The beta version we released on Nov 21 last year got lots of feedback. We evolved the product quite a bit over the last few months and have shipped it for the world to see. Here’s a summary of the changes in the new release of BrandAdda (a bit of a repeat from a previous post):

  • Simplification part 1: There are too many content publishing modules for Consumers on the current site. We brought it down to just a few that users on community sites are very familiar with: Forums, Reviews, Idea Center, Photos/Videos.
  • Simplification part 2: The demarcation between what content Brands can publish and what Consumers can was quite confusing to a visitor. We’ve marked them out clearly. The content that Brands can publish: Ads, Polls, Promotions, and Blog.
  • Simplification part 3: Five tabs on a Product/Brand page are now reduced to two (we call them Consumer Podium & Company Podium for now)
  • Login/Registration: We’ve made it nearly effortless to register/sign-in. We support a variety of major id providers (Google, Facebook, Yahoo among them).
  • Social: We’ve provided a simple way for users to message each other, using a public or private channel (similar to orkut scrapping, but simpler). We’ve added support for a rich user profile. We’ve added the ability to see Facebook friends that are on BrandAdda. We’ve added a way to invite friends using many different providers, and using the latest secure standard (oAuth) where supported.
  • Friend invitations: We’ve made it easy to invite friends in Yahoo/Gmail/MSN address books or friends on facebook
  • Buzz: Added News.
  • Discovery: Added a “Related Products/Brands” view
  • Taking the Tools to existing Communities: Widgets, and Social Network apps are under development.
  • Other user experience improvements: E.g. An action-oriented menu bar, and an action oriented dashboard on every brand content page, Visual indicators to aid quick cognition of content, etc

Here’s a fun & informative post by our very own Anirudh about the launch: its here, here and here.