We had several updates for you, primarily in the realm of getting bigger boxes for everything from game recap, boxscore and photo processing, to updating our database servers to make them distributed.

The detailed breakdown.

Epic

• Our NCAA basketball scoreboard page occasionally was overwhelmed when some 150 took place on a single day. We refactored that page to make it more robust and stable.
• Gaming was moved over to our message-queue so that your game results will arrive in a more timely fashion on both Facebook and on FanFeedr.com
• We added in MLB and College Basketball into Facebook Pick’Em, just in time for March Madness

Bugs

• Removed tweets from the Chrome application
• Gaming updates sent via email now have the up-to-date player rank
• Amended photo publishing to Facebook and Twitter to provide more value by actually publishing photos

That’s it. The current sprint is all about bug fixes, so we will have more for you next week.

Thanks, as always, FanFeedr

Gaming

• Relaunch of FanFeedr Pick’Em on Facebook
• Better badges
• Faster response time
• Revamped User Experience
• If you . . .
  • like to show off, and
  • have a mild inclination for betting,
  • then this game is for you

FanFeedr Chrome Application

• The Chrome App store launched on Feb. 1st
• We made several changes to improve your user experience, based on your feedback
  • Box scores open directly in the interface
  • Photos open directly in the interface
  • Recaps open directly in the interface
  • Made it easier to get to your fanned items

Twitter

• We put tighter restrictions on what gets published to Twitter so that you get more value, less noise, for each of the team and player accounts.

Celery

• More than just a good source of fiber
• It is a “Celery is an asynchronous task queue/job queue based on distributed message passing. It is focused on real-time operation, but supports scheduling as well.”
• Allows for a more stable FanFeedr so that you will see even better uptime

Minor bugs

• We had both “Yahoo” and “Yahoo Sports” listed. There is now just “Yahoo Sports.”

Thanks again, and we hope you try out the new stuff, FanFeedr

We have to put this here, in case Michael Bay hasn’t seen it.

Non-technical updates for you:

• More photos for your favorite NCAA teams. Here is one of our favorite for Michigan, featuring Lil’ Timmy Hardaway (Jr.).
• Improved the speed of the FanFeedr Chrome Application, and we are really happy to be featured in Google’s Chrome App Store.
• The Kansas City Wizards have changed their name to Sporting Kansas City, and we had to do what can kindly be called “database massaging” to make them the same.
• Implemented all of the logos for obscure Champions’ League teams like FC Benfica (what, who, where?)
• And a slate of smaller technical fixes

Happy holidays, FanFeedr

Over the last two weeks, we have had a slate of good news:

• FanFeedr was selected as one of the PepsiCo10 top emerging startups
• We launched our FanFeedr Pick’Em game directly on Facebook
• We released our Official Redskins Feedr application in partnership with the Washington Redskins
• Verizon is actively promoting our FanFeedr Android application for personalized sports news and information

Additionally, the developers have worked hard (and over weekends) to improve the user experience on FanFeedr, Facebook and Twitter for you, our users.

Improvements to FanFeedr.com

• The Associated Press accidentally cut off our photo feed, and that has been restored. Top photos on the site in the last hour are here.
• European football and US football scores, schedules and rosters have been updated
• We made it easier to login and sign-up for the site by creating a new first-time user experience
• We added navigation to the sports in the search bar at the top of every page to make it easier to go to scores, photos and the Hot News

On our Facebook Pick’Em application

• We made it easier and clearer to invite friends to the game
• Fixed some bugs when we published the results of scores
• Added in options with our partner, gWallet, to allow you to get points for free

As always, we appreciate your business, and your feedback, and please let us know if you are missing anything important in the FanFeedr Feedback area.

Thanks, FanFeedr

A bunch of fixes and improvements . . .

iPad/iPhone users

• We released our brand new official Redskins Feedr iPad application, with all of the best Redskins news and information, served up directly to your iPad. You can get the official Redskins Feedr application here.
• If you have experienced authentication problems with FanFeedr since upgrading to version 1.6.3, we traced the error down to a server side API error on our end and it has been promptly fixed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Facebook Pick’Em game

• First, do you know that we have a killer Facebook Pick’Em game? You can predict the outcome of English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A games, directly on Facebook, with your friends.
• We are using Facebook Credits directly, and you don’t have to go hunting for currency to play the game
• We added live scores to the game, so you can check your scores as the games take place

First-time user experience

• We deleted the welcome pop-up screen, because many of you complained about it. She’sa gone.

There were other bug fixes. We hope that you are enjoying your Summer, and remember, if you like the website, you can also get FanFeedr for your iPhone, iPad, and Android.
Thanks, FanFeedr

Folks,

We have been working on this for most of the summer, so we are quite excited about the opportunity around being able to play Pick’Em directly on Facebook. We are launching with European soccer, so that you can predict the outcomes of games against your friends or everyone on Facebook, all for the opportunity to be the commissioner for the Premiership, La Liga, Serie A or the Bundesliga.

We simplified the interface, and we use Facebook Credits directly to make it easier for you to continue playing the game if your luck leaves you for a short bit.

We hope you enjoy playing and look forward to your feedback about the game, as we will roll out improvements every week.

Please share it with your friends as well.

Remember, you can pick your favorite Premiership, La Liga, Bundesliga, and Serie A teams right here, and you can compete against your friends on Facebook.

Thanks, FanFeedr

We have a lot in this week’s release.

World Cup Soccer

• The main World Cup page is here
• Follow all of the teams on FanFeedr, Facebook and Twitter.
• The USA team can be followed via FanFeedr, Facebook and Twitter

We also have a pretty sweet World Cup Challenge game on Facebook. Pick your favorite teams and compete with your friends in the Tournament.

Getty Images

• We have a partnership to Getty Images for their amazing sports photos, which are now live on the site.
• Here is a great example of Pau Gasol
• We are also adding some functionality if you would like to show Getty Images on your site. We will let you know when that is available.

Thanks, as always, FanFeedr

We heard your request, especially from Knicks’ followers: we want to be able to track all of the free-agent/football transfer news on a per-team basis. Problem solved.
We have a new filter on each team and player page that gives you just that: all team changes, all the time. Some examples . . .

NBA free-agent news

• New York Knicks’ free agents
• Miami Heat free agents

Premier League Football transfer news

• Chelsea transfers
• Man U transfers
• Arsenal transfers

La Liga Football transfer news

• Barca transfers
• Real Madrid transfers

One last new feature: we have added the ability to customize your feed on the team pages so that you can see just the information that is important to you. When you go to a team or player page, you can turn on some, all or none of the Filters in the left column.

Additionally, some bug fixes:

• Twitter suppression on the home page is permanent. If you select it, it will stick even if you leave and come back.
• Added a link to “Hot Pick’Em games” in the right column of the home page to all of the Pick’Em games.
• Improved the frequency and type of stories that we publish to our popular Facebook team pages, like the LA Angels or New York Yankees.

Another great week of work by our talented engineering team.

Thanks, FanFeedr

This is a pretty straightforward release: Pick’Em has been added to the FanFeedr home page so that you don’t have to search for it.

You can pick games directly on the front of FanFeedr.com so that you don’t have to go to the Pick’Em homepage.

Also, we added a new World Cup news section on Facebook.

Let us know if we can provide you with other features right here.

Thanks, as always, FanFeedr

Obsessive readers of this blog will be glad to know that our former West Coast contingent has arrived safe and sound here in sunny Brooklyn. In fact, they’ve hit the ground running, and have prepared these new features for your delectation:

• Pick ’Em opportunities on team pages. Now you can make your game picks directly from your favorite teams’s pages.
• Game publishing settings. Speaking of Pick ’Em, now you can also change what game activity updates we publish to your social networks.
• Improved feed quality. Tuning, tuning, always tuning.
• UX touches:
  • Icons for tweets. For improved visual appeal, we’ve added Twitter avatars to the tweets we list in our content feeds.
  • Team colors. Likewise, we noticed that some of the team colors for scoreboards seemed a little off (no red for the Reds, for example), so we kicked that into shape as well.

Please join us again next week for another episode of What’s In This Week’s FanFeedr Release, starring the usual suspects.

Until then, we remain

Your friends at FanFeedr