It’s here: Brightkite 2.0!
Today we’re excited to announce the shiny new Brightkite. First off we want to apologize for downtime associated with this update, there were some major changes under the hood that required us to be offline, this won’t happen with subsequent releases. Thank you for your patience.
So, it’s been months in the making, we’ve had countless bleary-eyed nights, but Brightkite 2.0 is now here. Brightkite’s design and technology have been re-built and re-envisioned, practically from the ground up. We have a vision for the future, and 2.0 is the beginning and foundation to get us there. The next chapter in Brightkite will be an exciting one and we need your help. Give us your suggestions, tell us your pain points (we do listen), and together we will continue to build awesome things.
In addition to the unseen upgrades under the hood, 2.0 includes many new features that you can see. Here’s some of what’s new:
Pick Your Friends, Gain Your Fans
Since one of our goals is to enable face-time over screen-time, we’ve redesigned Brightkite friendships to resemble those in the real-world. In 2.0 people can “subscribe” to your public posts by becoming a fan, but only you decide who’s a friend. Just like the real world, friends may see posts that fans can’t and can have privileges that fans don’t. This new asymmetrical model takes the pressure off of having to accept friend requests from people who are not really friends.
Privacy Settings for the Real World
We’ve redesigned the sharing options for simple yet powerful privacy. With one click you can share with friends and/or everyone. Additionally, we’ve added the ability to share with Twitter & Facebook on an individual post basis, and the capability to post with no location at all.
Streams to Order
We’ve redesigned streams for the ultimate exploring experience. We’ve added filters and search boxes that allow customization of the people, locations, and type of posts you want to see, all on the fly. Take for example: Martinis in San Francisco, Food in Japan or Unicorns Everywhere.
Stats
Stats are the beginning of wave of neat features we have planned around places and profiles. At a glance you can see number of views on your posts, popularity of a given post, visitors to a place, etc…
PlaceSnapping™ Enhancements
PlaceSnapping™, a favorite feature you’re all familiar with from v1, is now much more place-snappier. We’ve enhanced the underlying technology and are actively tweaking it to match the places you go. The more you use it the better it gets, reducing the time it takes to make a post, allowing more fun with your friends rather than your handset.
2.0 iPhone App, awaiting approval from Apple
The app has been submitted and is waiting approval. It’s in Apple’s hands now but in the meantime we’ve posted some screenshots. The app should appear within a week or two but anything changes, we will let you know.
Below is a list of other notable features and improvements in 2.0. Better yet, discover them for yourself.
Notable 2.0 improvements:
- Live stream updates
- Updated Public API
- Ability to rate posts (thumbs up/thumbs down)
- Favorite Places (used to be Placemarks)
- New user and place statistics
- Updated mobile site: m.brightkite.com
- Persistent location bar
- Improved posting flow
- New UI design
- Improved scalability
- Various SMS improvements
- AJAX improvements
- Bunches and bunches o’ other fixes
Posted by Brady Becker at 7:06 AM in Product 46 comments
Excellent update!
Many of us are angry/disappointed/frustrated with the fact that all our previously private posts are now public. The minor bugs are one thing, but the privacy issue is absolutely NOT a minor bug. And for many people, the damage has already been done.
This isn't a bug by any stretch of the definition. It is a design flaw. BrightKite changed the privacy model drastically and did not take the time and effort to properly reconcile the systems before going live. It's a mistake that will cost them a LOT of users, and a lot of the trust so many of us have put in them, but I'm glad they've put a tourniquet on the problem and hope they can resolve the issue, even if it takes a little time.
The number one thing I enjoyed about BK was the ability to share my message or photo with the world and use the privacy settings to control how accurate of a location the viewer could see. That was beautiful, genius even. Now I have to share exact location or no message at all? To me (and to many others) the location was more important privacy-wise than the content of the message, and the new BK does not reflect this at all. I'm disappointed.
I agree with jomichele on that one. That ABSOLUTELY should have been warned about prior. Lost a friend over this already this morning. NOT a minor bug at all.
In agreement here. Privacy is a big issue. I was surprised to log in this morning and find this out.
I’m with Jomichele & Robyn regarding the privacy glitch. This is NOT a minor problem. I’m guessing BK is going to re-privatize old private posts, but I’d like to hear BK’s confirmation of that.
Would like to see the old privacy rules back!!! and a bigger posting window, so you can poof your post better.
Hi guys,
We sincerely apologize about the privacy glitch, we are working hard to fix that right now.
Is it offline to fix this privacy glitch? What the hell happened?
Thanks for the acknowledgement on the privacy issue, please send out some sort of announcement when it is fixed. Also PLEASE let the comment field expand as we type! We get 1000 characters and cannot see what we wrote till it's posted, then cant correct anything right now
Bleedin hell is it down again?
DOAH!!!!!
We'll be fixing issues as they arise all day. Growing pains!!
maybe a little beta testing would have helped to iron out these bugs…
They just went offline to fix this "glitch" but it was up the majority of the morning despite the fact we notified them of the problem and that there is some discussion that they new about it before the ever even went live.
Agreed!
Has it done harm?
The proverbial shit did hit the fan for some users and others just totally deleted their accounts.
data that had been posted private for trusted friends only (including exact places like home addresses) were suddenly publicly available, so yes it has done harm.
So offline all day then?
privacy issues? This is the first I've heard of it. Are you telling me that all my previously private posts are now public?
In which case I'm really glad it's offline, and I think I'll be erasing my membership when it comes back up. That's a horrendous thing to do.
Am also v concerned about the changes to the friend model – it appears to me that it's no longer possible to be private if ppl can follow you without consent, can you confirm or deny this?
i believe you can prevent people from following you, i dont remember how though because i only had access for about 3 hours.
i'm switching back to Loopt. This is ridiculous.
Growing pains are duh painful. I for one love @Brightkite and plan to remain loyal even through their problems. Social media is about dialogue with your customers. People spoke and they listened. I'll be looking to see if they put our concerns in front of their own. That is how they will exceed my expectations.
Oooo my …. Heads spinning
going through withdrawls @gregz ??? i know I am ….
I'm missing you @Gregz but then I'm missing brightkite and everyone. But of course you most of all.
There is a Block feature in BK2.0 just like the prior version.
I didn't have access long enough to work it all out and it's not clear to me whether you even know that ppl are fans/ following you.
Yes, you get a notification each time a user "follows" you. You can choose to follow them back, at which point they are your friend, let them follow you and they are a "fan", or block them.
hear , hear !!
From: sprouticus
Subject: SMS messages and notification settings
Sorry about that guys. There are still a few bugs with SMS, so we have disabled it for now. It may not be back when the site comes back online, but we're working hard to fix it as soon as we can.
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Let's hope they get it all back up and runnign soon !!
How about an application for the Palm Pre?
Follow @parafoil on twitter.
Sounds like a privacy model similar to Plurk, but that UI can be dizzying!
This looks great, can't wait till you have the site back up.
true funny privacy
Thank you for this information.