esnippers' den

A week after launch - things are getting more and more interesting

It's been a week since the official launch and the reaction we've been getting from users is amazing. Tagging has quickly become an integral part of using eSnips; people are tagging their stuff and searching eSnips for content and people. Just within one week 40,000 items and more than 8,000 folders were tagged with nearly 14,000 different tags!

A lot of interesting public folders are being created too; eSnippers are publishing work documents, thoughts and ideas, home movies, music, promoting important causes and much more. Here are a few examples of very cool folders I found (this is just a sample, there are many many more!):
http://esnips.com/web/Tattoos
http://www.esnips.com/web/TuhilMarch2006
http://esnips.com/web/omri-levy---swim
http://esnips.com/web/CompraVenta
http://esnips.com/web/KidsElementsbydanny
http://esnips.com/web/NatureWallpapers

I also wanted to share with you an intriguing project we came across: Rob's Experiment. From Rob's blog:

"I am poor. I have very little money. But I'm not here to grovel. I'm here to prove a point. Or play a game. Either one, really."

Rob is trying to prove a very interesting point by rolling out an experiment (read all about it here) and he chose eSnips to help him with this task. Rob has a public folder on eSnips where everyone can go to view the evidence of his experiment and share their thoughts. I shouldn't tell you more about this project - you really must go and read about it.
Thanks, Rob, for choosing us and good luck with the experiment! I definitely plan to keep track.

And finally, eSnips was voted #1 on in the "Digital Storage and Remote Access" category of SEOmoz.org's Web 2.0 Awards. It's always nice to receive that kind of recognition.

More reviews of the new eSnips version

Here are additional reviews of the new eSnips version:
eSnips – Share ALL Your Content 

eSnips – Bookmarking and Media Sharing

Some interesting discussions are going on in these posts (and on Michael Arrington's post which I mentioned yesterday).

From one of the comments I particularly liked:

"I haven’t looked at eSnips for a few weeks so news of the re-release is great! It looks like they finally added the main feature that was missing that kept me from using this as my main service for archiving: tags. Yay for eSnips!

Their toolbar is also pretty awesome in that you can capture screenshots directly and even “fancy” non-rectangular shapes. That’s another feature I haven’t seen in other services."

Thanks, Lindsay, for the great feedback. I think the eSnips Uploader rocks too!

eSnips new version officially launched!

After all the hard work during the past few months, eSnips new version is now open for everyone.
I'd like to thank everyone who sent us requests to sign up during the private beta, and a special thanks to everyone who sent us feedback - it was extremely valuable and we were very happy to see how many of you liked the new version. Please continue to send us your thoughts and comments.
We also received great feedback from Michael Arrington of TechCrunch who reviewed the new version.

So what is new?
The first version of eSnips gave you freedom, flexibility and control over what you can share, who you share it with, and how you share it.
The new version lets you find relevant sites and likeminded people easily and will bring people to you who share your interests.
As promised, here are the main new features in this version:

• Tagging
  Tag all your folders and everything you upload (files, videos, pics, web snippets, etc.) and through these tags find related content and people who share your interests.
• Search eSnips by tag
  Search eSnips by tag right from your desktop and browser so you can easily find related content and people.
• Simple blogging
  Keep a blog in your folder and post about your latest thoughts and ideas.
• Folder rating
  Now everyone can rate your shared folders and tell you exactly what they think of them. But remember: you can rate their folders too…
• Featured Folders on Homepage
  The "Featured Folders" on the eSnips homepage is where we showcase interesting, outrageous and cool public folders. A great way to get exposure and meet people who share your passions! So you'd better start working on your collections and create mind blowing collections.
• RSS support
  Now eSnippers can subscribe to your public folders and keep up to date with the changes you make to them.
• Submission to del.icio.us, Digg and more
  Your public folders can now be submitted to del.icio.us, Digg, Blinklist and others so that everyone can enjoy them.
• The eSnips Uploader
  The new eSnips Uploader includes quick uploading from desktop and an easy-to-use toolbar for snipping content from the web. Once you start using it you won't understand how you ever managed without it.
• Enhanced user profile
  The new user profile allows you to give a more detailed description of yourself. Providing more information about yourself will help other people know who you are and what you are interested in.

So what makes eSnips unique?
That's an easy one.

• At eSnips the focus is on YOU and on what your sharing needs are.
• eSnips doesn't limit you to a certain type of content – you can share & publish anything. Not only pictures, not only links – ANYTHING.
• You can create as many personal or shared 'spaces' as you want – they are ALL in ONE place so you don't have to keep bouncing from one service to the next (we assume you like convenience).
• You control what you keep personal, what you share with a private group and what you make public (we assume you like flexibility too).
• eSnips is connected to your desktop – with the eSnips Uploader we made it easy for you to upload files, snip the web and search eSnips right from your desktop.

So what are you waiting for? Join, sign in, and start having fun on eSnips right now!

The new eSnips will launch March 21!

It's an exciting time. We’ve been working tirelessly on the new version and it's just about ready. The official public release of the new eSnips is scheduled for Tuesday next week (this is the current plan; we may push it by a day or two). Existing eSnips users (‘eSnippers’ from now on) may get access to the new service a couple of days earlier. 
Comments, suggestions and bug reports are welcome.

Expected downtime for upgrade
Unfortunately, we will not be able to avoid taking down the service for a few hours while upgrading our database. The downtime is scheduled for the end of this week and may take 3 hours (if all goes smoothly) up to one day (since these things never go smoothly). We'll do our best to keep it as short as possible and I will keep you posted as we move forward.

And what’s the highlight of the new version?  eSnips goes social!
What does "going social" mean? It means we’ve added lots of stuff that will make your esnips experience more dynamic, social and interactive. Plenty of cool new features are included in the new version; I will provide a detailed list next week.

Migration to new hosting facility completed

The transition to the new and improved hosting site was completed last week. All data and files were migrated to the new servers and no files should be missing from your account. Thanks again for all your patience and understanding. This was a crucial step towards our big release scheduled for later this month. I will tell you more about that soon (and even give you a sneak peak at the new product). Stay tuned.