Second, we want to announce that we just migrated our Facebook page. Previously we were using our App’s page, but Facebook recently discontinued this option and we had to designate a distinct page to be our official stream.

Thirdly, after a short drawback, we just finalized the most recent update on our knowledge base, so everything should be fresh now.

Since more and more people are experimenting with or using our API, we developed a better tracking system, so we can monitor overall API usage, prevent abuse and allow as many useful applications as possible use it in good conditions.

Anonymous API usage is now limited to 15 requests per IP per day. You need to request an appID using this form for more. Once you fill in the request, you will be instantly provided via email with the information needed to identify your app and perform up to 150 requests per day. If you need more, please follow-up using our contact form and we will consider increasing your limit. Don’t forget to cache results whenever possible, and don’t perform multiple registrations for the same app.

There are no other changes on the actual request or response formats. For more details and examples, check out the API page.

Over time, many users have specifically requested a particular feature. While the request has been formulated in various ways, the basic idea is the same: registered users want a way to express indifference regarding a particular resource, without having to Like, Dislike or Save it. This is especially useful for the items presented in the “Recommended for you” section – which contains personalized recommendations. Many times, users were already aware of the bands, movies, etc. presented in this section, and wanted a way to remove them in order to get other personalized recommendations. And this is exactly what the new Meh action does.

Meh’ing something, by pressing the new Meh button next to the already familiar Like, Dislike and Save buttons will remove that particular resource from future recommendations, without adding it to the Like, Dislike or Saved profile lists. However, users can view their individual Meh’d items while visiting their own profile.

We hope this new feature will make it even easier to discover new interesting things and receive better, more accurate personalized recommendations.

Besides working on keeping our knowledge base up to date and improving, we are also constantly figuring out ways to improve the user experience (many times, based on feedback we receive from you). Along this line, we now present the “Party Buddies”, “Popcorn Buddies” and “Library Buddies” members sections for registered users depending on which type tab is selected. For example, if you select the “Movies tab”, and a list of “Popcorn Buddies” (users with similar movie taste) is available, it will be presented instead of the “Active Members” section.

We are also happy about topping the 10k registered users milestone a couple of weeks ago (and growing, currently at ~ 12k). We are glad more and more people decide to use TasteKid to keep track of their favorite music, movies and books, to explore other people’s taste and discover new, interesting stuff.

In order to provide a better way to discover interesting profiles, we recently launched a new feature, that was suggested in various forms by several users, most notably by Vlad Verde.

The new feature consists in presenting registered users with other profiles, labeled as “Party Buddies”, “Popcorn Buddies” and “Library Buddies”. These are profiles of users that share common interests with the current user, in terms of music, movies or books. These profile selections are available on the mainpage and alternate with the “Active members” selection. Of course, this feature is available provided the user is logged in and has “liked” some items.

Alternatively, if you log in using a GMail account, you have a similar option (”Invite GMail contacts”) that you can use to send quick invites to some of your GMail contacts. By using this feature you can also find your connections that are already on TasteKid, so you can check out their profiles.

You can mark any item as “favorite” (look for the star), so you can save it for future reference – favorite items are available when pressing the “Favorites” button.

Also, after enabling TasteKid as a searchable item from your phone menu, you can search TasteKid directly from your home screen. Enjoy!

“Liking” and “Disliking” bands, movies, etc. on TasteKid is now a common action for registered users, that are refining their personalized recommendations and maintaining their taste profile by performing such actions. Some users have even surpassed our expectations regarding the number of items rated. Take Sean for example, who has already rated over 1,000 items, and so makes us think of ways to display only a fraction of the rated items on the profile. This is good news.

During the past month, besides making small improvements and fixes, we have also introduced some new features, which include:

Vanity URLs: Users can now set up a username from their account settings and then have a tastekid.com/username profile URL. For example, here’s my profile page: http://www.tastekid.com/andrei.

Highlighting common items: This feature was suggested by a few users, and we decided to implement it. Now, when viewing another user’s profile, the items that you have in common are highlighted.

Searching on Netflix: A new way of watching the recommended movies or TV shows is through Netflix. When hovering the “GET” tab from the movie/shows details page or tooltip, users now have to option to search for that particular movie/show on Netflix.

I would like to thank all the users that send us feedback, helping us fix bugs and introduce cool new features. We are already working on some of these, but for now, all I can say is stay tuned for surprises in the near future!

First of all, TasteKid now has a new interface, that has been carefully redesigned for a better user experience, and is addressing most of the issues some of you have brought to our attention during the past months.

Besides the new interface, TasteKid now has important and useful personalization and interaction features that add a new dimension to the discovery experience.

All users are now able to create a free account or to connect with TasteKid using their Facebook account. Once logged in, a member can:

- Get better, personalized recommendations
- Save newly discovered and favorite items
- Maintain and share a taste profile
- Interact with other TasteKid users, “like” their profiles
- See and easily repeat previous searches
- Exchange opinions on any bands, movies, etc.

While our main focus remains giving top quality on spot recommendations for music, movies, shows, books and authors, we strongly feel all these new features complement our basic search function in a way that enables our users to explore their tastes in new ways, and discover even more things they will hopefully enjoy.