Archive for Sorab Ghaswalla

Google Plus resdesign

Google I/O 2013- Google+ gets new look

A new interface that is image-heavy & on the lines of another social site Pinterest, new Hangouts features, a two column layout….users of social network Google+ were in for a surprise when they logged into their accounts today.

The changes were announced Wednesday on the 1st day of the Google I/O 2013 conference. These include a series of automatic filters and hashtags for your photos

There are 42 updates to Google+, to be added over the coming days. One can say it is like adding some spit and polish to what was once a drab social network, layout-wise. Among the many new things users have to get used to: the left-side nav bar has been moved to the top, and Hangouts are accessible through a green dialogue balloon with white quotes to the upper right.

Your Posts now look like Google Now cards, which fade & flip, & increase in size when you click them. The Share box for creating a new post has been moved to the upper left & is more tighter in design. Hashtags on posts have been moved to the upper right corner,  & are also now automatically added to posts, though users still have a choice of adding them to words they want. The search task bar is still on top.

Like any other design change, this one will take time getting used to. But I suspect, the feedback on this one will be positive.

Image Credit: Google+

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Mywebroom

A bookmarking site in the shape of your fav room

It has the look & feel of your own living room or bedroom, only it comes minus the refrigerator & snacks. And, it is virtual.

The purpose of this new startup called myWebRoom is to help you access websites from 1 spot itself. This is a bookmarking site, truly with a difference. Using this new Internet startup, you can open & browse your fav sites from within your “room” itself. But 1st, the selection of the room.

mywebroomWhen you open an account on this new website (it’s free), you are shown templates of virtual living rooms, bedrooms & such. Once you zoom in on the design, you then get to choose the furniture. You can select bookshelves, coffee tables, sofas, writing tables, & so on. Once your virtual room is up & ready, you can start populating these objects with the URLs of the corresponding websites that you have liked.

That is the trick to this new startup. Each object corresponds to a specific type of website. Eg: The shopping bag hanging from your kitchen wall is where you can “store” all your favorite shopping sites, the Music Box is where you store all your digital music, the bookstand is where you keep all your “must read” digital magazines, & so on.

Now, every time you wanna browse your bookmarked website, all you need to do is to take the cursor to the object in your virtual room, click on it & immediately your stored sites show up. Click on any one & start browsing within your room itself.

Artem Fedyaev, co-founder & Chief Operating Officer (COO) & John Gonzalez, co-founder & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) began this project in 2011 when they realized there was a need for an online resource to help organize an overwhelming amount of web resources people use every day. In the process, they learned that rooms can be much more than an organizational resource, because in their opinion, a room is a very intimate place that reveals a lot about a person. The project was started in their Bryant University dorm room ( Remember Facebook?)

At the end of the school year in May of 2012, Artem & John sat in their car & began a cross country drive from New York City to San Francisco. Establishing a residence in Mountain View & a Delaware corporation under the name of Rooms Inc., Artem & John began building their team, starting with five programmers who started building the infrastructure for the product you see today.

The guys at this new startup already have plans for the future like improving the user interface & allowing users to design their own rooms. But what is even more fun is that myWebRoom has a mascot called Roomsy who helps out during hiring interviews! Bow, wow to that.

Image Credit: myWebRoom

 

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