Quick update tonight - mostly a fix for Firefox on the main result screen (CSS problem - ugh, aren't Firefox and IE FUN?!?)
Getting a some steady traffic now - looking at improving Tag navigation a bit, as we're starting to get more of a collection.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Done! Live!
Great news - the Patent was filed this Monday! So the site was live a few minutes after I got notified.
I had just been using it myself, but put the link a few places yesterday - have gotten 286 visitors,
and around 700 searches, mostly in the last 4 hours. I've also had 7 users sign up, which is great.
I've continued to make improvements, and will do more as I get more people on the system.
I am hoping to get a steady stream of people, but not too many, while I work on things. Got a few other (unrelated) things I want to do - wish I could just get funding so I could get a few more people helping.
Oh, and this blog is now public :)
I had just been using it myself, but put the link a few places yesterday - have gotten 286 visitors,
and around 700 searches, mostly in the last 4 hours. I've also had 7 users sign up, which is great.
I've continued to make improvements, and will do more as I get more people on the system.
I am hoping to get a steady stream of people, but not too many, while I work on things. Got a few other (unrelated) things I want to do - wish I could just get funding so I could get a few more people helping.
Oh, and this blog is now public :)
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Screw the patent!
Well, ok, not really. But I'm tired of chasing it right now; I know I have a long way to go on the site, and I'll only get there if I can get some users on it... which means going public with it.
I got the 2nd draft from the lawyer. It was OK, but I think they template some of the answers. And they only give generic examples of how to change something, they (Legal Zoom lawyer) don't give specific examples, using what you wrote. Which can be a bit unhelpful :)
I made a few changes, and re-submitted. I am not just wanting for final draft and the real submission. They can go live. Woot!
I got the 2nd draft from the lawyer. It was OK, but I think they template some of the answers. And they only give generic examples of how to change something, they (Legal Zoom lawyer) don't give specific examples, using what you wrote. Which can be a bit unhelpful :)
I made a few changes, and re-submitted. I am not just wanting for final draft and the real submission. They can go live. Woot!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Still waiting
Wow, STILL going around on the Patent. The lawyer sent back suggestions on the 1st draft, I updated a lot of it, 2nd draft went back last weekend. I really hope the final one comes back ASAP, as I want to release.
I had some major dental issues the last two weeks (VERY VERY painful, ended up having surgery, and now have to have more this week) so haven't worked very much on the site.
It is working pretty good - I want to add user prefs, like fav tags, and need to add more search engine links.
I had some major dental issues the last two weeks (VERY VERY painful, ended up having surgery, and now have to have more this week) so haven't worked very much on the site.
It is working pretty good - I want to add user prefs, like fav tags, and need to add more search engine links.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Patent / Update
Going around a bit with LegalZoom on the Patent - send in Friday, didn't hear anything back. So I ask what was up. The responded a bit ago that I needed to send my drawings in... which I did Friday :) Fun.
I made a change to the auto-detect of meta keywords. I now bring back a checkbox list of all keywords.. but only check the first five. Some sites put a ton of crap in there, which I really don't want in tagZar. So I'm kind of assuming the first 5 will be the more meaningful, and default to that. The user can check, uncheck, or add their own. The javascript was a bit painful - had to make sure I didn't muck with what they entered, and handle the delete/add on check.
Anyway, I don't plan on any updates for right now - want to get the patent done, then will continue. So I'm working mostly on TCI right now.
I made a change to the auto-detect of meta keywords. I now bring back a checkbox list of all keywords.. but only check the first five. Some sites put a ton of crap in there, which I really don't want in tagZar. So I'm kind of assuming the first 5 will be the more meaningful, and default to that. The user can check, uncheck, or add their own. The javascript was a bit painful - had to make sure I didn't muck with what they entered, and handle the delete/add on check.
Anyway, I don't plan on any updates for right now - want to get the patent done, then will continue. So I'm working mostly on TCI right now.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Ready to go
Well, been cranking on this off and on the last week. The biggest item I've added is "freshness". I was originally going leave that off until the next version... but I think it's critical enough to add in at this point. I had to rip some stuff up, but it wasn't too bad - took about 5 hours to do. I'm still not sure if I want one freshness, or have some kind of tag freshness vs site freshness.
And what does freshness mean? For site or tag, is it submit date or last activity date? Right now I'm using activity... but for sites, that will get me back to the problem of some sites dominating, which will act as a suppression for newer sites.
First version of user profile is done - you can see what a user has submitted. I'll do the piece that shows what they voted for as I have time.
The "Big cloud" is in, and you can now get details about sites in tags, and what tags go with a site.
I've decided to go with the provisional patent. I may try to use LegalZoom to do it; get at least some help.
At this point, I am ready to go - it's on the domain but in a password protected area (no public disclosure!) I just need to get the provisional patent filed, and I'll open it up.
My plan at this point is to use it as my default search engine at that point (Doing that to some extent now), to give it a bunch of tags and sites (it's pretty limited right now). I'll then try to get a few friends and family on it. Then get some news on various search related sites, then expand out to general tech news sites.
While this may go no where, if it does I need to be careful - I'm sharing with StationPortal, which can be VERY busy. I've already noticed the response time can be... annoying. I've put in caching on top tags, and will look at doing caching on some of the common sub tags, but if I start getting a real load I will need to look at a new server (or two, for DB and IIS). Which means it will need to have REALLY taken off, or I found a bag of money (e.g., funding). Fun :)
Pretty happy with it - the site is plain but I think very clean (yeah, I used elements from Google, digg, and a few others). Not that the main site of Google really HAS a look and feel, eh?
And what does freshness mean? For site or tag, is it submit date or last activity date? Right now I'm using activity... but for sites, that will get me back to the problem of some sites dominating, which will act as a suppression for newer sites.
First version of user profile is done - you can see what a user has submitted. I'll do the piece that shows what they voted for as I have time.
The "Big cloud" is in, and you can now get details about sites in tags, and what tags go with a site.
I've decided to go with the provisional patent. I may try to use LegalZoom to do it; get at least some help.
At this point, I am ready to go - it's on the domain but in a password protected area (no public disclosure!) I just need to get the provisional patent filed, and I'll open it up.
My plan at this point is to use it as my default search engine at that point (Doing that to some extent now), to give it a bunch of tags and sites (it's pretty limited right now). I'll then try to get a few friends and family on it. Then get some news on various search related sites, then expand out to general tech news sites.
While this may go no where, if it does I need to be careful - I'm sharing with StationPortal, which can be VERY busy. I've already noticed the response time can be... annoying. I've put in caching on top tags, and will look at doing caching on some of the common sub tags, but if I start getting a real load I will need to look at a new server (or two, for DB and IIS). Which means it will need to have REALLY taken off, or I found a bag of money (e.g., funding). Fun :)
Pretty happy with it - the site is plain but I think very clean (yeah, I used elements from Google, digg, and a few others). Not that the main site of Google really HAS a look and feel, eh?
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Getting close
So I haven't been blogging about it as much (as I've been busying DOING it), but I've made some very good progress on tagZar.
User login and sign up is done. A listing of possible URL's is in (defaulting to the top one ATM).
The site is up (but password protected) at http://www.tagzar.com/tz.
Paul signed the NDA last week and has been playing with it. He's still debating if he things it's useful :) It actually took a bit to explain what the site does. I REALLY need to be able to (in a few words) be able to describe what tagZar is all about.
The ability to set up a user profile (with photo) is in. I say who first submitted the url/tag combo, and people can view their profile. A "T" icon is next to each known tag. Users can click on that to see detailed info about it - and can comment on the tag.
I've got several ways to browse tags - still working on the big cloud right now.
I've cleaned up the look and feel; it's finally getting pretty set.
I still need to work on user profile, showing what a user submitted and what they voted for. I also need to consider un-thumbsup'ing, or even thumbs down. And I need to look at freshness - over time, a handful of sites will rise to the top, and will be very hard to dislodge (as everyone will just vote for them), so getting "top in the last 24 hours", "top this week", et al. will be very important.
I need to get the patent done - or at least the prelim. I continue to be frustrated by the lack of innovation support in the Columbia area - Even on projects that have been very successful (StationRipper, for example), I've found it tough to get any partners or help. While I realize this can always be true of startups and new ideas, I personally believe a lot of it is just Columbia, SC - I'm not tied into the network here (and probably never really will be, considering I'm from the North). I've tried to get some help working on the patent from a local patent lawyer, and got a "do it yourself" response. Always fun :)
So, just a few things to finish up. Then HAVE to nail the patent so I can go live. Need to consider if I want to just release under the current LLC or form a new one.
User login and sign up is done. A listing of possible URL's is in (defaulting to the top one ATM).
The site is up (but password protected) at http://www.tagzar.com/tz.
Paul signed the NDA last week and has been playing with it. He's still debating if he things it's useful :) It actually took a bit to explain what the site does. I REALLY need to be able to (in a few words) be able to describe what tagZar is all about.
The ability to set up a user profile (with photo) is in. I say who first submitted the url/tag combo, and people can view their profile. A "T" icon is next to each known tag. Users can click on that to see detailed info about it - and can comment on the tag.
I've got several ways to browse tags - still working on the big cloud right now.
I've cleaned up the look and feel; it's finally getting pretty set.
I still need to work on user profile, showing what a user submitted and what they voted for. I also need to consider un-thumbsup'ing, or even thumbs down. And I need to look at freshness - over time, a handful of sites will rise to the top, and will be very hard to dislodge (as everyone will just vote for them), so getting "top in the last 24 hours", "top this week", et al. will be very important.
I need to get the patent done - or at least the prelim. I continue to be frustrated by the lack of innovation support in the Columbia area - Even on projects that have been very successful (StationRipper, for example), I've found it tough to get any partners or help. While I realize this can always be true of startups and new ideas, I personally believe a lot of it is just Columbia, SC - I'm not tied into the network here (and probably never really will be, considering I'm from the North). I've tried to get some help working on the patent from a local patent lawyer, and got a "do it yourself" response. Always fun :)
So, just a few things to finish up. Then HAVE to nail the patent so I can go live. Need to consider if I want to just release under the current LLC or form a new one.
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