That's right, today is my last day at AOL. The grind is coming to a halt.
I'll make this brief.
Thank you J-land for reading and listening. It's been an amazing experience. I am not sure I will ever be able to be a product "owner" that blogs with such a captive and engaging audience. I will still be lurking around J-land "halls" and reading your wonderful journals.
Thank you all at AOL for giving me the opportunities.
This journal was always intended to be AOL and AOL Journals focused so this will be my last posting here.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Monday, August 21, 2006
Happy Birthday AOL Journals
Journals development team (old & new). UI & Project Management. Some of the folks in this picture were on the original team!! The QA team was in another meeting. I'll try to get them in a photo as well.
*******UPDATE**************
Left to Right (standing): Joseph, Holly, Vish, Malika, Bruce, Eric, Carles, John
Kneeling: Kai, Yoel
Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Anniversary
AOL Journals: Three Years!
Happy Birthday AOL Journals and the J-Land Community
Here are few links to entries and a journal dedicated to this day.
Celebrate the AOL Journals Three Year Anniversary With a Tasty Snack
Three Years!
3rd Anniversary AOL Journals
Tags: AOL Journals, AOL Journals Anniversary
Friday, August 11, 2006
AOL Pictures Gallery Beta
Our friends at AOL Pictures just launched, to beta, a public picture
gallery. I don't see this as us taking on Flickr or the next Flickr
killer. There can be a coexistence of like products. AOL has
millions (if not more, I don't know the exact number) of photos on AOL Pictures, opening the doors for the
public to view (the ones we choose to make public) them is in line with
our strategy.
Check out my public picutres: http://pictures-beta.aol.com/galleries/yoelcrane
Leave comments for the pictures team on their journal: http://journals.aol.com/aolpictures/AOLPictures/entries/2006/08/10/try-it-out/1319
Check out my public picutres: http://pictures-beta.aol.com/galleries/yoelcrane
Leave comments for the pictures team on their journal: http://journals.aol.com/aolpictures/AOLPictures/entries/2006/08/10/try-it-out/1319
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
Release 6
We're getting ready to wrap up release 6. It's a little later than expected and not everything we planned on delivering.
Here's what we have on tap:
Improved Search - search your journal or all journals
Lots of support for 3rd party sites - details to come
AIM support in all INTL locales (AIM users can now create Journals)
Ads for all INTL locales
Improvements for Search Engines (we're helping Google find your Journal)
Additions to the allowed HTML list
Coming to Beta only:
Mobile blogging
Tagging for IE browsers
Signup for an alert to find out when we make all this is available.
Here's what we have on tap:
Improved Search - search your journal or all journals
Lots of support for 3rd party sites - details to come
AIM support in all INTL locales (AIM users can now create Journals)
Ads for all INTL locales
Improvements for Search Engines (we're helping Google find your Journal)
Additions to the allowed HTML list
Coming to Beta only:
Mobile blogging
Tagging for IE browsers
Signup for an alert to find out when we make all this is available.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Uncut Video
I uploaded a video of Fae to the latest beta release from AOL, UnCut Video.
This is really cool stuff and only going to get cooler for the J-Land
Community. The Uncut Video team has enabled the "blog this"
functionality on every video page, giving you all a chance to blog
about videos.
Fae
For now there's a link to play the video in the Uncut Video site, but we'll have the playback embedded in the entry in the near future. Think Video Blogging, Vlogging, Vidblogging, or whatever you call it.
Fae
For now there's a link to play the video in the Uncut Video site, but we'll have the playback embedded in the entry in the near future. Think Video Blogging, Vlogging, Vidblogging, or whatever you call it.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
About Ads
As part of the r6 rollout Banner
ads will be added to all INTL versions of AOL
Journals. These are the Journals hosted
on:
journals.aol.ca - Canada
journals.aol.co.uk - UK
blogs.aol.fr - France
tagebuch.aol.de - Germany
diarios.aol.com - Mexico
The ads will be the same style (728x90 banner ads) currently seen in the US version. The disclaimer below the ads will be localized for each country, i.e.
"L'emplacement publicitaire n'est pas contrôlé par l'auteur du blog."
"Werbung in Blogs stammt nicht von Blog-Autoren"
The other major addition to the International version of AOL Journals is that AIM account holders will now be able to create a journal in their respective country domain (as listed above). We'll also add a new locale for the AOL Latino brand, Ads will be there too.
So...Why? Why would we do this again and not learn from the folks that left in Nov. '05. Well the answer is simple, the businesses are different. The folks up north and in Europe run their own business and make these calls. We've shared all of our lessons learned and have given them plenty of advice to help them make their decisions.
Your feedback is needed!
Please put your feedback in the comments section and a link to your journal.
*************UPDATE June 12th 2006******************
No ADS on UK, FR, and DE. Canada, Mexico, and Latino will have ads until further notice.
journals.aol.ca - Canada
journals.aol.co.uk - UK
blogs.aol.fr - France
tagebuch.aol.de - Germany
diarios.aol.com - Mexico
The ads will be the same style (728x90 banner ads) currently seen in the US version. The disclaimer below the ads will be localized for each country, i.e.
"L'emplacement publicitaire n'est pas contrôlé par l'auteur du blog."
"Werbung in Blogs stammt nicht von Blog-Autoren"
The other major addition to the International version of AOL Journals is that AIM account holders will now be able to create a journal in their respective country domain (as listed above). We'll also add a new locale for the AOL Latino brand, Ads will be there too.
So...Why? Why would we do this again and not learn from the folks that left in Nov. '05. Well the answer is simple, the businesses are different. The folks up north and in Europe run their own business and make these calls. We've shared all of our lessons learned and have given them plenty of advice to help them make their decisions.
Your feedback is needed!
Please put your feedback in the comments section and a link to your journal.
*************UPDATE June 12th 2006******************
No ADS on UK, FR, and DE. Canada, Mexico, and Latino will have ads until further notice.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Adding your Journal to aimpages
Wondering
how to add your Journal to your Aimpages profile so that the headlines
of your Journal entries show up in your
profile?
http://www.aimpages.com/yoelcrane/profile.html
Here's how to do it.
1. Go to your Journal and click on the little orange feed icon.
2. Click on the little arrow/twisty to "get the feed manually"
3. Click on the Atom url and hit the CTRL & C keys at the same time.
4. Login to your aimpage and go to "Edit" mode
5. Choose "Add Modules"
6. Select the the "Under Construction" Gallery
****Update**** It's now in the OTHER gallery
7. Choose the "Feeds" module - (my other project :-) ) and drag it to your aimspace profile page.
8. Edit the module and add your "feed url" to the "Add your own feed url"
9. Click Publish to save your changes, and you should see your latest blog entries show up in your AIM Pages profile.
And there you go.
http://www.aimpages.com/yoelcrane/profile.html
Here's how to do it.
1. Go to your Journal and click on the little orange feed icon.
2. Click on the little arrow/twisty to "get the feed manually"
3. Click on the Atom url and hit the CTRL & C keys at the same time.
4. Login to your aimpage and go to "Edit" mode
5. Choose "Add Modules"
6. Select the the "Under Construction" Gallery
****Update**** It's now in the OTHER gallery
7. Choose the "Feeds" module - (my other project :-) ) and drag it to your aimspace profile page.
8. Edit the module and add your "feed url" to the "Add your own feed url"
9. Click Publish to save your changes, and you should see your latest blog entries show up in your AIM Pages profile.
And there you go.
Happy Bike to Work Day!
Today is Bike to Work Day for the entire Bay Area.
Bike to Work Day : "Ditch your car! Skip the bus! Hop on a bike and go! The biggest day for biking in the Bay Area is just around the corner. Join thousands of bikers as we cruise, sprint, and roll into work on Thursday, May 18th! There's never been a better day to celebrate your right to ride.
Why bike to work on May 18th? Energizer Stations Volunteers will cheer you on at 24 Energizer Stations around San Francisco! Stop by one of the stations to load up on free coffee, snacks, and convenient tote bags for future commutes. We'll also be passing out info about how you can get involved in making San Francisco a better bicycling city. You'll be in good company You'll be joining bike commuters new and old in making a statement about the importance of supporting the two wheeled way. Join our mayor, supervisors, and thousands of San Franciscans in moving proof that bicycling is a viable form of transportation in this city. It feels good!"
They failed to mention that you can save money on gas ;-)
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
OpenAIM in gaming software
Doppelganger
and Open AIM :
One of our resident AIM team blogger was at E3 last week. He came across a virtual lounge product, developed by an SF Startup called Doppelganger, that integrated AIM for the end users to talk to one another. Pretty cool.
He also was there to announce a partnership with Super Computer International that brings AIM to PlayLinc, a gaming platform mostly for Verizon.
One of our resident AIM team blogger was at E3 last week. He came across a virtual lounge product, developed by an SF Startup called Doppelganger, that integrated AIM for the end users to talk to one another. Pretty cool.
He also was there to announce a partnership with Super Computer International that brings AIM to PlayLinc, a gaming platform mostly for Verizon.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
The AOL Greenhouse
There's more! We also launched the AOL Greenhouse. That's where we cultivate new products and ideas and get your input. I really like the AOL Mountain View Fishcam
Go check it out, http://greenhouse.aol.com/
Go check it out, http://greenhouse.aol.com/
Aimpages
Aimpages is LIVE. Check it out and create a profile!
http://start.aimpages.com/
Check out mine while you're browsing around, http://www.aimpages.com/yoelcrane/profile.html
Friday, May 5, 2006
What happens to the hats?
Here's an interesting story about the what happens to the hats the rain down onto the ice after a San Jose Sharks player scores a hat trick.
MercuryNews.com | 05/05/2006 | Cassidy: What happens to the hats?
MercuryNews.com | 05/05/2006 | Cassidy: What happens to the hats?
U.S. Will Be Only Squad Without Flag on Team Bus
Little soccer news for you today.
AOL News - U.S. Will Be Only Squad Without Flag on Team Bus
Citing security concerns the US Men's National Soccer Team has decided not to have a flag on their bus.
"The other 31 buses all have large national flags of the their teams painted on rear sides, except for the vehicle to be used by the American team."
OK, good one.
AOL News - U.S. Will Be Only Squad Without Flag on Team Bus
Citing security concerns the US Men's National Soccer Team has decided not to have a flag on their bus.
"The other 31 buses all have large national flags of the their teams painted on rear sides, except for the vehicle to be used by the American team."
OK, good one.
Friday, April 28, 2006
AOL in the news
My obligatory
weekly posting. Not much to say about the development effort as we are hard at work to deliver some features by the end of May. I wanted to share some news clippings and info about AOL this week. Here ya go:
AOL loses and wins in first WWW Dodgeball Tourney - we're looking into doing this in Mountain View (Google HQ is 2 miles away, Yahoo HQ is 3 miles, and MS - Silicon Valley is 2 miles)
AOL Mountain View hosts Dojo Developer Day - May 13th (http://dojotoolkit.org/)
AOL sponsors The Human Race of Silicon Valley
AOL launches bloggingstocks.com
AOL loses and wins in first WWW Dodgeball Tourney - we're looking into doing this in Mountain View (Google HQ is 2 miles away, Yahoo HQ is 3 miles, and MS - Silicon Valley is 2 miles)
AOL Mountain View hosts Dojo Developer Day - May 13th (http://dojotoolkit.org/)
AOL sponsors The Human Race of Silicon Valley
AOL launches bloggingstocks.com
Friday, April 21, 2006
Have you tried to add a Poll?
****Update***** 4/25
The redirect that lands people on the poll instead of the journal is fixed. Please let us know if you are still seeing problems.
What's coming in Release 6
The Journals team has officially kicked off release 6 work. We're shooting to deliver all of these cool new features/improvments in late may. Susan and Joe will go into more detail on these as we get closer to delivering them.
Planned for Release 6
Mobile Blogging - send a picture, video, and text to your Journal from a mobile device
Improved AOL Pictures integration - an improved picker and viewer (like flickr slideshows )
Improved Journals Search - you'll be able to search an individual journal or all journals
Minor Layout tweaks to support search(as we get ready for improved themes and settings)
More 3rd Party supported sites (details to come)
Tagging beta for IE
Things that may get in (but no promises)
Custom moods - choose from a list or write your own :-)
Improved Polls integration - have you checked out the beta?
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
AOL Mountain View Podcasts
The AOL Mountain View design team, the team that Holly is on, have been recording and publishing podcasts since the beginning of the year. Check it out at
http://www.podcast.net/show/2658
Or on iTunes
Here's the feed URL.
http://aolmountainview.com/podcast/aol.xml
http://www.podcast.net/show/2658
Or on iTunes
Here's the feed URL.
http://aolmountainview.com/podcast/aol.xml
r5 is live & the comments feed
Hi everyone, sorry for the long delay in posting. I've made a promise
to myself to try and post at least 1 entry per week. We'll see how I
do. ;-)
As Joe, Susan, and John have mentioned already release 5 is live. A big congratualations to the development and qa teams for working so hard to get this release out the door on time. This is our 3rd release in our new "Agile" development process. For those counting, we've released new features 3 times in little over 4 months. That's huge by AOL standards, but I think we'll see teams pick up on this kind of process in the near future.
FYI - We've also fixed the Canada locale as a few minutes ago.
As for r5, I really like the public list page and I hope you all do too. I also would like to mention another little addition that was over looked. We've added a comment feed for entries. For instance:
When looking at the source of Joe's last posting, http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/1283
You will see the link tag for the comment feed
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Comments feed" href="http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/1283/atom.xml">
If you're using Firefox you can see the option to subscribe to the "comments feed". You can use an feed reader, like MyAOL, to read the feeds by adding the permalink, http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/1283, to the entry.
We're working on an update to the "subscribe" window so that the comment feed is available in there as well.
As Joe, Susan, and John have mentioned already release 5 is live. A big congratualations to the development and qa teams for working so hard to get this release out the door on time. This is our 3rd release in our new "Agile" development process. For those counting, we've released new features 3 times in little over 4 months. That's huge by AOL standards, but I think we'll see teams pick up on this kind of process in the near future.
FYI - We've also fixed the Canada locale as a few minutes ago.
As for r5, I really like the public list page and I hope you all do too. I also would like to mention another little addition that was over looked. We've added a comment feed for entries. For instance:
When looking at the source of Joe's last posting, http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/1283
You will see the link tag for the comment feed
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Comments feed" href="http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/1283/atom.xml">
If you're using Firefox you can see the option to subscribe to the "comments feed". You can use an feed reader, like MyAOL, to read the feeds by adding the permalink, http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/1283, to the entry.
We're working on an update to the "subscribe" window so that the comment feed is available in there as well.
Thursday, February 2, 2006
Cake, too late!
I got a call from a friend an hour before cake, the band, was supposed
to start. He had an extra ticket. The wife and baby said I could go!
Woo Hoo. I got there in time to meet in front of the venue and catch
the first act, good thing the show was in the city where I live.
I last saw cake in concert in 1998 in NYC, great show. This time I was
a little dissappointed because they didn't come on till almost 11pm. On
a Friday or Saturday night I would expect that, not on a Wednesday. I
left before their encore.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
The Feed Icon
This was designed by someone over at the Mozilla foundation. It's used to signify to a user, using Firefox, that the site they are viewing has a feed availalable.
Currently there is no set standard as various sites like CNN, BBC, etc use a "RSS" or "XML" button. Both of these acronyms make no sense to the avg. user, in fact some tests have show that the "RSS" button can be mistaken for "R55" if it's small enough. Talk about confusing the user!
Matt Brett, a designer, has created a site called feed icons
***********************Update on 1/27/06*******************
Let's see, I had to stop typing to take care of my daughter and then work got in the way.
I'm back now to finish the thought (can't wait to have "draft" posts in Journals)
So Microsoft was toying with the idea of their own "feed" icon and finally came to the conclusion that Mozilla had it right.
I think you'll start to see this icon on more and more websites once IE7 comes out.
What do you think of this icon? Does it make sense to you? Do you know what feeds are? Tell me what you think.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
AOL- Mountain View
Here's a picture of the main entrance to the AOL Mountain View building. There's a really cool reflection of the clouds in the glass.
Greg from the AIM team came out for a visit last week to talk about the api's that the AIM is publishing.
Busy Busy
First off, happy new year to everyone. It's been a while since I
posted. What can I say but I have been very busy. For one, we
were working on getting release 3 out the door in early January.
Secondly, I was assigned to my 3rd project to manage which makes for a
lot of work on my plate.
This 3rd project fits in nicely with my 2nd project, which is the Feeds and Favorites Platform. I've blogged about some of the products associated with that project and more will be posted on the product blog.
This 3rd project fits in nicely with my 2nd project, which is the Feeds and Favorites Platform. I've blogged about some of the products associated with that project and more will be posted on the product blog.
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