qubox blog

RSS feeds on qubox.com

In a previous blog entry I hinted at a new feature that we snuck in a few weeks ago: RSS feeds.  With our beta launch just around the corner I wanted to highlight how they work - they are a great way to keep up with new things on qubox.com.

If you are RSS-aware you may have spotted the feeds already.  If you have RSS myopia (like me! I had to have David, our development team leader, explain this very patiently to me...) then here's how to find them.

1. First off log in to qubox.com and go to someone's profile page (for example http://www.qubox.com/me/john).  Or go to your own profile page if you prefer.  It's important that you are viewing a profile page, as that's the only place we link to the RSS feeds at the moment.
2. Your web browser should automatically discover several RSS feeds.  The way this works (this is where RSS myopia may strike...) depends on your browser.  In Internet Explorer 7 the "View feeds on this page (Alt-J)" icon lights up on the toolbar.  In Firefox it's a "Subscribe to this page..." link at the right of the location bar.  In both cases you'll see the orange RSS icon.  (If you are a Safari user you are on your own here.  If you work it out, let me know!)
3. Pick a feed you like the look of and you are away.

The feeds we offer at the moment include:

• new people registered, by qubox - so for instance I can keep an eye on "new people who are likeminded about Love"
• new bookmarks and other links - so I can see new links that like-minded qubox users have chosen to share

Note that the feed looks at like-mindedness with the person whose profile you are viewing when you get the feed.  So if you view my profile page at http://www.qubox.com/me/john and grab an RSS feed from there, you'll get updates about people who think like ME, not people who think like YOU!  That might be interesting for you, but most of the time you'll want information about people who think like you - so go to your own profile page and grab the RSS feeds from there.

We'll be adding more RSS functionality to qubox.com in the future but we think this is a good start and a great way to see new like-minded people as they arrive.

Coming soon - the official qubox.com beta!

If you've been visiting qubox.com for a while you'll have seen a few new things in our alpha version.  For example, we've added a messaging function so people can make contact with like-minded people via qubox.  We also have two more quboxes under development (Music and Sports).  And we've sneaked out a few other features such as RSS feeds (I'll blog about those soon!).

We're pleased with the way things are going and the feedback we're getting from users of the alpha version.  So we think we're almost ready to move to the next phase and launch an official beta.

There are lots of small jobs still to do ahead of the beta and one big task: we are updating the whole look-and-feel and graphical layout of the site.  The logo and styles we've used for the alpha are OK, but we want to have something more polished and easier to use for our beta launch.

We've been working on the graphical design for a few weeks and I've just seen some near-final layouts from our design team - we think they look great!  I'll be posting a sneak preview here in the next couple of days.

Check out this blog for more details on our progress towards the beta launch!  As always, we'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions.