Afrigator Launches Gatorpeeps
We’ve been busy at the GatorPen lately and today we are officially announcing the beta launch of Gatorpeeps. Gatorpeeps is our new micro-blogging service that we hope will connect other Afrigator users together through short updates and community interaction.
Many have asked for a way to find and communicate with other like-minded African users and as of today this is now possible. Unlike other new products we have launched if you have an Afrigator username and password then you already have a Gatorpeeps profile. Why not check out my profile as an example?
Say it loud!
Gatorpeeps features a status update box that allows you to post a peep to your community within a 140 character limit. The reason we’ve limited it to 140 characters is to extend Gatorpeeps to an SMS-based mobile offering. While we realise that most current Afrigator users have a PC we plan to promote, extend and attract a new audience – many of whom will use their mobile phone as their primary device.
Find new friends
Finding new friends has never been this easy. Search for a name, email address or even blog URL and we’ll bring up a list of people that you can connect with. You’ll be surprised at how easy it really is to connect with other peeps!
Join a community
One of the key features of Gatorpeeps is the addition of communities. You can find some popular communities over at our Community page or you could even start one yourself. To join a community or start your own you simply enter the community name with a hashtag (e.g. #peeps) anywhere in your update. If the community exists you’ll be added to it and if it doesn’t you’ll become the new found owner of the community.
Owning a community is really cool as you can add a profile image, enter a descriptive text and even link to another site that relates to the community. Give it a whirl, we’re pretty sure you won’t regret it!
Friends latest blog posts
Directly below the update box you’ll notice a button called “Friends Blogposts”. This button allows you to toggle between your friend’s peeps and their latest blog posts so you can keep track with what they’re blogging about.
We used to have a feature in Afrigator called MyGator and while we’ve dropped it off the main site we’ve brought the best of that technology into the Friends Blogposts section. Think of it as a way to read cool blog posts from only your contacts.
You’ll also notice that below each of your contact’s peeps we also link directly to their latest blog post.
Nifty Tools & Toys
Through our initial testing phase we also developed some really useful tools. Some of these were even developed by our community which we’re really thankful for their help! Visit our Tools page to see how Gatorpeeps can be extended!
We also have a full API so if you’re a developer and want to extend Gatorpeeps even further get in touch and we’ll tell you more.
Where to from here?
Gatorpeeps is going to be developed at a very fast rate. We have lots of plans for where we want to take it and we’ll be moving like a Boeing to get there. Some of our future development includes:
- Mobile web front-end
- Mobile apps for Symbian, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, iPhone and Android
- SMS integration
- Extending Community functionality
- Smarter ways to share links & photos via Gatorpeeps
- Plugins & Widgets for all environments
- Closer integration with Afrigator
API Access(oh wait, that’s done)- API Documentation
For now though we think Gatorpeeps rocks. We hope you do too and would love for you to follow the team (Justin, Stii, Lester, Mike, Mark & Jayx who helped with a lot of the UI) to help us improve the product further.
If you’re interested in our own personal perspectives of Gatorpeeps have a look at some of the things we’ve written:
- Justin Hartman – Afrigator tried to buy Twitter, we launched Gatorpeeps instead
- Mike Stopforth – Afrigator Launches Gatorpeeps
- Mark Forrester – Gatorpeeps launches at Barcamp Nigeria
- Jayx – Afrigator Introduces Gatorpeeps
Afrigator tried to buy Twitter, we launched Gatorpeeps instead by Justin Hartman said,
Wrote on May 11, 2009 @ 09:13
[...] my email list by clicking here. Thanks for stopping by.The news is finally out that Afrigator has officially launched Gatorpeeps. Gatorpeeps is our very own micro-blogging platform that we hope will connect our vastly [...]
kmf said,
Wrote on May 11, 2009 @ 10:43
Hi there,
Is it built on Laconica ?
and do you guys use OMB ?
This cool keep up the awesome work!
Loy Okezie said,
Wrote on May 11, 2009 @ 10:46
Great work, guys!
I’d still expect Gatorpeeps to leverage on Twitter’s inability to integrate mobile micro-blogging for Africa.
That way, Gatorpeeps could become more useful to African users in so many ways that Twitter has overlooked.
Justin Hartman said,
Wrote on May 11, 2009 @ 11:17
Hi Karl
No it’s not built on Laconica. Stii built it to work with our framewok (Kohana). We have however adapted our API to work as Laconica and Twitter so that it’s easier to integrate into apps etc.
Some new web startups from Africa | Startup Africa said,
Wrote on May 11, 2009 @ 11:48
[...] missing that feature. I would still love to have SMS notification for certain people i follow. Read more about [...]
Matt Visser said,
Wrote on May 11, 2009 @ 11:58
This is fantastic news. We’re all very stoked for you guys and on a personal note, I’m really looking forward to being able to interface with my digital world using South African made platforms!
Proudly #gatorpeeps!
Norman Rasmussen said,
Wrote on May 11, 2009 @ 12:56
Will GatorPeeps support the OpenMicroBlogging standard?
Justin Hartman said,
Wrote on May 11, 2009 @ 12:58
Hi Norman – in time yes it will. Stii has indicated an interest in this!
Afrigator Launches Gatorpeeps | Afrigator Blog « euraktiva said,
Wrote on May 12, 2009 @ 23:55
[...] Afrigator Launches Gatorpeeps | Afrigator Blog. [...]
Oluniyi David Ajao said,
Wrote on May 13, 2009 @ 11:42
5 Things I love about GatorPeeps. A Review of Gatorpeeps.com…
Gatorpeeps
I had the privilege of witnessing Justin Hartman announce Gatorpeeps.com to the world during BarCamp Nigeria 2009 in Lagos Nigeria. After a few weeks of use, I am still excited about it. Gatorpeeps – essentially a subset of Afrigator – is a …
Gatorpeeps micro-blogging service | Africa is Talking Are you said,
Wrote on May 24, 2009 @ 12:34
[...] offers an array of features which make it safer to play with According to the Afrigator blog, Gatorpeeps would be extended to an SMS-based mobile offering to cater for users who wish to [...]
Trailrider said,
Wrote on July 12, 2009 @ 22:40
When will the SMS integration be live?