GroupMe! Blog

This weekend we switched to the Google AJAX Search API for the search component of the group creator (in particular, the search engine for Web sites and videos - see right sidebar in the picture below).

The AJAX search API is very convenient. We extended the GSearch Java client to handle the search requests in Java.

Nicole and Philipp created a new CommonCraft-like video that explains what GroupMe! actually is. It’s nice, check it out!

GroupMe! now allows you to create GroupMe! groups collaboratively with other GroupMe! users. You can add other GroupMe! users as contributor of a certain group as shown in the screenshot below. Such contributors are then allowed to edit your group, which means that they can add, remove, or rearrange resources, but they cannot delete your group or invite other contributors.

Of course, you can remove contributors from your group at every time by clicking on [x] next to the name of a contributor.

InterWeb is a platform that integrates different Web 2.0 services such as YouTube, Vimeo, Delicious, Flickr, Ipernity, and some more. With the InterWeb Firefox-Plugin (http://lw.l3s.uni-hannover.de/plugin/interweb-extension.xpi) you can easily upload resources (videos, images, etc.) to these services via drag-and-drop. For example, you can drag an image from your desktop (or from some Web site) on the InterWeb icon. InterWeb will then upload the image to your Flickr or Ipernity account. The same can be done with videos, slides, links (bookmarking), and even text snippets, which will uploaded to your blog at Bloggers.com.

InterWeb makes use of the RESTful GroupMe! API: When you upload your media you can directly choose or create a GroupMe! group into which the resource should be added. Really cool! There is also a video at YouTube, which illustrates the functionality of the InterWeb Firefox Plugin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIBBElEP8go

We have now extended the RESTful GroupMe! API. It is now possible to create groups and add resources to groups via API. All you have to do is POST corresponding RDF descriptions to GroupMe! More details are available here: http://groupme.org/GroupMe/api/rest/

We are actively doing research that is related with GroupMe! For example, last week we presented GroupMe! and new, group-sensitive ranking strategies at the CIKM 2008 in Napa, California. If you are interested in some of our research work then visit, e.g., Daniel’s or Fabian’s list of publications.

We are re-launching GroupMe! at the moment. GroupMe! has a new design and nice new features! We are still working on it. So please forgive us if some things are not working the way they should. We are working on it! So stay tuned and inform us about problems that occur. Thanks!

A help section and a demo video will be published next week!

Cheers,
GroupMe! Team

GroupMe! has a small new feature: GroupMe! users are now clickable. This looks as follows: fabian.

If you have an own GroupMe! account then visit your personal GroupMe! page and specify a photo you would like to use for your account!

From 4th and 9th March 2008 we presented GroupMe! at the CeBIT - the world largest information and communication technology fair. We had a lot of interesting and motivating conversations, got enthusiastic feedback, and made a lot of future plans for GroupMe! Thanks to all people who visited GroupMe! We are looking forward to see you again!

GroupMe! participates in the CeBIT 2008, Hannover. We are looking forward to welcome you at our our exhibition stand, which is in Hall 9 B22!