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Posts Tagged ‘Beta Testing’

Site news: new commenting and login system is on the loose

If you noticed a little wonkiness here and there on Ars Friday afternoon, don’t panic! We’ve been transitioning our user database and comments over to a new system we’ve been working on.

We’ll expound on all the benefits of the new system and perhaps some of the technical details later on, but over the weekend we’re more interested in learning if anyone runs into any weird bugs on their systems. We’ve been beta testing it locally for a while and we’re satisfied that the system is ready for wider use.

This article (and all articles from here on out) will be the only articles using the new commenting system. All posts prior to this one will use the old AJAX system.

Here are the top-line details of the new system:

• New comment threads use an absolute minimum of JavaScript. No longer do you need JavaScript enabled to read or make comments on the site. The only feature which currently requires JavaScript is editing a post; we’ll be looking for ways to eliminate this in the future.
• There still is a tiny bit of JavaScript, however. We use it for editing, like I said, and for when you click on the “reply” links. This will prepopulate the text area with the text of the post you’re replying to, replete with the right UBB tags.
• We’ve also moved to a more reliable, stable, and tweakable backend for our user database and profiles. This means you’ll be logging in and managing your profiles at a different location—arstechnica.com/civis, instead of civis.arstechnica.com. We think this will eliminate a lot of minor irritations you may have experienced in the past. The coolest thing? We have a lot more flexibility in how we expand these types of services in the future.
• While we’re talking about flexibility, our new system will let us more easily and quickly explore new commenting features in a way we weren’t able to do before. We’ll also be able to run down commenting and user database bugs a lot more easily now.
• The first example of the above is that you should now see comment counts on articles and all over the site beginning with this article. This was something we couldn’t easily do before and which was made easy by this switch.

That’s all for now. If you’re running into any reproducible bugs or simply cannot login to the new system, please e-mail us at civis@arstechnica.com or let us know in the comments—assuming you can comment.

In addition, if you have any specific questions about what we’re up to here, leave those questions in the comments (or e-mail us at the aforementioned address) and we’ll do our best to answer.

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Automatic Affiliate-Link Insertion Service Gets Google Backing

Any web developer knows that it’s a lack of universal standards that can make designing and maintaining a web site unbearable. Startup venture VigLink says it’s here to handle at least one consistent issue – keeping affiliate link programs bringing in the bucks. The service says it is going to go even further and recover affiliate dollars you didn’t know you were losing.

Sponsor

The company announced today that it closed a seed investment round and it has a laundry list of technology insiders as backers, including First Round Capital, Google Ventures, LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman, longtime Google executive and current LinkedIn VP of Product Deep Nishar and a number of noted technology entrepreneurs.

CEO Oliver Roup and Architect Rodrigo Leroux co-founded the company in March of last year and Roup told us today that the company was set to go live in the next few months. At the moment, it is still in beta-testing, but we had a quick chat with Roup over what to expect.

Affiliate Marketing

VigLink is looking to stand on the in-between ground of affiliate marketing, betwixt merchants and affiliates. Before we move on with the what and how, let’s briefly clarify our terms. In affiliate marketing, a merchant rewards an affiliate for traffic and pays commission on purchases made by referred visitors. Referring a friend to sign on with a cell phone company and getting $10 off your next month’s bill is an example of affiliate marketing. In this case, the cell phone company is the “merchant” and you are the “affiliate” or “publisher”.

According to VigLink’s web site, more than half of all affiliate links are improperly formatted, which means that the affiliate loses out on hard earned commission dollars. If the customer cannot be tracked, the affiliate cannot get paid. The service solves this problem with a JavaScript snippet inserted into the affiliate’s web site, which makes sure all links are properly formatted.

Changing the Name of the Game

But while formatting affiliate-links properly can be a time-consuming pain, any web developer worth their salt should be able to handle the task. It’s not here that the service is going to make a difference. CEO Oliver Roup told us today that the real focus is all the money that is being lost, not only on improperly formatted links, but links to sites with affiliate programs that your site is not enrolled in.

“Every time a link leaves your site, value is being created,” he explained. “You should be able to capitalize on that value.”

The interesting new twist that VigLink introduces to the affiliate marketing game is that you don’t even have to know that you’re linking to a merchant to make a commission. It’s almost like having an agent. If a visitor from your site makes a purchase, VigLink keeps track and collects the commission for you, taking a percentage for itself.

The company’s success now relies on getting some big name merchants involved. Since the service is free to affiliate members, it won’t take as much to get followers on that end of the spectrum. Pending that, we think that this is an idea that could be going places.

Discuss

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Peek gets a Facebook app, sort of

Peek devices are usually quite resolute in their single-purpose ways, but it looks like things are starting to change — the company is beta testing Facebook integration called PeekSocial. Once you install the app on your Facebook account, you’ll be able to update your status easily, and you’ll also receive periodic emails that pull content from your newsfeed. Yeah, it’s a little hacky — how about enabling support for a real Facebook app, Peek?

[Thanks, Devon]

Peek gets a Facebook app, sort of originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s Chrome for Mac has arrived

Google has now launched Google Chrome for Mac. Of course it’s still in beta testing, but at least it’s now out the door.

The delay in the Mac version of the Google Chrome web browser was a big disappointment for Google. Co-founder Sergey Brin stated this publicly at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco.

Luckily that wait ends today. Mac users can now surf the web using a faster and lighter browser, compared to Firefox. However, unlike Safari, Chrome doesn’t have a toolbar. So you would have to familiarize yourself with the complete lack of buttons at the top. The Mac version ships with themes right out of the box. So if customization is your thing, Chrome won’t disappoint you.

In addition to launching Chrome for Mac users, Google has also turned the switch on Google extensions for Windows and made them available for everyone. Previously, extensions were just available to developers. Extensions or plug-ins were one area where Chrome seriously lacked Firefox. I, for one, seriously missed the possibility to tweak Chrome and extend it to my liking, like the way I used to do with Firefox. Some of the popular extensions include Google Mail Checker, Bubble Translate, Xmarks for Chrome Beta, Google Reader, and Chromed Bird.

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Google’s Busy Week

I thought December was supposed to be a quiet month, where people go on vacation, and companies don’t launch new things. I was wrong. This week is shaping up to be a very busy one for Google as they could have as many as three substantial launches in three days.

Monday: Tomorrow morning, the company is holding an event in Mountain View, CA to talk about the evolution of its search product over the years. That may sound ho-hum, but they are also promising to introduce a “few new features that we hope will change the way people search in the future.” Presenting will be no less than Google VP of Search Products and User Experience, Marissa Mayer, Google Fellow, Amit Singhal, and Google VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra. All heavy hitters.

Is this Google’s answer to the Bing event last week, where they showed off the impressive looking new Bing Maps beta product? You can bet that whatever they unveil, it won’t involve Silverlight. And I wouldn’t bet against it involving Twitter in some way, just like Microsoft’s announcements did.

Tuesday: This is far from certain, but word is that Tuesday could be the day Chrome for Mac beta finally gets released. We know the launch is imminent, as the beta version is now complete and the team has moved on to getting the left-out features working. But there is one bug that might hold up the launch (it popped up late after all the beta blocker bugs were previously eliminated).

It’s definitely worth noting that on the Chromium Development Calendar, December 8 (this Tuesday) is the date listed for “4.0 Beta to Beta Channel.” Chrome 4.0 is already in beta testing for Windows, and before that launched in early November, the calendar featured the same message. No word on the Linux build, but that could certainly go beta on Tuesday as well. Also worth noting is that 4.0 is scheduled to go “stable” on January 12, so that may be the Chrome 4.0 official launch (at least for Windows).

Wednesday: This is the day that Google will officially launch Chrome Extensions, is the latest thing we’re hearing. We noted over the weekend that at some point this week (and probably mid-week) this would happen, and it looks like Wednesday (and possibly Wednesday evening) is the day.

The one-two punch of launching Chrome for Mac beta and then having Chrome Extensions would be nice, except for the fact that Chrome for Mac beta won’t support them right away. But the latest builds of Chromium do, so everyone will be able to try out the new extensions at launch.

The Rest: So that’s the first three days of the week with possible things on each day. And if you count Sunday as the start of the week, I guess you could throw in Google CEO Eric Schmidt finally joining Twitter as another event.

Is Google going to give us a breather on Thursday and Friday? Who knows, but at this rate they’ll probably announce that they are dropping all support for IE on Christmas.

[photo: flickr/bramus]

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LayeredBrain promises to triple your video ad revenues

With high speed Internet connections becoming widely available, the online video market is booming: 25 billion videos were viewed in September alone in the US, according to comScore statistics, twice as many as a year ago. This might get video-sharing site YouTube feeling all warm and cozy, dreaming about hitting break-even, but what about those people actually creating video content? When do they get to start seeing a profit? Romanian startup Brainient hopes to answer that question with its new video monetization platform, LayeredBrain, currently in beta testing.

LayeredBrain lets you add interactive elements to video content. For instance, if you have an iPod in your video, you can define a hotspot over it, attach a link to the product, and the link will automatically be converted to an affiliate link. The application supports around 7000 merchants and has access to over 65 million affiliate links so, unless you’re selling something really exotic, there’s a pretty good chance your product will be on that list. And if your videos feature the same product more than once, LayeredBrain will automatically detect and tag that product for you. The company’s developers are still playing with the detection technology, but they should have it in production within the next few months.

LayeredBrain also lets you create polls, cue points and chapter markers to guide viewers through the video, and add images or other elements on top of your video.

And if you’ve already got a favorite video-management platform, there’s not need to switch, since LayeredBrain can be integrated with other platforms such as Brightcove, Vimeo or a custom CMS, directly through an API. As far as advertising is concerned, you can set your own ad campaign, you can use the affiliate network or you can integrate ads from Doubleclick, Google Adsense or Brightroll.

LayeredBrain is not the only player on the interactive video advertising market. Innovid, an Israeli startup founded in 2007, focuses on placing interactive elements into videos for advertising purposes, two of their most spectacular features being the clickable canvas and the integration of 3D objects. However, Innovid doesn’t support integration with other video management platforms and with affiliate networks. Quick.tv is another competitor, UK based, that offers video advertising through interactive elements and also provides integration with popular video management platforms. Veeple, a US startup, provides a solution for embedding almost anything in videos — PDF or PPT files, audio and video files, hotspots and social icons. Veeple also has an auto-detection technology for tagged objects and has recently launched a free API for integration with third-party Flash Players and CMSs.

Emi Gal, CEO and founder of Brainient (pictured), says the main difference between LayeredBrain and its competitors is how the money is made. LayeredBrain provides integration with affiliate marketing links, besides offering the interactivity tools, which leads to a revenue stream three times higher than with regular video advertising, he says. Since this subject came up, I was curious to know just how much money a regular video can make.

Gal had some dazzling calculations in store: “If you run pre-rolls on your videos, charge a $30 CPM and get half-a-view per pre-roll, per video, that means you’re making on average 1.5 cents per video view. If you attach an affiliate link on top of that video, for an average purchase of $60, a 10% commission and a 0.5% conversion rate, it could bring you 3 more cents per video view. To sum up, we can triple a publisher’s revenue just by adding contextual affiliate links on top of the video.” 4.5 cents per video might not seem much, but if your video reaches 100,000 views, that’s $4,500.

For now, we’ll have to take Gal’s word for it, but for the next few months, he plans on getting enough traction to put together some case studies to prove LayeredBrain generates more money for publishers.

Launched just two months ago, LayeredBrain has already raised 100,000 euros from Seedmoney and Seedcamp and has a third round of investment in the pipeline. Brainient, the company developing Layered Brain, is also behind another video product, Veevid — an open source video management platform. Its R&D and technical support teams are based in Bucharest, and its sales and marketing teams are in London.

[Image credit: wall-street.ro]

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Hulu to Add Subscription Services, Pay-per-View, Hints Murdoch

At an investor conference held earlier this week, News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker revealed that they were looking at new ways to help monetize their joint venture, the video-streaming service Hulu.com. The site, a popular web destination featuring movies and TV shows from content partners including Fox, ABC, Disney, and, of course, NBC Universal, reaches anywhere from 9 million to 42 million users per month, depending who you ask. Although the hosted content is currently ad-supported by way of commercials interspersed into the video streams, the company is interested in exploring other revenue options as well, specifically subscription services and pay-per-view programs.

Sponsor

According to a recent report from Multichannel News, Murdoch was quoted at the conference as saying “Are we looking at it with a view toward adding subscription services and pay per view? Yes we are.” However, he was quick to add that “no decisions have been made yet.”

NBC’s Zucker also hinted at the company’s interest in the matter. “Whether there are other ways to monetize Hulu down the road, it is something that we are open to, something we will explore,” he said, but like Murdoch, reiterated “there are no plans at this time.”

Subscription Services Already in Testing?

While that may be the official company line, other sites are reporting a slightly different variation on this story. The Business of Video blog, for example, says they’ve been in contact with sources who have confirmed that Hulu is already beta testing a subscription-based service internally and is working out the technical requirements. If that story is to be believed, the offering won’t go live anytime this year as Hulu still needs to figure out the details of the business plan.

Whether or not that rumor is true, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear that Hulu is working on such a project, given their obvious interest in adding more revenue-generating features to the site. Zucker himself even updated his ongoing conference comment about “analog dollars” being used to chase “digital dimes.” (In 2008, it was “digital pennies.”) “Certainly by next year the goal should be at least quarters,” he joked.

What We Want to See: Premium Channels on Hulu

Subscription services would be a brilliant way to chase those quarters, indeed. Perhaps it could even convince cable-only paid channels like HBO and Showtime to get on board with the venture. They’ve already tentatively given iTunes a shot, but still seem reluctant to share current episodes in a timely fashion on that service. The reason for the networks’ timidity is because their iTunes revenue simply doesn’t compare to their cable TV subscription offerings or even their DVD sales. (Ironically, that’s probably due to the fact that they don’t offer current programs via iTunes!). Instead, they would rather entice consumers to subscribe by tempting them with their backcatalog of programming.

However, if the situation was to change and consumers could subscribe to these channels online for a comparable fee to what the companies generate through cable TV distribution, would they continue to put up such resistance? After all, money is money, who cares where it comes from?

These days, more and more consumers are pinching pennies by cancelling cable subscriptions thanks to the numerous alternatives available online. Obviously, premium channels are getting the boot, too. Imagine if they could have a chance to win back some of those penny-pinching former subscribers by way of an online subscription service. After all, what would you give for piecemeal plans that let you buy a 3-month pass to HBO instead of the all-or-nothing combo packages available via your cable TV provider?

Of course, all this is just wishful thinking on our part, but if Hulu does it right, the possibilities for their new TV distribution network are virtually endless.

Discuss

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Webvanta launches easy service for building complex sites

On Tuesday, after more than a year of beta testing, Webvanta is formally launching a service that makes it easy for web designers to create web sites that access tons of data.

The Sebastopol, Calif.-based company hopes to save tens of thousands of dollars in programming costs for professional web site designers. It focuses on creating data-rich sites such as an information portal, a business site, a nonprofit site or a membership site. The web designer doesn’t have to know all of the technical ins and outs; they can just walk through a series of menus and select the features they want. To set up a site with user forums, the designer simply checks a box.

Webvanta’s solution is the only hosted platform that makes it easy to build sites around custom database structures. Instead of having just articles or posts, you can add structured content. A web designer can add new features easily, like showing the room types, special deals, and activities at the Highlands Resort site.

Webvanta was started by Michael Slater, (right) famous in chip circles for his acerbic wit as the founder of the Microprocessor Report. He left that business in 1999 and founded Photo Tablet, which made some of the first digital photo organization and sharing software. Renamed Fortiva, that company was sold to Adobe in 2001. Slater stayed at Adobe for five years but became frustrated at how tough it was to get new businesses off the ground. He left at the end of 2006 and co-founded Webvanta in 2007 with Christopher Haupt.

Slater wanted to do a web start-up and started playing around with Ruby on Rails, the open-source web framework which powers many web sites. He practiced building sites. He found that he had to rebuild many features, such as the “contact us” pages, from scratch. He began looking for a way to generate the pages automatically.

While there were blog software platforms such as Word Press and social networking platforms such as Ning, Slater said there was no corresponding software to easily set up something that was richer than a blog. The focus has now evolved into a hosted service for web designers who use the system to deliver better sites for their clients.

Slater and Haupt are the only employees, though they have a variety of contractors. They have run the company so far with just $460,000 in angel funding. Two of the investors are David Hehman and Greg Seal. Slater expects to raise another small round this fall but is focused on being capital efficient. There are about 30 sites running on the Webvanta platform today and they’re paying customers.

Slater says the company is now just starting its marketing efforts. The major competitor today is Wordpress, though you can’t do as many things as you can with Webvanta. Other rivals include Drupal, which isn’t all that designer friendly; and then there is Business Catalyst, acquired by Adobe and focused only on e-commerce sites.

A video description is here.

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