, and demands of communication and productivity so evolved and changed. Through the darkness of masked potential so emerged new and exciting opportunities. But, to fully grasp this fortune, these new degrees of productivity, it is important to pause, take measure of, and understand the crux at the heart at the core of the resistance to Gmail.

I am often asked, more so in the days since my recent conversion to Gmail, what is was, specifically, precisely, that caused me to build up such a strong aversion to a product such as this. And, the final piece, pieces, that made whole, almost immutable, my resistance to this conversion were the slowness, and the abundance of the little things.

Slow Play

The slow ticking, deafening to one waiting for the anticipated. Uncomfortable, the overbearing beating experienced, slowly. For far too often, especially when compared with its (Gmail’s) client-based counterparts, the tortuous drip of the less than instant search…

…as well as the much lamented loading and screen transitions …

…that seem, even to this day, to reassert themselves and do cause the reluctant reassessment, of reversion from this conversion. And, impediments enough prior to that, too fostered, bolstered the overall aversion.

Thus Be Slow

This product, whose existence in my heart was a duality of contradiction, both courted and simultaneously resisted, placed further strains on this relationship that was still yet to be through its exhibition of yet another form of slow, adding unnecessary ballast to an already firmly cemented resistance.

This flame, with whom I oft flirted and fled, constantly tempted me, showing me a directional inclination to meet my needs and address my concerns. Such innovations were Gmail’s enchantments.

Dressed in exciting and alluring features befitting many a niche market and wanton suitor, myself not excluded, Gmail showed off such items as inline Netflix — great for that quick, one-time thrill; directionally appealing, but not enough upon which to build a long term relationship.

My family is a small one, but with everyone having their role and doing their part, up to now always getting along. Sure, there’s the occasional spat. But, in the end the family has always come together, harmony reached, OneNote sharing with Outlook, email and notes kindly cooperating and linking up with calendar, etc.

Gmail looked like it may someday get along with the whole family. However and again, its slowness came into play. Oh, sure, it worked hard in demonstrating the desire to improve and move in this direction, but lacking in facility, and those of which to bring home to and boast about.

But, for sealing the deal, a broader, some more whole approach, more generally appealing would be needed.

Separations

Passionate reunions were, over this long courtship, ignited…

I waited, just outside, for what seemed, maybe even was, an eternity, to be able to take Gmail out and offline. But, while the time did eventually come, and did go a long way in wearing down my long established resistance, freeing myself and Gmail in our travels, enjoying our time in the park, on the plane, in far off places, places where WiFi had yet to reach.

… but, each and every time ending in disappointment, each subsequent breakup more disheartening than the last.

And, while dazzling, this flame, with whom I flirted, was a slow burning one. The evidence of aforementioned inclinations dwindled, giving rise to apprehensions of illusions, concerns of progress in ways most fitting to the needs most relevant, most pertinent to my resistance.

Little Things & The Resistance

But, what of the other reasons for my resistance, which managed to be sustained from the early days of the private Gmail beta to the most recent of but few weeks passed? What sort of little things could have kept me apart from Gmail for so long a time? For surely there must be more to such a stalwart position as has been held by me, and I am sure many others still, for, for them, the resistance most definitely continues. And, indeed there are. In addition to…

Exiguous Encouragement,
Inescapable IO (Information Overload), and
Suffersome Slowness

… there too are the staunch galvanizers of resistance …

Tiny Things.

The Next

And, these propellants of reluctance, delayers of adoption, the fundamental causes of my resistance to what would eventually be overshadowed and forced aside, through the coercion of an Android to my conversion to the ways of Gmail, will, my friends, have to wait until next week.

Subscribe now (click here) to make sure you don’t miss any part of this series exploring the eventual adoption of Gmail in one’s daily life, by one once thoroughly addicted to, dependent on, the primarily client-based solution of Microsoft’s Outlook,

what brought about this conversion, (1) (2)
why it took so long, and (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
what should be done to encourage greater Gmail adoption. (8)

Enjoy & Tweet!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

Every week I read thousands of blog posts. Here, for your weekend enjoyment, are some highlights from my recent reading, for you.

	On Starting Up… http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/10/swinging-for-the-fences.html Finding success with the other kind of entrepreneur, older and serial.
	On Design & Product Experience… http://webdesignledger.com/tips/20-dos-and-donts-of-effective-web-design Effective web design comes about by paying heed to specific do’s and don’ts. A conversation, with examples, exploring many of them.
	On Modular Innovation… http://blog.programmableweb.com/2009/10/21/content-modularity-more-than-just-data-normalization/ On the importance of content modularity to Modular Innovation.

Have a great weekend!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

Many online social products, and more continue to, avoid a formal timestamp format…

2009-10-10 23:14:17 and Thu, October 29, 2004 12:14:19 PM

… opting for more user friendly, “warm and fuzzy,” human-readable styles…

9 days ago and 5 years ago.

As a result, and also in my quest to always help provide my clients free, cheap and easy to use tools, I have been on the lookout for a jQuery plugin that would provide the ability to easily…

• convert timestamps to ‘cuter’ language-styled forms (e.g. yesterday, 2 hours ago, last year, in the future!),
• customize the time scales and output formatting, and
• dynamically update the displayed CuteTime(s) upon request and/or automatically.

While there are other similar tools out there in JavaScript, PHP, and, I am sure, many other languages, none adequately met my goals. Therefore, I created the jQuery CuteTime plugin.

Usage

CuteTime is a customizable jQuery plugin (jQuery.cuteTime) that automatically converts timestamps to formats much cuter. Also, it has the ability to dynamically re-update and/or automatically update timestamps on a controlled interval.

As a Function

If used as a function, a string containing a cuteTime version of the provided timestamp is returned.

$(document).ready(function () {
	// timestamp MUST be a valid Date().parse 'able' format
	$.cuteTime('2009/10/12 22:11:19');
});

<html>
	<body>
		<div class='predetermined'></div>
	</body>
</html>

As a Method

If used via Selector, CuteTime replaces the text of the provided object with a cuteTime.

$(document).ready(function () {
	$('.timestamp').cuteTime();
});

<html>
	<body>
		<div class="timestamp">
			2009/10/12 22:11:19
		</div>
		<div class="timestamp">
			2008/11/01 07:11:00
		</div>
		<div class="timestamp">
			2018/11/01 07:11:00
		</div>
		<div class="timestamp"></div>
		<div class="timestamp" cutetime="1980/10/12 22:11:19">
			2009/10/12 22:11:19
		</div>
		<div class="timestamp" cutetime="asd">
			10/12/2009 22:11:19
		</div>
		<div class="timestamp" cutetime="asd">
			aoisd
		</div>
		<div class="timestamp" cutetime="asd"></div>
	</body>
</html>

When initialized, the cuteTime() call either updates or assigns the ‘cutetime’ attribute to the provided objects. Method implementation supports chaining, returning the jQuery object.

e.g. <div class=’timestamp’ cutetime=’2009 10 12 22:11:19′>2009 10 12 22:11:19</div>

If the cutetime attribute already exists within the provided object, then the text within the object is ignored in the cutification process. If the cutetime attribute does not exist or an invalid one is provided, then a valid cutetime attribute is assigned to the object.

If the cutetime attribute is missing, then it is calculated from the text of the provided object.

If neither cutetime attribute nor valid object text exist, then the timestamp is assumed to be ‘now’.

When using CuteTime in the form…

<br />
$(document).ready(function () {
	remember_the_cuteness = $('.timestamp').cuteTime();
});

… the following methods can be used …

// stops all automatic updates of refresh-enabled timestamps
remember_the_cuteness.stop_cuteness();

// (re)starts the automatic updating of timestamps
// REMINDER: make sure refresh is set to > 0
remember_the_cuteness.start_cuteness();

// updates timestamps of the provided objects
remember_the_cuteness.update_cuteness();

Settings

By default, automatic updating is disabled and the following CuteTimes can be displayed…

the future!
just now
a few seconds ago
a minute ago
x minutes ago
an hour ago
x hours ago
yesterday
x days ago
last month
x months ago
last year
x years ago

To change these settings, they can either be accessed directly…

$.fn.cuteTime.settings.refresh = 10000;

… or at the time of initialization …

my_cutetime = $('.timestamp_move').cuteTime({ refresh: 60000*10 });

The default settings data structure is…

$.fn.cuteTime.settings = {
	refresh: -1,			// time in milliseconds before next refresh of page data; -1 == no refresh
	time_ranges: [
		{bound: NEG_INF,	// IMPORANT: bounds MUST be in ascending order, from negative infinity to positive infinity
			cuteness: 'the future!',			unit_size: 0},
		{bound: 0,
			cuteness: 'just now',				unit_size: 0},
		{bound: 20 * 1000,
			cuteness: 'a few seconds ago',		unit_size: 0},
		{bound: 60 * 1000,
			cuteness: 'a minute ago',			unit_size: 0},
		{bound: 60 * 1000 * 2,
			cuteness: ' minutes ago',			unit_size: 60 * 1000},
		{bound: 60 * 1000 * 60,
			cuteness: 'an hour ago',			unit_size: 0},
		{bound: 60 * 1000 * 60 * 2,
			cuteness: ' hours ago',				unit_size: 60 * 1000 * 60},
		{bound: 60 * 1000 * 60 * 24,
			cuteness: 'yesterday',				unit_size: 0},
		{bound: 60 * 1000 * 60 * 24 * 2,
			cuteness: ' days ago',				unit_size: 60 * 1000 * 60 * 24},
		{bound: 60 * 1000 * 60 * 24 * 30,
			cuteness: 'last month',				unit_size: 0},
		{bound: 60 * 1000 * 60 * 24 * 30 * 2,
			cuteness: ' months ago',			unit_size: 60 * 1000 * 60 * 24 * 30},
		{bound: 60 * 1000 * 60 * 24 * 30 * 12,
			cuteness: 'last year',				unit_size: 0},
		{bound: 60 * 1000 * 60 * 24 * 30 * 12 * 2,
			cuteness: ' years ago',				unit_size: 60 * 1000 * 60 * 24 * 30 * 12},
		{bound: POS_INF,
			cuteness: 'a blinkle ago',			unit_size: 0}
	]
};

The parameters are defined (and all can be overridden) thus…

• refresh
  • time in milliseconds before next refresh of page data;
  • a value of -1 disables refreshing

• time_ranges
  • the array of bound_structures that delineate the cute descriptions associated with time_ranges
  • time_range’s boundary structures consist of the following variables…

• time_range[x].bound
  • the value is an integer representing the time difference between the provided timestamp and now
  • the lower inclusive bound, or starting point, for using the ‘cuteness’ string that describes the current timestamp
  • the exclusive upper bound is defined by the next boundary structure definition in the time_ranges array [current boundary + 1]

• time_range[x].cuteness
  • string to use in place of the current timestamp (e.g. ‘yesterday’)

• time_range[x].unit_size
  • the integer divisor in milliseconds to apply to the calculated time difference
  • if unit_size > 0 then a number value is prepended to the cuteness string as calculated by time_difference / unit_size (e.g. 4 hours ago)
  • if unit_size = 0, then no number is prepended to the cuteness string (e.g. an hour ago)

BTW

Make sure you use timestamps that are fully recognized by the JavaScript Date object’s Parse method in all the IE and FF browser versions you want to support. Otherwise, prepare for a headache.

Get It

You can download CuteTime, dual licensed under GPL and MIT, from…

jQuery Repository
http://plugins.jquery.com/project/CuteTime

Git
Public Clone URL: git://github.com/theproductguy/CuteTime.git
GitHub: http://github.com/theproductguy/CuteTime

Zip
jQuery.cuteTime_source-bundle_1.0_20091019.zip

Demo

http://theproductguy.com/cutetime/cutetime.demo.html

Status updates can be found here, jQuery CuteTime.
If you find this useful, or have any questions, ideas, or issues, leave a comment.

Enjoy!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

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Every week I read thousands of blog posts. Here, for your weekend enjoyment, are some highlights from my recent reading, for you.

	On Starting Up… http://www.undertheradarblog.com/blog/the-series-a-term-sheet-5-terms-founders-should-focus-on/ Series A fundraising and the 5 terms every founder should know.
	On Design & Product Experience… http://www.fubiz.net/2009/10/19/facebook-facelift/ Facebook gets another facelift.
	On Modular Innovation… http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/humans_as_sensors.php IBM’s bridging of online and offline worlds through Modular Innovation and human sensors.

Have a great weekend!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

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