keyspace project goes live

keyspace is a simple network service for generating unique 128-bit IDs for any purpose.  Think of it as a serial number generator for the entire planet.

It's an experiment to allow anyone to tag anything with a unique ID. Once a thing is tagged with a unique ID you can use that ID to lookup the original item.

The first public server is up and accessible right now. Details on the protocol can be found here.

FeelGoodTrader Launches Beta

Friday morning, at 12:04am we launched the beta for FeelGoodTrader.com. Welcome emails went out to all the beta users with instructions on how to create accounts, and many have already. There are now a few items on sale in the market place.

It's been many months coming, what with all the code to be written, hosting services to be ordered, and servers to be built. We're thrilled that it's up, running, and ready to go, so we wanted to say "thank you" to everyone that believed in us before we even launched.

We would also like to thank the family and friends behind the team that have quietly supported the project from its inception.

Development update

Things are rolling along well at FeelGoodTrader. The most critical features are in place, the nastiest bugs have been squashed.

Here's the top 3 things we'll have on launch day:

• Buy/sell any product or service - just submit it, and start selling it
  (ok, almost, any product or service. We don't do prostitution, drugs, or other illegal activities here)
• Trust-based community, where you're connected to the people and businesses that you want to buy and sell from
• PayPal is our preferred provider for payments. You don't have to use them, but there's plenty of good reasons (security mostly) to use them 

We're thrilled to be launching in just under 21 days! It's getting so close we can taste it!

Gotta get paid - FeelGoodTrader highly recommends PayPal payments.

PayPal is the premier payment system on the web, offering easy ways to pay for just about anything online. FeelGoodTrader recommends PayPal to allow users to buy and sell things online.

Don't have an PayPal account, but want to buy things? No problem - signup is easy, and you can use your debit/credit card to make payments without divulging that information to us, or the person you're buying/selling from.

So, why PayPal?

There's three major reasons:

• It's the most widely used payment system on the web. If you do a lot of buying/selling on the web chances are you already have a PayPal account.
• PayPal has industry-leading fraud protection for its users. That means if you have a dispute with someone on FeelGoodTrader, PayPal may be able to help.
• FeelGoodTrader never gets a copy of your payment information. By using a 3rd party payment processor, you never have to worry about someone getting a copy of you payment information from us, and PayPal has already built a security-centric payment system to keep your payment information safe from hackers. 

If you don't have a PayPal account yet, check out the features, and sign up so you're ready for launch day. PayPal is very serious about security, and that's why we think they're the perfect platform for payments on FeelGoodTrader.com.

FeelGoodTrader to start beta use on October 1st

FeelGoodTrader will open its doors to the first round of beta users on October 1st.

Sign up now at FeelGoodTrader.com to increase your chances of getting a spot in the first round!

Launch day is getting closer

As we prepare for the start of the beta program, we take a glance at the calendar and realize just how close we're getting to launch.

"When is launch day," you ask? Only FeelGoodTrader knows, but I can tell you that it will be early in the Fall. Take at look at your calendars - Fall is approaching, and not too far away now!

Also, if you haven't seen it already, last week we posted a video about the browse box - only a minute long, and really simple. Can't wait 'til we can share it will all you folks!

Get an invite, be the first to use FeelGoodTrader

FeelGoodTrader will launch its service in an invite-only beta in the Fall of 2010. You can request an invite by going to feelgoodtrader.com, and filling out the "Invite Request" form on the front page.

We will then send out invites when they become available. The folks to receive an invite will be the first ones to use the service, and will comprise the founding community of the service, largely setting the tone and feel of the site.

How will invites be given out?

Ok, so building a service like this, and actually having it work, requires a decent number of individuals. After all, you need to have a group of people to buy and sell from. It's even better if people on the site live close to one another.

Why does geography matter? It's simple really - if you want to put a mountain bike up for sale on the site, you need a community of users that live nearby to sell to unless you're going to ship it. Otherwise the service is no good. Similarly, if you're looking to buy something locally, but none of the users on the site lives anywhere near you, then you won't be able find anything that you want that is anywhere near where you live or work.

When is launch day?

Launch day, the day that we open the site to the first beta users, will be in the Fall of 2010 (in just a few months). A specific launch day will be announced soon.

FeelGoodTrader.com is a better way

Alright, enough bashing of Craigslist and EbayClassifieds. It's one thing to express your discontent, but what exactly do we plan to do about it?

KarmaNebula is building its first major web product, called FeelGoodTrader.com. When we launch in a few months it will primarily be a Craigslist alternative that aims to be free online classifieds with better functionality, a cleaner interface, and a less spam. There's a number of things we'll be implementing in order to accomplish this, most of which amount to simply approaching the problem of online, inter-person commerce from a different angle than Craigslist has.

Do we owe the concept of online classified ads to Craigslist? Sure. Are we prepared to go another ten years before Craigslist (or anyone else) decides to improve on the model, and give us a modern tool that is as good today as Craigslist was when it first launched? No, we won't wait. We're going to be the ones to do it, and it will be more than Craigslist with pretty pictures (which we believe, is precisely what EbayClassifieds is - just pretty pictures). FeelGoodTrader will find better ways to deal with spam that is posted, as well as remove many of the motivations that spammers have for posting in the first place.

The other major thing FeelGoodTrader will do from day one, which is both groundbreaking in the online classifieds ads space and yet not really a big deal among modern web services, is the use of search functionality as the primary way to find what you're looking for; i.e. "search, don't sort."

Why?

Simple. In any system that contains more information than can reasonably be browsed in a timely manner in order to find relevant information, you must have search and filtering functions that work quickly, and effectively. It must also allow users to customize results to increase the relevancy of search results in a way that is personalized to the individual.

FeellGoodTrader will do that. FeelGoodTrader is the future of free online classified ads, and when you see it when we launch, we believe you'll agree with us.