This is for our German contingent ... I'm fluent in German, so I often come across posts from German users that I can enjoy, and this one I quite liked.
Der AS bastelt sich ein RSS-Radar
He goes through a great description of how he sets up KlipFolio, fights with his computer that is about to die, and finally reaches what he calls his "feed-monster" creation - lovingly referred to of course, his Frankenstein creation of Klips.
We're really happy with how many of you are helping us spread the word. To put it in perspective, just yesterday alone, there were over 120 people who are helping the KlipFolio cause! That's pretty cool.
We increased the visibility of the "Big Talkers" list yesterday, and it's now visible on the Blog, and also the Explor Sets page. Over time, we will try integrating it into other areas as well.
We also want to hear from you ... how can we get everyone talking about KlipFolio? Do you have some creative ideas that we can share with other KlipFolio users? Let us know here.
Because we also have a shipment of new T-Shirts, we will be cloathing the Top Big Talkers with the latest in KlipFolio fashions (see for a pic of the T-Shirt).
Thanks!
Allan
Although I'm not sure PC World got the description of KlipFolio quite right, they do consider us one of their 3 favourite "widget" apps. Here is what they said:
Widgets Break Out of the BrowserThe technologies that power the New Web are being applied outside your browser, too. Widgets are lightweight applications that sometimes run inside a browser and other times operate as separate programs. They can monitor the weather, measure battery life, reformat Web pages and search results, or do just about anything else that someone figures out how to accomplish in a scripting language. Here are three of our favorite widgets:
... Klipfolio: Looking much like an instant messaging client, Klipfolio is a free widget that aggregates RSS feeds and other complex information (such as the local weather). Unlike standard RSS readers, however, Klipfolio lets you search feeds and sends you alerts when your search terms appear.
Three unrelated articles caught my attention today - all somewhat related to KlipFolio though. Two I will share with you today, and the third one I will save for a later post.
The first is an interview with Jackob Nielsen, sharing his thoughts on RSS and Blogs. Have a read. It's a good article, a reality check to where we are today, however it does not acknowledge the trend towards this emerging technology. People who are blogging, using RSS, talking about social software are early adopters, and this crowd will influence the future of mainstream.
The second one is a blog by Dan Farber about the explosion and trends of social start-ups. It's interesting just to explore all of the new services / companies / ideas. Just like the social web, here is an interesting parallel pulled from the story:
The most promising sites based Web 2.0 and social networks are those where the structure emerges over time and the results of interaction are more persistent, according to Andrew P. McAfee, an associate professor with the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School. "Wikipedia needed structure over time, for arbitration, tracking changes and making decisions, but it didn't presume to know what the problems are or how to solve them in advance," McAfee told me.
More to come on the third article later ...
A while back we ordered T-shirts for all our staff. The shirts arrived today.
Here's a shot:
We have a few extras that we'll be giving to friends, family, forum members, and competitors (because there is not enough love in the world).
We suspect that for many users, Widgets have a short shelf life.
That's because there are different types of users. One group of users wants to decorate and personalize their desktop with appealing tools, such as analog clocks, battery levels, pictures, and web cams.
Another much larger group wants to save time and effort monitoring changes to remote content.
Check out this comparison between Yahoo Widgets and Google Gadgets.
http://forevergeek.com/geek_resources/yahoo_widgets_vs_google_gadgets.php
Both are good widget platforms. And some widgets can be very useful. What we thought was very interesting was the author's conclusions
So I usually run both, system resources permitting. I tend to use [Yahoo] Widgets more frequently, as they are more easily accessible. But really, after the novelty has worn out, these usually tend to serve only as eye candy, unless you have some compulsive need to have your information available on hand all the time.
We think the author's "after the novelty has worn out" comment is correct. Most people will try out widgets because they look cool (hey, don't we all want a cool desktop). However, after a while, they realize they have installed 11.1 MEG of software so they can see a clock on their desktop. Nice eye candy, but eventually they uninstall it to reclaim their system's resources.
What most people really want, as the author pointed out, is "to have your information available on hand all the time."
For Serence, that's our target user: someone who wants to save time and effort monitoring multiple sources from their desktop.
One of the things we know about using KlipFolio is that great Klips are key. And it only takes one really great Klip to make someone a believer. Yes, having all your stuff in one handy view is the icing on the cake, but that's not as important as that one killer Klip you could not live without. For me, it's the currency monitor. I know it's geeky, in a sad sort of way, but this is the Klip I reference the most and what I would install first if I was reinstalling KlipFolio from scratch. So, herein lies a problem - matching users to their personal killer Klip.
We used to have a "request a Klip" feature on the old KlipFarm site, but after receiving a few thousand emails (and then a few thousand more), it was just not possible to manage and act on the requests. We also know that users use the forum to post their ideas for killer Klips - but it does not really get them any permanent visibility or weight from other likeminded users.
So, with this pseudo-social slant to KlipFolio.com, we've been thinking about resurrecting the "Klip Wish List". But this time around we'll make the whole thing public, and include the number of requests per Klip. Perhaps we'll even include other data, like a history of development effort, or comments. Some food for thought.
Our R&D team is growing again. We added a developer last February, we've got another one starting next Monday, June 19th, and we now have an open req for an interface designer. Here is the job description. Know anybody?
With the added horsepower in R&D, we'll be able to focus more effort on KlipFolio, advancing features and moving through the roadmap much faster than before.
Cheers
Allan
We're working on a new suite of Klips for KlipFolio.com, including:
- New & Updated Klips on KlipFolio.com (now with language and adult content filtering)
- Klip Tracker (to monitor downloads, comments, ratings, etc. for specific Klips and sets)
- KlipBlog (updated to the new system and already released)
- Klip Statistics (to monitor detailed stats for a specific Klip--you'll have to log in with this one)
Time permitting, we're also looking at Klips for most popular tags and/or most popular sets.
For Klip developers who want to play around with their own KlipFolio.com Klips, we've built RSS feeds for every Klip. They can be accessed through:
http://www.klipfolio.com/phplib/scripts/rss/klip_rss.php?kid=####
(Where #### is the Klip's ID number)
Also, you can retrieve information about multiple Klips by comma-seperating IDs, like so:
http://www.klipfolio.com/phplib/scripts/rss/klip_rss.php?kid=####,####,####,#### ...
We'll be using this feed sepcifically in the Klip Tracker, due soon.
Just in time for the World Cup 2006, we've uploaded 3 very cool Klips to keep you on top of the action - World Cup News, Groups & Standings and Photos. What's really nice about these three Klips is that they are very configurable; choose your teams, choose your language for news etc ... You've likely already seen them if you visit KlipFolio.com regularily as they have shot up to the most popular spots.
Keep in mind there are many other Klips that will also have World Cup news - just do a search for worldcup , weltmeisterschaft , fifa or fussball and you'll get a good list.
