One of the most talked about developments in the web tech world this summer is the launch of Google Voice (or the re-launch of Grand Central, if you will). Google has made the service invite only as they ramp up and the current wait time is many weeks, sometimes even months.
If you are still waiting to join the popular new service, CitySpeek may be your answer! We are giving away 1 Google Voice invite to the CitySpeek user that creates a new group and recruits the most group members by 11:59pm PST on Friday July 24th. The contest is open to both new and existing CitySpeek users. The group must have been created after 9:00pm PST on July 20th, 2009. In the event of a tie, we’ll pick a winner at random from the pool of tied users.
So if you want a Google Voice invite, log into CitySpeek, start a new group and invite your friends to join. Don’t have many real life friends on CitySpeek yet? Use our “Invite Friends” tool to send them an invitation. Get the most group members in your new group and you’ll be a Google Voice user this coming weekend!
Good luck!
For more information, contact jeff@cityspeek.com.
General, Groups
beta, contest, Google, google voice, group, invite, voice
In this issue:
A Special invitation related to Twitter
CitySpeek cross posting to Twitter
CitySpeek iPod winner
New groups
We know that many CitySpeek members are also Twitter users. On Tuesday June 16th at 2pm PST, Twitter will go offline for 1 hour of maintenance. Why not use that time to come build your network on CitySpeek and take a few of our features for a test drive? Accept friend requests, join a group or post a picture. We promise not to get mad if you go back to Twitter after their maintenance.
Speaking of Twitter, don’t forget that you can have your speeks posted to your Twitter account as well. To enable this feature: Log into CitySpeek, click “Settings,” select “Social Network Settings” from the drop down, enter your Twitter credentials and make sure to check “Send messages to my twitter.com account” before clicking SAVE CHANGES. Imagine how powerful this feature is if you use CitySpeek with an IM account!
A few months back, a loyal CitySpeek user approached us about donating a prize to a fitness challenge that was utilizing a CitySpeek group to keep each other motivated. Of course we said yes and offered a new iPod Nano to the user that logged the most days with a speek in their private group. The challenge is over and the lucky winner is CitySpeek user @Josh (http://www.cityspeek.com/profile/josh). If you are interested in running a similar contest, let us know by emailing support@cityspeek.com.
CitySpeek adds new groups almost daily. Some of the newest groups include: @beer, @Overheard in PDX and @Obama Followers. To sell all groups, click through to http://www.cityspeek.com/groups.
That’s all for now, thanks for your support of CitySpeek.com!
http://www.CitySpeek.com
General
CitySpeek, Groups, instant message, ipod, newsletter, Twitter
For the second time in less than a week, the industry leading microblogging site Twitter will go down for maintenance during peak hours. Last Friday Twitter took their site down for over two hours while the performed database maintenance.
Twitter plans to take their site down again this Wednesday May 15th at noon PST (3pm EST). CitySpeek would like to invite you to use this as an opportunity to check out CitySpeek and see what we have to offer. In addition to being available when you expect us to during the middle of the day, we also offer some neat features that Twitter does not:
- Groups, both public and private
- Pictures in messages
- Translation in over 30 languages
- and so much more!
So give CitySpeek a try tomorrow at noon pacific, 3pm eastern and see what you think. Don’t worry, we wont be offended if you go back to Twitter when they come back online…whenever that will be. We think you’ll be back soon 
-The CitySpeek Team
General
downtime, maintenance, Twitter
We received a great compliment today when the popular blog Max Gladwell made mention of CitySpeek on Twitter today. A few weeks ago Max Gladwell posted their top 10 predictions for the coming 12 months.
Number 6 on their list said:
Regardless of who acquires Twitter, viable Twitter rivals will likely emerge. As micro-blogging becomes as popular as social networking, Twitter will become a too generic and one-size-fits-all for many. Twitter will launch a groups feature in an effort to combat this, but people tend to like their niche products and communities. We may see a Ning-like platform for micro-blogging, which fragments this trend into hundreds of thousands of unique mini Twitters. A couple rival startups might actually gain traction by adding value in new ways. We saw several Twitter wannabes fail already, but that was before micro-blogging went mainstream. Indeed, “status updates” will become a standard feature for any type of community-driven site.
Today Max Gladwell posted on twitter that CitySpeek was an example of this:
CitySpeek (http://www.cityspeek.com) is a lot like what we talked about in our predictions for MG01 (#6)
So a big thank you is in order for Max Gladwell. Make sure to check out the blog on social media and green living, its a great read.
-The CitySpeek Team
General
blog, max gladwell, prediction, press, Twitter
CitySpeek.com is please to announce tonight that it has taken its first round of venture financing from Village on the Lake Partners (VotLP). In just four short months CitySpeek has taken the micro-blogging world by storm, quickly winning over users in countries across the globe. After consistently rolling out new features and updates, CitySpeek shocked the micro-blogging world with its launch of integrated language translation, a first in the industry. It was that feature that VotLP said was what made them decide to jump in.
“We couldn’t sit on the sidelines anymore” said VotLP managing partner, Richard Oswego. “We had to jump on this opportunity before Jeff and Jeremiah signed a term sheet from Kleiner Perkins or Sequoia” he went on to say before heading into a champagne celebration toast in the board room.
Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. CitySpeek plans on using the new funds to lease class A office space, furnish it with Aeron chairs, fill it with clerical employee’s and provide the entire staff with free, unlimited food and beverages.
CitySpeek thanks you for your support and wishes you a happy April Fools Day.
General
april fools, financing, funding, investment, vc, venture
Bienvenido, maligayang pagdating, 欣然接受, Willkommen!
歓迎, selamat datang, witamy, chào mừng!
Today we are proud to announce the launch of CitySpeek Translate. The world can now speek seamlessly with people all over the globe through one of the most efficient forms of communication ever, micro-messaging. CitySpeek Translate launches with support of over 30 languages including Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Arabic, and Hindi.
To begin using CitySpeek translate, visit your user settings and navigate to the “About Me” section. Choose your native language, click save and you are ready to go! Anytime CitySpeek Translate recognizes a speek written in a language other than your own, a translate button will appear. Simple as that!
So whats next? Invite your friends, tell the world, follow someone speeking in another language and hang on while we change the game.
General, Updates
enhancement, feautre, language, translate, translation
Its been a busy few weeks for us here at CitySpeek but we wanted to take a quick break and update you on just a few of the blogs and websites that have featured CitySpeek recently:
Girl in Your Shirt: http://girl.inyourshirt.tv/cityspeek/
KillerStartups.com: http://www.killerstartups.com/Blogging-Widgets/cityspeek-com-move-over-twitter
RotorBlog: http://www.rotorblog.com/2009/01/22/cityspeek-takes-on-twitter-with-integrated-video/
These are just a few….stay tuned for more!
General
blog, CitySpeek, giys, killerstartups, Links, media, press
You have probably noticed already, but we have made a whole lot of tweaks to the site and have also added a few new features. Below are just some of the changes you’ll enjoy on CitySpeek.com:
- Your speeks and friends speeks are now combined into one list in your dashboard
- Added an “Inbox” link to your profile page to access direct (private) messages
- All groups now have RSS feeds (see our announcement here)
- Manually typed @reply’s
- Manually typed @groups
- Replies no longer cross-post to Twitter
- On the “Public Speeks” tab, the introduction box disappears after logging in
- Safari on Macintosh now supported
These are just some of the changes we’ve made and we are not done yet. We are working hard on our next list of enhancements and even have an exciting new feature to roll out soon. We think you’ll love it!
Thanks for supporting CitySpeek, check back often for more news and information on site changes.
General, Updates
bugs, enhancement, feautre, improvement
CitySpeek is in beta and we know there is still a lot of work to do. In an effort to better organize your feedback, we have setup a CitySpeek page over on GetSatisfaction.com. GetSatisfaction is a great, free site that gives users (and consumers) a voice. You can submit a bug, add a suggestion, leave a general comment or add your voice to something that has all ready been submitted.
We will be using GetSatisfaction as our primary repository of user feedback. You are always free to contact us directly but we think you will have a great user experience over on GetSatisfaction.
Thanks for your support as we polish off the site. We appreciate your time and feedback.
http://getsatisfaction.com/cityspeekcom
Development, General
bugs, feedback, GetSatisfaction, suggestions
CitySpeek is a micro-messaging service that allows you to stay in contact with your friends, co-workers, teammates and customers through an efficient means of communication.
Isn’t that just like Twitter?
No, it is not. For two reasons:
First, on a grand scale the only similarity that CitySpeek shares with Twitter is the 140 character limit for messages (what we call ‘speeks’). CitySpeek offers many features that Twitter does not, including:
- Groups, both open and private
- Integrated pics and video, no leaving the site to view
- Speek by category like “Overheard”, “Question”, “For Sale”, etc.
- Communicate with CitySpeek via IM
- Seamless integration with Flickr
- …and many more
The real reason why CitySpeek is not like Twitter is our positioning. We developed CitySpeek for the other hundreds of millions of internet users that don’t use Twitter. We created CitySpeek for groups like your city league softball team, your church or the Saturday morning coffee group at the local café. And we don’t stop there. If you own that little café or run the Parks & Rec department where the softball team plays, why not use CitySpeek to communicate with those groups? We make it easy and efficient to do so.
General
CitySpeek, Flickr, Groups, IM, Micro-Blogging, Micro-Messaging, pics, video