Recently I wrote some things about what I am currently working on for Talk Digger in some of my last blog posts. One picture worth 1000 words, so I will save time by posting 2 screenshots of that next version (generation?) of Talk Digger.
Before getting a look at them, please have in mind a couple of things:
- These screenshots are taken from the prototype web site.
- This is just a snippet of what is going on.
- I post these screenshots to let people know about what I am currently working on, hoping having feedbacks to improve it.
- More information about this new version will follow in the next weeks/months.
- Beta testing accounts will be available in a couple of months.
I will not describe everything on these screenshots. I will let them talk by themselves. What I would like is that you write a comment to describe what you think is going on. That way, I will know if users “intuitively” know what it is all about or if what I have done so far is a total piece of crap. It’s a sort of test and experiment.
So let me introduce the idea behind this new development, and after make your mind with these two screenshots.
As you probably know, Talk Digger is: a new way to find, follow and join discussions evolving on the Web. So you have three elements: (1) finding discussions, (2) following discussions and (3) joining discussions.
With the current version of Talk Digger, users get stuck at step one. These new improvements to Talk Digger will let its users to go ahead with the step two and three.
With these new features, Talk Digger will become a social platform that helps people to connect with other people that follow the same stories (the premise here is that people that follow the same discussions will also have some personal and professional interests in common). It will also become a search engine of its own, and not only a meta-one.
Tracking page
(Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the screenshot)
Conversation page
(Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the screenshot)
Some people could wonder why I make these screenshots available. They are not a state secret?
Fortunately they are not. Since the beginning, Talk Digger evolved with the ideas of its users. The only thing I hope is that it continues that way and it is for that exact reason why I am posting them today. I hope having your feedbacks and your first impressions about what I have done so far.
Technorati: Talkdigger | web2.0 | search | engine | conversation | discussion | social | connection | network |
Sudar
April 24, 2006 — 5:05 am
Hi Fred,
These screen shots further prove my assumption that you are up to something really great.
So here are my understanding about the screenshots.
Talk digger is going to support tagging
Talk digger users can leave comments
Talk digger users can find out what their friends are tracking
You are going to employ lot of AJAX 😉
Etc..
In short Talk Digger is getting Web 2.0 compliance correct?
–Sudar
Jeremiah Owyang
April 24, 2006 — 11:29 am
Fred
Interesting, I like the use of tagging, it will be interesting to see other conversations of note.
I’d like to see that the query be part of the URL, so I could email someone a talkdigger URL with the query as part of the string, this way the results could load up quickly. In many ways, if you do this correctly, this could become the ultimate trackback system
Interesting use of comments (blog) as an overlay to an existing conversation, to me that could be overkill –I guess I need to experiment with that before fully deciding.
You know where to find me to do some beta testing
David Jones
April 24, 2006 — 4:15 pm
I like the way it’s organized. I can see who is linking and then I can delve deeper by clicking. I love the fact you are stripping out the tags as well and showing them in aggregate form. That will allow people to narrow their searches even further. I also like the fact that you can see who is tracking the URL and then you can link to them. This is a real powerful social application.
Will you provide the option of a delicious tagging capability on each item returned by the search?
The discussion/comment area is an interesting touch. This type of aggregation could be very powerful by bringing the news/web to us and bringing the consumers of that content to us as well. Great job, Fred.
Fred
April 26, 2006 — 11:40 am
Hi Guys,
Sudar : you are right on everything, sort of Web 2.0 compliant… everything is created for community creation/interaction.
A lot of Ajax? I think so! For example, so far I have 3750 javascript lines of code only to manage the user interface (and much has to be developed). Everything is synchronized with the main server in real time, etc. So yeah, there are a lot of Ajax things in there 😉
Jeremiah: Do not worry, each “conversation page” have its own permalink and is linking to the “seed web page” that started the “conversation”. That way, this conversation page hosted on talkdigger.com will also enter into the conversation. It’s essential to the concept that each conversation page has its own permanent link.
For the comment system, I think and hope so too. That way, a TD user can “enter” the discussion only by leaving a comment on the conversation page. It’s the way I choose to let TD users entering the conversation.
David: “Will you provide the option of a delicious tagging capability on each item returned by the search?” I could, I didn’t thought about it, but it would only be a little add-on that I could easily implement.
I am happy to see that you like how the interface is developed. I only got good comments so far, but so much have to come in a near future!
I’ll get you in touch with everything!
Take care everybody,
Salutations,
Fred