idiomag

Well, a lot has happened since we last posted here. The big players have been buying up the online advertising market, Facebook has allowed external apps in its social network, and last.fm has finally been bought by CBS (last.fm: please don’t change - we love you as you are!).

We have some very exciting developments in the pipeline for this month. We have been working hard on tweaking idiomag’s algorithms and content-base, as well as making the magazine more readable. Also, at some point in the next month or so, we will jump on the (very appealing) bandwagon and create some groovy Facebook applications.

We have had a good range of new contributors come on board, including JunkMedia, Ground Up Hip Hop, Losing Today and Chronic Magazine. This will really help deepen our content-base, enabling us to deliver a more relevant and interesting magazine. In addition, we are now broadening the content beyond gig and album reviews, to include interactive competitions, feature articles and some podcast-style sections.

One major improvement that we are just completing, is that readers will soon be able to join idiomag using their last.fm, iLike, MOG, or MyStrands username. From this we can immediately create a very relevant magazine, from their past listening habits. Much simpler and quicker.

Its also nice to see that idiomag is still picking up some great press, with recent mentions in WebUser magazine and Precision Marketing magazine.

Well thats about it for the moment. As usual, let us know your thoughts and suggestions.

As part of a large campaign to promote their personalised shoe range, Nike have advertised through idiomag with a funky little interactive ad. This is the first campaign that we have run in idiomag that promotes a non-tech/music product, and I am interested to know what you all think. I feel it fits well within the overall interface and doesn’t interfere with the content. And it’s a bonus that the product carries the personalisation theme… you can now read a personalised magazine, whilst wearing your personalised running shoes… now I know that’s something you could only dream of a year ago!

To check out the ad, just go and view your magazine at http://www.idiomag.com (quick and painless sign-up process if you haven’t already)

Just a quick post to let you all know about idiomag v1. We had lots of great feedback on the beta version, most of which we have included in our development roadmap. The new version is now live at www.idiomag.com

Basically, the new version is more powerful (better personalisation engine), sexier (UI redesign), more robust (it doesn’t break when there are more than a thousand users reading it), and “more full” of great content!

For those who are interested, the key improvements from the beta version are outlined below.

Content
We have used the beta period to hand-pick the best contributors for idiomag. Now numbering around 70, our content providers range from respected bloggers, to mainstream publishers - all providing quality feature articles and reviews in the music subject area. The biggest names at the moment are Blogcritics, Music Emissions and SoundFires.

Tagging
We were very aware that the beta version’s tagging system was not very usable or scalable, and we have redesigned this so that the emphasis is placed on the magazine learning your interests, rather than you teaching the magazine. The interface should also be much easier to use.

Multimedia player
For v1 we have built a robust audio and video player, so that more engaging content can be easily included in the magazine.

Magazine layouts
We have ‘prettified’ the magazine interface and improved the automated page layout engine, so that magazine pages present the content in a more visually pleasing manner - including the use of automated colour themes.

Magazine interaction
In v1, readers can comment upon any article, share it with friends, and save it in a personal archive. We didn’t want to head down the networking route too quickly, but these features start to build in that direction, and set the ground for future releases. Watch this space…

Content delivery
Although idiomag doesn’t directly follow the “wisdom of the crowds” doctrine (we want to deliver to you what you want, not what your friends want), we have added a rating system for quality to complement the current relevancy rating system. After selecting the articles that you will most probably like to read, idiomag takes into account whether other readers have rated the content’s quality positively.

Content upload system
idiomag has been described as “glossy RSS” and we have vastly improved/streamlined the process by which content is transformed from RSS feeds (basic text) into a glossy magazine page. This makes the whole publishing operation a lot more scalable.

Those are the main improvements, but there isn’t enought space to mention all of them here. Anyway - if you like what we are doing, do tell all your friends to sign-up at www.idiomag.com. As always, please drop us an email if you have any comments/suggestions.

The Register/Tech Digest have listed idiomag on a run-down of UK startups. We are alongside some great companies, including last.fm and DropSend.

The list is very diverse, with some really interesting companies being mentioned. It is great to see that the UK startup scene is alive and kicking.

If you’re a keen facebook’er you can now join our “idiomag - the cool pre-launch groupies” group as well. Probably the easiest way is just to search for “idiomag”. Hope to see you there!

Advertising can be one of the most controversial aspects of online (and offline) publishing, as well being the main revenue source for most publications. At idiomag we want to only display adverts that are interesting, of high quality, and relevant. By this we mean that they do not spread themselves over the content you are reading, they are actually quite pretty/quirky/clever, and they are about products and services that you might actually buy.

We ran 2 test campaigns over Christmas with Apple and Philips, and if you were lucky enough to see them, we want to know what you think! Please do drop me an email with your thoughts.

So… idiomag is now live! Thank you to everyone who has been eager to get involved in this beta stage. We are working hard to bug-fix and improve the system as we go, but please let us know if you have any difficulties – and of course any suggestions. We very much want idiomag to be user-focused and user-driven. We do have lots of additional functionality up our sleeves, particularly in the ’social-web’ direction - but we want to introduce the basic concept before allowing too much feature creep.

As you will see, we have a good stock of launch content (in our initial content areas of design and music), but obviously not enough to satisfy the interests of every individual yet. Through the next month or so of beta period we will be increasing the number of content providers dramatically.

If you are interested in idiomag as a concept, but not specifically in design or music, do have a look around, and then add your name to the mailing list, so we can contact you as we expand our content into other areas.

IDIO LAUNCHES PERSONALISED DIGITAL MAGAZINE  

idiomag to provide readers and advertisers with next generation content personalisation and targeting