November 2007 Archives

Hi5 is pleased to add Japanese (日本語 / にほんご) to our growing set of supported languages. Japanese is spoken by 130 million people, mostly in Japan, but is also commonly studied in Korea, China, Australia, and The United States.

Being the first Asian language for hi5, Japanese presents a unique challenge to the design and localization teams.  Three different scripts are used for the written language: kanji (漢字 かんじ), which are derived from Chinese in the 6th century, plus two syllabic scripts, hiragana (平仮名 ひらがな) and katakana (片仮名 カタカナ). Keeping them all straight was quite a challenge!

Japanese is our eleventh language with many more to come.  Please visit the Hi5 Language Forum for more information about our translations and localization.

We're proud to announce that Hi5 will fully implement Google's OpenSocial APIs.  OpenSocial expands on hi5's existing Widget system by adding many high-quality applications for our users and allowing much greater flexibility for developers using the hi5 Platform.  The following video shows an example of a number of OpenSocial applications running inside a beta version of www.hi5.com

As you can see, OpenSocial opens a number of possibilities for Developers and Users.

For Developers

Open Social applications are easy to write and give you the widest audience.  The Open Social API builds upon the Google Gadget system, which is well designed and feature rich.  Here at hi5 we especially noticed that internationalization features are present, which is essential for delivering these applications to our diverse world-wide audience.

The API is simple, yet powerful.  Your application can access profile, friends, and activity information for the  viewer and owner of a profile or canvas page.  It only takes a few lines of JavaScript to pull in this information, the rest is all standard HTML and JavaScript.

For hi5 Users

This project will bring some great applications to hi5.  Music Applications like iLike will track your favorite music and your friends favorite music.  Slide's Funwall gives you a whole new way of chatting with your friends.  And Movie application Flixster will let you show off your favorite films and celebrities on your home page.

Even more exciting is the applications yet to be written.  We fully expect a large number of new, interesting, and localized applications to pop up.  These new applications will give you applications that speak your native language and target your local customs and culture.

The Future

At hi5 we're excited about delivering this platform to our users and developers, along with our current Platform.  We plan to have a developer sandbox available in November, with a production release following after a period of testing.  Developers are encouraged to visit the hi5 Developer site and Google's OpenSocial site to keep abreast of the latest information and join in the conversation.

On October 19th, Topspace and hi5 celebrated a Just Say Hi Party to introduce our new partnership.  Over 92 guests from 45 organizations were present, covering the top advertising agencies in Thailand:

Asatsu, Angaroo, Admax Network, AVANT RS Film, BECi, Café Organizer, D Computer, Dai-Ichi Kikaku, Eduworld, GTH, Impaq, LH, LiveAbroadGroup, Monotravel, Mono Technology, Mono Generation, mInteraction, Media Palatte, Media Cubic, M.I., Mindshare, New media, Net Design, Ogilvy One, Starcom, WBS, Zenithoptimedia

Press coverage of the event and the hi5/Topspace partnership was widespread.  All of Thailands main news outlets covered the announcement.

• Post Today
  [P.B2] October 15, 2007
• Khao Hoon
  [P.4] October 18, 2007
• World Today
  [P.24C] October 19, 2007
• Thai Rath
  [P.12] Oct. 19, 2007
• Matichon
  [P.4] Oct. 19, 2007
• Krungthep Turakij
  [P.1, 6] Oct. 20, 2007
• Manager Daily
  [P.6] Oct. 22, 2007
• Post Today
  [P.B1] October 20, 2007
• World Today
  [P.14B] October 22, 2007
• Thansettakit
  [P.32] October 21-24, 2007
• Naew Na
  [P.14] October 22, 2007
• Sanook! News
  
• Prachachart Thurakit
  [P.35] October 25-28, 2007
• Thansettakit
  [P.40, 39] October 25-27, 2007
• Siam Thurakit
  [P.36] October 27-30, 2007
• BizWeek
  [P.8] October 26-November 1, 2007
• Pim Thai
  [P.22] October 27, 2007
• Transport Journal
  [P.20] October 29-November 4, 2007
• Bangkok Post
  [P.D3] October 31, 2007

Service on www.hi5.com is severely degraded as of 19:00 PM PST.

Update: 19:15 -- our network team is on site and diagnosing a network related issue.

Update 2: 21:00 -- No ETA to total resolution yet.  Our team, network consultants and vendors are diagnosing and fixing as fast as possible.

Update 3: 22:50 -- Problem appears to be isolated.  Preparing to resume full service.  Thanks for everyone's patience.

Update 4: 23:05 -- Service fully restored.

We're pleased to announce the hi5 Developer Center.  This site is an essential resource for people developing applications that use the hi5 Platform.  Here you will find:

• The latest news about hi5 application development.
• Our latest Platform Roadmap.
• Full API documentation for the hi5 Platform.
• Our Platform Developer discussion group.
  
• Code Samples, Tips and more...

With this information everyone, from hobbyists to our largest partners, can easily develop for the hi5 Platform using a multitude of languages and protocols.  So whether you're developing the next great web gadget or a cool mobile application, visit us and join in the conversation.

Need help using hi5? We recently debuted our new and improved hi5 Help.

Powered by LivePerson, the new Help section is a robust knowledgebase that allows you to Search, Browse articles, and view the most popular FAQs read by other members. Using the new Help section, you can find relevant answers to most any question about using the site.

To help keep hi5 free to members, we encourage you to use our self-help tools. Email support is primarily reserved for abuse or spam reporting and assisting members with private information, such as password or log in problems.

To allow us to assist more members, hi5 email support is now available in both English and Spanish. We have plans to offer our members additional Help resources in coming months as well, including a version of the hi5 Help section en Español!

Be sure to stop by and take a look (or a search) at the new hi5 Help.