Blog

• Mozilla Labs Ubiquity project integrates PostRank

  

  The Ubiquity team at Mozilla recently launched a new homepage for their project which features a really interesting integration of Yahoo Pipes and PostRank API to identify the most influential posts. Instead of using a numeric score, the engagement of the story is visualized as an underline with the help of color and length - neat!

  For those of you who are not familiar with Ubiquity, make sure to check out the video summary, it’s an amazing Firefox extension which can streamline your day to day browsing experience.

  On that note, we’re also big fans of the project and have built a couple of custom commands, one of which you can now install in your browser: preview top posts of any page with a single command! To get started, click on the link, and follow the instructions to install the command. Once the script is installed, simply navigate to any website with an RSS feed, open your Ubiquity prompt, and type in “top” to preview the most influential stories from that site! Easy as that.

  Let us know how it works, and if you have any suggestions for other commands you’d like to see.

  

  

  January 2nd, 2009 · No comments
• Carol’s interview on BNN’s The Close

  Carol was interviewed on BNN yesterday about what we do and where we’re headed in the future. Some excellent exposure for us!

  The Close: The Latest Technology in Online Knowledge Management

  Jacqui Murphy from Tech Capital was on BNN a couple of weeks ago talking about AideRSS and Overlay.TV (another company in Tech Capital’s portfolio) as well.

  The Close: There’s Still VC Money Out There.

  

  

  December 30th, 2008 · No comments
• Firefox and Google Reader fixes and improvements

  The devs did a passel o’ work recently on our PostRank extensions for Google Reader and Firefox.

  The coolest improvement is that Google Reader with the PostRank extension installed should be way faster now. (In the past it would get progressively slower on big lists.)

  Additionally, we’ve fixed the issue where folks with the extensions installed weren’t receiving notifications that there were updates available. Once you update the extension, you should receive notifications the same as for other extensions and plugins.

  There was also a weird little bug where on rare occasions the “PostRank fetch failed” message pop-up would get stuck and basically lock up the Firefox browser. We’re pretty sure we’ve licked that one, but it’s so rare we’re having trouble reproducing it. (So if it happens to you still after you’ve upgraded the extension, please let us know.)

  

  

  December 22nd, 2008 · No comments
• Who are Canada’s most influential men in social media?

  Once again, PostRank helps find out!

  And so the voting is now open for the gents: Vote: Who Is Canada’s Most Influential Man In Social Media?

  We’re proud to note that Ilya is included among the illustrious nominees.

  

  

  December 18th, 2008 · No comments
• Return of the PostRank Top Posts Widget

  We’re launching our new and improved PostRank Top Posts Widget, which is an awesome tool for publishers!

  

  • Readers can discover your most engaging content at a glance.
  • Topic search enables readers to find your best content on specific topics that interest them.
  • Older content stays as visible and relevant as your most recent posts and continues to draw significant reader engagement.
  • Readers stay on your site longer, view more pages, and click more links, which translates into ad impressions and revenue.
  • The Widget’s look and feel is easily customizable to match your site.
  • Readers can create customized RSS subscriptions to content right from the Widget.
  • WordPress users can monitor their social media analytics and track conversations right from their dashboards.

  We support the most popular blogging platforms, and also offer provide a bare-bones version for the do-it-yourself-ers. Take your great content from hidden gems to revenue generating!

  Head on over to our PostRank Top Posts Widget page to learn more, choose the version that will best snaz up your blog, and let more readers get started discovering your best content!

  
  
  

  

  

  December 17th, 2008 · No comments
• AideRSS expands social engagement measurement, closes second round of funding

  In 2007, we set out to conquer information overload. And we think we’ve done a pretty good job of helping people out with that. Never ones to rest on our laurels, however, we have grander plans in mind going forward. Bigger problems to tackle, more of the web to make sense of, more social engagement to analyze.

  And now that we have closed our second round of financing, we’re in an excellent position to really get going on that. Huzzah!

  We’ve been hatching some pretty big schemes — whiteboards, Post-it notes, and grande lattes have figured prominently in our efforts. And we’re really excited about Tech Capital’s continuing confidence in what we’re doing, continuing to evolve our products and services, and developing PostRank’s technology and brand.

  Many thanks to our investors and our user community — we couldn’t have gotten this far without you! And, of course, many thanks to our team for continuing to do the heavy lifting, and being a lot of fun and exceptionally good-looking day and and day out while doing it.

  2008 has been an awesome year:

  • closing two rounds of financing
  • growing our team
  • some awesome new partnerships and apps including PostRank
  • amazing exposure for us online and in the wild
  • celebrating the company’s first birthday in July
  • launching postrank.com and Thematic PostRank
  • moving to our swanky new office home in uptown Waterloo
  • some awards and recognition
  • releasing our Firefox Extensions
  • launching PostRank 2.0
  • the evolution of PostRank social engagement analysis

  And we can’t wait to blow 2008’s accomplishments out of the water in 2009. We hope you’ll join us!

  

  

  December 12th, 2008 · No comments
• PostRank selected as Top 10 RSS and Syndication Product of 2008

  A few of the things that amazed me when I started working for AideRSS was that such a young company already had an established community, extensive publishing coverage, and several passionate champions. It not only made my job easier; it also pointed to the fact that in building on our core idea, we are, as the LOLcats say, doin it right.

  It’s hardly a secret that the Read/Write Web folks have been among our greatest champions, providing excellent exposure and feedback to us. A big thanks to them from our team, and here’s to lots more awesome coverage and features that deserve it in the future.

  And another big thanks for including us in the Top 10 RSS and Syndication Products of 2008. The internets like their Top 10 lists, but it never gets any less cool to be included on them.

  

  

  December 12th, 2008 · No comments
• PostRank Google Reader Extension and Read It Later compatibility

  We noticed recently that when folks (including ourselves) had both our PostRank Google Reader Extension and Read It Later installed (and we totally recommend both), they didn’t play well together in Google Reader. (Thanks to the other people who alerted us to this as well!)

  Basically, the Read It Later checkmark sat on the PostRank score’s head and shoved the PostRank score down and they were just like squabbling siblings. So we said Enough! and sent them to their rooms.

  And now the issue has been fixed, so we welcome you to download and enjoy both. (If you had a previous version of our PostRank Google Reader Extension installed, you will need to installed the latest version, which is 2.5.)

  

  

  December 2nd, 2008 · No comments
• We’ve beefed up the Getting Started section

  A request we received from a few folks after launching the new site was for tutorials in non-video format. Some people don’t like video, some people can’t view it (like when at work), etc.

  We thought it was a great idea, and so sallied forth and took a LOT of screen shots.

  The result our new set of tutorial pages, which you can access from the Getting Started page.

  Getting Started links to eight tutorial pages with text and graphical explanations, as well as the videos that were on the Getting Started page before:

  • Account Sign Up and Login
  • Account Management
  • Creating Customized RSS Subscriptions
  • Engagement Metrics and Status
  • Managing RSS Feeds
  • Importing and Exporting RSS Feeds
  • Channels
  • PostRank Extensions

  The tutorials pages are a work in progress, and we’ll be adding more information to them and tweaking them over time. And, as always, we want your feedback. Are there features we haven’t explained? Something that doesn’t quite make sense? Typos? Let us know! (Email, Twitter, Get Satisfaction.)

  

  

  December 1st, 2008 · No comments
• Who are Canada’s most influential women in social media?

  PostRank helps find out…

  Dave Forde has embarked on a project to determine, by various means, who Canada’s leading ladies are in social media.

  Vote: Who Is Canada’s Most Influential Women In Social Media?

  One of Dave’s goals is to shine the spotlight into the corners of the internets a bit, and see who some of the more unsung heroes of social media are and what they do. Kudos!

  Criteria include the engagement scores for the women’s blogs, community voting, and rankings based on community involvement — attending and organizing events, providing education, etc.

  And yes, I’m on the list, but I didn’t nominate myself, and I didn’t do the analysis we’re providing for Dave. That was run by Trevor, one of our co-ops (who is, naturally, unflappable and incorruptible).

  May the best woman win!

  

  

  November 26th, 2008 · No comments