We just found out that on the Google Zeitgeist 2007 “ebuddy” is the 7th fastest rising search term Globally! Great news, we are very VERY happy.

The development team behind the new eBuddy web messenger has been working for some time now to make this client our future flagship product. While we are working on this client we are usually focused on certain themes or sets of (new) features, like conferencing or the support of a new network. Since it’s a new client, features like this are usually quite visible for you, the end-user and you can follow the progress we are making if you log in regularly. However, this doesn’t mean we spend all our time on the creation and development of these new features. Recently we’ve been focused on improving the performance of our client.

Performance has always been an important theme in software development and in every project it means something different. In our case we decided we wanted to dive into three different areas: the contacts tree, the chat tabs and the chat editor. For each of these areas we wanted to greatly improve the responsiveness so users spend less time waiting and more time chatting.

In this blog post I’ll dive a little deeper in what our approach was for each of the problems to give you a little insight in the work behind what we feel is the best chat client on the web. Please let us know how you feel about our efforts.

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Following another iteration ending, we have just released a new version of our Multi Network Beta. Again we have taken your feedback to heart and have tried to make those changes that you most requested. As usual we are always bug-fixing and improving our product, and have done so as well this iteration. So on top of these below a list of the major features and improvements:

Google talk Support
Definitely very noteworthy is the introduction of Google Talk support. As this is the first time we will be offering this on any of our products, we hope you will enjoy using this on eBuddy. All standard GTalk functions are included, including uploading your own Avatar.

Improved text editor
Being a major point of feedback received from users, the text editor used to input text has been improved. This component has had a complete overhaul and is functioning a lot better than before. On top of improved performance we have resolved an issue with text styling dissapearing while typing, causing you to have to set it over and over again.

Performance
Again we’ve looked intensely at the performance. We believe we’ve made a big step forward this iteration. An issue with processor usage going through the roof while being logged in with more then two accounts has been resolved. This impacts not only the editor as discussed above but also improves general usability as a whole. As always, your feedback is much aprreciated, so if you have any, feel free to let us know here!

All this said, if you haven’t tried it yet, try our eBuddy Multi Network Beta now!

You’ve probably asked yourself the same question like I did: where is that darn debugger?? Where did the stack trace go??

Well, in fact, there ARE a few tricks you can apply to IE to make it more developer friendly! First of all, the IE developer toolbar is a must-have tool. But that’s not a debugger like, for instance, venkman is.

Debugbar is a nice effort of creating an actual debugging-, css- and DOM-inspection capable plugin for IE. It even lets you inspect your XMLHTTPRequests and it’s free for personal use. That’s also the reason why we chose not to use Debugbar.

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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.

The new eBuddy Web Messenger Beta has arrived.

We are proud to announce the immediate release of the multi-network eBuddy Web Messenger Beta. Instant Messaging just got fun again.

It has been completely rewritten from the ground up. The new client allows you to easily manage all your contacts, whether they are on MSN, AIM, ICQ or Yahoo. Here are some of the new features that come with this client:

1. Multi-Network

The new client allows you to chat to your contacts on MSN, Yahoo! and AIM, all from within the same application. Now you can manage all your contacts from a single, consistent application.

2. Completely Overhauled Interface

The Beta features a brand new design. After taking a long look at what people wanted, we made the interface a much nicer place to be. You will find it much easier to navigate your contacts and your tabs.

3. Developed In-House

Because we have developed this application completely in-house, you can expect more features being added regularly. Already we have some great new stuff cooking in the lab - keep your eyes peeled for new functions! We’ll discuss them here on the blog as well, of course.

4. Live Filter

The Live Filter is one of the improvements we made to work with large contact lists. Just type in a couple of characters from the name of the contact you are looking for and see the list shorten as you type.

5. Web Application

To use the new client, all you need is a modern browser and an internet connection. There is nothing to install, and it will even work behind a firewall.

Log in to the new eBuddy Web Messenger »

Last Friday, the Next Web conference was held in Tuschinski theatre in Amsterdam.

Inspiring speakers from influential companies all over the world, including Netvibes, Plazes, Yahoo!, Techcrunch, Adobe, Digg (via IM) were present to give their view on, or demo the newest of the newest in Web 2.0.

eBuddy was present too (of course )! Onno, one of the three founders of eBuddy gave a demo of our new web client (in closed beta) and our new mobile messenger (beta still open to sign up). The presentation went very good, but of course at the time of the demo, there was a Wifi problem….Murphy was present.
Nonetheless, we got a big ‘Wow’ out of the critics in the audience.

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!

 

We’ve been nominated for the Next Web Awards! So please head on over and vote for your favorite Social Instant Messenger: eBuddy! (And don’t forget to tell your friends! )

The Grand Award Ceremony will be held in Amsterdam on June 1st, so we’ll likely be there. Come on over for drinks if you’re in the neighborhood, we might even teach you the top-secret eBuddy Victory Dance.

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?