Design refresh is coming, and more

Just a sneak peek into our labs.

How to leave facebook

Certainly, a good read, even if it doesn't inspire me to leave fb yet.  http://goo.gl/uQZEK
One paragraph there reads almost word for word as one of the reasons why we develop osom.me :

Those with whom your connection is so limited aren't really your friends, or aren't very close ones at any rate.  One of the lessons I was taught growing up, and its wisdom grows in me by the day, is in life you are lucky, lucky, to have four or five true lifelong friends.  The rest will come and go throughout your life, and you will survive.

And I decided to stop visiting fb newsfeed from now on. This should leave me "find-able"  to old pals if they ever look for me, as well as keep fresh contact data for my phonebook.

Found on facebook, btw

New feature - trollface!

New emoticon button added.

Private messages

New feature is here - private messages! Now you can send private message to a friend by starting message with @username, e.g. if you have friend called "John", send sms

@john sometextwhichonlyYouandJohncansee

for ease of use, in the web form, each post has "reply" link

which brings you to the input form with @address already filled in

When you receive a private message, it is highlighted in RED

In sms, it would look like 5d, Vita: @YOU: Molodca! Ja s toboj!

Enjoy.

Server is down.

We are working on it. Meanwhile,

We answer: Why SMS?

This post explains why we weaved sms so deeply into osom.me. Some stats from http://www.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-mobile-deck-2012-3#-16

First, there are 5.6B dumbphone users in the world, vs. 835million smartphone users. And take into account, that large share of smartphone users do not use mobile internet, or use WiFi only. This means, that there are roughly 10 times more people who can send/receive sms vs. those who can browse mobile web or use apps.

And while smartphones recently took lead in sales, there is still huge installed base of dumbphones.

Conversion from dumbphones to smartphones began couple of   years ago, and will take many another 5-7 years, until smartphones will dominate installed base.

So, if you want a social network that could be used TODAY by all of your friends, by people that either do not care about mobile fashion, or older people, or poorer people - sms is the way to go.

Upcoming features: @replies, trollface, URGENT messages

We are going to expand osom functionality soon. 

First, we will add direct replies @username. There will be  button to create such reply in web. The same functionality in sms, will be achieved by creating message that starts with @username - e.g. @vita sometextsometextsometext

2nd, we will add one more emoticon (trollface) and a special button "!". 

Posting with "!" creates urgent message that goes immediately to all your friends. Initially, we will allow one URGENT messages per day. If it becomes popular feature, we may consider selling extra "!" credits.

Using osom.me via sms, #commands

To post status update 
Any sms to osom.me that doesn't begin with #, is treated as post, e.g. Just woke up, hungry, sleepy, happy! will be posted on your timeline for friends to see. Any command begins with #, e.g. #help

To invite/accept friends
To sucessfully use osom.me you need only 3 commands: #invite, #yes, #no
#INVITE NAME NUMBER - invite new friend
#YES - accept latest invite
#YES NUMBER - accept invite from NUMBER
#NO NUMBER - decline or cancel invite, or remove confirmed friend
Here NAME is a nick you give to your friend, max 12 latin chars, beginning with letter, symbols not allowed, visible to friend. NUMBER is international notation without "+" e.g. in LV it is 3712xxxxxxx


Examples

• you get first invite - reply to osom.me #yes to accept it. 
• you want to invite John to be your friend - reply to osom.me #invite John 3712*******
• you decide to cancel invitation to/from John - reply to osom.me #no 3712*******
• you received 2 invites: from Jack (37121111111) and from Ann (37122222222). You want to accept Ann, but ignore Jack. reply to osom.me #yes 37122222222
• if you just received just one invite, or you received several invites but want to accept the latest one - reply to osom.me #yes without any number.

Direct messaging
To send private messages to a friend begin message with @username , e.g.
@john private message visible only to you and John

Other useful commands, but no need to memorize them
#HELP
#LISTFRIENDS - list confirmed friends
#LISTINVITES - list any invite sent or received by you
#NAME NEWNAME - change own nick
#RENAME OLDNAME NEWNAME - rename friend, visible only to you
#REG - generate new password for web access
#SILENCE [x] - silence sms notificatons [for x hours]. If you ever send any sms to the service, notifications will resume again
#QUIT

Using osom.me in browser

Once you replied #yes to invite, we send you password. Now, go to beta.osom.me and login with your mobile phone number with country code, but without plus. For Latvia, this is 3712xxxxxxx. Use password from sms.

If you ever forget password, send #reg to osom.me mobile number to generate new password. 

Start using osom.me

Is a private social network to share short updates with 7 closest friends.

Post you updates  (160 symbols) and read what others posted whenever you have a spare moment.

Our website is optimized for smartphone, but if you don't have one, you still can post updates anytime anywhere via sms. 

SMS is also useful if you have smartphone but no data (e.g. roaming).
In response, you get summary of friends' updates.

e.g. you send sms to 37127445416 (our current number in LV, sms to this number are standard rate, i.e. what you usually pay to your operator, around $0.05 in LV)
Just woke up. Anyone, lunch at Black Monks around 12:30?

and osom.me replies with

Posted,
5M JACK:10km run this morning, feeling great!
:) JOE: No traffic today, early to office, coffee FTW!
15M JOHN:Feeling sick, staying at home, waiting for a doc
45M JOHN:Morning
2H :( ANN:Woke up early, at the airport, waiting at the gate to fly to Stockholm.
:) JOE: Gnight!
3H JOE: What a night, finally at home.
2 message(s) cut, full history at http://beta.osome.me

here, you see message from friends Joe 3 hours ago, Ann 2 hours ago, John 15-45 minutes ago,  Joe 5 minutes ago. There are more older messages, if they do not fit into long sms, we cut it. Just update your status couple of times a day, and you should be fine. And you still can see full history in web:

 

Registration is by invitation only. Once you receive sms invitation from friend or admin (Me:), reply "#yes" without quote marks. Congrats! Now you are a user. You will receive sms containing password for web access. Now you can fully use osom.me via sms or web.

Related:
More about SMS commands
More about web interface

Only 10% of population of India have internet access

From this article on allfacebook.com :

India is the world’s second most populous nation, with 1.22 billion people. According to Facebook’s advertising dashboard, 39.6 million people in India now have accounts on the social network. Facebook has been India’s leading social network since overtaking Orkut there in the summer of 2010. Yet the vast majority of India has yet to discover social media, let alone the Internet, as only ten percent of the country’s population has online access.

Google minus

See more at CollegeHumor

Dear Google, may I suggest ...

Hello, dear Google.

I am loyal user of your services. I do not really care about recent privacy policy changes. I care about getting more value in less time from you. I gave you my phone book and calling and texting history (through my android phone). I gave you my email address list and correspondence history (via gmail and apps), my checkins through google maps and foursquare. You also can extend a little effort to see who my friends are on facebook and whom I follow and who replies to me on twitter (because I chose to sync this info to my phonebook). 

So, you know who, when, how often. You must be able to sort my friends automatically into most basic circles, like colleagues (people to whom I call during office hours and almost never on evening or weekend, I also send them xls and doc files), hobbists (all belonging to some strange forum or club), old pals (photos and youtube sharing, midnight calls, etc.), parents&family (yep, surname match, photo sharing, late calls), my best and closest friends (how about 30 minutes phonecalls on weekends, sitting together in a pub on friday night, etc.)

And having all this info, you come up with google+, emphasizing lol-video and photo sharing. Hmm. How about attacking facebook where it hurts, using data that they'll never have until they are baked into some mobile OS? Suggest automatic circles for me. Feed me news and photos from people in my phonebook. Prioritise those that I talk to or comment on, or meet in person.

Then I might give another chance to g+