Lifeblob's World

Two months back, our first version of the lifeblob store opened to a tremendous response, thanks to all of you.

During the course of operations, we have been observing the user navigation patterns on the store, silently taking note of the problems you are facing in configuring personalized products and also listening intently to all the feedback. And today, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new lifeblob store that takes configuration of personalized photo products to a whole new level.

Basic Design Principles

“It should be so simple that even my dad can use it without any help!”

This was the underlying principle that we had in mind as we thought about designing the new store. And this translated into 4 attributes that you will see stamped throughout the store:

a) Intelligent defaults

Personalized photo gifts are primarily about turning a cherished memory into an artifact. Hence, the first thing that a user should choose while designing the personalized gift should be the photo. Infact, a user should be able to create a great looking personalized gift by just choosing a photo.

As a result, we introduced a default template for each product, so that you can simply choose a photo and have your personalized gift ready. Also, when you choose your photo, we try to size it optimally so that you don’t have to spend time choosing the right size for your photo. Ofcourse, there is the option to choose a different template or increase/reduce the size of your photo if you want.

b) One click personalization

With intelligent defaults in place, you just need a single click to personalize your photo product. We are also working on a “Zero Click Personalization” option so that if your starting point is the photo page, you see your personalized gift right away.

c) Save work in progress

With the introduction of multiple page products like calendars and upcoming photo books, it became increasingly important that you can save work in progress and be able to finish it later. Hereafter, you can add incomplete products to your cart and edit them again to finish the personalization before you place the order. And yes, we do show a prominent message in the cart so you can quickly see the products that are incomplete.

d) Power user options get triggered on need

We understand that some of you do like to get into thick of the things and like to leave your personal stamp on the personalization. So if you are a power user, there is plenty of stuff under the hood to excite you. You can zoom-in, zoom-out, add multiple photos in the same slot, move photos around etc and create your own thing.

Do check it out and let us know what you think! Your feedback is the only way we make things better and we sincerely look forward to it.

One of the things that we constantly think about is how we can make it easier for our users to use the service. And as a big step towards that, I am pleased to announce our integration with pixelpipe, the San Francisco based content distribution gateway service.

With this integration, you now have tools to upload your photos directly from a variety of mobile devices, including Apple iPhone, Nokia S60 Series, Nokia N900 Series, Google Android and Palm Pre devices. There are also extensions that you can use to directly upload your photos from Mozilla Firefox, Nokia Photos, Adobe Lightroom 2.0 and Windows Xp Web Publishing wizard.

You can find the complete list of supported devices and the configuration instructions on this page.

So how do I get started?

Getting started is really simple – simply follow the steps below to upload your first photo from your mobile device:

a) Sign up for a pixelpipe account at http://www.pixelpipe.com. You can also log in using your twitter account there.

b) Once you are signed in, go to “Add pipes” menu item on the left and type “lifeblob” in the search box. Alternatively, you can scroll down to find the lifeblob logo among the supported services.

c) Click on the lifeblob logo – this will take you to an authorization page where you need to grant pixelpipe access to update your lifeblob data. Don’t worry, you can always revoke this permission later in the lifeblob settings if you like.

d) Thats it! You are now ready to start uploading photos to your lifeblob account through pixelpipe. All you need now is a client for your mobile device – you can follow the instructions here to choose the one that will be appropriate for your mobile device and start uploading.

We need your feedback

Do let us know how you find this integration. Do you have other ideas to make it more productive for you to use lifeblob?

Do write in to us at feedback@lifeblob.com with your thoughts and suggestions – for all you know, you may win a cool gift voucher for the lifeblob photo gifting store if we like your idea.

Two weeks back, we silently turned on the lifeblob photo merchandise store, sprinked around a few tweets and waited in the hope that one of the hyperactive bloggers ( techcrunch, mashable, pluggd.in et al.. ) will discover it before our formal announcement and brag about breaking the big news before everyone else.

The stage was well set, and cards properly laid out for the sensational discovery, but alas, that did not happen so finally you get to hear about it from the horse’s mouth. The good part is that our customers did find out about the store and we got several orders and a lot of great feedback during these two weeks which we implemented before making this announcement.

So here is the grand announcement – the lifeblob store is finally open for business!

If you are already a lifeblob user, its very easy to place an order – simply click the “Buy Prints” button next to your photos and get started. If you are not already using lifeblob, this is a great time to get an account and turn your photos into beautiful personalized products.

We have partnered with Printo to bring you the highest quality photo merchandise at a price that you can afford. Here is a quick preview of what we are selling currently:

1) Photo Mugs, starting Rs 299 Rs 249 only ( you save 17% )

2) Photo Greeting Cards, starting Rs 50 Rs 40 only ( you save 20% )

3) Designer Photo Frames, starting Rs 299 Rs 199 only ( you save 33% )

4) Canvas Prints, starting Rs 1399 Rs 999 only ( you save 23% )

5) Simple Photo Prints, starting Rs 5 Rs 2.99 only ( you save 40% )

6) Photo Books, coming soon

7) Photo Calendars, coming soon

Do try it out and share your experiences / testimonials with us at feedback@lifeblob.com. Please note that the prices above represent a limited period inaugural offer, so place your orders now!

Today we announce the launch of a much needed and frequently asked for community feature: badges.

As a lifeblob user, badges are a way for you to show-off your accomplishments to the world and get more people to find you on lifeblob. Flaunt your badges on your blog page, your website, your photo-blog or anywhere else you like and declare to the world that you have arrived.

Some of the badges are available for everyone to use and you can pick up the one you like at  http://www.lifeblob.com/badges. If you have more ideas for these badges, let us know and we will get one created for you.

We also have a few special badges that are reserved for privileged / featured lifeblob users. If you have been interviewed on photography tips or if you are a lifeblob power user, you will hear from us really soon about your exclusive badge.

At lifeblob, we are constantly innovating to help you do more with your photos. Today, we announce the launch of a widget that is so unique and powerful in showcasing your photos that all existing widgets simply pale in comparison.
What is so unique about this widget?

If you look towards your right, you will see this widget embedded in the sidebar of this blog. The unique aspect of this widget is that it allows a viewer to browse through your entire public photo stream by simply scrolling through it.

Try scrolling down in the widget on your right and you will see that it keeps fetching more photos as you move down. This makes it really easy for you to showcase your entire photostream within the limited space available on your blog. And when the viewer likes a photo, he/she can click on it to see a larger version of the same – neat, isn’t it?

Whats more, as you add new photos to your photo stream, the old photos get pushed down and the new photos automatically start showing up in the widget!

Thats so cool – how do I get it on my blog?

Here are 3 simple steps in which you can quickly build this widget for your blog:

1) Sign up for a lifeblob account – yup, its required. How else would we get your photos?

2) During the signup process, you will be asked to link your existing flickr / picasa / photobucket / facebook accounts. Follow the instructions on the page to link up as many accounts as you want and we will get your photos from there.

3) After you finish the signup flow and reach your profile page, click on the “Embed” icon. You will then be taken to a page where you can get the embed code for your widget – simple!

So get all your photos on lifeblob and proudly showcase them to the world! Do let us know how you like this embed.

For those who have been asking for it, its time to rejoice – we changed the profile photo defaults to make them more colorful. Yay!

Now thats not much of a news, so we decided to check out what each of these colors mean in the language of photos. And guess what, the results were very interesting.

Click on any of the photos below to check out what that color means:

Today we are launching a new way to discover photos at lifeblob – the “good old search“.

Lifeblob now has a collection of over 1.5 Million photos and adding search for photos makes it really easy to find photos that match your interests. So go ahead, type in a few words and explore the amazing world of photos.

Here are a few searches to try out: Kid Photos, Pet Photos, Landscape Photos, Bangalore Photos, Road Photos.

Tip for lifeblobbers: Photos that have more comments / likes / views rank higher in the search results. Promote your photos by sharing them with your friends!

In an endeavour to make it easier for you to find your friends on lifeblob, we are launching support for AOL and improved support for Yahoo.

If you are an existing user, you can use the following steps to find and invite your AOL and Yahoo buddies:

• Log in to your lifeblob account
• On the right side, choose “Find your friends“
• On the page that comes up, choose the service where you keep your address book to proceed

New users will find the option to find and invite friends as a part of the signup process.

We would love to hear about your experience with lifeblob so far and any suggestions that you may have to make it better for you!

Today we added photobucket to the list of photo services that are supported for import to your lifeblob. If you are an existing lifeblob user, you can use the following steps to get your photobucket photos to your lifeblob:

• Login to your lifeblob account
• In the sidebar on your right, click “Import Photos and Videos“
• On the page that shows up, simply choose the photobucket option and you are done!

If you are joining lifeblob today, you can import your photobucket photos during the signup process.

If you use another photo service that you would like us to support, do let us know!

Lifeblob is all about experiences and how they connect people, places and things together. We have been listening to your feedback and in order to make the experience more enriching and your memories truly memorable, we have made some changes to the site.

Starting today, we will be sporting a new theme and a new color scheme called – “Lily of the Valley”. Your photos now look more beautiful, overlaid on polaroid cards and relations are tucked neatly below them. We do hope you enjoy using it as much as we did building it for you.

We look forward to hearing from you how much you liked it.