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11/10/06
So, What Exactly Is "Coming Soon" in AIM Pages?
11/8/06
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11/1/06
Friday, November 10, 2006
5:56:00 PM EST
Hearing Such Great Heights, The Dresden Dolls (Live)
Hi folks -- so, I've hinted a few times previously
about work that the AIM Pages team is doing for the next big release
coming up, but I've purposely been vague on the details (as in, I
haven't given you any).
But Joe, you might say, aren't blogs all about transparency and being upfront about things?
Why yes, they are. But there's another dynamic at work here, which can be best summarized by the business cliche:
When you overcommunicate this stuff (and in biz speak, "overcommunication" is generally a good thing), even with the best of intentions, after enough date slips and feature deferments, even the best of us say, "Enough! Just tell us when the damn thing is going to ship (and work)!"
Well, the next AIM Pages release is getting close, but we're still keeping the date intentionally vague. November is always an interesting time to launch stuff, since you start running into holiday moratoriums and such. But we're close enough that the team has posted a Coming Soon message in the nav bar, and current AIM Pages profile users should be getting an e-mail with more info.
So what are the changes? Again, keeping it in general terms, they include:
The good news, though, is we want to make sure you can have it all -- you'll be able to switch back and forth between the quick mode (which is essentially form-based, where you fill in info that will populate your profile), and standard mode, which lets you do all the cool module placement and customization.
One of the challenges with the current AIM Pages profiles is that it's geared really heavily towards people who like getting under the hood of modules, who make liberal use of the Code Snippet Module (and who, like, also read and heed the warnings about the perils of using "document.write" in those modules) and even create their own modules.
However, for folks who just want to put up a cool profile, all this can be overkill.
By introducing a Quick mode that's compatible with standard mode, you can get started quickly and have a cool, good-looking module that works, and if you want to do more cool stuff with your profile as time goes on, you can just switch over to the standard mode and do that.
That's the big focus on this release. Like I said, the standard mode isn't going away, and it's going to be a key part of the whole module/widget aspect of the open Web 2.0 strategy. But you'll be able to choose just the level of fiddling you're comfortable with.
As we get closer to a launch, we'll have more info, and hopefully some screenshots and other sneak peeks for you to look at.
Thanks -- Joe
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5:56:00 PM EST
Hearing Such Great Heights, The Dresden Dolls (Live)
So, What Exactly Is "Coming Soon" in AIM Pages?
But Joe, you might say, aren't blogs all about transparency and being upfront about things?
Why yes, they are. But there's another dynamic at work here, which can be best summarized by the business cliche:
Underpromise, then overdeliver.
Over the natural course of development of any project, things change. It's like that military maxim -- "No plan ever survives first contact with the enemy": Bugs are found, dates shift, features and requirements change.When you overcommunicate this stuff (and in biz speak, "overcommunication" is generally a good thing), even with the best of intentions, after enough date slips and feature deferments, even the best of us say, "Enough! Just tell us when the damn thing is going to ship (and work)!"
Well, the next AIM Pages release is getting close, but we're still keeping the date intentionally vague. November is always an interesting time to launch stuff, since you start running into holiday moratoriums and such. But we're close enough that the team has posted a Coming Soon message in the nav bar, and current AIM Pages profile users should be getting an e-mail with more info.
So what are the changes? Again, keeping it in general terms, they include:
- New look-and-feel ("goodbye, brown!")
- Bug fixes and performance enhancements
- Easier ways to add buddies to your page
- Better photo sharing
- Improved
profile search
- Better integration with AIM (hey, it is AIM Pages, right?) -- this will include the ability to invite people to be your AIM Pages buddy with one click.
- A new Shout Out feature to leave quick comments on your buddies' profiles
- A Buddy Page that shows the photos of all your
friends
The good news, though, is we want to make sure you can have it all -- you'll be able to switch back and forth between the quick mode (which is essentially form-based, where you fill in info that will populate your profile), and standard mode, which lets you do all the cool module placement and customization.
One of the challenges with the current AIM Pages profiles is that it's geared really heavily towards people who like getting under the hood of modules, who make liberal use of the Code Snippet Module (and who, like, also read and heed the warnings about the perils of using "document.write" in those modules) and even create their own modules.
However, for folks who just want to put up a cool profile, all this can be overkill.
By introducing a Quick mode that's compatible with standard mode, you can get started quickly and have a cool, good-looking module that works, and if you want to do more cool stuff with your profile as time goes on, you can just switch over to the standard mode and do that.
That's the big focus on this release. Like I said, the standard mode isn't going away, and it's going to be a key part of the whole module/widget aspect of the open Web 2.0 strategy. But you'll be able to choose just the level of fiddling you're comfortable with.
As we get closer to a launch, we'll have more info, and hopefully some screenshots and other sneak peeks for you to look at.
Thanks -- Joe
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11/13/06 1:28 PM
Sounds like we'll be getting tabs