Its been an exciting month since the release of Hahlo 3, my analytics show that usage has increased approximately 300% since launch (wow), Twitter has been up and down and now looks like it getting back in order after the troubles of a week or so ago, and Summize have added some fancy new features to their service and api…
More powerful search
The addition of the Summize.com powered search function in Hahlo 3 has been a huge hit. For those of you who also visited the Summize site, you probably had a play around with their “Advanced Search”. Now in Hahlo 3.1 you can also do these same “advanced” searches with ease, to try it out just tap the “Advanced” button, in the menu just below the standard search box.
“Near Me” and location based searches
In the time since Hahlo 3 was launched, Summize have also bee adding to their own API, one of the big updates was the inclusion location data for each tweet, and the ability to search based on those locations.
As part of the search related upgrades in Hahlo 3.1 you can now do the same sort of “near me” search that was popularised by the iPhone-jailbreak Twitter app ‘Twinkle’. I’ll admit I wasn’t a fan of the feature in Twinkle, mainly because it thought I was in Cyprus. I am not in Cyprus. Not even close.
You might be wondering how Hahlo knows where you are, well its all based on what you have your “location” set to in Twitter. Hahlo uses this value in combination with the Google Maps API to determine the coordinates for your location to be used for searching. The more specific you make your location the better the search results will be. For example, I’m in Newcastle Australia, but if I just put Newcastle, Google doesn’t recognise the correct one.
Twitter also added an API function to allow you to update your ‘location’ field from API apps such as Hahlo, and now on the “settings” screen you can easily update your locastion whenever you like, and your coordinates etc will also be recalculated. You can also check on the settings screen to see what the Google Maps API interpreted your location as, just to make sure its accurate.
Once you’ve followed the onscreen prompts to set your location info up, then you’re ready to start using “Near Me”, just tap the “Near Me” button in menu, just below the search box. Its also accessible from the tabs that have been added to the search and advanced search pages.
Behind the scenes
In the last month I’ve also refined a lot of Hahlo’s code to make it easier for me to maintain. I’ve also tried to catch specific errors when they occur and return you a simple explanation. If you ever have any trouble or see a weird error then please let me know, I can’t fix things I don’t know about. You can do so here: http://help.hahlo.com
Style and Layout
No big changes in this respect, just tidied some screens up that weren’t quite polished for the 3.0 release, and maked sure basic behaviours are consistent across most screens. One tiny change you might notice is the “results for: search item” boxes on the search pages have been updated, nothing to drastic but they now have colours based on the colourful Summize logo.
Bugs Bugs Bugs. And some feature requests
Version 3.1 also includes fixes for several bugs that have been reported over the past month (there were numerous requests that I couldn’t fit in due the final rush to get 3.1 out, sorry in advance). The most significant is that the character counter should now be correct whether you are using Hahlo on your desktop computer or on an iPhone. If you still have trouble with it, let me know. http://help.hahlo.com
Other things of notice that have been fixed (hopefully) include: the behaviour of the ‘favourite’ star when fav-ing and then unfav-ing a tweet, the addition of refresh buttons to search result pages, the addition of a ‘refresh’ button to the bottom of the public timeline, a search box has been added to the top of the search results so that you can search again without having to open the menu.
You’ll also notice a number appear just below the “tweet” button in the top right. This will (once the Twitter api method is fixed up - thanks @al3x) display how many authenticated API requests you have remaining in the hour. Twitter usually limits users to 70 requests per hour, but recently due to their load and stability issues they’ve dropped this back to 30 to help load. This counter will update when you make a request so that you always have a rough idea of how many requests you’ve got left. I can’t guarantee its accuracy, so don’t take it as gospel, its just their to hopefully reduce the “shock” when that first “Bad request - limit exceeded” error pops up…
One more thing
You might have seen a tweet recently where I mentioned the new “Help Center” that I’ve set up. You can access it at http://help.hahlo.com and its your one-stop-shop for all your questions, comments, bug reports, feature requests etc. Help.hahlo is powered by the great new “Help Center” from Get Satisfaction. If you prefer you can also go to http://getsatisfaction.com/hahlo to get all the same info, plus a little bit more that the “Help Center” doesn’t yet cater for.
There are probably other small changes I could talk about, but I think that’s enough. Now, go and play with Hahlo 3.1 and let me know what you think.
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Wow impressive! I’ll try it right away!
Dean, I’ve been looking to simplify my blog for a while now and I’ve looked at a lot of designs. I just wanted to tell you when I came across yours I hearted your blog design more than any other design I’ve ever seen. It is just lovely.
i ll try this thanks
thanks
Thanks for the invite Chris, yours was actually the third I got within the space of a couple of hours. I’m now there. http://brightkite.com/people/deanjrobinson/
Not sure I’ll use it too much, but I REALLY hoping that they release an API that will allow me to integrate the ‘check in’ feature with Hahlo, and perhaps even the ability to crosspost to both twitter and brightkite.
BrightKite is cool. I can send you an invite if you’d like.
Hahlo is amazing Dean.
For a one man operation you do a fantastic job.
Spread the word … Hahlo is the best.
Well done !!!
@Will: I’ve got plans for and edge optimised version, which will have the same features but the interface will be “simplified” mainly the removal of images etc, which are responsible for the bulk of the load. If you’ve got any suggestions for the edge version I’d love to hear them, just post them over at http://help.hahlo.com
@Chris: Yeah, thanks for reporting the ‘star’ bug, actually got that from a few people. Not sure how I missed it initialy in my testing but I guess thats bound to happen sooner or later.
I’m not sure how the ‘check in’ feature works on BrightKite (haven’t used BrightKite). Is it still a manual thing, where you enter your location in a box and they calcualte the rest? Or is is more automated than that?
Nice work, guys. Especially on the star fix. I mentioned that just the other night.
Actually, my experience has been awesome on EDGE. Sometimes, to my amazement, feeling faster than m.twitter.com (then again, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised :-P)
Glad to see Get Satisfaction support. Love that site.
Oh, you know, you might want to promote the use of BrightKite. BK will update your twitter location based on your check-ins. The feature needs to be on, though.
Nice work, people. Keep up the good work!
I love hahlo, and you’ve done a great job. It’s starting to feel a little bulky when I’m trapped on edge as of late. That may very well just be my opinion, I’m not sure how heavy it is compared to earlier versions. I am somewhat worried that it might become too feature’ish. I love how you’re on the ball when it comes to keeping it in shape and getting updates out, just don’t burn out or load it up so much that it’s overwhelming for the user. As always, thanks for the great product.