In this update:

• New Gridjit Release Announcement (Q1 2009)
• Time is running out to join the Gridjit Alpha and enjoy special benefits next year (invite your friends now!)
• Recent Growth
• New Gridjit Tutorial

New Gridjit Release Announcement (Q1 2009)

It’s been awhile since I’ve provided any Gridjit updates but I’ve been hard at work on the next version of Gridjit. To call the next version a major functionality upgrade would be an understatement. It’s a little too early to begin releasing many details yet because this is going to become a very competitive space but I’m thrilled to be working on it.

Ideally, the new version will be available Q1 next year. Because I’m self-funded / bootstrapping, my development time always balanced with my other paid projects in the mobile / search space here in Japan, but I’m currently managing to get a lot done even with my other projects being quite active.

I can, however, provide some updates on where Gridjit is going from a business perspective. Either the next version or a subsequent release will have paid, premium features. There will always be a free version but I see a big need for a platform that can provide an intelligent dashboard to the variety of social and business services available on the web. The free version will be a powerful platform for lifestreaming and social network aggregation. The paid versions will add additional functionality around business use cases of these and other applications.

Time is running out on the Gridjit Alpha (Get in now to enjoy special benefits next year!)

Current Alpha testers are going to have a couple of advantages when the next version is out.

First, there will be a brief lockdown period in which only the current Alpha testers are allowed to access the new version when it’s ready. This will likely only last a few weeks but everybody else will have to wait to get access to the features that the current Alpha testers will see first. So, if you haven’t requested an invitation yet and you think you might want to be part of this, now is the time to get in. If you have received an invitation but haven’t activated it yet, this is also the time to do that because when the new release goes live, all current invites will be locked down.

Second, current Alpha users will have the first and most opportunity to get a free premium account for at least the first year. I will provide more details as we get closer to release but, as above, now is the best time to get and start providing feedback.

Recent Growth

Gridjit traffic and new users have been accelerating rapidly over the last few weeks. The current number of registered users has grown by nearly 50% since the beginning of October.

Gridjit Tutorial

The current version of Gridjit probably needs a little explaining in terms of the concepts behind it and how to use it. So, I’ve written the Gridjit tutorial. Obviously, really good UIs should need little explanation so that means I have a lot of work to do but I think with a little explanation, the current version does provide some powerful features.

I plan to do some videos when the new version is out but, for now, the tutorial will be the best place to learn how to use Gridjit if you’re new to it.

This first screenshot is what my Gridjit looks like at the moment. I default to the FriendFeed grid because I enjoy the richness of the media that comes through that network, as opposed to the straight text that comes from Twitter.

I tend not to spend the majority of my day on FriendFeed or Twitter so I wanted something like a dashboard that let me quickly scan what people were talking about, participate if I want to and then let me get back to my busy job. Gridjit has been an ideal way for me to do so.

In the FriendFeed grid, I can comment on items, “like” them and view more comments / posts from the user in question. All of the activity is grouped around users so I don’t have to hunt through a long, chronological stream just to see all of the activity from a given user. This is nice because I tend to pay more attention to some people than others so it’s somewhat of a filter.

Backing up a bit, let me talk about setting up a new account because Gridjit does some interesting things behind the scenes.

This is the signup screen of course. The thing to note here is your username. If you choose the same username that you use on Twitter and FriendFeed, Gridjit will try to automatically link your new account with your account on those services. It can’t do so completely without your password / Remote key, so we’ll deal with that later.

The other thing to note is the option to “allow everyone to view who you follow” option. This is a tie back to the earliest version of Gridjit which let you discover new users and content just by clicking on the username of someone in your Gridjit screen. Twitter eventually disabled open access to this feature through their API and FriendFeed never did support it, so Gridjit relies on having people’s API credentials in order for it to work. Because of this, it’s a bit clunky now so it may change / go away in the future. But it is nice when it works. I recommend leaving this option checked if you’re comfortable with doing so.

This is what your Gridjit screen will look like immediately after signing up. As you can see, there is not much there yet but we will fix that in a minute.

First, however, click on the “Sharing” tab. Here’s what my Sharing tab looks like:

Interesting, right? I didn’t put in any of my FriendFeed or Twitter information yet, but Gridjit found my accounts because I used the same username here as I do on both of those networks. One consequence of this is that sometimes Gridjit finds the wrong person or can’t find your account if you have a different username on those networks, or if someone else uses your preferred username somewhere else. That’s easy enough to fix, and we’ll look at that now because it’s also time to finish setting up my FriendFeed and Twitter accounts.

If you click on the “+ Share” button, the Gridjit UI will expand to reveal this screen:

Click on the Settings link and you will see the FriendFeed and Twitter accounts that Gridjit was able to find for you.

You’ll notice that there is an option to set your password for both of these accounts. This is optional but necessary if you want to pull in your FriendFeed and Twitter streams, post, comment, like, etc.

If you click on the “set password” link for Twitter, you’ll see this:

And there is a similar screen for FriendFeed.

Please note that FriendFeed API access requires your remote key, not your FriendFeed password. I wish all services did this because, frankly, I don’t really want your passwords.

Now that I’ve set up my FriendFeed and Twitter accounts, I can click back over to the “Following” tab, and I now get an aggregated view of both my FriendFeed and Twitter accounts.

Gridjit recently added support for my comments, likes and rooms that I’m a member of, so it’s easier than ever to stay up to date with the conversations that I’ve taken part in.

If you click on the Twitter button in the network menu on the Following tab, you’ll get a similar grid for the latest activity from the people you follow.

In a similar fashion, Gridjit also lets you view your replies via Twitter. Mari Smith asked if you can reply to replies. That feature is coming but for now you can still use the @username method of replying to people from Gridjit’s posting functionality, which I will discuss next.

Click on the “+ Share” tab again and this time you should see this screen:

Because you’ve set up your FriendFeed and Twitter accounts, you now have the ability to post to both Twitter and FriendFeed. One thing to note is that when you start typing in the Twitter box, Gridjit will automatically copy your text down into the FriendFeed box. This feature is eventually going to go away in favor of something cleaner, but for now it’s an easy way to post to both networks (but please be polite).

The final screen to look at is the Settings screen. This can be accessed by clicking “Settings” in the top right of the screen. It’s pretty basic and just lets you manage your username, password, email settings, etc.

Finally, I’d like to discuss some of the design concepts behind Gridjit.

As I was building the first version early this year, I started to notice the multiple dimensions that my online profile has. Back in the good old days when there were just blogs and static websites, my online profile consisted of a couple of URLs.

But now, with social networks, lifestreamers and a myriad of social services, my online profile is multi-faceted. Gridjit is one of the first services that I am aware of that actively tries to capture this multiple dimensionality and display it in a way that is easy to navigate and discover the dimensions of others online.

In the current version, this is primarily done through the “Following” and “Sharing” tabs which reflect the two most common dimensions online today.

I’m spread out all over on the internet, but Gridjit pulls in the various aspects of what I do onto the Sharing tab so that my friends can easily see what I’m up to. Another important aspect of my online profile is what I’m consuming and who I’m subscribed to. This is especially important when I discover a new person because I not only want to know what they’re sharing, I also want to know what they are reading, listening to, and watching. I’m interested in the influences on a person’s life because that’s part of what makes them who they are. One of the main goals behind Gridjit is to make that discovery process easier, and more fun. The next version will hopefully do an even better job of that.

Stay tuned.

If you notice any weirdness, please email support@gridjit.com. Otherwise, enjoy!

Integration of FriendFeed Likes, Comments and Rooms

In the first screenshot below, you can see the new menu system that allows Gridjit to support additional network features from services like FriendFeed and Twitter (with more to come).

The next screenshot shows something I’ve been wanting in Gridjit for a long time - a startpage-like view of all of the rooms I am a member of with, of course, the ability to drill into each room.

Twitter Replies

Finally, a feature long lacking in Gridjit is the integration of Twitter replies. I have further enhancements planned here, so stay tuned.

Some smaller enhancements (due to popular request):

• Links on images that go to their proper destination (FriendFeed images, Flickr, etc.)
• The use of full names in posts / comments / likes on the FriendFeed grid

Also, I made some minor performance and other tweaks on the backend. It’s been a good week.

Let me know if you experience any issues with the new changes. Enjoy!

Today I released a simple feature (present in pretty much all clients) that attempts an authentication check with FriendFeed and Twitter before accepting the credentials. This is one of those things that should have always been in there and am finally getting to it now.

Hopefully this will make using Gridjit easier!

To access the account settings screen, click on the new “Settings” link next to your name in the upper right-hand corner:

You’ll see a screen that will let you change your username, password, email address, privacy settings and, if desired, will allow you to delete your account.

Enjoy!

Because I released an Alpha version of Gridjit, I thought I would provide a different perspective and talk about why I released Gridjit as a private Alpha.

The earliest users of Gridjit will remember it as a very simple visualization tool for Twitter. It hasn’t strayed far from that original vision but its feature set and design have been significantly enhanced in the last few months. I was planning an Alpha release for this summer when Twitter disabled a very important feature of their API with little warning, rendering the then current version of Gridjit completely useless. Within a few days, Gridjit’s most loyal users were asking me on a regular basis when the new version would be ready. Even though Twitter’s actions were beyond my control, I felt responsible for maintaining Gridjit’s service and so I delayed the addition of some planned features and released the Alpha.

There were a few other reasons I decided to release a private Alpha.

The most important reason (other than the one mentioned above) is that it just doesn’t make sense for me to develop software in a vacuum. The positive response that the Gridjit Alpha has received so far has convinced me that there is value in the product and that it meets a need. I’ve received invaluable feedback (and bug reports) from users telling me things I wouldn’t have seen for a long time. In return, the group of people who are willing to put up with some bumps along the way get early access to a great service (I’m told) and have a lot of influence over how that service will turn out.

Another reason, one that may not apply to everyone, is that doing a private Alpha lets me make sure the system will perform well for existing users. Because Gridjit is not funded by outside investors, I have to keep it running using resources from the other half of my business and that means that I have to make sure I can work on it when I have the time. By limiting access in the early stages to a small group of people, I can respond quickly to their needs and gradually build up the automated systems necessary to allow more people in, in a way that scales for me.

Downsides to this approach do exist.

I wasn’t able to do a Muxtape or Laconica style release with tens of thousands of users overnight. Maybe I will try this with a different app or an evolved version of Gridjit later (another advantage of doing an alpha - you get to do a better beta release). And in many cases, this sort of grand entry does seem beneficial.

In the case of Gridjit, however, it started with and is ultimately software that I built because I needed it. So I’m ok with letting it grow over time and if it has a ton of users a few months or years out, then all the better.

Please let me know if you have any problems.

I’ve decided to hold off on rolling them to the production server tonight because I want to be there for the first few hours (I’m on Japan time and it’s getting late here). So, the new changes will go out tomorrow.

Thanks again to everyone for their patience as I take these extra precautions.