Traffic Android Blog

There hasn’t been a blog post for a while, which I apologize for. The reasons for this have not been due to any slow down on product development, so much as having too much to do to find time to post to the blog.

So, things are about to change with respect to how news and updates are posted. Inside the product there is actually a news and updates section, but I’m planning on making that section redundant and using this blog for all product-related updates, small and large. This means that there will be periodic micro-updates when the status of certain tasks changes, when small things are fixed, and so forth.

Also, whilst I am leading the project, as was always the case, I am now working in conjunction with a team of brilliant internet marketers in Manchester (UK), known to the general internet marketing community as “The Manchester Mob”. Partnering with these guys has opened up many opportunities in terms of both development and support resources and potential audience to whom the product can be marketed.

What’s Been Happening Recently

Up until December, the system was undergoing a private beta test which involved around fifty users. Around mid to late December, in partnership with Dan Raine, we launched an open beta to the members of The Immediate Edge, an internet marketing training membership site. This gave us a significant influx of new users and support requests to help push us forward to launch. Then Christmas and New Years hit and things slowed down temporarily, as is typical for that time of year. Things are back full steam ahead now, though.

What’s Being Worked On Right Now?

In no particular order, the following items have priority:

• Fix a bug where sometimes the information pulled from a site for autocompletion purposes is incorrect.
• Fix scripts for sites that have made updates (Digg, Propeller, Bibsonomy and Connotea)
• Fix a small bug where the number of account profiles owned is being misreported
• Ensure the subscription/billing code is tested before launch
• A few other miscellaneous very minor bugs
• Get a new website ready for launch to the public.

Once these are fixed up, we plan to do a preliminary launch to members of the Traffic Android mailing list, which you can subscribe to here if you haven’t done so already. I expect this should be within a week or so.

Following that and assuming all goes well with this launch, the big launch will likely follow shortly after that and will be performed in conjunction with Dan Raine and his crew. This will be the point at which our doors become open to the public and stay open.

What’s On The Agenda For Traffic Android Beyond This?

Again, in no particular order:

• A large overhaul to the task execution system which will dramatically increase the rate at which new tasks can be implemented. Currently creating or overhauling a task takes anywhere from twenty minutes to four hours. The new system that will be going on should shorten this to less than ten minutes per task script across the board.
• The overhaul will mean we can add a whole lot of new tasks, including RSS aggregator sites, to the mix.
• Some fancy behind the scenes work that will involve separating the task processing from the Traffic Android product so that both can be maintained separately. The technical details aren’t important here, but it will make the product more maintainable and extensible, which makes it easier for us to grow it into something much better in general.
• The ability to add your own feeds that can be submitted to RSS aggregators on top of the Traffic Android generated feed for your account.
• Some new (secret) features that will complement the existing functionality and improve the product’s ability to help you build traffic to your website.

I will post another update here when some fixes have been made. Please direct any questions to support@trafficandroid.com.