The Clipmarks Blog

A few important updates to Clipmarks were introduced today. In no particular order, some of the headline changes are:

1. Key improvements to our mobile site at m.clipmarks.com. Due to the inherent nature of the clipmarks experience to allow for rapid fire consumption of small - but potent - bits of information, Clipmarks.com is ideally suited for viewing on mobile devices (especially iPhones). Eric G says there’s no better use of your iPhone when you’re on a bus or train or, even better, in the bathroom
   
   Specific enhancements include:
   • Improved popping functionality (logged in users at m.clipmarks.com can pop and comment on all clips).
   • There are now “next 20″ links on all sets of clip results so you consume clips to your heart’s content.
   • For logged in users, the “remember me” feature now works better.
   • Some nice improvements to the way clips are displayed.
2. On the main clipmarks.com site and on m.clipmarks.com, you can now use your email address to log in. We made this change to give anyone who forgets their Clipmarks username another way to log in.
3. On clipmarks.com, you’ll see new Share and Pop interfaces below each open clip. In addition to the design changes, the new share interface makes it very easy to post any clip to sites such as Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc., as well as to your blog or to a friend via email.
4. The windows for saving, blogging and emailing clips have been redesigned a bit to (hopefully) make the experience a bit simpler and more pleasing on the brain and the eyes. Hope you like! Also, new users can sign up for a Clipmarks account directly from inside any of these windows, so the getting started process should be more fluid.
5. When saving a clip, we have removed the “My Network” saving option. This was intended to allow users to make clips public on their own pages, but keep them off the main clipmarks site. Though there is definitely some clear value in being able to do this, we consistently found that the confusion it caused people was too significant to justify the utility. We are going to consider alternative ways to offer this type of capability (perhaps on an account and/or folder basis), but until we work out a better solution, we have decided to simplify the process by removing it.

There are a number of other changes on the site, but these are the big ones. We hope you enjoy!

Best,

The Clipmarks Team (eric, eric, eric and derek)

So, a busy week for us at Clipmarks that culminated in a number of things being uploaded this afternoon.

1. New header: We have simplified the site header dramatically. Rather than continuing to fork the site into two viewing modes, all header links will now keep you in the Classic View. We have concluded that the clip widget (formerly known as clipcast) is best suited for showcasing or following clips on other web sites, as opposed to being an alternative viewing mode on clipmarks.com. So, when you’re logged in you’ll now see simple links to All Clippers, My Clippers and My Clips in the header. Each takes you to the classic view for the respective clips.
2. Real name: We have added a field to each user’s profile page for your real name. Anyone who provides their name will have it displayed below their username when people visit their page and in the clipper card that appears on mouseover of any username. Here’s a link to the profile page where you can add your real name. We’d also like to request/suggest that users upload a real photo of themselves for your profile image. Our feeling is that the community on clipmarks.com would be a lot more welcoming if real faces and real names were available. If you’re interested, here’s a link to the page where you can upload a photo. To anyone who isn’t comfortable doing so, that is totally cool.
3. No more hiding clips from certain users: While we know that this was an appreciated feature by many users, we were simply having too many technological side effects (site slowness and instability) from having to filter out clips from particular users for every single query on the site. The ability to ignore a user’s comments or prevent them from commenting on your clips is still available. We hope that you will simply avoid clips from user’s you don’t like and/or use your My Clippers list to create a feed of clips from your favorite users.
4. Name your widget: You can give a name to any widget of clips on the site. If you want to see a widget for any set of clips on the site, you can click the “get widget” link at the top-right of any list of clips. From there, you’ll be able to customize the color, size and name of the widget and get code to embed it on your MySpace page, blog or anywhere else.
5. Daily email sent again: We were having problems sending out the Daily Clips and My Clippers Digest emails, but these have been resolved. So anyone who subscribes to them should begin receiving them again immediately. Sorry about this!
6. Video: For anyone who didn’t notice, we are now including video clips along with text and image clips in all feeds on the site (including the home page). The blog post below this one explains our thinking behind this change.

We’ll be rolling out lots more changes and new features over the coming weeks. We’ll keep you posted about them here.

Have a great weekend everyone!

We’re now featuring video clips along with clips of text and images in all feeds on Clipmarks.com. Though we’ve supported clipping video for a while now, we’ve never given them equal treatment on the site. This change will make the site’s navigation a bit simpler and increase the overall speed of the site. But the main reason we made the change is because we just don’t see a good reason to keep videos separate. Since the web is largely a blend of text, images and video, and since we support clipping of text, images and video, we feel compelled to at least try to let them live together on clipmarks.com as well. We’re definitely interested to see how this change affects the experience on the site.

More updates soon.

Last night we uploaded some changes to the ClipCast to make it faster, and to add a bit of new functionality. You’ll notice that ClipCasts now default to list mode, allowing you to get an overview of what’s inside before you have to page through each clip.

If you prefer to keep using clip mode, you’ll now find options for switching the default in the settings of our iGoogle and Netvibes widgets, and also on getaclipcast.clipmarks.com .

We’ve also changed the name of the ClipCast to simply be the “Clipmarks Clip Widget”. While we liked the name ClipCast, it was confusing to new users, and the word “widget” is becoming widely understood as a small application that you can take and embed elsewhere to display information. At the core, that’s exactly what our Clip Widget does, so we’ve changed the name to match.

Along with the name change, stay tuned to this blog for more updates as we roll out changes to the site over the coming weeks!

So, last week we went live with Clipmarks 3.0; a HUGE set of new features, functionality and user interface changes. This was definitely the most challenging time we ever experienced, as it literally felt like there were a million pieces to the assemble. Overall, I feel really good about how everything went. That said, there were a few things I wish we handled better. Tonight, we’re introducing the first in a series of updates aimed at improving upon the initial release of V3.0. These are based in large part on amazing feedback we received from our users. So, here are some of the big changes:

1. The home page is back to the Classic View. We had tried to change it to a page that was more focused on getting our messaging across, but at the end of the day, we just missed the old home page too much to live without it…it’s back!!
2. We have redesigned the style and navigation of the site header. There’s no doubt the header was confusing so we gave it another shot. I think this one is much more effective.
3. When a clipper adds remarks to their clip, the remarks are now shown at the bottom of the clipped content inside the ClipCast. This one is awesome!!
4. On Facebook, we made a number of design changes to our app, including showing you which one of your friends popped a clip when you’re looking at the Pops by My Friends ClipCast.
5. We’re currently having a problem displaying video in ClipCasts, so for now, we have added a link that will take you to the video.
6. We worked out a ton of other issues that are each too small to get into here, but that together make Clipmarks a much steadier ship.

Thank you to everyone for giving us your feedback and caring so much about Clipmarks. We’ve got a lot more coming…

Clip on!

eric

In response to feedback we have received from many of you, I just want to reiterate that we did not create the ClipCast to compete with our traditional web site (what we are now calling “classic view”). The reason we developed the ClipCast is so that you could effectively take clipmarks with you when you go somewhere else – anywhere else – on the web. There are two main reasons to use a ClipCast. First, if you want to have your friends elsewhere see your clips, put a ClipCast of your clips on facebook, MySpace, your blog, or any other site. Second, if you want to be able to follow clips from all clippers or your favorite clippers, put a ClipCast of any feed on sites like iGoogle and Netvibes.

There was literally no way in the world we could build ALL the functionality and ease of our entire site into the ClipCast. But quite honestly, I think the team did an incredible job coming close. I’m not saying this to be defensive, just saying it because I think to compare the functionality of an entire web site to that of a Flash application is unrealistic. The bottom line is that I hope you won’t look at the ClipCast and Classic View with an eye to compare them to each other. Rather, I hope you will look at them as serving two entirely different purposes. You can obviously use one or both of them, depending on your needs.

I am very excited about how the ClipCast empowers our users to easily spread their knowledge and ideas beyond the borders of clipmarks.com. I think in time it will allow all of us to have greater influence and impact on the proliferation of information around the web without having any negative impact on the quality of the experience on clipmarks.com.

– eric

One of the greatest users of Clipmarks stated on his blog, “The 21st century marks the beginning of the ‘new information age’, at which, nothing will be hidden under the sun. If in this new era the entire world is about to witness a dramatic change on how the information is created and shared, the pioneers of this revolution should be emerging all over the world right now.” Well, the pioneers of this revolution are all of us…we the people who use the web. We are on it 24 hours a day; searching, finding, uncovering, discovering, teaching, sharing, learning.

At Clipmarks, our mission is to help empower people to make greater use of the information they discover on the web. Specifically, we want to make that information more portable and easier to consume. With that in mind, we went back to the drawing board in January, 2007, aiming to create a solution that better accomplished our goals. Eleven-and-a-half months later, we are now lifting the curtain on a new version of Clipmarks. Version 3.0 - centered around our new ClipCast technology – is all about opening up the Clipmarks experience to people wherever they go on the web.

Specifically, Clipmarks 3.0 enables users of Facebook, MySpace and any other web site to easily and instantly share anything they clip from the web directly with their friends on any other web site. In effect, everyone one of us becomes a hunter for cool, interesting information that our friends should see. With Clipmarks, any piece of information found on the web is now literally a click away from being shared with friends on any other web site.

We hope that by making information more portable and easier to consume, all people will be able to gain a bit of knowledge about a wider variety of topics than ever before. In the spirit of Invictus’ quote above, it is truly the responsibility of each and every one of us to discover and share the world’s information. We hope that Clipmarks 3.0 is a step towards making that more possible.

– eric

I’ve had it. I’ve worked my ass off for the past 2 years helping to create clipmarks.com. I’ve watched Derek and W and Adam and more recently Skiff bring their heart and soul to work every day and many nights trying to create a special place on the web for people. A place where people could enjoy themselves, learn from each other and share. Share what? Share information. Share ideas. Share opinions. Share perspectives. Share knowledge. Share confusion. Share anger. Share encouragement. Share experience. Why? Because I believe there is so much to learn. And because through learning, I believe people become better. They become better because they are less ignorant, less naïve, less intolerant. Through learning they become more open minded, more accepting, more aware. In my opinion, the best way to learn is from each other. That very fact alone demands that we don’t all see things the same way. If we did, then through each other nothing new would be learned. So I embrace disagreement. I embrace debate. I actually embrace realizing I was wrong. Better to realize it than continuing to go on falsely thinking I’m right.

It is with many of those ideals in mind that clipmarks.com was created. I believe it is with those ideals in mind that so many of us go out to the web and clip interesting things we find. And we don’t only post clips so others can see them, but also so that others can comment on them. We do this because it is though comments that everyone is given a chance to be heard. A chance to react, to present different points of view, offer different opinions, different approaches, different answers. That is how we all learn from each other and not just from the clips that are posted.

From my experience on this site, I believe there are two key components that are necessary to make the ideals of the site become reality. The first is that interesting clips about a wide variety of topics need to be posted. I’m ecstatic to say that together we are all creating a vast, diverse library of fascinating clips that offer an incredible resource for people to learn from. It is through these clips that bridges are made between people and ideas. It brings me great pride and happiness to be a part of it. The second necessary component is that people need to act with civility and respect towards each other. I believe that nearly all of the people who participate on the site do so in a way that i’m not only comfortable with, but i am extremely proud of. But amazingly, it seems to only take a few exceptions for a powerful, disruptive friction to grow that interferes with the positive nature and flow of the site. Not only that, but it is literally exhausting. Deciding whether to fight back or simply ignore mean spirited, antagonistic comments is not an enjoyable or productive way to spend your time. I want to be very clear. I am not suggesting that people should agree with other or that they even have to be friendly towards each other. But you must treat others who are on the site with respect and civility if you want to remain on it. Otherwise, I will deactivate your account.

Recently, Kevin Rose of Digg.com took a bold stance and decided that on behalf of his users he was going to permit a controversial story to remain on the digg.com web site. In conclusion, he said, “If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.” Well, I’m saying the same thing now in response to a different issue. Clipmarks.com will be a place where people can share information, ideas and opinions in a civilized, respectful way. It will be a place where people who are sick and tired of the typical hostility, name calling and bitter divisiveness that is so common in most of our media can come to get away from that without losing the variety or substance of the content. Clipmarks is not a place for liberals or conservatives, democrats or republicans. It is a place for liberals and conservatives, democrats and republicans, and everyone in between or on either side of those all-to-often conveniently used labels.

I wish I could tell you there was some sort of black and white definition of what will be considered acceptable. Maybe some day there will be an algorithm in place for determining this (maybe Google already has something like that). But today, on clipmarks.com it’s just going to be based on our (and yes, that mostly means my) perception of what is reasonable. Track records will definitely be taken into consideration. But we will do whatever we feel necessary to protect the sanctity of the system we believe so much in. I have no idea how many people that appeals to, but that is who we’re going to appeal to.

Clip on!

eric (egoldstein)

This morning, we uploaded a few changes to the site. There are two that I’ll briefly mention and then one that I want to discuss a bit more in depth.

1) Featured Popper: Each day, we will now have a Featured Popper on the site (below the Featured Clipper on the right side of the home page). We’re looking for ways to recognize users who consistently pop clips on the site. It’s currently difficult for them to get the appreciation they deserve, simply because popping is a more anonymous act than clipping. However, just as the site wouldn’t function without the great contributions of clippers, it also relies on people who pop the most interesting clips so that everyone else can have a better chance of seeing them. Adding a Featured Popper to the site each day is our first step in giving greater recognition to our poppers.

2) Who’s following who: Under each open clip (just to the right of the clipper’s username) you will see a little button that displays the number of followers the clipper has. Clicking this number will open a window that lists each of the users who are following that clipper. By making it easier for people to see who is following each clipper, we hope to also make it easier for everyone to connect with more users . The idea here is that if you know that a bunch of users who you like and respect are following a particular user, then you would likely be interested in learning more about that user and perhaps following his/her clips too. Over the next few weeks we’re going to try making each users My Clippers list a much greater focus of the site.

3) Ignore clippers: We have always taken great pride in the open nature of our system. Other than a few rare exceptions, we have tried to create a site that is completely in the hands of its users. Users contribute the clips…users pop their favorites for others to see…and users are free to add their own comments to any clip. Though we are very passionate about the concept of a completely open system without any limitations on user behavior, based on our observations of the Clipmarks site as well as other sites, we feel that it’s necessary to embrace some rules and boundaries in order to maintain harmony as the size of our user base grows. I anticipate this being an ongoing process where we do our best to react to site dynamics with measures that honor the idealism with which we started Clipmarks but also address some of the realities that come with a growing user base on the Web. As I indicated in this video clip, we have recently begun introducing a number of measures on the site aimed at dealing with this issue.

This morning, we added a little “x” next to each username in the comments section of each clip. If you click the “x” a little window will open that allows you to hide that user’s clip and/or comments as well as block them from commenting on your clips. Though these options can be used at each user’s discretion, I strongly ask of you not to use it to block people on the grounds that they disagree with you or who present views that challenge your own. It is through the presentation of differing views that we learn, so please, lets not use this as a way to censor those who don’t advocate our own way of seeing things.

We are offering this feature because of some consistent user complaints as well as our own observations that some comments on the site seem overly antagonistic. There have certainly been times when i have read comments on a clip and felt bad for the user who posted the clip because the comments seemed so inappropriately harsh. I’ve struggled with the decision of whether to simply allow this to continue because of my desire to keep clipmarks as open as possible or to try to curb it. Ultimately, we decided that each user should be free to make these decisions for themselves.

If you relate this to the Don Imus situation, our goal is to remove our own discretion from the equation as much as possible so that unlike CBS that chose to yank Imus off the airwaves, users will be able to make the choice about who they interact with on the site. Lastly, I’m hopeful that simply knowing that others can block you from commenting on your clips will spur people to maintain a greater level of respect for each other…even through their debates and disagreements. One suggestion/request I’d like to propose is to not use this measure immediately based on people’s past comments. Give this new system a chance to have an impact on how people comment and then use it when you feel necessary.

Like all of our work, nothing is permanent. If we come to believe this is a mistake or that there is a better approach, we will gladly make adjustments.

Have your ever experienced simultaneous multiple blogasms? Doubtful, but now you can! Today we introduced a pretty major upgrade to our Clip-to-Blog feature that lets you simultaneously post clips to as many blogs as you have. Also, you can save each of your blogs as part of your Clipmarks profile and then easily toggle to the one you want a specific post to go to. Bottom line, if you manage more than one blog, Clip-to-Blog just made it much easier for you to easily and quickly keep them fresh with new, interesting content.