New release 2006-01-26 - Improved import function

This release is a very small release. This time the import bookmark has got some extra options; skip default bookmarks and skip empty categories. The first option skips bookmarks that come pre-installed with common browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox (links like Windows Media, Windows Marketplace, Firefox homepage etc.). The other option skips all categories that are either empty in the bookmark file you upload, or which becomes empty after factory bookmarks and duplicates with existing bookmarks in your Netvouz account have been removed.

That's all for now. Next up are some GUI changes; a menu system to easier find all the administrative tasks and then some improvements to blue bookmark admin form. Perhaps I'll add the capability to alert you if you already have a copy of the bookmark you are submitting as well.

//Henrik

Netvouz review on 3spots

Have you seen the positive review of Netvouz on 3spots ??

If not, do spend a few minutes there and read about what this user thinks about Netvouz. And this user is not just any average user. If you read her blog you see that she has been all over the social bookmarking globe, trying out pretty much all (social) bookmarking services. Finally (well, you should never say never...) she has switched to Netvouz. I'm flattered!

//Henrik

New release 2006-01-22 - Link Validator (and some other enhancements)

• This release brings the Netvouz Link Validator back in business again (it has been offline for quite a while now). This means that from now on all your links will be verified once a week to see if they are working.
  
  If the Link Validator discovers that a link is not working, it is marked as "possibly broken". If it is still not working on the next run (one week later) it is marked as "broken". If you have broken links (seriously broken, not just possibly broken) you get a message about that when you log on to your bookmarks page (or when you have submitted a link thru the Add2Netvouz button) and you can then go to the broken links administrator (only visible if you have broken links).
  
  The broken links administrator gives you basically three options for each broken link; delete it (if you know it's broken), mark it as valid (if the link validator incorrectly has reported the link broken), or mark it as intranet (links on an intranet are not accessible by the link validator and are therefore reported broken, by marking them as intranet you excluded them from future link validations). If you are not sure if a link is really broken or not (the Link Validator may, in some situations, actually report working links as broken) you can click the New window to open the link and see if it works.
  
  Just so you know, I expect a massive number of support mails in two weeks time when lots of users are thrown into the broken links administrator for the first time... Puh ;-)
  
  
• This release also merges the two cookies Netvouz has used to keep you logged on into a single cookie. The new cookie does not store your password in the cookie itself (the older did, albeit in encrypted form), but rather a so called challenge string calculated using an algorithm based on some information in your account. This also increases your security, as not even a single bit of your password is stored on your computer. The only drawback is that because the old cookie is not used anymore you will have to log on once again.
  
  
• When you have submitted bookmarks using the Add2Netvouz button, the last "success" page has been removed so there's one less click you need to make. If you have broken links, however, the page is still displayed and gives you an option to process your broken links.
  
  
• When submitting a bookmark using the Add2Netvouz button and you have not entered any description or tags, a popup window asks if you really want to save the bookmark without that information. Some people may find this a bit annoying but it's really there to make the bookmarks on Netvouz more informative and easier to find, both for yourself and for others. So please, take a few seconds and enter a description and some good tags. The description can even be copied automatically from the page you are submitting and tags are retrieved from the description, so there's really no excuse not to do it...
  
  
• Added some feeds that will be used for some cool stuff by the upcoming Netvouz plugin for Firefox.
  

Next up is some improvements to the Import bookmarks feature.


Update 2006-02-02 - Link Validator suspended
Because of some stability problems the link validator is temporarily suspended. The problems have already been fixed, but in order to be 100% sure the link validator will be offline for a few more days.

//Henrik

Happy New Year - new release 2006-01-08

If you wonder why I'm not posting so often in this blog it's because I spend all my time developing Netvouz, and here's the features added in this last release:

• Allow bookmarks to be saved without tags. If you don't enter any tag the bookmark is automatically given a system:unfiled tag.
  
  
• Search engine now also searches the tags (yes, it has only searched names/titles and descriptions until now, I apologize...).
  
  
• Re-added the "copy bookmark" link, which unfortunately was lost in the previous release.
  
  
• Added possibility to include bookmark tags in JavaScript and HTML feeds (perfect for bloggers).
  
  
• Added a target parameter to the JavaScript and HTML feeds so you can open the links in a new window (use target=_blank) or any window name of your choice.
  
  
• Rearranged the small windows (I call 'em "portlets") a bit to remove information that was not actually contributing to the page.
  
  
• When searching for bookmarks a list of the most common tags for the bookmarks found (displayed) is now shown on the right.
  
  
• Improved the visual appearance of the tag cloud.
  
  
• Added a tag table that lists all your tags in alphabetic order (there will be an option to sort by frequency as well soon).
  
  
• Added a one line of descriptive text on top of each page, which describes what you are actually seeing on pages like "new", "popular" etc.
  
  
• Moved the blue admin form that is shown when in Edit mode to the top of the page instead of at the bottom. If you have many bookmarks you had to scroll all the way down to find it.
  

I think that was about it. In the next release will be some improvements to the import feature, RSS/JavaScript/HTML feeds for your tags (so you can display a tag cloud on your blog) and a bunch of "under-the-hood" improvements. So... if you don't hear from me in a week or two or three, you know why.

And to everyone who gives me feedback - I really appreciate it!

//Henrik