Saturday, March 12th, 2011

Humzoo 2.1

Denny and Dave are hunkered down at Humzoo Corporate Headquarters this weekend working overtime to bring some exciting changes to Humzoo. In less than a day, we were able to tackle several features that we couldn't wait to share with you. We've rolled them into a single update, active now, that we call Humzoo 2.1.

Facebook and Twitter Integration
We are now integrated with the two most popular social networking sites on the web. This change should bring more visitors to your site and will connect you with people who otherwise wouldn't have stumbled upon your site.

To integrate your Humzoo site with Facebook and/or Twitter, click Account at the top of the page, then click the Profile tab. Halfway down the left-hand side of the page you'll see the new options. Make sure you click the blue 'Login with Facebook' link if you'd like to integrate with Facebook.

Facebook integration means that visitors will see the 'Like' button on all of your content. Also, when you post a new blurb, blog or any other type of content, Humzoo immediately posts a status update on your Facebook profile page. Twitter integration, at the moment, is simply the addition of the 'Tweet' button under all of your content. In the near future, we will add the same sort of syndication we use with Facebook, posting a new Tweet instantly when you publish content on Humzoo. This feature is enabled by default for everyone but can be turned off in your Account Profile.

Comments
This may or may not be a big deal in and of itself, but comments now process in a completely different way. This is a subtle difference that no longer requires reloading the page when adding comments. If you're watching a video, for example, you can leave a comment anytime without having to restart the video. While this might seem like a small detail, it signals a different mentality for the way we do things on Humzoo, and many more items will use this approach in the near future.

Speaking of Videos
Those of you using Safari and Chrome browsers on Macs will notice that videos look a little different. Well, the videos might look the same, but the control bar is not what you're used to seeing. We're using HTML5 video tags to present the video using a much more simple player than the Flash-based controller you're used to seeing. This is an area that many browsers handle differently, and there's no easy solution yet that will work for everyone. We support Safari's implementation of the HTML5 video tag and hope you'll find it enjoyable as well.

Uploading Photos
If you were experiencing problems with our multiple photo uploader (Humdingers only), give it another try. We've enhanced the uploader a bit, and it should be more reliable.

What's Next?
We've spent a lot of time talking about the future of Humzoo, and this weekend we made some big decisions. Never since this site launched have we had such a clear vision of where we wanted to go. But we see that vision now, and it is called Humzoo 3.0.

The focus of Humzoo 3.0 involves strengthening our tools that let you create a unique personal website while reducing unnecessary elements that distract from that focus. We also need a business model that will sustain the costs involved in offering our services so that we can stick around for many years to come. Humzoo has brought together people who would have never met, it has allowed people of opposing viewpoints to engage each other intellectually and it has been the inspiration for many interesting events.

Quite simply, Humzoo has expanded our view of humanity in a way that brings us closer together.

Humzoo 3.0 is going to require work far beyond this weekend, and there is no official estimated release date yet. We are very excited about this new phase of Humzoo and can't wait to share more with you.