The version that was almost a year in the making is finally released!

IOSurf version 3.0 is a complete rewrite of the IOSurf social browsing plugin.  3.0 was redesigned from the ground up to bring a fully functioning virtual presence system to life.

Changes

• The sidebar has been removed and replaced completely with the toolbar. In version 2.0, the sidebar was constantly getting in the way of regular browsing and was detracting from the experience of using the web. IOSurf 3.0 is dramatically more useful.

• IOSurf is available for Firefox! This one had been in the works for a while. All of my friends on Macs and Linux were very upset at my choice to make IOSurf Internet Explorer only meaning Windows only. Well, IOSurf, starting with 3.0 is now a Firefox addon. The IE version will be available in the coming months, but I’d like to get the feature set a little more defined before building it.

• IOSurf has moved from a synchronous to an asynchronous History Cache. This is really big. One of the biggest problems that systems like IOSurf, Weezu, and Me.dium had is that it is just too difficult to get 2 people to be at the exact same website at the exact same time. I know, I watched users miss each other on google by one or two minutes, and that’s when I realized that for this social web browsing/virtual presence type of idea to work, it couldn’t be synchronous. So now, if you go to a website, it stores that website in your History Cache for 14 days. And anyone else who goes to the website within 14 days, can see that you were there, and shoot you a message.

• The History Cache is editable. One question I was asked was how do I know what websites people can see me at? Just click on the History button and you’ll see exactly where people can find you. Didn’t mean to go to “that sketchy” website, delete it. Don’t want people contacting you from “that lame” website, delete it. You have the power! Control people’s perception of you online.

• New Features. The Popular button, better comments, better profiles, etc. There are plenty of new features to play around with, let me know which are your favorite ones!

IOSurf 3.0 is a ground breaking attempt at an online virtual presence system. If you’ve been with us from the beginning or are hearing about us for the first time, now is the perfect time to join IOSurf.

Thanks to everyone who helped in the release of IOSurf 3.0!

John

I’d like to comment on something I read about on Virtual Presence.

That website, which I think has the most insight into what IOSurf and other social browsers are trying to accomplish, gave a great overview of what it expects to see in the “layered virtual world” space or “social web browsing” space or whatever we’d like to call it over the next 2 years.

If you haven’t read the article, click here.

Although I hope the large companies don’t enter the space for a little while because it would crush us smaller companies, as a user and a futurist, I am excited about what can be accomplished by using these virtual worlds.

So, I’d like to give you a vision of what I’d like to see in the virtual world/social browsing/layered world space in the next 2 years.

1. The web is the virtual world.  Instead of owning a virtual shop in a 3d world, just go to Amazon.com.  Instead of seeing who goes to the virtual forest, why not see who else likes to go to real forests in the US by going to nps.gov.  And instead of having to go to facebook.com, all your friends and people you don’t know can go with you to any webpage.

2. No overlays, or sidebars in the browser.  Although I think the overlays and sidebars look cool, I found myself constantly closing them when I was doing my normal surfing.

IOSurf 3.0 has removed the sidebar, and is now completely usable from the toolbar.

3.  This layered world should not be a game.  This virtual world is about meeting people on the web as easily as you would meet people in real life.  If you go to a coffee shop in the real world you meet coffee drinkers.  If you go to digg.com, you meet other techies.  It’s just that simple.

As not just a developer but also someone who believes in the future and technology, I’m incredibly excited to see what can be done with these virtual worlds.  The creation of a true virtual presence on the web is now the singular focus of IOSurf and what I hope to accomplish with IOSurf 3.0.

As part of the Version 3.0 rollout, IOSurf is going to be available for Firefox.

IOSurf originally was trying to position itself as the only plugin that was doing this browser chat kind of thing for Internet Explorer. Of course, that was 2 years ago, and since then Weezu came out, Me.dium came out, and I’m sure some other plugins I’m not aware of have come out for IE.

Since IOSurf 3.0 is a major rewrite and is getting back to the core of what social web browsing/browser chatting should be, it only made sense to make this new version available to Firefox users from the very beginning.

I’ll upload some screenshots as the release date gets closer.

3.0 is coming!

IOSurf 3.0 is coming.

This is what IOSurf was supposed to be. It just took 2 poor/basic versions to get to it.

I’m not going to write about how the features, functionality, etc. have changed until closer to the release date because I don’t want anyone copying them until it’s out, but I just wanted my readers and the current users of IOSurf to know, 3.0 is coming.

If you’re interested in Beta Testing 3.0, shoot me an email or a message on iosurf.

John

Hey everyone,

I had to make registration required for comments on the blog.

I mean seriously, does anyone think that blog spam really gets traffic to their site?

I just spent 1 hour removing comments about viagra, etc.

Just register, and I’ll approve you soon to make a comment.

Hardping Pro was finally released last evening.

It is the shareware/commercial version of the hardping freeware software.

It retails for 24.95.

For those of you who have never had to “Price” a product, it’s difficult. Too low and people think it’s junk and you can’t sustain the product. Too high and no one will purchase it.

24.95 felt like the sweet spot and with recent sales, I think it was right.

Thanks to everyone for the support they’ve given the company.

John

Just wanted to let everyone know, within 2 weeks, Hardping has been download 1,500 times.  It’s a great milestone for us at IO3O.
Because of the success, the plan is to create a shareware version called Hardping Pro which has more options and features.

The expected retail price is US$24.95 for the initial command line version.

Thanks to everyone for their encouragement.

John

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that in the last 6 days, there have been over 735 downloads of hardping.

Averaging between 100 and 200 per day.

In contrast, IOSurf when it was released was downloaded on average 10 times per day.  So, it’s looking good.

I’ll keep you posted.

So with the release of Hardping, I’d like to go through the steps that were taken to do it’s initial release.

1.  Placed a simple link and review on digg.

- Appears to have been removed though.  That’s possibly a new policy.

2.  Uploaded hardping 1.0 to upload.com -

that’s where you upload files to appear on download.com, I used the free version, so it should appear on download.com, cnet.com, etc. within about 2 weeks.

3.  put it on the Association of Shareware Professionals PAD repository

-this is where a lot of freeware and shareware websites get their software.

4.  downloaded robosoft, autosubmitted to about 400 sites.

- If you write software to be downloaded off of the internet, and you’ve never heard of Robosoft by Rudenko, you’re missing out.  Check it out here http://rudenko.com/robosoft/

Each File Submission used to take me about 10 minutes.  Which doesn’t sound bad until you realize that to do 50 sites took me 500 minutes or about 8 hours.  With Robosoft, I started it, let it run all day, and when I came back at night, did maybe 20 minutes of maintenance, and Hardping had been submitted to 400 download sites.

5.  Intangibles

-Hardping started off with the need first, and not just what I wanted to build.  The need - IT and System Admins need to know if computers on their network are up even if they have Windows Firewall turned on

-Website was designed to get the point across quickly, even if it is ugly

-Promotion began the day after 1.0 was released, no waiting for 1 week and deciding whether or not to upload it to a specific shareware place or which blogger to contact.  Get it out there fast!

Reminder to myself - If you build it, they won’t come.  Promote! Promote! Promote!

As an update to the Hardping v1.0 release info, I’d like to tell you how it’s going 4 days later.

After putting up a website, submitting hardping to download sites, and writing some articles about it, I’ve had 54 downloads of Hardping since it went live.

I plan on following this same strategy when IOSurf v3.0 is ready to go live on the Internet as well.

Thanks to all of the supporters out there!

John