As one of the developers on the new eBuddy multi-network client I’d like to introduce you to some features I really like. These are not the obvious ‘big’ new features of the client, like the fact you can log in with as many different accounts as you want. These are features you might not even notice if they weren’t pointed out. Nonetheless, I believe these features really enrich the user’s experience and hopefully even make you forget you’re actually still just visiting a website.

Design
First and foremost (and very noticable) is the fresh new design by Garbrand. We’ve lost the old eBuddy blue and got some cool white and grey in return. Colorful icons and shiny new buttons grace an interface that doesn’t get in your way. Can you tell I really like this design?

Resizable layout
The new client has been designed and built so it neatly fits just about any size you give your browser and use the available space more efficiently. Buttons and other key components are always in the same spot relative to the browser edges so it’s easier to find them when you resize your browser and resizing the window feels very smooth. Personally, I like to chat with a wide window because I often have many tabs open simultaneously. If you prefer a more narrow setup it’s completely up to you! It should look and feel good at almost any size.

Tabs

Every contact you’re chatting with gets its own tab, so you can chat with more people at the same time. These tabs have some subtle properties you might not notice. First of all and most noticable, they have an icon that indicates the network status of the contact you’re chatting with, so you can immediately see if the person is online, offline, busy or away. Another small feature is the automatic shortening of the contact’s display name in the tab so all the open tabs fit neatly in the window. If there’s ever too little text in the tab to see who you’re chatting with, hover the mouse pointer over the tab to get a little tooltip with the full name.

Filter

Every new feature is of course extensively tested on the eBuddy employees before we decide to leave it in permanently. One feature that was an immediate hit was the filter. Just enter a few characters and the contact list filters out all contacts whose account or display name don’t match. Our employees generally have rather long contact lists and multiple accounts online and it became clear very quickly to us this was a extremely useful tool if you want to find a particular contact.

The future
Of course we’ve still got an extensive list of features (both big and small) we want to deliver and the features that are already in have hardly been perfected. For instance, I’m not fully satisfied yet with the way tabs are sized and the filter could also be improved. I’m sure you can think of a few improvements, too. Please let us know! It’s a Beta and stuff might break occasionally but we’re totally committed to deliver the best user experience when it comes to Instant Messaging.

Wow guys, thanks for all the high-quality feedback you have been sending us. We have received an amazing amount of compliments and feedback. What surprised us the most however, is the quality of feedback. The posts have been really articulate and detailed, thanks!

These are the top 3 requested features you send us:

1. Upload your own avatar
2. New email notification
3. Change font and font settings

Even though we already had those features planned, we decided to move them up and do them first. You guys asked for it!

We have some housekeeping to do (mainly stabilizing the foundation of our application, we’ll also blog about that), when that is done we start implementing these features. Keep an eye on this blog!

Oh yes. In May we present to you not one, but TWO hot Beta products!

First off we have a brand new mobile client, a blazing fast full-blown chat application for your mobile phone.

Our other beta is our new Web messenger, rewritten from the ground up for ease of use and performance.

The first group of people allowed a beta account will be strictly limited, so if you want to test the latest and greatest eBuddy chat clients, sign up early!

Developing web 2.0, specifically rich internet applications (RIAs), has become the latest craze on the internet. eBuddy is one of the many examples that bring complete applications to the users’ webbrowser. But is it easy to develop such applications?

For years we have developed software, however the biggest change with web 2.0 is the tooling. Software used to be made by writing code, compiling it, running unit tests and debugging it when necessary. Javascript, the language that makes the web applications dynamic, does not have all the normal tooling for development.

Only recently have some projects come into existance to fill that gap, most notable firebug and venkman and only on the Mozilla (and derivatives) browsers. Internet Explorer, which has the largest user population, actually has close to no such tools. So the only way to make your applications work properly (from Javascript point of view) is experimentation.

The oddest possible thing about this situation is that Microsoft has the reputation for building some of the most innovative development environments as well as providing extensive development references for their developer base. So why is it their own browser lacks the most basic tools to do software development?

So, is developing for web 2.0 easy? If you are building RIAs I would, sadly, have to say no. The use of the technology has greatly outpaced the creation of a good development environment and who will rise to fill this gap? The open source community is trying to provide the proper tooling, however on the Internet Explorer platform the creation of such tools is greatly limited by the closed nature of the platform, so how will we, as a developer community, fill this gap?