The Viewpointr Blog

This is where we post about new features and exciting developments on Viewpointr.

Making it personal again

Hey everyone,

If you signed up for Viewpointr on Monday or Tuesday you might have noticed something... you had hundreds of complete strangers helping you and you might have been helping hundreds of strangers!  We received a lot of negative feedback regarding this feature and have retracted it.  Please believe us when we say that we had good intentions, however, in hind sight we should have seen it coming.

We really appreciate all of your feedback both good and bad regarding Viewpointr.  We are excited to continue to innovate and make the experience better and better each day.

Thanks everyone,

Kent 

Watch a Video on How Viewpointr Works

As we've rolled out Viewpointr to our friends, the site is quickly becoming an easy way to get opinion-based answers. This is very different than several of the other popular Q&A sites currently in the market that seem to gather fact-based answers.

Check out the above 1.5 minute video on how Viewpointr works.

Try it out at http://viewpointr.com. You can sign in with 1-click through Facebook Connect or Twitter Sign In.

Let us know what you think -- http://feedback.viewpointr.com.

Happy Helping,

 

The Viewpointr Team!

--

Help us || http://viewpointr.com/viewpointr
Follow us || http://twitter.com/viewpointr
Fan us || http://facebook.com/viewpointr

 

How is Viewpointr different from Quora?

As we continue to describe the differences amongst the popular Q&A sites in the market right now, here are a few differences that we would like to highlight between Quora (who apparently raised $10 million from Benchmark Capital) and Viewpointr:

Your content is not editable by others

The content that you create on Quora is subject to be edited by other users on the service. This means both your questions and answers can be edited.

Contrastingly, with Viewpointr, your content is not editable by others. Your answers are your viewpoints, and your questions are your requests. 

Building your personalized Q&A database

Viewpointr provides users with their own online Q&A profile that can be easily shared with others via a vanity URL (e.g. http://viewpointr.com/acharoo). Think of it like extracting all of your questions on Facebook and Twitter and combining them into one stream that can be easily accessed and disseminated.

Quora is building a collective Q&A database. As a result, the majority of questions merit fact-based answers as opposed to opinion-based answers. Since questions and answers can be edited on Quora, you lose ownership and exclusivity over your original content. Therefore, if someone had the ability to change your question, this could alter not only the question of interest to you, but also the answers you were originally seeking. 

 
Cross-platform

Viewpointr currently provides a personalized Q&A experience that integrates with your social online circle (i.e. Facebook and Twitter currently). Refer to our blog post entitled "Share Your Questions on Facebook + Twitter with One-Click" to see how you can easily leverage both your friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter. 

We think a cross-platform Q&A solution is more far-reaching for users than an independent platform such as Quora as it relates to getting personalized help. Think of it like how Plancast integrates with Facebook, Twitter and Google Buzz.

***

Try it out at http://viewpointr.com. You can sign in with 1-click through Facebook Connect or Twitter Sign In.

Let us know what you think -- http://feedback.viewpointr.com.

Happy Helping,

The Viewpointr Team!

--

Help us || http://viewpointr.com/viewpointr
Follow us || http://twitter.com/viewpointr
Fan us || http://facebook.com/viewpointr

How is Viewpointr different from Aardvark?

As we all know, the Q&A space is pretty hot right now. So, we would like to ensure that everyone knows the differences between Viewpointr and other popular Q&A sites. 

Here are a couple of differences that we would like to highlight between the Q&A / social search startup Aardvark, who got acquired by Google earlier this year, and Viewpointr:

Based on friend recommendations

With Viewpointr, friends, followers and fans determine the best person to answer questions. 

Our bet is that your online social circle will most likely know the best people to help, so why not give them easier ways to do so. On Viewpointr, you can easily point questions to specific friends on Facebook and Twitter, a feature that you cannot do on either platform. 

As a result, Viewpointr facilitates a greater incentive to answer because questions are referred by friends. If a friend refers a question to you, there is a higher probability that you will answer that question as opposed to receiving questions from someone you don't know.

With Aardvark, an algorithm tries to find the best person to answer, which results in a lower incentive to answer questions.   

Tracks your proven expertise as you help others

Viewpointr emphasizes the use of one's 2nd degree network as a means to help others. We believe there's a lot of untapped value in our friends of friends that is yet to be fully realized. So far, LinkedIn does a pretty good job displaying who can put you in touch with a specific person, but in the event you don't know the name of the person, where would you go? This is where we want Viewpointr to help. Viewpointr can help map the types of people that your friends can put you in touch with through Q&A. 

Viewpointr tracks your expertise as you answer questions and/or successfully point questions to friends. As a result, based on precedence, we will be able to recommend questions that you can answer, as well as questions that your friends can answer. 

With Aardvark, you have to input your expertise in order to determine which questions should be sent to you. With Viewpointr, you simply help the people you care about, and we'll track your expertise.

***

Try it out at http://viewpointr.com. You can sign in with 1-click through Facebook Connect or Twitter Sign In.

Let us know what you think -- http://feedback.viewpointr.com.

Happy Helping,

The Viewpointr Team!

--

Help us || http://viewpointr.com/viewpointr
Follow us || http://twitter.com/viewpointr
Fan us || http://facebook.com/viewpointr

Viewpointr's Recent Outages

We are really sorry for the recent outages at Viewpointr and on our blog.

Unfortunately, our good friends at Posterous were the victims of a DoS attack that crippled their servers.  We have re-directed our blog to their new address and things should be up and running within a few hours.

As for the site...  we had a problem with one of our application servers.  When a new user created an account, the communication between the front end and the backend servers hiccuped and while that user was logged in, anything they did was given a bogus and non-existent unique id.  This caused a bunch of small problems that all worked together to bring us down.  It also didn't help that I am currently in Italy with my wife and due to some power outages in Rome, the WiFi at our hotel wasn't working so I just got wind of this problem an hour ago.  Murphy's law I guess.

On behalf of the entire team, I apologize for any inconvenience and rest assured that we have taken measures to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

Thank you for your patience.

Happy pointing.

Kent

Why don't I just use Twitter over Viewpointr?

Although Viewpointr can be described as "Twitter for helping people", there are some differences that we would like to highlight: 

Each question is threaded and has its own page

With Viewpointr, each question is threaded and has its own dedicated page that users can reply on or point to their friends for help. 

Contrastingly, on Twitter, questions can easily get lost because messages are not threaded, and therefore makes it difficult to follow conversations.  

Point to friends easily on Facebook, Twitter, and via Email

Again, as mentioned in the previous post, one of the ways we help a friend in need is to put them in touch with others we think could help. Currently, referring friends to chime in to a request, whether inside or outside of Twitter is difficult. Furthermore, the answer can't be shared easily with others who may have a similar question. 

So, we've made it much easier for you to help others by pointing them to your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Viewpointr and email. 

No character limit

On Twitter, trying to answer a question in 140 characters is very cumbersome and rarely adequate.

With Viewpointr, there is no character limit imposed on questions or answers.  In addition, users can specify who they need help from. 

Try it out -- http://viewpointr.com. You can sign in with 1-click through Facebook Connect or Twitter Sign in.

Let us know what you think -- http://feedback.viewpointr.com.

Happy Helping,

The Viewpointr Team!

--

Help us || http://viewpointr.com/viewpointr
Follow us || http://twitter.com/viewpointr
Fan us || http://facebook.com/viewpointr

 

 

 

Why don't I just use Facebook over Viewpointr?

Although Facebook has recently launched Facebook Questions, which we think will be very complimentary to Viewpointr (noted below), there are some differences that we would like to highlight: 

Personalized space solely for Q&A

We believe there is value in providing 1 destination for all of your Q&A, and Viewpointr aims to be that destination. The Facebook Questions feature hasn't been released to most users yet, so as of right now, Q&A gets lost in your news feed due to the amount of content being shared (i.e. photos, videos, articles, links, etc.). 

With Viewpointr, we provide you with your own URL (e.g. Help me => http://viewpointr.com/acharoo) that you can use to share all of your questions anywhere online. Think of it like your online Q&A profile.

Point to friends easily on Facebook, Twitter, and via Email

One of the ways to help your friends and the people around you is to point them in the right direction. Similar to what happens offline when you ask a friend for help and they say "Oh, I know the perfect person that could help. I can put you in touch with them. Shoot me some information that I can forward." Referring friends inside and outside Facebook is currently difficult. You can't forward messages or questions in status updates on Facebook. Also, it can't be easily shared with others who may have a similar question.

So, we would like to make it much easier for you to help others by providing a way that you can point (i.e. refer) questions to specific friends in your social online circle. 

With Viewpointr, currently you can easily personalize and point questions to your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Viewpointr, and Email.

   

Anyone can help (= follow) you

In envisioning an easy way to give help and get help, we adopted a similar following model to Twitter, where users can click the button "help", which allows them to subscribe to users' requests / questions. This way, anyone can help you. 

With Facebook, questions are only shared within Facebook. With Viewpointr, questions are shared with all of your online networks (e.g. Twitter).

***

Note on Facebook Questions: We plan to integrate with the new Facebook Questions feature to make it easy for people to get help and give help no matter their choice of site. This concept is similar to how Plancast integrates with Facebook Events.  

Try it out -- http://viewpointr.com. You can sign in with 1-click through Facebook Connect or Twitter Sign In.

Let us know what you think -- http://feedback.viewpointr.com.

Happy Helping,

The Viewpointr Team!

--

Help us || http://viewpointr.com/viewpointr
Follow us || http://twitter.com/viewpointr
Fan us || http://facebook.com/viewpointr

 

 

 

Point Questions to Your Friends on Facebook and Twitter

We have just personalized your Q&A experience even further by integrating with Facebook and Twitter.

You can now personalize and easily point (i.e. refer) questions to your friends (outside Viewpointr) on:
 
1. Facebook  
 
 
  
2. Twitter
 
 
 
3. Viewpointr
 

 
 
4. Email
 
 
This is yet another way that Viewpointr is making it easier to help others.
 
Try it out -- http://viewpointr.com. You can sign in with 1-click through your Facebook or Twitter account.
 
Let us know what you think -- http://feedback.viewpointr.com.

Happy Helping,

 

The Viewpointr Team!

--

Help us || http://viewpointr.com/viewpointr
Follow us || http://twitter.com/viewpointr
Fan us || http://facebook.com/viewpointr

What Do People Ask Their Social Networks, and Why?

(download)

Based on findings from Microsoft Research -- A Survey Study of Status Message Q&A Behavior by:
Morris, M.R., Teevan, J., and Panovich, K., Proceedings of CHI 2010, 1739-1748.

***

Here are some highlights we think are pretty interesting:

"Questions posed to the social network received more answers, but those targeted to individuals received in-depth answers."

Highlight 1 -- Viewpointr allows you to leverage both your social network and target individuals.

"A mixture of both intrinsic factors (e.g. perceived ownership of information, gratitude) and extrinsic factors (e.g. reputation systems, monetary payments) motivate Q&A site users to answer questions."

Highlight 2 -- Viewpointr is a community of people helping people. As users give help and get help, everyone will develop a set of influence based on precedence of questions answered and pointed.

"Intrinsic motivations, such as visibility of expertise and the feeling of making a unique contribution, influence participation in such systems."

Highlight 3 -- Viewpointr tracks your act of helping both with answering and pointing questions. Since questions are tagged with specific types of people, by precedence we will be able to display everyone's influence in terms of the types of people that you and your friends can put each other in touch with.

"The audience of potential answerers is much smaller on a social networking site than on a Q&A site, since it consists of only the direct contacts of the asker rather than an entire community or the internet at large."

Highlight 4 -- Viewpointr provides you with a way to leverage your social networks, and create a specific network of people who simply follow you for the purposes of helping you.

Breakdown of Question Types:

Recommendation - 29%
Opinion - 22%
Factual Knowledge - 17%
Rhetorical - 14%
Invitation - 9%
Favor - 4%
Social connection - 3%
Offer - 1%
 
Highlight 5 -- 51% of all questions require more of a discussion vs. just a one-time answer. Viewpointr facilitates this type of discussion.

Breakdown of Question Topics:

Technology - 29%
Entertainment - 17%
Home & Family - 12%
Professional - 11%
Places - 8%
Restaurants - 6%
Current events - 5%
Shopping - 5%
Ethics & Philosophy - 2%
Highlight 6 -- When you sign up to Viewpointr, you immediately have helpers that can cover the top 4 topics.

Motivations for asking social networks over a conducting a web search:

Trust - 24.8%
Subjective - 21.5%
Belief search engine would not work - 15.2%
Specific audience - 14.9%
Connect socially - 12.4%
Answer speed - 6.6%
Context - 5.4%
Failed search - 5.4%
Easy - 5.4%
Answer quality - 4.1%
No harm - 3.3%
Fun - 2.1%
Non-urgent - 1.7%

Highlight 7 -- Only 6.6% of participants wanted speed. The top 4 motivations is why there is a need for Viewpointr.

Motivations for answering questions:

Altruism - 37%
Expertise - 31.9%
Properties of question - 15.4%
Nature of relationship - 13.7%
Connect socially - 13.5%
Free time - 12.3%
Social capital - 10.5%
Obligation - 5.4%
Humor - 3.7%
Ego - 3.4%

Highlight 8 -- Altruism is what Viewpointr is all about!

"Personalized search algorithms cannot yet achieve the same degree of personalization as a close friend."

Highlight 9 -- This is the major difference between Aardvark and Viewpointr. Your personal helpers determine the best friend to help, not an algorithm.

***

Conclusion: Based on this empirical research and general behaviors online, Viewpointr has the potential to be the easiest and simplest way to give help and get help online!

If you haven't signed up yet, sign up with one-click through your Facebook and Twitter account here.

Cheers,
Andre

Help us || http://viewpointr.com/viewpointr
Follow us || http://twitter.com/viewpointr
Fan us || http://facebook.com/viewpointr

Let’s Engage

We’ve still got the training wheels on Viewpointr, watching how people use the site, listening to their feedback, tweaking things and what not… What we haven’t really done yet is actively engage with all our users (including friends, fans and followers), but in true Team-Viewpointr fashion, we spot things pretty quickly…

Basically, its time for us to engage with the community on a deeper level. Traffic is decent, people are asking questions and submitting queries, so at this point we must focus on learning more about you guys, particularly your views and thoughts on “help” and “helping others”.

As of today we will be releasing weekly polls to better engage with you. Here is the first poll. If you want to go into more detail, then we’ve made it easy for you to that, just click here to provide your viewpoint.

We look forward to community bonding with you guys!

Cheers,

The Viewpointr Team!

P.S. Keep up with us on Facebook and Twitter