New feature: display recipients and indicate view status

We just rolled out an update to the messages interface so that when you're viewing your sent items you can now select a message and press view recipients button (located in the lower right-hand corner, under the preview window) to list everyone that received your Eyejot. Not only that, we'll tell you if it was viewed! This works for all account levels, including those of you using the free version.

If you're looking for more detail and the ability to receive view alerts by email you should consider the PRO Plus version. It has a number of excellent business-class features. Details about all our versions can be found here.

In-message video viewing and support for the Apple iPad

We're happy to announce that we've turned on universal and automatic MPEG4/H.264 encoding within the Eyejot platform. We've long supported this format but tended to only encode files on an as-needed basis to support iPhone users and users utilizing our video RSS support.

This change means that every message created with Eyejot is now available in both Adobe Flash (FLV) and MPEG4/H.264. So, if you use an email client that supports HTML5's new <video> tag (such as Apple's mail client) you'll be able to watch your Eyejot messages directly in your email program, without having to launch an external browser session.

It also means that we'll be able to support Eyejot on the upcoming Apple iPad directly.

 

We're trying out a new support tool

As Eyejot has grown, so too have our support requirements. To better address the needs of our users, we're trying out a new support management platform called Tender Support. So far, we like how easy it's been to set it up. Of course, it's our users that will be the true arbiters of whether or not we've been successful by promptly addressing their support needs. If you're an Eyejot customer in need of help, drop us an email addressed to support at eyejot.com.

Deliverability enhancements for Eyejot messages

We have made some changes to our outbound email processing services this evening by adding DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) support. What this means, basically, is that our outbound email will now carry cryptographic headers that Yahoo and a few other ISPs recognize. They'll treat our email differently and try to deliver it more efficiently to their users. The crypto part means that they can be guaranteed that the email they receive from our servers is genuinely from us.

If you send Eyejots to friends or colleagues with Yahoo mail addresses please let us know if you discover your video mail getting delivered more reliably.

Eyejot introduces advanced custom templates

Eyejot, the web’s leading video mail solution, today announced an advanced template system for its PRO Plus users to control the presentation of video mail messages.

Eyejot’s new template manager allows its customers to create libraries of stylized designs that can be applied to video messages. This allows Eyejot users to create and send video mail that carries a look that’s complimentary to a marketing or sales initiative, or a product or company brand. What Eyejot has done is, basically, create an easy way to author and send video mail and to wrap various elements in a design that the customer controls.

This new template feature was created in response to customer demand for those users that have long valued Eyejot’s ability to send video mail and wanted a way to ensure that their own corporate branding was preserved, as well as giving them the chance to tie other important elements of their business into the video mail sent by Eyejot.

Eyejot users can created templates for email, message viewing and their own user pages.

Adding attachments you've used before

If you're a PRO Plus user and frequently use the attachment feature to add documents or web links to your Eyejot messages then you'll likely appreciate a new feature we've just deployed. It's our recently attached item list and it allows you to, very quickly, attach one or more previously used attachments to a new message.

One scenario where this new feature may be appreciated is for people using Eyejot to perform customer support tasks. You'll be able to quickly identify and re-attach documents and web links you've used in previous messages, reducing the time it takes to support your customers.

We frequently send web links and documents to Eyejot customers when we do our own customer support and this new feature will save us a bunch of time too!

Opt-out control for messages and view alerts

We've just deployed two important features that keep Eyejot on the right side of permission-oriented communications: user-managed opt-out control for new message notifications and the ability to suspend view alerts on a per-message or per-user basis.

The first feature has obvious benefits and has been planned for some time. While Eyejot is designed expressly for one-to-one or one-to-few communications some people have found it immensely useful as a marketing communications tool. In order that these new uses are properly supported every outbound email notification message will carry an opt-out link. The link will allow the recipient to prevent future email notifications from being sent to them from a particular sender.

The view alerts suspension feature is for PRO Plus members and allows them to turn off view alerts for a particular message or for alerts generated on behalf of a particular person. Both options can be very useful if you find that one of your Eyejot messages is getting read often.

Collecting great suggestions through UserVoice

We've incorporated the UserVoice suggestion widget into our platform and have created a dedicated space for our users to submit useful suggestions for improving the Eyejot platform. If you're on the Eyejot site you may notice a tiny "feedback" button floating on the left side of your browser. Click it to jump into our suggestion area.

If you've been using Eyejot and have some great suggestions for how we can improve the service please let us know. Just visit our suggestion area on UserVoice and let your voice be heard! We're listening!

"Eyejot This!" adds support for Ping.fm

We told you it was coming. Now it's here! We've released an update to our Eyejot This! bookmarklet that integrates with Ping.fm's social updating service. See our previous post for details about some of the social networks supported by Ping.fm. If you're not already a member, signup with Ping.fm here and then try Eyejot This! We also added the ability for existing Eyejot users to easily reply to your posts made through Eyejot This!

Ping.fm support coming to Eyejot This!

Our Eyejot This! bookmarklet is getting tuned and will be incorporating support for Ping.fm. With the new version, launching within days, you'll be able to configure Eyejot This! to use your Ping.fm application key and send your message to any of the social networks you've configured with that service.

Now, instead of simply supporting email and twitter, like we did in the original version, we'll support any network that Ping.fm supports. That includes:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn 
• FriendFeed
• MySpace
• Tumblr 
• Jaiku  
• Blogger 
• WordPress  
• Delicious  

And many more. We're doing some final testing and hope to announce the new version on the 26th or 27th. We also plan to launch a video kiosk that uses Ping.fm too and will share more information about that in the coming days.

If you don't already have an account with Ping.fm, we suggest you visit the site and create an account and configure all your social networks. Signup here.