the blippr blog

Yes, we've been acquired by Mashable!

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:57:08 -0700

We are so very honored—and humbled—to announce that Mashable has acquired blippr. Not only does Mashable advocate for the very social media we represent, they were even the first to write about us early last year, when we entered private beta. To join the Mashable family and work with the likes of Pete Cashmore, Adam Hirsch, Adam Ostrow, and the rest of their talented team on a daily basis is a true honor.

It may seem a strange pairing—a blog and micro-review service such as our own—but we are excited about the possibilities that lie before us, both immediately and long-term. With Mashable’s authors writing detailed pieces and how-tos about the very apps you can now review on blippr, we find a complement to the short-form content our loyal users add while Mashable finds a complement to the long-form content they have provided since Pete Cashmore started blogging about his passion for the web back in 2006.

There are many exciting things to come from both of us in the next few months as this relationship takes form. One thing we can also say to our users is this: don’t worry. blippr will very much continue on being blippr, with micro-reviews and personal recommendations of media at its core. Mashable wholeheartedly believes in aiding us on our mission to be the easiest way to discuss, discover, and organize media. On we go.

Onward and Upward,
the blippr team (Chris and JC)

blippr on your smart phone!

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:02:00 -0700

We’ve recently made a bunch of improvements to blippr for mobile users - try pulling up blippr on your iPhone, iPod touch, Android G1, relatively new Blackberry (older Blackberry Browsers don’t look that great yet), or other smartphone. We’ve rolled out a mobile-optimized version of the site, and if you visit from a smartphone, you’ll get a sweet little micro version of your favorite microreview service (m.blippr.com works too, for the purists).

Let us know what you think!

blippr--now with 43.2% less fat!

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:53:00 -0700

As you may have already noticed, we just released a fresh new look. Beyond the sexier exterior (or “sexterior” as we like to call it) though, you’ll find quite a few more changes than those just skin deep. “Why,” you ask? Because as we used blippr and looked at how you, our trusted users, were using the service, we found that there were some areas we could hone. There was some fat we could trim.

So, now you can use blippr without feeling bad about those extra calories! Here are some highlights:

“How about dem apps?!”

Whether they’re web apps, iPhone apps, Facebook apps, Mac apps, or something else, be sure to add them and blip them aplenty

Lists have gone missing. Don’t worry.

Instead of numerous lists and having all these loose locations to store your stuff, you now have one place to save all your stuff
Just click “save” anywhere near a title and you can mark it in my queue, to blip later, want to own, favorite, or assign a custom marker you designate; think Delicious for your media
You can now browse your apps, books, games, movies, and music by multiple tags (try action comedies, for example)
We hope these changes simplify how you organize your media moving forward

Your home is a little sparser, but a tad tidier, too.

Adding a blip and updating your status are two distinct, easily accessible actions on your home once you’ve signed in
Your home page’s feeds are improved so you’ll only see what your friends are doing on blippr, not their friends, too
You’ll find only a few sub-links on your homepage—my stuff, my network, and settings—rather than the five that were there previously
Rather than find your friends’ recent blips in your blipstream, just click “blips” on your homepage to see what they’ve been talking about

A few last things worth pointing out.

Instead of having a left sidebar, navigation and sub-navigation is always, always on top of the page
There are two nifty new views—compact and medium—to eliminate those nasty image loading times
Yes, there are ads, but hopefully you find them relevant and non-intrusive (let us know if you think otherwise)
Facebook connections have been turned off, but just for a little while we bring that app up to snuff with all these new changes… we are only one developer after all

“Good reviews come in small packages.”

Regarding the new slogan on the homepage, we must give credit to whom it’s due. Thank you @mikelee1989 for answering our question via Twitter!

More is coming soon.

Seriously. We aren’t kidding. Much more cool stuff is on its way sooner than you might think. We look forward to hearing what you think about and experience with our slimmer blippr. As always, feel free to DM us @blippr, give us feedback, or contact us directly.

Happy blipping!

How would you describe blippr in 5 words or less?

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:36:06 -0700

Via Twitter:

Hey everyone, blippr to launch a redesign soon. How would you describe blippr in 5 words or less on our homepage. You will get the credit!

Dead-simple instant messaging in Rails apps

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:58:00 -0700

I’ve released a brand-spankin’ new Rails plugin, designed to serve as a means for providing dead-simple Jabber support for multi-app-server Rails apps. We’re using this in blippr internally already, but I figured it was useful enough to package up and unleash on the world at large.

script/plugin install git://github.com/cheald/jabberish.git

It’s released under the MIT license, and is still extremely new, so practical testing is quite welcome!

The chat that birthed blippr 16 months ago

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 17:43:09 -0700

3:24 PM me [Jonathan]: to the tag team interactive pipeline, what do you think about tobebrief.com? A site where users submit their description of things in X characters or 30 seconds or less of movies, tv shows, books, etc. It would be hilarious. People don't want to read full, in depth reviews of crap. They could just read the short version of something. it would be an easy, easy site to do, i think. and it could generate a lot of page views.
Chris: Ooh, I like.
Not sure I like the name, but I like the concept
me: yeah. i'm thinking.
Something like abrev.com
Like abreviated.
abbreviated.
whatever.
something that represents SHORT
Chris: Hm, yeah. Let's keep thinking about it.
me: shortly.com
def.
Chris: Man, that would be the perfect application for a cell phone market.
me: absolutely.
I'm looking up synonyms for summary, short, brief, recap, etc.
I want it to be an abbreviation itself.
Cuz that would be clvr.
Chris: Hah, nice
We could just go with something web 2.0ish, nonsensical but short.
me: that's what i'm thinking.
Chris: blippr.com
It's a blip!
me: funny.
Chris: A short little blurb
me: shrtr
blrbr
Chris: That makes me think "brb, I have to use the shrtr"
me: blurbr
Chris: Makes me think blubber
One sec, registering blippr.com
I like that one
me: ok
what about blipd
Chris: I like the noun "blip" a lot
It's perfect
me: that way it's not a copy of flickr, either.
Chris: Eh, there are a billion non-vowel-r names out htere now
me: definitely. i like it dude. blippr could be a fun project.
very easy, for sure.
Chris: That's easy to think! Then we'll get into it and want to do a billion things with it :D
me: KISS. Keep it Simple Stupid
That would be the beauty of the site.
We want it to be easy, short.
Nothing fancy.
Chris: Central design philosophy :)
me: Let me work some concepts down. You keep working on first one, baby, and we'll be getting to everything else.
I like this idea though.
it's fun.
Blippr!!!!!!!1
Chris: Heheh
I like it
blippr.com registered.

blippr Partners with 12seconds

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 07:56:00 -0700

Blipping is addictive, no doubt about it. And reading blips is just as fun. But today we’re excited to announce that blippr has teamed up with 12seconds to making adding and finding micro-reviews even more fun. Like us, they’re all about brevity. So, given 12seconds’ video focus, and our review and recommendations focus, we thought it was the perfect pairing. As good as PB&J, or milk and cookies, or mac and cheese, or… you get the point.

As one of 12seconds’ first API partners, you will soon be able to go above and beyond adding just 160 characters to review your favorite (and least favorite) books, games, movies, and music—you’ll be able to add 12 seconds of video. Or, as we like to call them: vlips (video blips). For an invite to the 12seconds alpha, email blippr@12seconds.tv and they’ll be sure to send you one within the day.

As usual, if you have any questions, ideas, or issues, be sure to bring them up with us on Get Satisfaction or Twitter. To find out more about our 12seconds’ newly released API, read what they have to say about the exciting news, or visit 12seconds.tv/developers for more details.

We’ll be sure to let you know when vlipping is avilable to all. Look out for it this week. Happy blipping!

Update: Vlipping is live. Just look for the “record a video blip instead” link underneath the status bar of the blip form. And have a webcam ready, of course. Happy vlipping!

Kim Komando names blippr her Cool Site of the Day!

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:48:03 -0700

Thanks to Kim Komando and her awesome Show for covering blippr and honoring us with her Cool Site of the Day recognition.

I’d also like to thank Alan Henry of AppScout for a wonderful recent writeup of blippr. In fact, this is just another one of many kind blog posts about blippr by you, our users, who both see the value in—and add value to—blippr. We couldn’t do any of this without any of you.

Keep up the great blipping, everyone! And stay tuned for some more exciting news coming tomorrow.

Looks like the folks over at PC Magazine are keen on blippr, and did a little writeup on it as one...

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:42:00 -0700

Looks like the folks over at PC Magazine are keen on blippr, and did a little writeup on it as one of their “Top 100 Undiscovered Websites”. Sweet!

blippr in Fortune Magazine

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:05:00 -0700

A great article about Twitter, written by Adam Lashinsky, appeared today in Fortune’s online counterpart, CNNMoney.com. We’ll comment on the article’s content later perhaps, but primarily we would like to mention that blippr is mentioned. It’s only a sentence, sure—an incorrect one at that, given it says we offer restaurant reviews—but we’ll take the free press. We have no idea how this one came about, but hey, it’s Fortune! No complaining here.

Rodney Rumford joins our advisory board

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:20:00 -0700

Not only has it been an exciting few days for us in terms of press and everyone’s wonderful feedback, we also have the great pleasure of announcing that Rodney Rumford of FaceReviews has joined our advisory board. Given his extensive knowledge of the social media landscape (not to mention his jolly personality), we’re excited to have him join us in our mission to make blippr the best way for people to discuss, discover, and organize media with their friends, as well as make it a profitable, long-standing business. Both a blippr user and a savvy social media entrepreneur, we couldn’t be more pleased with our first official advisor to the blippr team.

Welcome Rodney!

Coming in the next blippr push...

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:40:00 -0700

Jaiku and Plurk integration! (Pownce is coming, too, but it’s a little trickier.)

Keep your eyes open for ‘em!

We’ve pushed a new build to address some of the hiccups folks were experiencing yesterday....

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:04:00 -0700

We’ve pushed a new build to address some of the hiccups folks were experiencing yesterday. Hope that clears up the majority of them, and as always, if you have issues, please do start a topic on Get Satisfaction, and we’ll get to it ASAP!

TechCrunch wrote about blippr. Thank you Erick!

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:39:00 -0700

TechCrunch wrote about blippr. Thank you Erick!

The Next Web on blippr

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 08:52:00 -0700

Check out the latest NextWeb post about blippr from TheNextWeb when you get a chance. Read either Chris’s or Jonathan’s comments in the post for clarity on the “cons” Joop has listed, though. We’re all about DataPortability (of course).

Username Format Change

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:01:00 -0700

Hey folks, just as a heads up, we changed the format of usernames a bit tonight. If you didn’t set a username when we use the first part of your email, prefixed by a “~”. Before, we would append two numbers to the name.

If your email was “joe@megacorp.net” then your username might have shown up as “joe52”. It’ll now show up as “~joe”.

To set a username of your choice, just go to “edit my profile” and enter your username of choice. Of course, if you’d already set a username, this change won’t affect you.

Happy blipping!

Twitter user? Retweet!

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:46:00 -0700

Twitter user? Retweet!

"Computer programs are indeed powerful, but when it comes to taste, they need to pair up with a kind..."

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:59:00 -0700

“Computer programs are indeed powerful, but when it comes to taste, they need to pair up with a kind of human wisdom if they hope to be successful. And sometimes, even when technology can get it right, many of us will still opt for the old-fashioned way. After all, it’s nice to listen to a computer recommending a movie we might like. But sometimes it’s even nicer to listen to a person we know we like.”

- Read the full post by Steven Zeitchik, at The Wall Street Journal.

blippr's opening up!

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:06:00 -0700

What will you find with the newest version of blippr? Lots.

A better design; though we warn you now that it is radically different and eagerly await your feedback
A new personal homepage that will act as your personal command center when you’re signed in—we will no longer make you visit your public profile (intended for friends) to complete important actions or get to important data (intended for you)
A newsfeed on your homepage to stay up on more than just your friends’ recent blips; undeniably, it is inspired by Facebook’s
A blip stuff! page, which will help you find more books, games, movies, and music to blip now, save for later, or ignore forever
Better friend filtering and sorting features, as well as a much improved people search
A new signup process
And more!

Most importantly, you’re now able to connect your profile so that, when your blips post to Twitter, FriendFeed, and Facebook, your friends can browse blippr on their own and sign up if they want. It only takes about six seconds to join and you’ll get better recommendations as a result of following them, so why not, right?!

We won’t be making big news out of this new version for a short while… just enough time for you, our faithful current users, to test it out, invite more friends, give us feedback, and the like. Please don’t, don’t, don’t be shy. Use the “feedback?” link in the bottom right corner of every page to let us know your thoughts. Or DM us on Twitter. Or voice your opinion on Get Satisfaction. Or start a discussion on our Google Group. Whatever your method, please do let us know your thoughts. We’re listening.

Thanks to all of you for bringing blippr to this point. It’s a humble effort by two friends-turned-business-partners (though I must give most credit to our only developer at this point, blippr’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Geek, Chris Heald), and we look forward to bringing you many more features and integrations with other services in the near future. Many additions, revisions, fixes, and more polish will be coming over the next few days and weeks, too, so bear with us and any numbers in the 499-501 range that you might encounter along the way.

Now, go blip!

Okay, we’re back up. Sorry for the downtime everyone. And thanks again for your patience.

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:59:39 -0700

Okay, we’re back up. Sorry for the downtime everyone. And thanks again for your patience.