Timelines are open for sharing

Till date, timelines have been protected behind a wall - you needed to sign up for Lifeblob to view a timeline .

Not any more - with the changes that we pushed out today, people will now be able to view timelines without logging in.

What does this mean for me?

  • You can now share your timeline with your friends, family and anyone who is not already a member of Lifeblob. We do hope they would want to join Lifeblob after they see your timeline, but they are not required to.
  • You still have complete control over the information that anyone ( logged in or not logged in ) is able to see on your timeline.
    • Posts marked “private” are visible only to you.
    • Posts marked “participants” are visible only to you and people who are listed as participants.
    • Posts marked “public” are visible to everyone. People who are not logged in will only be able to see these posts.
  • You can reference your timeline in your email signature, just like you reference your blog today.
  • You can make a post on your timeline and twitter about it.

How do I share my timeline?

The URL structure for a timeline is really straightforward:

http://www.lifeblob.com/timeline/<type>/<display name>

Here are a couple of examples of real timelines:

http://www.lifeblob.com/timeline/person/pranav
http://www.lifeblob.com/timeline/place/bengalooru
http://www.lifeblob.com/timeline/tag/trilogy

We will soon add features to make sharing of timelines easier and also to allow you to specify the date range that you want to be shown when the link is opened up.

Let us know what you think and watch this space for more !

May 25, 2008 · Filed Under Features

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New layout for blobs on timeline

Today, we pushed a new layout for the maximized view of blobs on the timeline. This should address two problems that we have heard from our users in the past:

1) “As a new user, I did not know how to switch between different pieces of information ( text / photos / comments )”

With the new layout, it will be really easy to switch between different pieces of information. When you maximize a post on your timeline, you will now see one tab for each piece of information that your blob contains ( see image below ). Simply click on the tab to see what you want.


2) “I added 30 participants to my blob and the data overflows outside of my blob.”

We never thought we would have blobs being shared between 30 participants ( wow ) so soon ! But really, we are happy to see that happen and we have added another tab for participants. The participants panel on the left of the maximized blob will now only show a max of 8 participants and you can click on the participants tab to see all of them.

Keep blobbing and keep telling us what you need !

May 16, 2008 · Filed Under Features

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Yay ! Scroll buttons are here

You can call this our first step towards playing your timeline like a movie, or you may call this a better way to scroll, but whatever you choose, I can guarantee you will love it.

When you login next, you will find a small cluster of buttons on the top-left corner of your timeline. Here is what these buttons do for you:

Arrow Buttons: Scroll the timeline in the direction pointed by the arrow. If you want to scroll a relatively long distance, simply hold the button down until you reach the date range that you are interested in viewing.

Zoom Buttons: The other two buttons in this cluster are for zooming in and zooming out your timeline. Yes, thats one more addition to the variety of zoom options we have to offer, but we figured you would not want to move your mouse too far for changing the zoom level, when you are already around that area.

So now, sit back, relax and click that button and see your timeline roll in front of your eyes.

May 9, 2008 · Filed Under Features

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Navigation panel with zoom selection

Today, I am here to present a new feature that you will find immensely useful in navigating your timeline.

We just added a zoom selection dropdown in the navigation panel. This is intended to serve the dual purpose of:

  • Letting you know what zoom level you are browsing your timeline at.
  • Letting you jump to a zoom level based on the granularity at which you would like to see your posts.

As always, we would love to hear what you have to say about this new addition.

May 7, 2008 · Filed Under Features

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See those hidden posts

Today, we pushed out a nifty little feature that will now allow you to click the hidden post arrows at the bottom of the timeline and view those hidden posts instantly. This will come really handy when you know you are at the right spot but do not see your post being displayed on the timeline.

Here is how it works:

  • If one of your posts is hidden, you will see a green arrow at the bottom, just above the date bar. This arrow indicates the location of the hidden post.
  • When you move your mouse over the arrow, it will turn red, indicating that you are ready to click it.
  • When you click the arrow, one of the posts that is already being displayed will be replaced with the hidden post you just selected.

You can do this as many times as you want to cycle through the hidden posts. However, if there are too many hidden posts in an area, we suggest zooming in to get a more granular view instead.

May 6, 2008 · Filed Under Features

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Your help assistant is here

The next time you log in, you will be greeted by Jim, your help assistant.

Jim will take you around your timeline and show you how things work at Lifeblob. And if you forgot something and you want him back, simply click the “Help” button above your timeline.

May 5, 2008 · Filed Under Features

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The power of dimensions

As you know, Lifeblob allows you to to post your content and associate it with 4 dimensions: persons, places, tags and time. Today I am going to tell you a real story of what dimensions can do for you - and this one is mindblowing.

Last week, we were deliberating on how to make Lifeblob more intuitive for new users. One of the suggestions that was floating around was to add a welcome post to the timeline, so that a new user gets to see what a post on the timeline looks like. Once we finished implementing this feature, we just decided to tag it with “lifeblob_member” so that it is easy for everyone to see if the people they invited joined Lifeblob - after all that is what tags are used for.

The sight that we saw after we rolled this out blew our minds ( screenshot below, click to enlarge ). As you will see in the screenshot, the timeline of “lifeblob_member” not only aggregates all the welcome posts, but also creates a frequency distribution of our user acquisition ( see the green icons at the bottom ). It tells me that a few users joined us in Oct’07, a few more at the end of Dec’07 and then a steady stream starting Mar’08 till date.

Now thats an innovative tracking mechanism, built out of something as simple as tagging in Lifeblob. Reminds me - “The possibilities are endless“.

PS: If you are a lifeblob member, you can see this view by clicking this link after you login. You can also maximize the welcome post on your timeline and click the tag name to get there.

May 2, 2008 · Filed Under Features

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