This has been a very exciting week! Not only did Streampad Wordpress plugin launch, but also the new Love Network is live – and I turned 29! The Love Network has been a semi-stealth project for AOL. Essentially, it provides web-wide news aggregation using a fantastic service AOL acquired called Relegence. We got awesome support from management and the business to explore any technology or service that works best for the consumer experience.
So far, we are using YouTube for videos, which offers a really sweet in-page, ‘light box’ style experience and their API and search algorithm is phenomenal. We’re also using Google Image search to bring back relevant images. Finally, we are using Get Satisfaction for user generated feedback. While none of these services are new in the web 2.0 world, having carte blanche to make a decision between internal APIs and external services based on their quality is a huge step forward for us.
Keep an eye on the Love Network, we are going to be implementing some really cool features over the next month.
Update: The Love Network was just featured on Tech Crunch here, proud to say I even got a nod or two in the comments.
