We are still on a steady pace towards a 1.0 release of iusethis, and I figured this would be a good time to update you about what we've added lately.
Going backwards from now, I've just updated production with a new facility for managing your app tags. On the add and edit screens, you can now find lists of the most poupular tags on iusethis, and you can choose them for your app by clicking them. This should solve the problem of not knowing what tags to use.
Yesterday we released the first version of the iusethis Icon Extractor, and also updated our default icon with a new one. I personally like this one much better. Thanks Adam Betts!
During the weekend, we also fixed some minor markup issues, as well as working a little on our titles and meta descriptions, to make things more user and search engine friendly. :) Another feature I think works very well is the 'Similar apps', which now show up on the sidebar of each app.
We're also happy to see that great apps like feeder, Choco Flop and Notae has adopted our 'blog this' include, which shows the app count with a link to the application page.
We're working on making a similar include that can be used to put on your blog to show what apps you are using, and we would love to hear from you on how you would want that to work. Do you want javascript includes like the blog this include, JSON, flash, generated image bitmap? Also what sort of includes are you interested in? Please leave us comments at this post.
I’d like to see includes that work on white backgrounds.
Also, you should contact the guy that wrote the Application Update widget or do something like that so I can keep track of application updates more easily.
The widget I mentioned: http://www.dashboardwidgets.com/showcase/details.php?wid=1510
How about a couple of other blog/site includes that feature different background colors or no background at all? This would allow more seamless use for different site designs where the current white rounded rectangle might not be appropriate.
I’ve been asking for an iUseThis image link since day one, so I’m glad to see it! But the place I’ve designated for such links (the sidebar on our site) uses a blue background where the large white rectangle just doesn’t look balanced.
For now I’m using a static text link, but I’d love to give iUseThis the special treatment.
Thanks for the feedback, guys :) We’ll work out some more formats for the app javascript include, that works on different backgrounds. Also working on export formats that make it easy for app developers to make update apps against our system. We will be supporting sparkle appcast Real Soon Now, and probably OPML export of your apps. ( Or possibly just JSON, haven’t decided 100% yet :)
Why is the iusethis.com uses osx as it’s subdomain? does it mean iusethis.com is only for Mac apps and windows/linux users can’t add anything? :)
barlas: maybe its a del.icio.us-like thing. or maybe they’re thinking of branching out someday…
and i vote for maybe having an image version of this app display thing you’re talking about. us myspace kiddies want to show off too. :)
Maybe sometime a version for Windows or Linux will appear?