June 17, 2011

OneTrueFan Introduces Friend Ranks, Improves Badging

If you've been running the OneTrueFan bar to follow your activity around the Web, as I've long extolled and done myself, you've gotten used to the ease of sharing great content downstream and racking up achievements, as you work your way to the top of sites' leaderboard. Today, the service introduced an array of visual enhancements which makes advancement more apparent, but more importantly, connects with your external social networks to find how you rank, not just globally, but against your friends as you travel through the Internet.

Now, instead of simply seeing the global OneTrueFan leaderboard for any site, you can now toggle between this ranking and a "Friends" ranking, which taps the connections you have made on Twitter or Facebook, surfacing the avatars of your buddies, giving you an even better idea of just what your friends are doing online, and what sites they find valuable. This way, even if you're a house hermit, you're never truly browsing alone. You can also now, for the first time, invite friends from Twitter and Facebook to join you on that site via the leaderboard, with a few clicks.

OneTrueFan Now Divides Friends From the World's Rankings

In addition to the friend segmentation, OneTrueFan also made a number of visual tweaks, most apparent to frequent users. Instead of a one-time bar flash that updates you on achievements, the message icon now glows red. When clicked, your most recent accomplishment, from the "Thanks for Sharing!" badge to achieving multiple levels from engagement, to achieving the much-desired OneTrueFan status, will be displayed in a larger, rectangular window, attached to the OTF bar.

The New Badging System on OneTrueFan

The enhancements are pretty slick and welcome for all existing users. It's always fun for me to find which sites my friends visit, and I'm often surprised when I find unexpected people in unanticipated places. The OTF team, on the heels of their excellent analytics package I discussed last Friday, continues to roll out useful updates.