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Category Archives: CircleMe Features

‘The chicken or the egg’ dilemma solved!

Posted on April 1, 2013 by CircleMe Team

At CircleMe, we have made the concept of “continuous innovation” our mantra and our driver each day. In order to innovate, we need to be ready to transform and revolutionize what we have done so far. To transform though, it is important to understand where we are coming from, and where we are going… and so, the resolution of “the chicken and the egg” dilemma becomes crucial to our day-to-day business. Today, we believe we have solved this dilemma!

Even though we continue to pursue great new partnerships with content and service providers, which enable our users to enjoy their passions more, we knew this was not enought. While we consistently improve our algorithms for taste-graph analysis and recommendation, we just thought you deserved more!

For this reason, today we are releasing a very special feature which we internally call “CEDG” or “Chicken-Egg Dilemma Solver” (it is a technical term – please write to us at support@circleme.com if you’d like to know more about the detailed explanation of this complex term). Due to the incredible impact it will probably have on all our user base, the overall Internet community and (most likely) the entire human race, we have decided to activate this feature just for a day, starting now. We realize that an abuse of such ‘awesomeness’ could really be too disruptive for the rest of the Internet players and population, hence for this reason we are limiting its fruition to the next 24 hours. I am sure our competitors will be very thankful for our decision. (And we respond: “You’re welcome! ;-D” )

We know, we know. Once you will see it you will be asking yourself how were we able to come up with such intuition, and then develop it only in a few months. You will wonder who is the genius behind all of this, and how come never anyone had thought about this problem’s resolution in such terms. But hey, what can we say? That’s what true innovation and disruption is all about, and why you have the CircleMe team work on tough stuff like this.

Alright: ready for the CircleMe revolutionary feature? If you say so, well… take a deep breath and log-in now. Amazingly enough, the chicken and egg dilemma will fade away in seconds as the solution is hatched in front of you.

And sure thing… you’re welcome! ;-D

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A brand new look for item pages!

Posted on September 19, 2012 by CircleMe Team

Every day CircleMe users are finding interesting content about their Likes, both on the activity page and from the item pages themselves. So today we’ve launched something very exciting: New item pages.

More visual and more engaging!

Now when you visit the page for one of your Likes, we’ve made it easy to see all the posts that other CircleMe users have shared on that item with the new item page layout. This is a great way to catch up on the latest news and videos related to your Likes, as well as checking out some of the shared views. As you scroll down the new item pages you’ll find all the content displayed in two columns, making it easier than ever for you to find interesting stories.

New item page

Only interested in seeing videos? You can filter the content by category, meaning that clicking on ‘Media’ would just show you all the shared videos.

Filtered content

Filtering to ‘Media’ using the new item page

But that’s not all, it’s now easier than ever to share something on CircleMe! Simply click on the new ‘Post’ button and you can share a view, a link, or a video, all from the same menu.

New posting view

We hope that you all like the new item pages, as you can use them to find and share interesting content and the new posting layout makes it really simple to start a conversation on any item on CircleMe. We’d love to hear what you think about the redesign! Get in touch with us by email at info@circleme.com, or by visiting our Facebook or Twitter accounts.

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Introducing Plant Guides and our exciting partnership with Cibando

Posted on August 29, 2012 by CircleMe Team


Partnership With Cibando

We know that our users enjoy finding interesting Likes around town using the Plant feature on CircleMe. However, we thought we could make them even more interesting and exciting, so we put our heads to work on improving this feature to help our users discover more high-quality plants.

Plant Guides

Announcing Plant Guides

What we came up with is something ground-breaking for CircleMe: The announcement of ‘Plant Guides’. As you will know, Plants are Likes associated to real-world locations. Thus, ‘Plant guides’ are collections of plants provided by selected partners.

This is a very important moment for CircleMe as it opens the door to the CircleMe ecosystem and potential partnerships, allowing other companies to distribute their content with the fast-growing CircleMe userbase, whilst providing you with more interesting Plants to discover.

Partnership with Cibando

The first partner will be leading restaurant finder app Cibando, which will bring you a collection of the best restaurants in Italy. (You can find out more about this partnership in our Press Center) But that’s not all! We’ve also added 2 more Plant Guides: Art Masterpieces and Boutique shops.

On the CircleMe iPhone app (got the latest version?), navigate to the brand new Plants page from the Menu button and you’ll find all the Plants near you. Now you can select the Guides button and see our 3 new collections.

The Cibando Plant Guide is the tastiest of the 3 as it showcases some of the best restaurants in Italy. It is also the one that excites us the most due to this great partnership, so don’t forget to have a look when you’re not sure where to grab lunch!

Plants on a map

Tap on the map to view Plants in full screen

The Art Masterpieces collection includes some of the most famous works of art in the world, all planted at the galleries where you can see them. From Whistler’s Mother to The Starry Night, the best Art Masterpieces are now planted on CircleMe!

Plants on a map

With the Art Masterpieces Plant Guide you can view art on a map

Finally, the Boutiques Plant Guide will take you on a trip to some of the most exclusive shops around the world, from independent jewelers to high-end tailors, you can find them all in our collection of Boutiques.

We hope Plant Guides help you enjoy CircleMe better, and don’t forget that you too can Plant cool things for others to discover! Not sure how to add a Plant? Don’t worry, our tutorial video will help you out. 

Ah! And don’t forget to check out our Twitter and Facebook accounts where you will find the latest CircleMe news :- )

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An exciting new update for the CircleMe app

Posted on July 25, 2012 by CircleMe Team

We’ve been really busy making sure that the CircleMe app is better than ever. So today we are going to run through some of the features and improvements in the new version of the app.

What are the changes?

  • First of all, it’s quicker than ever to sign up and get started adding your likes, as we have included the ability to sign up with Facebook. Just tap ‘Sign Up with Facebook’ and you’ll be taken to the Facebook app where you are just a press of ‘OK’ away from signing up with CircleMe.

Signing up with Facebook

  • One of the coolest new features is browsing plants on a map straight from the app. This is another great feature of the CircleMe.com site that we have added to the app, and it helps you discover even more likes than before!
Plants on a map

Viewing plants on a map

  • You can now view your entire inbox and messages from within the app, so get suggesting Likes to other CircleMe users!

App inbox

  • Not sure who to add to your Trusted network? Well now you can find a list of users you might find interesting right from the CircleMe app! This list shows all like minded people on CircleMe, and trusting them will mean you’ll find even more exciting things to Like.

List of like minded users

  • Stories are now displayed right in the app, no need to open the link in Safari. Our new integrated browser means that reading some of the interesting stories and videos posted on CircleMe is easy to do, just tap!
  • Forgotten your password? D’oh! Don’t worry, just tap ‘Forgot password?’ when signing in and we’ll send you an email letting you reset your password to something a little more memorable.
  • Someone you Trust just added a picture? Or maybe a story? Well now you can vote on almost anything that happens on CircleMe.
  • Little bit confused about how to get started using the app? We’ve included a helpful video that explains just what CircleMe is about when you first sign up.
  • Along with all these great new features, there are lots of smaller bug fixes and improvements to make sure that the CircleMe app is better than ever!

If you have any suggestions about what we should include in the next update, or anything else to do with CircleMe  you can share it with us by commenting on this post, or by contacting us through our Twitter account or Facebook page!

- James Cook

CircleMe Summer Marketing Intern

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Using the neighborhoods feature

Posted on July 24, 2012 by CircleMe Team

One of the best kept secrets of our app is the awesome neighborhoods feature. Not sure what it is? Well, if you want to stay notified about all of the plants in a location, you can track the neighborhood on CircleMe. This means that whenever anybody plants something publicly you will automatically see them in your activity feed. It’s a great way to find out more about the city or town you live in.

So how can you start tracking the neighborhoods that matter to you? Well first of all you’ll need the CircleMe iPhone app. Now just visit the Explore page  and tap on ‘Planted’. If you have Location Services enabled the app will automatically display the Plants nearest to you. Scroll down the list of plants and at the bottom of the page you’ll see a button labelled ‘Track this neighborhood’ . Now staying in touch with all the activity near you is just a tap away :)

Tracking a neighborhood

Tracking a neighborhood using the CircleMe app

You can find a list of all your tracked neighborhoods from the Account page. Here you can delete any locations you aren’t interested in any longer and even add new locations.

Viewing a list of tracked neighborhoods

How to view a list of all your tracked neighborhoods

If you have any questions about the neighborhood feature, or anything else to do with CircleMe  you can ask us by commenting on this post, or by contacting us through our Twitter account or Facebook page!

- James Cook

CircleMe Summer Marketing Intern

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Get more from your likes with Bompiani Editori

Posted on July 18, 2012 by CircleMe Team

CircleMe is all about interests, passions, likes… However, it’s not just about collecting them: It’s about getting more from these likes and being able to enjoy them.

What do we mean by that? It might be enjoying interesting conversations, or finding out about interesting articles related to your likes. Also browsing photos, watching videos, and being able to listen to samples of artists you discover on CircleMe.

But we don’t want to stop there. We want to give you more about what you care about the most. For this reason, we’ve started to work with Bompiani Editori to bring you free chapters of books related to your likes! The first books you’ll be able to enjoy are: “Amy Ma Figlia” by Mitch Winehouse and “L’Amore È La Cura” by Elton John.

Amy WinehouseElton John

How does it work? When you go to the page of either Amy Winehouse or Elton John, on the top right corner you will see a notice indicating that you can download the book. During the next months we’ll be working hard to help you enjoy your likes more, so stay tuned for more news!

Screenshot

Please not that this goodie is currently available to Italian users only. If you’re having problems downloading any of the books, please send an email to support@circleme.com

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Introducing the new activity page!

Posted on July 12, 2012 by CircleMe Team

By now you might already know the drill: When the CircleMe team goes silent, it means we’re working hard at improving CircleMe and launching new features, and now is one of those times! We’ve really excited to announce the launch of the new activity page!

For a while now we have wanted a way to show you all the great activity related to your likes as well as the activity of your trusted friends. Well, today we released the brand new activity page, and it has some great new features we really hope you’ll enjoy.

Brand new visual style

The new activity page makes it easier than ever for you to discover new likes and users on the site. Now we show you a cascade of interesting content, meaning that CircleMe looks better than ever. We also group activity stories together under each item, meaning that the site is easier to read than ever before, and you can now choose the category of the items for which you want to follow the activity.

The new activity page shows activity in the cascade-style

The new “Everyone’s” Feed

One of the most exciting new features of the new activity page is this very special feed of everything that is happening on CircleMe. Now by clicking on the “Everyone’s” option you will be able to see updates from every user. You will also be able to select the category of the latest activity you want to follow. Although we just launched this feature, we are already finding this a great way to discover new likes! :-)

You can now check the latest activity on CircleMe by all users on all items! And filter by category : – )

You might have seen this cascade of likes on our homepage… now you can also access it when you are logged in, and like new things and instantly mark them as To Do’s.

You can now access the latest likes even when you’re logged in!

Social updates box

Another great new feature is this new box to the left of the activity page. We now show you some users you might want to trust, along with who your existing friends are trusting. This makes it really easy to find interesting new users on CircleMe.

Social Activity Box

We really hope this changes help you have a better CircleMe experience and, as per usual, if you have any feedback, suggestions or comments, do not hesitate to comment on this blog, contact us on Twitter or Facebook or send us an email to info@circleme.com :-)

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What is Planting?

Posted on May 31, 2012 by CircleMe Team

So what is Planting?

With the launch of our iPhone app in March, we introduced a cool new feature on our site, “Planting”. Some of the community members wanted to find out more about “Planting” so we decided to write a blog entry and explain more about it.

On CircleMe you can collect all the things you like and discover new ones.  So, we thought that it would be very cool if you could add one of your Likes not just on your profile, but also somewhere in the world. For instance, you might discover the best ice cream ever and want to add it as a Like, but not only on your profile: What about placing the like somewhere in the world? What about placing it where that awesome ice-cream parlor is? And so we decided to create “Plants”: The possibility to place things you like somewhere on the map.

What’s the benefit?

First, you get to collect all those things you liked or found interesting somewhere in the world: Imagine you discovered that amazing ice cream whilst visiting a new city… you wouldn’t like to forget where it is, right? ;-)

But also, if you are placing interesting likes, others will be able to discover those (that is, unless you want to mark them as private) which means you can also discover other cool “plants” shared by other CircleMe users related to the things you are passionate about.

But… I don’t have an iPhone! No problem: Planting is also available on the web version of CircleMe where you can not only explore Plants, but add your own ones.

Right, so how do I plant?

We’ve created a quick video tutorial on how to plant that you can find below:

We hope it’s useful for you! Are there any other features you would like a video tutorial for? Please let us know by commenting on this blog entry or our Facebook or Twitter pages. And even better! On our CircleMe page on… CirceMe!

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You can now invite your Twitter friends on CircleMe!

Posted on May 4, 2012 by CircleMe Team

Back in March we asked you on our Facebook page how you preferred to invite your friends to join you on new sites like CircleMe. Well, Twitter was the second most popular result just behind invites via Facebook and ahead of invites via email.

Result of CircleMe Poll on how to invite friends

Well, that’s right! Although just days ago we released the option to find and invite  your Yahoo! Mail contacts on CircleMe, we’ve worked hard on it and from today, you can also invite your Twitter friends to join CircleMe!

Finding Twitter friends on CircleMe

To find this new option, you simply have to go to the “Find people” page. Once you click on Find friends for Twitter, you’ll see a screen where you can select the contacts you want to send the invite to.

Selecting Twitter friends on CircleMe

Once you select the friends you want to add, then you simply have to click on Add. Then you’ll be requested access from Twitter for our Twitter app to send the invites… and voilà! You’ve sent the invites to your friends!

We hope you find this useful! And if there is a service that you think we should add to CircleMe to find and invite new friends, do not hesitate to let us know!

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Finding friends via Yahoo! Contacts

Posted on April 23, 2012 by CircleMe Team

Hi Circlers!

This Monday we’ve got some cool news for those out there who use Yahoo! Mail. As you’ll know, until now you could only invite your friends via Facebook and Gmail. Some days ago we asked our users what their email provider was, and this was the result:

Results of the question about email services

So yes: we worked on it and we’re very happy to announce you can now invite your friends using your Yahoo! Mail account. For this, you need to go to http://circleme.com/users/import and you’ll see the button to invite your contacts on Yahoo! Mail:

Finding friends from Yahoo! Mail

And if you don’t have Yahoo and use Gmail or Facebook, don’t hesitate to get your friends in too! CircleMe is much more fun with friends!

What service would you like us to add next in order to be able to invite friends? Let us know commenting on this blog entry, on Facebook or Twitter!

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