The Multiply Blog

No matter how you're planning on spending this July 4th, we have just the thing to let your Multiply site spend it looking all patriotic-like, decked out in stars and stripes!

To celebrate the anniversary of the United States' independence, we've come up with a brand-new theme, aptly titled "Independence." Simply apply this theme to your page to help celebrate the Fourth in style. And even if you're not from the U.S.... hey, the theme still looks cool. :-)

As with our other pre-made themes, this one is free for all Multiply users. Apply it to your site as you would any other: click "Customize My Site" followed by "Choose a Theme."

And, of course, you can continue using it after the Fourth.

So, as you already know, we released Multiply Premium last week. And as we've heard back from a number of users, many of you really really like what we've come up with.

We'd like to better clarify a very important aspect of the service: our policies on the storage of photos and videos, for both free and premium users.

As you already know, a major component of Multiply Premium is the permanent archiving of the content you post to Multiply, in its original full-resolution format, forever.


Doesn't Multiply already do that?

While we said goodbye to upload limits nearly two years ago, it's long been our policy that we would only hold onto your full-resolution content for a limited amount of time.

What do we mean by "full-resolution"? Well, when you store photos on Multiply, three copies of each photo are made: 1) a thumbnail, 2) the version that appears resized in your album, and 3) the original image, just as you gave it to us.

Videos work pretty much the same way. We automatically create "Flash" versions of your videos after you upload them; they're the ones that play right in your browser. Underneath the video, you'll find a link to download the original video file.

Album-sized photos and Flash videos will remain accessible for all users, forever. But permanent archival of all original, full-resolution media is a component of Multiply Premium.


Why the change?

Multiply users post millions of photos and tens of thousands of videos a day, and that's a lot of stuff to store and manage... which costs money and resources. We've also learned that an overwhelming majority of the original photos and videos are never even viewed! Clearly, for many Multiply users, the album-sized photos and Flash videos are good enough.

So rather than spend resources supporting something that isn't used, we feel it makes more sense to focus on making the site faster and better for everyone, improving the features that are used, and adding more features. For free. But if your original content is important to you, you have the option of sharing and storing that indefinitely by upgrading to Multiply Premium.


But I can't, or don't want to pay!

That's okay.

You can pretty much continue using Multiply just as you always have. Your photos and videos remain accessible to the people you've shared them with. The number of albums or videos you can upload remains unlimited. And we'll hold onto the original, full-resolution versions of your content for a limited time.


Could you please explain this to me in the form of a table?

Of course!

	album-sized photos & on-site (Flash) video	"Zoomed-in" photos & original video files	Content stored in Media Locker*
Free users	stored forever	stored for 30 days	stored for 30 days
Premium users	stored forever	stored forever	stored forever

* This refers to content that has been AutoUploaded to your Media Locker, but not posted to your site.

We have a few things to announce today, and they all share one thing in common: they all make it easier to do what Multiply has been helping you do for years now — store and share your media with the people who matter most to you.

But don't let the serious, understated tone of the last paragraph fool you... this is huge, and we're as excited by this as you're about to be!

So without further ado, the goods.

Multiply AutoUploader First, we're introducing the Multiply AutoUploader. This tiny, brilliant piece of software patiently sits on your computer and automatically uploads your latest photos and videos to Multiply. No fuss, no hassle. And because it runs on Adobe AIR (which, in turn, runs on all modern computers) it runs on yours for sure. And if you're worried about what gets uploaded: don't be. You tell the AutoUploader exactly which folders to scan and upload from. You're in control here: the only ones that'll be uploaded are the ones you want uploaded  — all others will be ignored. That's right, auto-uploaded media won't be shared with anyone until you say so, because...

Multiply Media Locker We'd also like you to meet the Multiply Media Locker. This is a brand-new, completely private area of your Multiply site where the AutoUploader stores the media it uploads. Yeah, it's private. In other words, only you can access your Media Locker. Nobody else. Private, private, private. Hey, did we mention how completely private it is? So once the AutoUploader sends your new media to your Media Locker, it's stored there, waiting for you to share it — as with anything else on Multiply — with as many (or as few) of the people who matter most to you. Auto-uploaded photos and videos are stored in your Media Locker for 30 days, which should be more than enough time for you to post the ones you want to share with others. (The ones you share on your Multiply site are, as usual, kept forever.) And as we showed you a couple days ago, the Media Locker also makes it easy to change the access and tags on your existing posts!

Multiply Premium You'll definitely want Multiply Premium if you'd like full-size, high-resolution copies of your media stored for longer than 30 days (say, perhaps, forever). This service not only allows you to store all of your photos and videos in your Media Locker, forever, but also enables other great features you may be interested in. Like what? Well, how does double-length video uploads (20 minutes/200 MB) sound? Permanent storage of all high-resolution photos and videos? And no banner ads, anywhere on Multiply? Does that sound good?

The best news of all
All this great new stuff is all available immediately. That means you can start using it right now.

So go ahead... install the AutoUploader.
Check out your Media Locker. (You'll also find a link on your homepage, underneath your headshot.)
And perhaps, just perhaps... upgrade to Multiply Premium?






[Digg this!]

Today, we have a quick preview of something you're sure to love.

We think that this screenshot should be sufficient to explain the feature.

If it isn't, and you must know right now... coming soon there will be an easy way to change the access setting on multiple posts. Oh, and tags too.

While this is sure to get more than a few people more than excited, trust us when we say that it gets even better. This is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

That said, the iceberg isn't here just yet. We'll let you know when it is... but not a second sooner. :-)

While you know this blog as the place you turn for Multiply news, today let's look elsewhere.


As many of you already know, Firefox 3.0 was released earlier this week. This is great news, as Firefox was already a pretty darned good browser, and it's always fun to see what's new in "point-zero" releases.

Let's see...  it looks kind of cool, the new location bar is, well, awesome and lighter memory usage is always welcome.

But since Firefox is a web browser, and Multiply is a website, we'd be remiss if we didn't tie the two in together here.

While we try to make Multiply work as well as possible on as many browsers as possible, there are a few we officially support... and Firefox is indeed among them. (Internet Explorer and Safari are the others.) But Firefox is a particularly important one, since it runs on the three most prominent PC operating systems: Windows, OS X and Linux.

As far as Firefox 3 support in Multiply goes, things should pretty much just work. Having said that, we're still in the process of thoroughly testing the new version and fixing issues as we come across them. If you happen to spot any issues with Multiply (or the Multiply Toolbar) on Firefox 3, don't hesitate to let us know, provide as much detail as you can, and we'll get them fixed.

If you don't have it yet and would like to give it a try, you can get Firefox here.

Father's Day is upon us again, and the warm wishes we extended on Mother's Day are equally applicable today... of course, to all the fathers out there!

Fathers are, too, special people and rightfully deserve recognition with their very own day. The exact day varies from country to country, but mid-June — right about now — seems a popular choice.

So, to all the fathers who use Multiply, today we extend to you our sincerest salutations!

And for users who are not, but simply happen to have, a father, Multiply is not only a great way to send him warm wishes, but also share things like photos or videos from the day's festivities... or perhaps even a bit of wisdom you've learned from your father.

We recently released a couple small improvements, which you may or may not have noticed, that make using Multiply on your phone (or other small-screen mobile device) a little bit easier.

For one thing, if you're using a mobile device we'll automatically send you to Multiply Mobile (multiply.com/m — our specially-designed mobile site that is ideal for viewing Multiply on a small screen). And if you happen to be on an iPhone, we'll send you directly to the special iPhone-tailored version of Multiply Mobile!

This even includes special cases, such as when you follow a link to Multiply from an e-mail alert. We know a number of users check their e-mail on their mobiles, so this is likely to be helpful as well. Put simply: however you get to Multiply, we try to give you the most appropriate interface for the device you're currently using.

And since we know that some users prefer to use the full Multiply interface, even when on their mobiles, you'll now find a new link at the bottom of every mobile page inviting you to switch to the full version of Multiply.

It looks a little something like this:

There you have it: a couple small changes... that have the potential to make your experience a lot easier.

So if you use Multiply Mobile, please indulge us... what else could we do to make it even better?

We thought we'd take a moment to have a look at the enhancement to the Shutterfly import tool we announced not too long ago. If you've previously shared photos on Shutterfly, you'll want to take notice. (If you haven't, there's nothing to worry about.)

Visually, the enhancement can be summarized as such:

Or, verbally, like so:

You now have the option of importing low-resolution versions of your Shutterfly photos.

This means that, by choosing to import smaller versions of your photos, you can spend less time waiting for imports, and more quickly share them with the people who matter most to you! (That said, if you're interested in ordering prints of your photos, you'll want to stick with the hi-resolution option, which grabs your images at sizes suitable for printing.)

If there's one thing that drives Multiply employees with a burning passion, it's helping people better share their lives with those who matter most to them. Naturally.

But if there are two things, the second is competition... and usually the friendly sort. Sometimes the competition features feats of physical achievements (as of late, basketball, formerly office chair sports or headerball) or being really good at foreseeing future dates (such as when a given employee will finally get engaged, or when another will give up on three-hour commutes to the office and just move closer already).

Lately, however, a new challenge emerged. A good handful of Multiply employees recently competed to see who could lose (and in one's case, gain) the most weight over a three-month period (as measured by a percentage of their starting weight).

The competitors are pictured below, at the start of the competition, with the winners spotlighted.From left to right, the three are Jeff, Nik and Tony.



And below is an 'after' shot of the three (this time their order reversed).

	The three took this competition very seriously, even going so far as to forgo veritable Multiply staples like the consumable portion of our Tuesday pizza-meetings. But as you can see below, this perseverance really paid off for them!
	Weight Loser Percentage Lost Tony 16.90% Nik 14.45% Jeff 10.07%

Please join us in congratulating not only the top three, but everyone who took part in the competition!

Just a quick note to let you know that the figures recently reported elsewhere (and on our splash page, for that matter) are indeed true... Multiply (or, more specifically, our users) recently passed the nine million user mark!

That's great news — we're thrilled to see so many people using Multiply to share and communicate with the people who matter.

Thank you... and congratulations!

We decided that a few small improvements we've recently birthed were finally mature enough to leave home, so we've gone and pushed them out the door... straight to you guys!

Your web browser would make an excellent home for our...

Video player's new look  Go ahead... watch any video on Multiply to experience the video player's sleek new look.

Audio/video recorder's new look  We also went and applied the video player's new stylings to not only the tool for recording from your webcam, but also to the ones you use to leave audio or video replies! Why not leave us one to try it out? :-)

New photo import tool  Ever shared photos on Shutterfly? Now you can easily bring them over to Multiply.

So please enjoy these new features, as you already do the existing ones.
And please let us know what you think of them. Your opinion is, as they say, very important to us!

Start:	May 16, '08 8:00p
End:	May 17, '08 04:00a
Location:	Webster Hall, NYC

Just a heads-up that Multiply will be at tomorrow's MashBash, hosted by Mashable and GBH.tv. MashBash is a New York-based tech networking event, where we'll do what people typically do at these sorts of things... meet and network with influencers, VCs, entrepreneurs, tech veterans, and press!

That's not all... they'll do this in the presence of Grandmaster Flash, who is going to be performing at the event!

If you'll be there, we'd love to see you... in particular, keep an eye out for Lyle!

While venture capital, strategic partnerships and generally good business sense have all helped keep Multiply going so far, there's a little something else, an unsung hero of sorts, that has certainly helped.

Coffee! While most of us like it — though others get their caffeine fixes from tea, soda or (gasp) not at all — its role in keeping our eyes open and fingers tapping keyboards should not be understated.

We've been through our share of nearby locations of multinational coffee chains and in-house coffee makers over the years at Multiply, and while each dutifully delivered acceptable doses of caffeine, none have been without their drawbacks.

Initially, we were using a commercial-grade coffee maker. There were no complaints then, but brewing an entire pot at once had obvious disadvantages: different people like their coffee at different times of the day, and leftover coffee would either get cold if the machine were turned off, or burn if left on, not to mention develop a decidedly unappealing layer of film at the top if left to sit for long enough.

Fortunately, there are a wealth of single-cup makers on the market, but the first one we bought... kind of sucked. It made coffee from pods, which, in theory is a nice and convenient way to make a single cup, but most of us found the coffee it made to not be all that great. We suffered with it for a while until recently when it, mercifully, broke.

We recently replaced it with the hybrid-type model pictured above, which brews single cups from either grinds or pods. The pod people get to use the pods, and the people with taste get to use their choice of ground beans. :-)

And everyone, regardless of their choice, gets to push cool buttons that light up with a futuristic blue glow... which, um, also let you set options for how you like your coffee.

Everyone is reportedly now happy with their caffeine fix, if not a bit jumpy... though not unproductively so.

It's early May, dear Multiply users, and this means only one thing.

Well, it may actually mean a number of things, but if you remembered that Mother's Day is once again upon us, that means you're thinking like we're thinking.

If you're a mother who uses Multiply... that's great! You already know how easy Multiply makes sharing your media and keeping in touch with the people you know: not only your kids, but other relatives, friends, and those sorts of people.

You don't have to be a mother to enjoy Multiply — it's a great place for anyone to post their photos and videos (such as those taken during Mother's Day activities) and share them with more of the people they know. Like, naturally, their mother!

Since Mother's Day is a family holiday, now would be a good time to remind you that Multiply provides not only privacy options for sharing with precisely the people you choose, but also the best tools (like Live Replies and extensive alert options) for keeping the discussion around content lively.

And if you happen to be a mother... happy Mother's Day to you. :-)

Multiply is a great place to share things like your photos, videos and blog entries... but what about your spreadsheets? PDFs? Other random things?

Guess what — you can do all that here too. Just attach the file, or files, to a blog entry.

Long-time Multiply users likely already know this. Not-as-long-time users may have even taken notice.

It's been well over a year since we first introduced this feature, and we thought it was a great time to re-introduce it to those who may not have been aware. So... if you want to share any random type of file on Multiply, here's how:

First, create a new blog entry. (Or edit an existing one.)

Then, click the paper-clip icon you'll find on the blog editor toolbar. (If you don't see the bar and use Safari, try upgrading to the latest version.)

Next, select the file you'd like to attach. (You can attach up to five files, each smaller than 20 MB.)

Finally, save your changes to the blog entry. (Use the handy "Save Changes" button.)

Have you learned something new today? If you already knew about this, how have you found the feature useful?

---

Note that files shared on Multiply have in no way been scanned for viruses or other malware. We don't recommend downloading files shared by people you don't necessarily trust, but thought we should remind you that it's a good idea to keep your virus scanner active and up-to-date, regardless.

Remember the Web 2.0 Conference we mentioned last week? It's over now, but we've heard that it turned out to be good times for all... or, at least for Multiply's own Julie and Dave!

They had a veritable blast, not only posing for photos but naturally, talking up Multiply, hearing about what else is out there, networking with interesting people, and so on.

Julie says, "We enjoyed meeting with a wide variety of attendees both at the conference and at the networking events, and were pleased to see Multiply really resonate with everyone who heard about us."

Sounds great, guys!

A few months back we announced a feature that came by popular request: separate access settings for Online Buddies.

As you already know, the Online Buddy relationship type on Multiply lets you connect with a single individual, without becoming part of their network, and vice versa. This is useful when you want to add someone you may not know that well as a contact: if you don't know them that well, how likely is it that you know the people they know?

Using the new settings, you're able to choose whether to include or exclude your Online Buddies, not only when posting content, but also for sharing your profile information, like your last name, e-mail address, interests and such.

First we previewed it for you.

Then we announced that it was available.

And now, we're curious to hear how you've made use of it.

Is the feature as useful as you hoped it would be? Is it more?

Have you added more contacts you otherwise wouldn't have been able to before?

Were you able to reclassify any existing contacts following the introduction of the feature?

Start:	Apr 23, '08
End:	Apr 25, '08
Location:	Moscone West, San Francisco

Web-savvy folks: if you're going to be at this year's Web 2.0 conference (which they refer to as "a global annual gathering of technical, design, marketing, and business professionals who are building the next generation web"... which sounds a bit like us!) next week in San Francisco, keep an eye open for Multiply's very own Dave and Julie.

We suggest this course of action because, well, they'll be there too, and would like to say hello.

One thing that became apparent while looking over the results of our recent photo survey is that a clear majority of respondents were interested in more options for getting their photos onto Multiply.

We're looking into the feasibility of upload plugins for specific applications, but in the meantime, we wanted to remind you of an option available right now that you may find useful: Posting Via E-mail!

A brief aside: as you probably already know, it's been possible to post content to Multiply via e-mail since 2006. To do so, simply select a secret PIN and choose a default access level on the settings page. Then, you can post content, like photos, by attaching it to an e-mail sent to secretpinhere@your-user-ID.multiply.com.

See the FAQ for all the details on Posting via E-mail.

But consider this: you can use Posting via E-mail to send content directly to Multiply... in ways you may not have realized!

Let's say you're on a Windows computer (as shown in the screenshot); you can easily select a bunch of images, right click them... and post them directly to Multiply using your default e-mail client. (If you don't use Windows, your operating system may make this just as easy to do. Why not try it out?) Also, if your mobile phone can send e-mail, you'll be able to post via e-mail from wherever you happen to be.

Are there any other applications you use that have built-in e-mail support? Have you tried posting to Multiply from within them?