Others Online Blog

New Toolbar Releases. Please update!

A couple weeks ago, we made some pretty big changes to the user registration process and user profile pages. We just released another set of updates with the goal of integrating these changes within the toolbar.

As a result, toolbar users will now automatically receive a notification/request to update their toolbars. Please update your toolbar when asked to do so!  Here are the features/fixes we added (inclusive of toolbar features):

• Within the updated toolbar, selecting the option Manage Profile now sends you to the new profile management pages which show you how to increase your visibility, allow you to manage auto-tags, and display charts on your visibility and click-thru.
• Looking at user profiles from the toolbar now sends you to the updated user pages.
• If you reach/view a user page from our search page, or via a widget, you can now chat, email and add to favorites.
• When a user registers, we attempt to help them complete their profile faster by importing information from the Web site they indicated. In this release, we're improved support for blogspot, typepad, wordpress, myspace and livejournal.
• We've doubled the list of keywords and phrases by which users can connect with each other. This also greatly improves our auto-tagging abilities, and should make user connections more relevant as well.

Please let us know your feedback and suggestions!

The Others Online / BlogRush CTR Challenge

Wow -- lots of conversation about BlogRush and their blog traffic generation (or lack thereof). We've been paying attention to those reporting their click-through rates (CTR), because we've been measuring that for the Others Online service too. Net net, we're achieving a better CTR for our users than they are for theirs. Before I tell you why/how, here's a fun challenge we're inviting bloggers to.

Sign up for Others Online and compare our click-through rate (CTR) to BlogRush through September 30. If we don't do better, we'll paypal you $10. It's that simple. If we do better, then well I should hope you'll write about us on your blog. Either way, it's win/win if we can get your honest feedback.

Why is our CTR better? We think it because we're displaying the author not the post. You see their picture, online status, links, interest, plus what you have in common -- much more authentic, engaging, inviting and personable, don't you think? Plus you see them on the basis of (we hope) a better relevance algorithm, which is transparent and 100% user-controlled. We also give you reports on your visibility across our network of users/publishers, and the ability to improve your visibility and rank.

I hate rules as much as you do, but here they are:

• We have to limit this to first 500 bloggers, ok? -- and you must be located in the United States and be 18 years of age. You also have to be an authentic blogger -- spam blogs will be nuked.
• Please sign up at www.othersonline.com and enter the keyword "OO CTR Challenge" as an interest tag (on your profile), so we can count you as a participant. Hell, use that tag wherever.
• Properly complete your profile so that all the checkboxes in the "guidance panel" are filled in (click picture to the right). Don't worry, it's way easy.
• Please place the Others Online widget (of your choice) in at least as good a position on your blog as the BlogRush widget.
• This fun little experiment is over on September 30 and you have until October 6th 2007 to claim your $10. To do so, just email us a screenshot of your stats.

Our primary goal with this challenge is to have some fun and get some valuable feedback from you all. At the same time, you'll get more exposure with no amway-like pyramid scheme. So waddya say? Take the challenge?

We Got Clicks! Get your Clicks Here!

Just as advertisers track impressions, clicks and any other interest/engagement metric, we're now tracking how much we're advertising our users across the web, and the number of mini-profile views (mouseovers), profile views and clicks.

We've helped users get thousands of clicks so far! Our users are achieving an average 6% click-through rate, meaning for every 100 times their face/image is being shown to others across the Web, they're getting 6 visits to their blog or Web site.

Check it out for yourself. On every profile you click on, you can now see that user's stats (and get a little taste of the stats you'll find when you manage your profile).

A Couple New Features

Our humble team has been hard at work all summer long, and we've just introduced a little somethin' somethin' that we hope you'll find interesting.

• reports -- for the first time, see how much you're being shown to others across the Web!
• auto-tagging -- our tools expand your profile with interest tags automagically, and give you 100% control
• new registration and profile management -- we made it much easier and available from our Web site
• more eyeballs -- we're building out our network of publishers and users. Help us (and help yourself).
• PLUS -- we're having a party in Seattle, and you're invited

All this below, so keep on reading! And please remember, this is brand new stuff so we'd love to get your feedback, bug reports, suggestions, etc.

Manage Your Profile at our Web Site

You can now manage your profile at www.othersonline.com -- without the toolbar. (Yes I know it's ridiculous we didn't offer this before.) That said, profile mgmt from within the IE toolbar is still the old one. Just use the Web site version -- it's better.

While You're There, View the New Reports

Within your profile management pages, you'll now see a nifty little chart (in the Results tab) that reports for the past week (a) how many times you were introduced to others (via the widget, toolbar, search, etc.), (b) how many times your mini-profile and full profile were viewed, and (c) the number of click-throughs to your blog or Web site.

We've said before that using the toolbar increases your visibility -- now you can see for yourself! We have a few days of data for you already, so sign in at our Web site and check it out. Then use the toolbar and see what happens. Improve your profile (we show you how), add more interest tags and you'll see even more traffic. It's the world's first person-to-person contextual/behavioral advertising network!

Automatic Interest Tagging

It's a pain to type in every single interest tag that represents you. So let us do that for you, and at the same time help you achieve even more visibility! Because the more you have in common with others online, the more interesting (and interested) they are. Once you sign in at our Web site you'll see what your profile looks like today. You can also see the interest tags we've added to your profile automagically, based on your blog (if you listed one) and/or Web browsing behavior (if you use our toolbar). And you'll see you have 100% control. That's what I'm talking about!

Just Add Eyeballs

The bigger our network of users and widget publishers, the more visibility we all achieve. Every day, more bloggers are adding our widget to their site. You should too! We've also got some deals lined up that will drive millions of daily profile views -- all relevant. That should really light this thing off. Give us a couple weeks though, ok? (Lots of work to do.)

We're Having a Party, and You're Invited

Lots of good stuff going on, so we're having a party. Nothing fancy -- a keg of beer and some pizza at our new office for our favorite others online. Wednesday night the 12th, in Seattle, at 6pm. Here's our address and a map. To get in, you've gotta tag yourself "OOParty" -- that way, we can all learn more about each other. Go on then!

A Hearty Welcome to Neal Richter

There's a new guy on the Others Online team, and he's going to be using much "smartyness" to improve the Others Online experience. His name is Neal Richter. Neal lives in beautiful Bozeman, Montana and as you can see he's quite the fly fisherman!  ;-)

Neal has years of experience in software engineering and engineering management. For the past seven years Neal has been working actively in the field of artificial intelligence -- as a PhD student at Montana State University and as Project Manager of the research team at RightNow Technologies. Neal's done some incredible work in the area of search (applying evolutionary algorithms), and it's just plain scary how closely his opinions on the next generation of search and social software resemble ours.

We're way stoked -- he's going to add serious value to users. Go be sure to visit Neal's blog to get an idea how he thinks. Welcome aboard, Neal!!