Head In The [Tag] Clouds

It's time for something new! Today, we're rolling out our Tag Cloud Widget. There have been a ton of requests for this one, and we're really happy with how it's turned out. Our very own Jamie Tsao developed it personally, so you know it's good.

You want details? You got 'em:
• Display Count and Style. You have hundreds of tags on your site. Choose to show all of them, or just a few. If you'd rather show them in a list than in a cloud, that's one click away.

• Display Control. Total control over the way your tags are displayed means sorting alphabetically or by frequency, it means control over magnification and opacity of your frequently and not-so-frequently used tags. Toggle tag count display for each tag in your cloud, and hide tags with with a value less than X.

• Style Mode Integration. But, of course, none of that would be any good if you couldn't match it to the look and feel on your site. So, just like our social widgets, the tag called is fully integrated with Style Mode, so you can change fonts, colors, sizes, spacing and more, all without touching a line of code.

As with any new features, if you encounter any issues, bugs, wild boars, parts of your complete breakfast, or other weirdness please let us know by opening up a support ticket.

Otherwise, we're looking forward to seeing these implemented on your sites. Be sure to tweet the link to your pages to @Squarespace so we can see what you've done with them!

Until next time, Happy Squarespacing!

M!

Update on 2010-07-01 14:39 by M. Burstiner

Here's the manual entry on adding a tag cloud for your site in case you need any help: http://bit.ly/dChGVR

Hello World!

You may have noticed in the past week that our Twitter account has sparked to life. "What happened?" you ask? Well, for starters, we've hired someone. That's me. 
I'm Mark Burstiner, and I'm honored to be Squarespace's newest team member, and your Engagement Leader.

I think I forgot to introduce myself. I'm @markb, and I'm our new Engagement Leader. http://cot.ag/a0FVWZTue Jun 15 16:38:27 via CoTweetSquarespace Inc.
Squarespace

 
If I may, for one minute, just elaborate on that title and why it's important. Right now, while digital media is causing a massive shift, brands are finally starting to get wise, and are starting to hire Community Managers. The problem with that title, as Alex Hillman has pointed out, is that communities don't need to be managed. Communities need a leader; they need someone to help bridge the gap between them and the brand, someone to listen, someone to galvanize relationships, and engage them on every platform possible. That's what I'm here to do. I'll be tweeting with you, listening, blogging, working on ways we can set your expectations more effectively, and even organizing some things we can't talk about just yet. ;)

That said, let's get down to business. I've got updates on some very frequently raised topics via Twitter:

• iPad App
This is a big one, and we get a lot of requests for it. The app is in development right now, but we don't have a solid date for you. Once we have something more concrete, we'll share.

• Android App
Another big one. This one isn't quite on the roadmap just yet, but we see a lot of support for it, so we're kicking the idea around and determining how best to get our look and feel onto this platform as we have on the iPhone.

• Markdown Editing On iPhone
We'll do you one better. In addition to big fixes and optimizations, how about Text, HTML, Markdown, and Textile editing? There's also one more surprise, but we'll wait on that one. Don't want to give everything away. ;)

• Forum Upgrades
We've tallied a number of the popular requests (for example, threaded posts) and can confirm these will make their way into our future commenting and forum system revamp.

That's all we have to share for now, but more consistent content is on the way. We want to thank you, our incredibly vibrant community, for being patient with us as we learn and grow. I can't wait to get to know as many of you as possible, and I'm looking forward to sharing more of what we have in store. Be sure to tweet, say hello, and follow @Squarespace on Twitter if you haven't already. Thanks again, and full speed ahead!

M!

Update on 2010-06-22 22:23 by M. Burstiner

We've been getting reports of crashes with the Squarespace iPhone app on iOS4 when attempting to upload photos. We're aware of this issue, and it's already been rectified. The fix will be included with the next version of the app. The very same version mentioned above. Also, while we're at it, we're throwing in iOS4 background support, so you'll have fast app switching with the next release as well.

M!

Datacenter Infrastructure Update

As Squarespace has grown, we are extremely focused on the infastructure of running our platform.  Right in the center of that equation is our data center, located downtown in New York City.  We've just completed some pretty massive changes, and wanted to show you all (with pictures!) what we've been doing.

Squarespace has grown from it's tiny little 3-server cabinet 7 years ago through the years to one of the largest clients in our facility.

In our biggest update to date, we made the following big changes:

• Installed 7,000 feet of cable and 900 networking ports.  Expanded into a fully custom cage environment with room to grow for the next 2 years.
• Integrated a fully modular switch fabric with a network capacity of 1.536 Tbps.
• Established redundant power feeds from 4 different UPS systems.
• Upped our server capacity drastically and moved certain processing to VMWare.
• Installed redundant uplink feeds to Internet.

We expect these changes and updates will grow with us as we get even bigger and better, but as always, plan to stay on top of our needs and make adjustments where necessary to ensure that we continue to deliver our 99.9% uptime.