Over the course of the past two years we have created some pretty cool and useful software tools in the process of building GigPark. We think a lot of people can benefit from these little gems, so we’re releasing them as open source projects! Here’s what we’ve made available so far:
- EC2 on Rails: Deploy a Ruby on Rails app on EC2 in five minutes
- Better Logging Rails Plugin: A Rails plugin that improves the log format
- Texpand: Textarea auto-expander a la Facebook
- HintText: Add hints to your forms the right way
This is awesome. How do I get it?
View our open source projects. All of our projects are made available on GitHub. For developers interested in using the projects or contributing, please fork us and send pull requests!
Thanks – you guys are cool!
NP. We know :)
June 15th, 2009 by Gianni
We’re excited to announce a new partnership with Metro Canada – publisher of Canada’s #1 free national daily newspaper.
The partnership will enable Metro readers across English-speaking Canada to find local services, both online and in print, through recommendations from fellow Metro readers.
By visiting www.metronews.ca/gigpark, Metro readers will be able to browse recommendations for plumbers, accountants, personal trainers and hundreds of other services. Metro readers can also recommend their favourite businesses to the reader community. To accompany the online component, Metro print editions in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary and Halifax will feature the most recommended businesses in that city on a weekly basis (e.g., Top 5 chiropractors in Calgary).
We’re hugely excited to be working with Metro and helping to offer a very cool service to their readers.
Win a 10″ Eee PC
To say thank you to everyone who joins the Metro Readers Community we’re giving away a 10′ Eee PC. Check out www.gigpark.com/win for all of the details.
Over the past couple of years the development community has been very kind to us, so we thought we’d make a little contribution back. It’s with great pleasure that we present Texpand.
What is it?
In short, Texpand is a javascript plugin that makes writing long posts easier by expanding the text input as you type. This is helpful because it prevents the user from constantly having to scroll around a text input, it also keeps your pages clean an clutter free.
On a slightly more technical note, Texpand is completely unobtrusive and degrades gracefully in browsers that don’t support javascript. Texpand is very easy to use, and by default requires zero configuration. However, it does provide a few advanced features should you want to do anything fancy.
Where can I get it?
Currently the Texpand source code and documentation is hosted on GitHub, available here:
Texpand on GitHub
Something missing? Fork our project and send us a pull request and we’ll get back to you!
Stay tuned for more open source projects from GigPark!
April 17th, 2009 by Gianni
Businesses have been using GigPark to find new clients for a while now and many have been seeing phenomenal results. There is always room for improvement though, and this week we have launched some changes to make GigPark even more effective for businesses.
1. A clear message to businesses: Put your testimonials to work
After receiving lots of great feedback from our business members we’ve simplified our message to businesses down to one simple idea – Put your testimonials to work to get new clients.
This is exactly how all of the businesses getting the best results have been using GigPark! They have been asking their clients to recommend them – in effect, letting their clients tell the world how great they are. And as a result of all of these testimonials, they get hired!
We’ve made this message front and center so more businesses can benefit from this great marketing tactic. Learn more here.
2. Pro Accounts for businesses that want to look their best
This week we’ve also launched Pro Accounts. We think they are a great way to present your business in the most professional manner possible to the thousands of people searching for local services on GigPark every day. Here are a few of the things you get with a Pro Account:
- Add your logo
- Personalize your URL – www.gigpark.com/businesses/YourBiz
- Manage you testimonials page – put your favorites at the top
If you run a business and have any questions about GigPark please contact us at hello@gigpark.com or 1-888-534-1196.
Our first iPhone contest concluded on Saturday and we’re happy to announce the winner… Congratulations Karolina Loboda!
Karolina has only been a GigPark member for a few weeks. As well as sharing her own recommendations she also runs a businesses that has been recommended. Karolina is a partner at The White Room, a design firm based here in Toronto that has been recommended 5 times!
Good news for all of you who wern’t lucky enough to win this time – we’ve created another iPhone contest… Make 3 recommendations before March 31st to win an iPhone 3G
We promise to get more creative with the prize for our next contest :) Any suggestions? Please add them in the comments.
February 5th, 2009 by Pema
Adam and Eve. Homer and Marge. Beyonce and Jay-Z. And now, Autohound and GigPark.
That’s right, when Canada’s newest and hottest used car site, Autohound, launches today with a Super Bowl ad, GigPark will be a part of it, powering their dealer testimonials tool.
Autohound is a new breed when it comes to shopping for a used car. Besides being really easy to use and offering lots of photos, Autohound works directly with car dealers and manufacturers to ensure a better buying experience, including a 3 day, 200km money-back or exchange guarantee.
Mix in GigPark’s technology and Autohound users can also check out some of things that the dealers’ happy customers say about them and add their own testimonials. Here is an example.
So, if you’re in the market for a car (or if you’re just interested in cool new sites), check out Autohound. And if you’re already a happy customer of one of Autohound’s hundreds on dealers, recommend them. The Autohound community and your friends will appreciate it.
February 1st, 2009 by Noah
We love building features that you, our faithful members, ask for. They are our absolute favorite things to work on because, well, we know you’ll use them!
So, we took great pleasure in adding the new Community tab to your GigPark pages yesterday – something you have been asking for for a long time.
Here is a typical reason you gave us for wanting the Community tab:
I love getting advice from my friends but they don’t always recommend the exact thing I’m looking for. When this happens it would be cool to search all of the recommendations on GigPark…
And now you can! :)
You’ll find the Community tab on your GigPark page, right next to your “Friends” tab. There are literally thousands of new recommendations in there from your fellow GigPark-ers.
By default, everyone’s recommendations and requests will be included in the community tab. Don’t want to include one of your recommendations? No problem. Just go to the recommendation, click edit, and uncheck the “Include this in the community tab” box.
We’re working on lots more fun features to release soon but are always open to new ideas. So if you have an idea for improving GigPark, please get in touch.
Happy Holidays everyone!
December 4th, 2008 by Pema
What you’ll need:
3 recommendations and a little bit of luck.
What to do:
Head over to our new quick-recommend page and recommend 3 great services to your friends. Maybe it will be your killer Hair Stylist, your organized Travel Agent or that Tire Store that got you a great deal on snow tires?
Just make sure you recommend 3 before January 31st.
That’s it?
Yip! Make 3 new recommendations before Jan 31st and you will automatically be entered in the draw. Read more here or start recommending.
Good luck everyone!
December 2nd, 2008 by Pema
Alistair Morton over at Peapod Studios (a long time friend of GigPark) has dedicated a big part of his life to making the internet a more beautiful place. Last week he created this great set of icons for all of your favorite web services: Flickr, Facebook, LinkedIn… and GigPark!
He was also kind enough to release them for free for anyone to use. So help yourself, and if you feel like returning the favor maybe you could recommend his fantastic design and branding studio to your friends :)
We love to see people mashing up GigPark for different things. If you are using GigPark on your site please drop us a line. And if you are thinking about using GigPark please let us know if we can do anything at all to help – from supplying you a logo file to… well, anything really!
November 13th, 2008 by Pema
Want to get more testimonials and referrals for your business like many others have already done on GigPark? We’ve made asking for and getting recommendations on GigPark super simple.
First, we’ve made asking clients and friends really easy. In just a few clicks, you can email all your contacts, update your Facebook status, and tweet on Twitter. For those of you with a Business Owner Account, just check out the “$ Get more referrals” tab in your “My Business” section.
Second, it is now easier than ever for people to recommend you on GigPark (even if they aren’t members yet). All they have to do is go to your public business page and write a few words about why they recommend you. You can chalk up another testimonial in seconds.
So, after asking your client and friends, be sure to plaster the URL to your public business page everywhere you can … on your email signature, business cards, social networks, website, blog, invoices to clients, etc. Besides being a great place for potential clients to learn about your awesomeness, your public business page is now also an easy and effective outlet for your existing clients to sing your praises.
Don’t have a Business Owner Account yet? Create one here (or if you are already a member, Upgrade).
October 20th, 2008 by Noah
