The State of Streamified: Where we are & where we’re going

It’s been over a year since Zane released the Start Google Plus extension, back when Google+ was in its infancy. That original extension was originally intended to be a quick weekend project, but it instantly became much more. Start Google Plus became Streamified last fall, when Zane decided that it was time to deliver a more focused effort to developing for a combined social experience.

Now that we’ve released the latest update to our extension, we thought it’d be a good time to take a look at where we are. As you probably know, we spent most of the early summer working on a new API. This is the technology behind the new Streamified username, which lets you access all your streams and synced data by just entering and validating your username. Everything’s just as you last left it, even if you’re going back and forth from a mobile iOS device, your computer, or even a friend’s computer.

(Think about it — what if you’re with a friend and wanted to show them a post you recently bookmarked on Streamified? Just go to Streamified.me, log-in with your username, and go to your Bookmarks. The post is waiting for you.)

Wait, a minute — what’s Streamified.me, you’re asking? 

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Streamified browser extension updated: Usernames, better sharing, and more

Here at Streamified, we’ve been hard at work rolling out new changes. Today we’re excited to let you know that our browser extension has been updated for both Chrome and Firefox! If you were a previous user of the browser extension, you might want to try re-installing from those links above just to make sure everything’s all up to date.

While it was important to us that this update squash as many bugs as possible, what’s really exciting is that the extension now runs on our new API! By setting up and adding all of your streams to your Streamified username, your information now can go wherever you go.

By the way: you may already have a Streamified username if you’re an iOS user or if you’ve been testing out our Streamified.me web app. To log in with your username, double click on the Streamified icon in your toolbar; this will open up Streamified.me in your browser. Enter your username and validate it (so the server knows it’s you) by logging in to one of your social networks. Your streams should now be ready to go, so feel free to skip ahead to learning more about what’s new in the extension!

Here’s a quick guide to setting up your username:

  1. Click on the Streamified icon in your browser’s toolbar.
  2. You should be taken to Streamified.me, our web app. This works hand-in-hand with the extension to give it some additional power. Click to log in.
  3. Pick a username, then click to continue.
  4. Start the process of beefing up your username by adding your first stream. We don’t store any of your private log-in information, by the way.
  5. Repeat the process of adding until you’re all set.
  6. Go to Google+; after the extension loads in, you should see the Streamified icon instead of the Home icon in the leftside navigation menu. Mouseover it to make sure all your streams are where they’re supposed to be.
  7. If you want to use the Streamified browser extension on a different computer or browser, after installing it, just input your username and validate it by logging in to any of the streams you added to it.

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Streamified extension updated; Now on Firefox!

We released an exciting update to the Streamified browser extension today! The big news, of course, is that the extension is now available for Firefox users. Here’s how to get it:

  • If you’re a Firefox user, install the extension by clicking here!
  • If you’ve already been using the extension on Chrome, you can go to the extensions page and hit “Update extensions now.” Look for version 1.18.61. You may want to clear your browser’s cache and/or do a hard restart of your browser. If you’re still having trouble, click the install link and do a fresh install.
  • If you’re a new Chrome user user, install the extension by clicking here (same link as for Firefox)!

While this extension has all the same functionality of previous versions (check out our walkthrough and our “Get The Most Out Of…” series for some tips and tricks), we also added a new feature: a share box!

Before we continue, please note that if you don’t see the Streamified icon right away in Firefox, right-click the toolbar area and select “customize,” then manually drag the icon into the toolbar.

Now, clicking on the Streamified icon in your toolbar will open up a share box that will appear to the right within the page you’re viewing. (To get to the settings now, double-click on the Streamified icon, or click once to open the share box and then click on “Settings.”) The share box allows you to easily share an interesting webpage to your social networks. It should look pretty familiar to those who’ve already been using the extension in Chrome.

  1. You can edit the title and description of your share (for Twitter, the “description” text is what is shared, along with the URL of the page), and select if you want a thumbnail picture to represent the page.
  2. Select the network(s) you want to post to. Please note that right now, due to technical limitations, you can’t post to Google+ from the share box.
  3. Hit “Post”; the share box should close, and you should see black notifications appear in the upper right corner to let you know that the post was shared successfully.
  4. You can also Like, Tweet, or +1 the page from the share box.

We’re really excited about the extension release and hope you enjoy it! Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at our support site if you have any issues, since this is a new release. Our support site is located here and make sure to use the right area, Chrome or Firefox, that fits the browser you’re using.

Lastly, if you like our extension, share it with your friends!

SGPlus => Streamified

You may already know, especially if you’ve been reading our blog, that what started as a product called “Start Google Plus” is now evolving into something new. What was originally a simple browser extension to transfer photos from Facebook to Google+ quickly grew to a full-fledged service that combined multiple social networks into one simplified stream. This service ultimately became the intellectual predecessor of Streamified, the mobile application that allows you to pull from an expansive and ever-growing list of social networks, news sites, web comics, RSS feeds and many more.

During development of the iOS app, the existing SGPlus browser extension had to take a back seat, and was, unfortunately, neglected. But now that the iOS mobile app has been released, we are doubling our efforts to provide a complete solution for managing all of your social networks.

In order to bring the quality of the SGPlus browser extension up to par with the iOS mobile app, we’ve been hard at work to create a complete reworking of the SGPlus browser extension. This update will also come with a name change, and upon its release you will notice that we are rechristening the extension Streamified, just like its iOS cousin. The browser extension and the mobile application were created with the same intent and goal: to create a seamless social experience that combines all of your streams and postings into a single location. It is our hope that aligning the two products in this way will make that clear.

Of course, there will be a few differences. Mobile applications and web browsers are two separate beasts, and we’re doing our best to design a Streamified experience that suits their strengths. On the mobile platform, of course, this meant creating an entirely new app that shows a collection of “streams” and has buttons to compose, share a link, save a website to read later, etc.

In the browser extension, as before, you’ll still see your other social network streams inserted into your Google+ streams, and you’ll still be able to cross-post from Google+ to other networks. What’s new is that in addition to the networks that SGPlus currently supports (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter), you’ll have access to all the Streamified networks, such as Google Reader, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit and many, many more.

Over time, we plan to improve the ways in which this new Start Google Plus Streamified browser extension update integrates with your browser. What if, for example, you could see your other network streams (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) from within your Facebook feed, as well? What if sharing any page that you are on were as simple as pressing a button and selecting the networks?

The possibilities are endless, and we’re really excited to see what the future holds for Streamified on the browser! If you have any questions, suggestions, complaints or praises, please let us know on our support page.

This post was co-written by Zane Claes, founder and programmer, and Jon Hughes, senior front-end web developer, from Streamified. They can be reached at Zane@streamified.com and Jon@streamified.com, respectively.