1. Don’t worry about the details; just make a decision. Don’t waste time arguing about the small details of your web app. The type font type used, border size, all don’t matter when it comes to the core of your application. Learn to make a quick decision and move on. Your users will give you feedback to let you know whether or not you’re on the right trail or not.

2. Include only the most necessary features in “1.0” Don’t add any unnecessary features; in fact a lot of the features that you think are necessary may really not be. Cut these features out and include them in a future release. An example they gave was a billing system when they deployed Basecamp. The feature wasn’t necessary until 1 month after their initial release because that’s when their users got billed. Instead they released Basecamp and then worked on it. This was plenty of time to create the feature and everything worked out.

3. Iterate as you go. The nice thing about web apps is that you can instantly deploy bug fixes and new features to your users. This allows you to be competitive since you are able to easily adapt to change and rapidly make fixes. You’re also able to receive instant feedback from your users as you make fixes and/or deploy bug fixes.

4. Create your interface first. Start off with some sketches on a piece of paper and then maybe convert it into HTML/CSS. The reason to do this is because the interface is easier to modify as opposed to re-writing code. As you create your mock-ups questions will be brought up and decisions will be made. It’s better to make those decisions at this stage rather than after you’re into hardcore coding.

5. Learn to market your site from day one. Include a teaser on your front page, screenshots of previews, blog about the development process and features that will be included in the initial release, use invite codes. All of this will create a buzz about your product. When it comes to invite codes, have users submit their email addresses to be notified when more invites will be available. You’ll at least now have a list of people who have expressed interest in your app and they can be notified when your initial release comes out.

6. Become your own support department. Dealing with your users on a direct basis allows you to get into their mind and get instant feedback. The people who are developing the application should be answering questions, defending their choices and taking criticism. Be sure to consider a FAQ page and forums so that users can help themselves and other users.

I’ve really only scratched the surface of what this book has to offer. Check out the rest here!

During my search I stumbled upon the site allrecipes.com. Not only do they have RSS feeds for various categories on their site, but you can sign up for an account and create a “recipe box” (Cookbook to the rest of us). Now when I’m checking out their RSS feed, I can add appetizing recipes to my recipe box. I don’t know about you, but when I’m making dinner with friends, the hardest part is finding something to make. The recipe box feature will allow us to browse a pre-chosen list of recipes so that we can skip that annoying step and go straight to the cookin’.

Another notable feature is the shopping list. Let’s say you’re planning a dinner with multiple courses. You still need to go shopping, so you look at the ingredients for each course and determine what you need to buy. The shopping list feature will add the required ingredients to your shopping list and it will sort them by type, which is how stores usually sort their aisles. This is handy for people like me who are easily lost in the grocery store. If you add multiple of the same item (the same item, but from different recipes), it will add them together so you know the total amount of a product you need to buy. Very cool!

Already I have made two meals I found from the site: Gourmet Chicken Sandwich and Pizza Without the Red Sauce; both of which were delicious. Go check it out; if not for the skill of learning to cook, then for the sake of the title of this post.

UPDATE: I just found a really neat feature where you can find recipes given ingredients you want to include/exclude.  This is great if you have extra ingredients from previous meals that you want to get rid of.  The more I use this, the more features I find.

I was introduced to Songbird by Ian McKellar at SHDH15. I’ve been using it for about a week (Version 0.2 Developer Edition on Windows XP) and here are some of my initial thoughts, starting off with things that I like.

1. Integration with MP3 Blogs. I’ve actually never subscribed to any MP3 blogs before, but I can see that easily changing now. Songbird comes with a list of 6 MP3 blogs. With these blogs, Songbird will scan the posts for MP3s and show them to you in a form of a list at the bottom. From there you can play the MP3s as if they were local media. This is a very handy feature for quickly listening to new music.
2. Cross platform. I love the fact that I can go from OS to OS and this program will be available. It’s always such a bummer going between my Mac and PC and having to use different programs because one isn’t supported on one OS. Being a cross-platform application eliminates those frustrations.
3. Works just like iTunes. If you know how to use iTunes, you know the basic functionality of Songbird. This eliminates the frustration of learning a new program, let alone the extra/hidden features. This is a smart move by the developers since their target audience seems to be iTunes users. Any transition will be very smooth (including the fact that you can easily import your iTunes library).
4. Mozilla updater. When I start the program it will automatically check for updates for the program or any add-ons. Since this program is still in development, this is a very handy feature for distributing bug-fixes or new features without having to go to the site and download an installer.
5. Last.fm integration. This is only one of many add-ons for Songbird. However, I like this because I don’t need to load a separate application for scrobbling my songs to Last.fm. These guys know what their audience wants.
6. Ogg Vorbis Support. Unlike iTunes, Songbird supports the open-source MP3 alternative Ogg Vorbis format. Although it’s not as popular as the MP3 format, it’s nice to have support for those alternative formats.

There were a few things I didn’t like or felt were missing. These were mostly features of iTunes that I would like to see implemented.

1. iPod Sync Support. This should be a no-brainer.
2. Airtunes Support. I love how I can wirelessly stream music to my speakers with iTunes + Airtunes. I would love the same feature in Songbird
3. iTunes Share Support. As someone who has multiple libraries, this feature is a very convinient feature on iTunes I would like to see in Songbird. It would be great if somehow a feature was also added to copy music from library to library via shares!
4. Better Bookmark Support. When bookmarking a site, it doesn’t give me the option of where I would like to save it to. For example, if I want to bookmark a new MP3 blog, I’d prefer it go into that section rather than the bookmark section. Further, how do you add a new MP3 blog?
5. More Radio Station Support. This kind of goes along with the previous suggestion. I have a few radio station sites I listen to sometimes; it would be nice to be able to easily add those to the radio section when bookmarking.
6. More Smart Playlists. One smart playlist I would like to see is one that has a list of all MP3s found on MP3 blogs. That way I can play a variety of MP3s on random without much effort.
7. Last.fm/Audioscrobbler Authentication Confirmation. As someone who uses a variety of passwords, I always forget which password I use where. I started to use Songbird and checked my Last.fm account to see if my tracks were getting scrobbled properly. When I saw they were not, I figured it could either be the feature itself or my password. It turned out that I used the wrong password, but I had no way of knowing. I think a confirmation or a button to test your login credentials should be added to prevent this issue.
8. Highlighting song in library. When I go between tracks, the library stays at the beginning. Most applications move the library to the location of the currently playing song for you. This is convenient if you want to play other songs of the same artist.

Lastly, here is a list of bugs that I found while playing around.

1. Full Screen Error. When I close my laptop lid, and open it back up, the application goes into a full screen mode that is bigger than my actual screen.
2. Last.fm Error. Sometimes the following error is triggered: “Some tracks you submitted have not been added to your profile for the following reason: Spam protection triggered: You submitted a track dated earlier than your last submission.”

There is one last note I would like to add. The ability to find and play MP3s found in MP3 blogs makes Songbird a very powerful, and perhaps even revolutionary program. Maybe I’m behind, but I have not seen a program with that sort of functionality. Perhaps this is the time to bring up the idea of implementing semantics within HTML for the purpose of labeling music and finding music in MP3 blogs. I propose the idea of a Microformat-like way of labeling MP3 information within HTML for programs like Songbird. Currently it looks like Songbird gets its information from ID3 tag information, but for the MP3s that are not properly labeled, it shows only the filename. Sometimes the filename doesn’t even hint at the songname or artist of the song! Another benefit of using semantic information within HTML is the fact that you don’t need to download the MP3 (or part of the MP3) to get the information. This can save a lot of bandwidth for the host of the blog and the person browsing the site. The last benefit is that this makes for a format-neutral way of labeling data. You can put an MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Real Media, or WAV file on a site, and still have the information come up.

As a program that’s still being developed, Songbird feels like a very complete cross-platform media player. I can see this easily taking the place of iTunes as new features are developed. I for one have started the transition from iTunes to Songbird. Of course, there are missing features, like the ones noted above, that would seal the deal once implemented.

The setup process was very smooth; I was able to import my settings from Firefox and setup my del.icio.us, flickr, and blog without issue. I was even able to install some of my favorite firefox plug-ins (Fetch Text URL and Firebug) pretty easily. Once setup, the browser’s flaws quickly revelead themselves. Here is a list of features I would like to see in the browser to make it a more user-friendly experience.

1. Gallery2 support: It’s great that Flock has integrated online photo service support, but what about the people who host their own gallerys? (such as myself) Most of my photos reside my gallery2 photo gallery. The photo feature is of very little use to me because I don’t use flickr as my primary photo service (but that might change in the future).
2. ma.gnolia support: This doesn’t bug me as much as my previous concern, but it would be nice to have support for this other bookmarking service. I might actually be making the switch from del.icio.us to ma.gnolia in the future, but that’s a whole other blog post ;-)
3. Firefox 2.0 features: This should be obvious and is already a big discussion topic on the flock forums. The two biggest features I miss from FF2 are the spell checker for textareas and the support for 3rd-party RSS readers when clicking on the RSS feed icon. With flock you only have the option to add RSS feeds to the built-in reader, which I am not a big fan of.
4. Blogging features: I really like the idea of being able to update my blog from my web browser. The biggest use I can see from this feature is being able to blog on the fly about a website I’m visiting; however, where is the button to add the URL of the site you’re visiting at? Also, what about saving the blog post you’re working on instead of only being able to publish it? Don’t get me started on tagging options…
5. Default buttons: I think the blog button should appear by default on the toolbar, if you have a blog configured, for quick access. Why else would you setup your blog on the browser?
6. Bookmark support: Overall this had to have been the biggest disappointment about the browser. When I read it could integrate my del.icio.us bookmarks to my bookmarks, I was sold. When I saw my bookmarks however, I saw well….nothing. I finally did find my del.icio.us bookmarks in the favorites manager; Even this wasn’t all that impressive. First off, I feel the bookmarks should have the option to be in the main bookmarks menu or at least have their own folder. Furthur, what about sorting bookmarks by tags? Perhaps a folder per tag with bookmarks in those folders with that particular tag? It would beat displaying the tags as a comma-separated value.
7. Quick search: Where is the support for this? I’m sure Flock has it built in somewhere (since it is built off of Firefox), but I think it should be more obvious of how to add/edit quick search links.
8. Starring: This seems like a promising feature, but I think it needs to be more customizable. I thought I saw something about adding the sites I star to del.icio.us, but it seems to be gone. From what I gather, a starred site appears in your “recent favorites” folder. It’s nice, but I would like to see the ability to customize its function.

Overall Flock is a great idea that is still in its infancy. It has some features that are still left undiscovered, so I plan on playing with it some more. Once the community grows larger, I expect great things out of this browser. I still plan on sticking with firefox 2.0 for my browsing needs, but I will be keeping a eye on Flock.