Radar Blog
Announcing profiles, Twitter integration and a new Radar app for FacebookNovember 5, 2008
John Poisson
Comments (7)
When we originally conceived Radar, we focused the experience on small groups of close friends--you and people you already know--sharing pictures and videos with each other. Many of you continue to use Radar in this way, and this model remains a design priority for us.
As Radar continues to grow, we also hear more and more from users who want to share some (or even all) of their posts with a wider audience. In response to these requests, we enabled public sharing of individual posts, and last month we made it possible to set your posting default to public.
Today we make two more big strides in this direction with the introduction of user profiles, Twitter integration, and an updated Facebook application.
User profiles
All users now have a public-facing profile featuring their publicly shared posts, along with some basic information and an image. Here's mine, at http://radar.net/people/fugu/. Have a look around.
Our goal here is two-fold: to give you a place to promote your publicly shared posts, and to give you an additional way for people to find you on Radar.
Your profile lives at http://radar.net/people/radarname This page is visible to anyone, whether they're a Radar user or not, and people visiting that page can send you a friend request. Users can also click on your name on Radar comments to go directly to your profile.
Twitter integration
For the even ~more public-minded among you, we're introducing Twitter notifications for public content. Just connect your Radar and Twitter accounts on the Radar settings page and any picture you share publicly will be sent out as a Twitter update. Here's one I sent just now:
New Facebook application
While we were at it, we cleaned up the Radar application for Facebook to take into account changes in Facebook, and to focus the experience on sharing your public posts with your Facebook friends. Posts will now once again appear correctly in your newsfeed, and you can specify what those news stories look like.
If you're already using the Facebook app, you just need to authorize Radar to take advantage of the new functionality. If you're new to Radar for Facebook, you can install the app here.
Content moderation
With the introduction of more public spaces in Radar, it's even more important for us to keep Radar safe and appropriate for all users. We've updated our Terms of Service to reflect some new policies, and we encourage you to read our new Community Guidelines as well.
All posts shared publicly are reviewed for appropriateness by automated software designed to filter out adult content. Posts that violate our terms of service--specifically those with nudity and other explicit content--will be taken down. If you come across content that you believe to be inappropriate, we encourage you to flag that content, and we'll immediately investigate.
To be clear, our goal here is to keep Radar a safe and enjoyable place for all users. We appreciate your help in getting this right.
Enjoy the new features, and let us know what you think. There's lots more in the works, too, so stay tuned.
November 6, 2008
this is soooo awesome!
November 6, 2008
Yaw!
November 6, 2008
I <3 the new public profiles! it's great having the option to both broadcast and privately share photos, very nice improvement.
November 6, 2008
This is what the mobile social world needs. Thanks Radar team! Works like a charm!
November 6, 2008
Finally a way to personalize Radar and be able to keep track of all your friends' radar names!
November 8, 2008
Could we have an option to share with facebook friends too? or is there a way to share with my friends from facebook and Radar and nobody else?
November 10, 2008
Thanks for your feedback, Eric. As you know, the original Facebook application allowed you to share all of your Radar friend posts with your Facebook friends as well. Radar members enjoy the private sharing that Radar allows, and we received a number of question from these members who suddenly found their Radar posts shared with a much larger group of people - which often not only included all of their Facebook friends, but anyone in their Facebook networks - indeed, millions of people. Thus, when were redesigning the Facebook application, we made an explicit decision to share only public posts with Facebook friends. We believe this provides a majority of Radar members with the best experience on Facebook. However, you should know that if you want to share all of your Radar posts with your Facebook friends, you can still do so but sharing all of your new posts with public by default. (You'll find this in your privacy settings.) We'll continue to watch how both Radar and Facebook members use the Radar application, and improve the experience where we can. In the meantime, if you have further thoughts, don't hesitate to contact us anytime.
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