Author Archive

We’ve been a little quiet of late, mostly because we’re busy working on our next release. We still have a bit of QA to do, but we’d like to share some details.

Search

As you can see, we’re actively integrating blog search into beta.bloglines.com. We’ve incorporated some Ask 3D's popular features into Bloglines blog search. For example, related searches in the right-hand column in the screenshot below. In case you’re wondering, we’ve retained the filtering allowing you to search based on feed subscriber popularity. You also might notice an advertisement on that mockup. Keep an eye-out for CPC oriented ads in future releases.

Flickr View

We continue to expand our views for photo-feeds with a new preview mode for Flickr photo-feeds.

Add Feeds

Many of you noticed that Beta's add page was pretty basic. Essentially, it was a stub for future development. We’ve finished off the next iteration on the page, so you can easily track packages, monitor weather, or see recommended packs.

Blogliners, we're here working for you. Enjoy!

- Eric Engleman and the Bloglines Team

We've deployed all the features mentioned in the previous blog post. Here's a recap:

Search

Blog search is finally in Beta, and we've incorporated some popular Ask 3D features. For example, related searches are displayed in the right-hand column next to results. All of classic's features are still there, but with newer styling.

Flickr View

Selecting a Flickr feed and viewing it in quick view now uses the Flickr API to show images at their maximum resolution.

Add Page

Beta's old add page was spartan, to say the least. The new Add page has package tracking, weather feeds, and a new feature: Packs. You can now add popular categories of feeds with a single mouse click.

Enjoy!

- Eric Engleman and the Bloglines Team

Heather Hopkins of Hitwise has a new post for all you Blogliners out there. She's a VP of Research at Hitwise, a leading web analytics firm. She writes, "It (Bloglines) is the most popular web-based feed reader based on share of US visits." Or in other words, Bloglines is beating Google Reader in the U.S. In an interview done by RW/W on August of 2007, I said it was a "2 horse race." It still is.

Heather goes onto write about the differences between the user bases.

• Bloglines users are also more inclined toward Photography websites, while Google Reader users are more inclined to visit Television websites.
• ...Bloglines users are 24% more likely to continue on to a retail (Shopping & Classifieds) website.

It would be interesting to hear from Blogliners on your blogs to see if you really do track more photography websites. We launched a Flickr feed module in Bloglines Beta for our photography enthusiasts. We hope you liked the feature and also like Bloglines Beta.

Enjoy!

- Eric Engleman and the Bloglines Team

We've been spending a lot of time working on improving the back-end of Bloglines, but we wanted to share some fun for you Blogliners out there.

More and more of our feeds have embedded video, so it was a no-brainer to offer greater video support. We've cleared over 30 different video sites to stream video through Bloglines. It's a broad list including Blip.tv, Break.com, Brightcove, Cnet, CNN, CollegeHumor.com, Dailymotion.com, Metacafe, Myspace, Revver, Videoegg, and oh yeah, YouTube, among others.

Here's an example where I'm about to watch Jake and Amir of College Humor. The video is embedded in the Silicon Alley Insider feed inside using the Vimeo player.

Have Fun!

- Eric Engleman and the Bloglines Team

Beta Blogliners,

We launched a new skin for Beta.bloglines.com. The revised skin comes after much review by Blogliners (Bloglinites?) who have been keeping us posted on their likes and dislikes of the redesign. Here’s a quick peek:

We’ve also launched display advertising in search results and an ad unit on the Classic Start Page. We’re in the process of developing monetization methods ($$) which work within a feed reader. We look forward to listening to Blogliners and working with 3rd parties to develop the next generation blog and feed networks. You’ll see more of the redesign soon.

Enjoy!

Eric Engleman and the Bloglines Team

Source: Wools, License

Tonight, we will be moving a database to a new set of servers. The scheduled maintenance is expected to occur on September 30th from 9:00 PM PST to 11:00 PM PST. During this time, Bloglines will be unavailable.

- Eric Engleman & The Bloglines Team

Hi Blogliners: Some folks might have noticed that specific feeds were not updating recently on Bloglines, and we wanted to update you and fill you in on what’s been going on. We have figured out what the glitch has been. Over the weekend, a fix was released on Bloglines to resolve the issue. All feeds should now be updating and back to normal. If you're still experiencing problems you can report a stuck feed here: Contact Us.

We apologize for any inconvenience to our users. Thanks for your patience, and for using Bloglines

- Eric Engleman & The Bloglines Team

At about 11AM PST today, a glitch resulted in Bloglines downtime. The team began troubleshooting immediately. Bloglines is back up and running with no data loss. We certainly apologize for any temporary inconvenience.

- Eric Engleman & The Bloglines Team

Several Blogliners reported some intermittent issues with the service over the weekend. AJ and team have been delving into the servers to resolve any problems to make sure Bloglines is up and running for everyone.

- Eric Engleman & The Bloglines Team

Greetings Blogliners! We wanted to provide you with some updates about our service. We’ve been busily working to make some timely improvements to Bloglines. First, we’re in the process of adding some good talent to our team in the form of some new engineers. Second, we’re focused on improving the operational stability of Bloglines. To do this, we’ll be moving the service to a new data center very soon. We’ll update you on that in the next few days.

After the data center migration and operational monitoring improvements are made, we’ll continue to focus on making the final touches on the new version of Bloglines. We’re excited about introducing it to you and we’re hopeful that you will find it to be a more robust and useful version.

Lastly, the Bloglines Team would like to thank everyone for the feedback you’ve provided on the beta thus far. It’s looking really nice!

- Eric Engleman & The Bloglines Team