Verb blog

Who are we?

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:50 +1000

Verb has evolved, both as an application and as a community since it was launched last year. In thinking about its future, I’ve decided to share a little more about who is behind it.

Behind Verb is Rocketship, and behind Rocketship is me. I know that will come as a surprise to many of you. There is not in fact a team of monkeys furiously coding away in the wee hours of the morning to bring you Verb. Verb is my application, and I’m proud of what I’ve created, and what it has become since it launched. I’m glad that thousands of people are able to be better organised and collaborate on their projects through something I made.

I consider myself primarily a designer, but for almost as long as I’ve been designing, I’ve been moonlighting as a coder as well (in fact, the moonlighting became daylighting for a year or so).

Some things about me:

I like Django for building web applications.
I like jQuery for JavaScript interactions.
I like Ubuntu as my OS.
I like Inkscape for design.
I like my IDE to be as simple as possible.
I like robots (particularly if they want to be my friend).
I like you guys, the users of Verb.

Oh, and I am Huw Wilkins.

My plan for the coming months is to blog a bit more about what I’m doing with Verb and get your feedback and ideas as I develop Verb further. The feedback section of the site may be a bit disorganised, but I do read everything there, even if it takes me a while to respond, and I really value everything that is posted there.

I really want to create something that you love to use. Together we can do something great.

It's been quiet around here

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 09:32 +1000

It’s been a while, but we want to give you an update on what’s happening with Verb. There haven’t been any updates for some time, but that’s because some changes are being made that we want to get right before we unleash them on you, our beloved users. Here are a few things that you can look forward to in the coming updates:

Activity Feeds

Tasks and projects will have activity feeds of who has been doing what and when. No more guessing or trawling through lists to see what has changed.

API

Verb will have a simple API to allow the creation of 3rd party applications that interact with Verb. This will begin in a very basic form. Think of it as API Lite.

File Uploads

You will be able to upload files and attach them to tasks and projects.

iCal Feeds

Take your tasks and view them in your favourite calendar application (iCal, Google Calendar etc.).

Mobile

An optomized version of Verb for mobile phones. This will be web based and hopefully will allow you to do everything you can do with the desktop version on your mobile.

Better Communication

We are improving the way you communicate inside Verb. The current messaging system is basically just email, only not as good. Coming soon is the ability to comment on tasks and projects and have better conversations about your work.

Pro: Paid accounts

We are going to introduce paid accounts as well. Let us make it very clear that the core of Verb will stay free. Everything you can do currently will stay in the unpaid version. What will go into the paid version is optional extras. Things like more file upload space. By contributing to Verb you will also be supporting the continued development of new features.

New Name

It looks like we will have a new name for Verb soon too. There are a number of reasons that we will be changing the name that we won’t go into here now, but don’t worry we’re not going crazy with the name. In fact, we think you’ll like it.

We’ve also fixed a lot of little annoying UI issues too. These are just some of the things that are happening. More features will probably be added, and there’s a chance that some won’t be ready for a while, but we hope to do a major update soon.

Finally, stay tuned to find out a bit more about who’s behind Verb.

Feature updates and bug fixes

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:18 +1000

We’ve just done the first major update to Verb in a long time. We’ve been listening to your feedback and implementing it.

Some of the new features include:

Quick add: When viewing a project you can quickly add tasks without refreshing the page.

Task sorting: You can now sort task list by date created, priority, due date and title.

Search improvements: You can now search for tasks, tags and projects.

Keyboard shortcuts: We’ve added some keyboard shortcuts for common interactions (a list of shortcuts can be found in the help).

There are lots more new features and bug fixes that you may notice as you use Verb. We hope to add more features soon!

One week later

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:09 +1000

It’s been a week and we’ve seen hundreds of new users, lots of activity and plenty of feedback. We think that’s pretty good for 7 days.

It is wonderful to see hard work turn into a rapidly expanding user base and (hopefully) hundreds of more organised people.

It would be great if you can continue to send through your feedback (even if it is just to say that you like Verb).

We will be sorting through your feedback soon, and setting a plan for making some changes and adding some new features soon!

In the meantime, enjoy using Verb and keep telling your friends about it!

Public Beta

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:42 +1000

We are proud to announce that Verb is now in public beta! It has been an exciting last couple of months as Verb has entered the wild for the first time. It has grown and evolved into what you see today, and we expect to continue to refine as time goes by.

A special thank you to all those who helped test and give feedback during the private beta.

Tell your friends to come check out Verb!