After getting some feedback from our bloggers regarding the mechanics of the widget saying the user experience was too similar to Snapshots and a bit intrusive as a blog reader is browsing a blog, we made some tweaks to the widget.
The widget no longer provides a pop-up when you hover over a link. Instead, for links that Youlicit is able to find more recommended sites, it changes the color of the hyperlink to green. When a reader clicks on a green link, he is taken to the site within a small toolbar inserted above the site. From here the reader can then explore or “channel-surf the web” on the topics related to this site. This is also mitigates the bloggers concern of diverting traffic away from their blog as no additional links are made available to their readers.
As this allows for no change in blog reader behavior, it is a much less intrusive experience and the user can still access Youlicit’s related sites when he/she needs it. We hope the channel-surfing metaphor is something users and bloggers alike find intersting and unique. Again, your feedback is critical to us as we still develop the widget and the Featured Blogs program, so don’t be shy!
Just as a note, these URL’s are updated on the client-side so as a blogger you need not worry that the widget may affect your trackbaks and pings to another blog/website.
We’re very excited about the release of the Featured Blogs program as well as the blog links widget last week. The program marks an effort to spread Youlicit’s core value using a more “server-side” approach. Thus far, most of our efforts have been focused on enabling “client-side” access to Youlicit (via the firefox extension, bookmarklets, and the Google toolbar buttons) which has its own adoption risks:
the extension is limited to firefox browsers,
majority web users are download phobic,
majority web users aren’t aware of what bookmarklets are and how to use them,
and users can often forget they have the extensions installed and rarely use your service
In the recent past, widgets have gained an enormous traction as more and more services are becoming widgetized. One of the most successful widgets to date (and also one of the first) has been the Google AdSense widget, giving bloggers an easy and instant wayto monetize their blogs. Using this widget Google was able to distribute its self-serve ad-platform to millions of other sites (besides its own) and reach many more eyeballs. In addition to this there are a few more advantages to using widgets:
They are incredibly easy deploy on sites. A simple javascript code snippet is all that is needed.
They allow for agile development. Since all the code is stored server-side, making updates and changes to widgets is completely under the developers control. Compare this to a firefox extension for which updates need to be backwards compatible to older versions, require users to update their browsers locally and dependent on Mozilla’s updating policies and reviews.
They can be much more personalized for each user in terms of design and content.
They offer non-linear returns on pageviews (each addition of a widget provides many more pageviews and potential users than the addition of a firefox toolbar).
They can spread more virally.
Widgets, however, are also not without their own adoption risks as stated by Brad Feld. Most widgets tend to have a short half-life and limited utility (which of course is a function of the blogger’s attitude/behavior and the utility of the widget itself). To help alleviate some of these risks, we created the Featured Blogs Alpha program as a means to encourage bloggers to add our widget and create a service that makes a closed circuit loop in terms of pageviews. As a blogger provides us with a pageview, we in turn use the data we gather from that to promote the bloggers content on Youlicit. We’re very excited about growing this program out, so if you are interested please sign up as an alpha blogger. We hope down the road this becomes an additional monetization mechanism for bloggers as the program matures and spreads.
On a side note, as I was writing this entry, I realized that a company that has followed a very similar route is AdaptiveBlue in terms of service distribution strategy. Their first product was a firefox extension (BlueOrganizer) and then later widgetized their services offering the SmartLinks widgets to content producers. It would be very interesting to see the comparative success they’ve had with the widgets and the firefox extension and if they have any further thoughts or lessons learned on this topic of distribution.
Last week, we rolled out the new Blog Links widget on Youlicit. The widget provides bloggers the ability to integrate the “More” right in their blogs. When a reader hovers over an outgoing link, a pop up box appears showing the reader related content around the web to that link. Its a great way to give your readers additional information on your subject of conversation effortlessly.
The widget is part of a larger program to engage bloggers & blog readers on Youlicit. The team is currently working on releasing a “Featured Blogs” program that will allow bloggers to promote their blogs to people interested in the same topics. The idea is similar to Google Adwords, where your blog will appear near the results for sites & topics that are similar to your blogging subject matter. So the more your reader explores a topic, the more you get featured among those results. (Stay tuned for more details when we launch the program!)
We plan to roll this out first as an invitation-only, free alpha program. If you are interested and would like to participate in the alpha (can you beat free advertising?!), head over to the alpha sign-up page. Once you sign up, you will hear from us regarding your alpha account as we roll this program out.
Note: Being based in New York, we wanted show our love for this city and are giving preference to bloggers in New York for the alpha program. So if you are a New York based blogger, what are you waiting for??
It’s been over a year since Youlicit was formed (longer if you take into consideration TaskCue - more on this below) and I realized we haven’t had the opportunity to share our story with you and how the 4 of us (Toufique, Asif, Omar and myself) currently came to be working together. So allow me to start from the beginning, and I will try my best to condense the last year and a half into a brief post…
Fateful Flight to Reno
Toufique & Dan were on their way from Philadelphia to Tahoe for a friend’s wedding in late May 2005. As fate would have it, they happened to sit next to each other for the plane ride to Reno. While being good acquaintances, they knew little about each other and being stuck to their seats for 6 hours side by side they had no option but to chat. So they discussed their views on many things: sports, girls, beer, religion, philosophy and the meaning of life. These two young men found a common bond in the writings of Robert Wright (non-zero sum games), and shared a passion for creating something of value in the world. While they expected to bet some Benjamins on black over the weekend, they didn’t expect their biggest bet would soon be on an idea. Thus, was born TaskCue Technologies.
TaskCue Technologies
TaskCue Technologies came out of a vision shared by the founders to connect people effortlessly to the information they needed. As their idea developed, Omar joined the two, bringing with him his web and graphic design magic. The vision of the founders manifested itself as a desktop application akin to Google Desktop (and now Xobni). The underlying objective of the product was to provide users with contextually relevant information as they used their computers in their day-to-day work. Great idea and a very promising technology but finding a good business model and user acquisition strategy proved to be tough as this put them in direct competition with Google Desktop, a free and widely adopted alternative.
The makings of Youlicit
I, meanwhile, having been working at a consulting company for over a year, kept in touch with Toufique (after we had graduated from college) and was fascinated by his bold and daring venture. As he unveiled TaskCue’s product to me, I was impressed by the work they had done. The domain of desktop applications however, still didn’t excite me very much but I was very interested in the possible applications of this technology. I continued working my day job, desperately looking for a way to go back to doing something I was passionate and cared deeply about. I still kept in close contact with Toufique and followed TaskCue’s progress.
Over the course of the next few weeks, the TaskCue vision started taking a very new and exciting direction. Toufique and Dan began considering taking their idea and technology of connecting people to the information they want right when they need it, and applying it to the web. Talking to them at lengths about this, I began to notice something stir within me. It was a deep rooted interest in what they were doing and a strong belief that there was something here. Excited by the complexity of the problem and the desire to contribute I found in this vision, a thirst that I hadn’t felt in a very long time and with it the urge to quit and join TaskCue.
After debating this with myself and my family, I made the decision to leave my job and pursue my entrepreneurial spirit with Toufique, Dan & Omar. A decision I haven’t once regretted.
Youlicit
As we worked around the clock to get an alpha website up, we struggled for a name. TaskCue Technologies wasn’t exactly the most consumer friendly name that could just roll off someone’s toungue. Some initial names that were thrown around were Ozmos, Sivan, Zoombird, Ride-It, The Shit, etc. One brainstorming session, in early February, the name “Youlicit” dawned on us and we found it to be quite appropriate given our goals. And so, the name and company Youlicit came to be
Another loss for corporate America
During the development of TaskCue and then Youlicit, Asif had also kept in close contact with Toufique. Having been an engineer who was now working as an investment banker on Wall Street, he had become tired of the mundaneness of his work and was desperately searching for something that would re-ignite his passion for technology. A few weeks after Youlicit launched its alpha website, Asif took the plunge and joined the team.
In a matter of a few months, the original TaskCue team had grown from three to five members - “three engineers, a marketer and a web design guru”. We were firing on all cylinders, making incredible progress with the product and the technology. But this would not last very long.
The loss of Dan
A few months after Youlicit had launched its alpha website in May, we had all begun to feel the pinch of being starving entrepreneurs. Dan, having been doing it for close to a year now, had begun to become somewhat skeptical and frustrated. He had already been working as a blogger for VentureBeat on the side as a means to help support himself and establish his credibility as a writer and blogger.
One day, he was invited to fly to San Francisco to interview a start up on behalf of VentureBeat. An interview that was supposed to be about the founders, soon became about Dan. Impressed by his knowledge of the space, the founders presented him with an offer to come work with them. Lured by the idea of being on the west coast and finally earning a paycheck to support himself, Dan made the very difficult decision of saying goodbye to Youlicit (temporarily) and moved to San Francisco. We do miss his vast market knowledge and marketing skills and hope he returns when we are in a better position.
Today
And so, that is how the current Youlicit team of 4 came to be; three engineers and a web design guru. I hope this provided you with a much better insight about us and who we are. Our uniting passion is to create something of lasting value for you, the web user, by connecting you to the information and people most relevant to you in an easy, effortless manner. And we believe we’ve made a good start.
Welcome to the new Youlicit blog! We finally got around to self-hosting our blog and recommend updating your bookmarks to point to this new location.
In addition to having a lot more flexibility here, we will also be able to showcase some of the new Youlicit widgets, as we develop them. To begin with, you will see our “Blog Links” widget here when you hover onto any outgoing link. It instantly gives you related & recommended sites to the link you are looking at!
Also, we are very excited about launching our Facebook Application, Just Like Me! Simply plug in your youlicit account info and start discovering which of your friends you have the most in common with or find other people on Facebook who share your interests.
A big thanks to Thomas Kunjappu for helping us pick a name for this application and Maria Rueda for her help & input.
As we release a new & updated version of the product, the biggest change you will notice is a shift in focus from being an item-based recommendation engine (giving you sites that others have liked based on the site you are on) to a more personalized discovery engine (providing you with relevant and compelling content based on your interest at any given time). We are confident that this is taking Youlicit one step closer towards our goal of connecting users to the information they care about in the most effortless manner.
Among the many improvements and changes included in this release, what I would like to highlight here is the fact that a toolbar download is no longer required to receive Youlicit’s personalized recommedations! You can now link your Youlicit account to your Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, or other social bookmarking account and your Youlicit profile will automatically update itself as you use your other accounts. Your youlicit recommendations can now be accessed in many different forms:
as an RSS feed that can be seen from your RSS reader
on your Youlicit page (as it has been traditionally)
with a “Discover!” bookmarklet that can be dragged onto your browser
right on your blog using the Youlicit blog widget
your Facebook profile (as we improve and release an updated Facebook app)
This seemless interaction allows users to receive Youlicit’s recommendations without any additional download or change in behavior. By continuing to use your third party web services of choice, you can receive relevant and compelling web content where your normally go to get their information.
Users who already have the toolbar or don’t have accounts with any of the services supported, can still download and use the Firefox extension and continue to receive and recommend great websites.
We urge you to check out the new site and service and as always welcome any feedback you have.
Hey guys (if there are any of you still reading this blog)! Apologies for the very long blogging break but as promised in our New Year’s resolution, we’re back! Today I wanted to do something we rarely do here on this blog, talk about another product. My reason for doing so is because it makes a great case study and allows me show my support for this product.
You may be aware of the Facebook application created by two brothers in India taking an age old board game and putting it on the web. You may even be one of those people who spends half of his or her day flexing those vocab muscles conjuring up every permutation of words one can make from 7 letters. If you do, you know what I am talking about. To those who aren’t, I am referring to the Facebook application, Scrabulous. Could anyone have imagined creating an online scrabble game would have so much success?
Less than eight months old, Scrabulous today, has the 5th highest number of active users (655,781) of all Facebook applications and of that list, the highest ratio of active to total users (25%). It’s even one of the more popular applications among Facebook employees. Its growth has been quite staggering and even more impressive is its ability to engage users and keep users coming back. I myself am guilty of having 3-4 active games at any given time and taking increasingly frequent breaks during the day to put down my “bingo”. With Hasbro’s recent demand to shut down the company, users have flocked together to show unprecedented support to keep the application up. The Facebook group “Save Scrabulous” has over 55,0000 users and over 8500 people have signed a petition asking Hasbro retract their cease and desist letter. A few fans even created a humorous and satirical music video as their way to show their love and support for the application:
To achieve this type of a large, passionate and loyal fan base is the dream of any product developer or marketer.
What’s interesting to note, as many of you are probably already aware, is that Scrabulous is not the first online version of the game. Far from it in fact. A quick search on Google for “online scrabble” will result in a plethora of online and downloadable versions of this classic word game. These have existed for years but none have found as many and passionate a user base as Scrabulous. This begs the question, why?
The answer lies at the crux of what makes a successful product. Marc Andreessen wrote a great bit on this a little while ago that I urge you to read. The key to making a successful product does not mean having a perfect product or an extremely stellar team (not to detract anything from what the creators of Scrabulous have done). What matters most is achieving a harmonious product-market fit. This means shaping your product to fit the current trends, needs and demands of the market. A lot can even be attributed to timing; being at the right place at the right time.
In Scrabulous’s case, the product was nothing revolutionary. On the contrary, it was a plain and simple online adaptation of the board game that had been done numerous times before. It was also far from perfect. Those who remember early iterations of Scrabulous will recall how frustratingly slow and unreliable it was (and to some degree still is). The user interface was (and still is) cluttered with intrusive, to the point annoying, ads that detracted from the overall experience and had much room for improvement (and still does). But all this did not stop users from returning or the application from taking off. Scrabulous’s user base continued to sky rocket thanks to Facebook’s immensely viral platform. So why did users continue to swarm to this application?
The reason becomes clear when we examine the market a little closer. Facebook has been seeing an exponential increase in users. It opens up its platform to allow third party developers to create and distribute applications on the Facebook network. Millions of users, hungry for novel ways to interact and engage with their newly created network of friends, start experimenting and adding these new applications as they are being released. Some of the applications are extremely successful while some fail and get buried in the figurative Facebook dust. In comes Scrabulous, an application that allows users to play the classic board game online with their friends in an asynchronous, turn based manner. The game becomes an instant hit. People love the ease with which they can start and participate in games. It provides a new way to interact with friends and play the game with people who may not be accessible to play face to face. The game itself meshes with the typical Facebook user’s profile: high school, college or recent graduate, educated, smart, with a large network of similar friends. The game finds a core of users and spreads like wildfire, thanks also to Facebook’s ability to promote such applications virally via news feeds, user invitations, etc.
The market therefore, was a perfect fit for what the Agarwalla brothers created. It wasn’t that they built a brand new product that took social networking to the next level or changed the way people interacted. They simply saw an opportunity that was ripe for the plucking and took advantage of it. Kudos to their team and the success they have achieved and I wish them luck in their battle against Hasbro.
The Youlicit team had created a Google discussion group to use as a channel of communication with our users several months ago. The group has been kept exclusive and open to only Youlicit’s most active/loyal users up until now. We are now opening it up to let anyone join and voice their opinions and concerns to us.
Check it out at The Youlicit Clique. From time to time the team posts discussions, questions, and give-aways to get your input and show our thanks as we continue to work to make Youlicit better. It is also a great way to meet fellow users and communicate with them. We look forward to seeing on there.
Happy New Year everyone! As we start a fresh calendar year, here are some things to look forward to from the Youlicit Team. There are two main focuses in terms of product development that we are striving towards; one is to continue improving our results & recommendations and the other is to make a more engaging user experience by improving the social aspects of the site.
Better Results:
an increased coverage of the web as we expand our ability to get recommendations on a larger number of websites and topics
more relevant and serendipitous recommendations
More engaging user experience:
ability to tag & comment & discuss on and about sites
contacting/communicating with users via anonymous emailing (opt-in feature)
automatically tracking comments and discussions on sites you have posted or commented on or topics that interest you the most
And last but not least, we resolve to be more active on this blog! Heres to a healthy and successful year ahead.
So what’s been keeping the Youlicit Team busy until wee hours in the morning for the past few weeks? We’ve been preoccupied with releasing a new version of the website based on much of the feedback we’ve received from you.
The first change you will notice is the new look we’ve given the site. The main goal was to help you find other Youlicit users more easily and improve the level of interaction between you and them. You can now find similar users, users interested in certain topics and users desperately trying to be your friends and keep up with what they are recommending at all times.
The second major change was overhauling our infrastructure to provide you with a faster and more responsive level of service. You no longer have to endure painful seconds of watching the little icon on the top right corner of your browser churn away as your favorite recommendations are now being served up to you faster than you can say “Hey Mom! Check out this new site I found!”.
These are just some of the many surprises we have in store so stay tuned! As always, we’re aching to hear from you, so leave some love.
oulicit blog
