social networks

How can 8hands help you unclutter your inbox?

Goldi — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:25:27 -0400

One of the benefits of having 8hands is the privilege to stop receiving email notifications from your various online profiles. In other words, when you use 8hands, your mail account will stay clean and neat (I'm sure all you massive social network users know exactly how annoying all these emails can be).

So, once you start using 8hands, you can go and uncheck all those "send me email notifications" boxes and go back to using your mail account for emails.

Let 8hands simplify your online social life!

If you experience difficulties figuring out how to unsubscribe from email notifications, send us an email and we'll be sure to help.

Brand new website!!

Dania — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:21:36 -0500

We've been preparing for months, and now the big day has finally arrived: our new and improved website is live and direct for your viewing pleasure.

As you may have noticed, 8hands has been evolving and growing. With each version, our client keeps getting better; we've also just upgraded our servers for increased speed and efficiency to enhance your 8hands experience, and of course, we promise you all to bring many exciting surprises in the near future. Just wait - we will blow your heads off.

8hands has also been getting a lot of love from the outside world, with recent shout outs from Download Squad, Digital Inspiration, G4TV and more.

Most importantly, the 8hands community has been growing and thriving, and we decided our crumby old website didn't cut it. You, dear users, deserve more!

We set out to create a new site that is cleaner, clearer, prettier, and way way cooler. We've made a number of improvements and added new features, like:

A completely new design.
A reworked Get Help section that gets to the point.
A fully upgraded Forums section.
A new page dedicated to our Supported Networks, as well as descriptions of the events that you will be notified of on 8hands.
The Caught 8handed section - a blog that will change you life. more about that, in a sec.
A new Version History page, where you can see and track the evolution of 8hands.
A sweet Screenshots gallery and an even cuter Icons gallery.
More fun stuff - look for them!

Now... Let's go back to Caught 8handed. It's one of the new features that we are most excited about - a blog that showcases the very best in music, photo streams and videos found on our favorite social networks. Check in daily to keep your finger on the pulse. Intrigued? Click here to learn more.

That's about it! Enjoy the new site... :)

Check your activities on social networks with the amazing 8hands activity meter!

Goldi — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:30:09 -0400

The new 8hands version includes a special and oh so smart tool, developed especially for you in the moist and dark basement of the 8hands labs. Simply put, this cool tool knows exactly how active (or not so active) you've been lately on your various social profiles. The activity meter performs some complex calculations and is then kind enough to give you the exact analysis of your online social behavior using a simple activity level indicator.

There are five levels on the social-activity-meter, where no. 1 is the laziest user ever, and no. 5 is the most active user in da world. The activity meter is placed at the top of your scorecard, next to your number of friends. Roll-over the 5 small octopuses to find out how active you've been these recent days:

Level 1/5:
Your activity level is: Un-Geek Wonder - Stop wasting your time with the outside world and go online.

Level 2/5:
Your activity level is: Lazy Bum - Your online friends are missing you so go post a comment or something.

Level 3/5:
Your activity level is: Bi-Social – You have many virtual activities, but you also like flesh & blood people.

Level 4/5:
Your activity level is: Semi-obsessed – You spend a lot of time on social networks. Well done!

Level 5/5:
Your activity level is: Obsessed - Your mom forgot how you look like, but you are the king of social networks. Respect.

Which social network fits you the most?

alon — Tue, 29 May 2007 12:12:47 -0400

There are a lot of social networks out there. Millions. There are a lot of confused people out there. Billions. 8hands is all about keeping you organized – we want you to find the perfect spot for you. We wish you to be loved, hugged by 8 huge purple hands. We've compiled a small quiz for you guys so you'll know which social network fits you the best – grab a calculator and add the right question number to see the result.

First thing I do when I wake up is…

Cleaning my glasses, making my bed & giving a kiss to my cuddly Elmo puppet.
Thinking about how great it was back in 1989. Damn, remember how that wall fell? Those were the days.
Brush my teeth.
Taking a picture of myself in front of the bathroom's mirror. Sometimes I stare right into it and say: Yeah, I'm good looking, yes yes I am.
Putting off Joanna Newsom alarm clock's song & going for the local coffee house for a drink.
Wishing 'pac was here.

My Favorite YouTube video is…

"I'm a Mac / I'm a PC" apple ads.
Jason Donovan's "Hang on to your love" music video. Man – that boy can sing!
The Pixies "Hey" lip-sync by Tasha & Dishka.
Anything by My Chemical Romance, but I like to watch videos with Paris Hilton as well.
"New York I Love You" by LCD Soundsystem.
Anything from frisco's bay-area. That hyphy iz da shiznit.

My Heroes Are:

Luke Skywalker.
Michael J. Fox.
My Father.
Myself.
Having Heroes is so 2001.
Malcolm X.

When I grow up I want to be:

Popular.
I am grown up. I have accomplished all I ever wanted back in 86'.
Tom.
A super model.
Pitchforkmedia's editor.
A motherfuckin' gangsta.

When I'm depressed I:

Hack The White-House's Web page.
Call my high school sweetheart.
Go to sleep. I'll feel better in the morning.
Cut my wrists while taking a self picture.
Take my Xanax. Lately I'm trying Cymbalta, the doc recommended it.
Poor out some liqueur for all da dead homies from my hood.

My first job was…

Modding computers.
Usher at the drive-in cinema.
Ronald McDonalds was my first boss.
Clerk at an ice-cream stand.
Clerk at a record store.
Rubbin' your white ass.

On Sundays I usually…

You can read all about it on the web, I'm not hiding anything.
Reminiscing about the old days. Wow, I was like a star back then.
Visiting my grandmother with my parents. That old lady is so sweet, she always gives me M&Ms.
Seeing friends, watching a movie & making home videos of myself.
Catching up with Hype Machine for the latest music buzz & going to some indie concerts.
Chillin' at the crack house.

During sex I usually think…

Wow… Firefox can open a lot of tabs.
Yeah! I'm giving it to you like I'm Doogie Howser!
I want to get married!
Maybe I should film this…
Will I see this boy/girl ever again?
Yeah! Licky-di-slip-slip-sup.

What do you see here?

It's the next generation of Nintendo Wii!
It's a pair of skates!
It's a house with a white fence!
It's me when I was in the uterus!
I'm not playing your stupid games. You're just trying to mess with me.
A po-po's badge.

What do you think about love?

True love will find me in the end.
I was in love, big love. But she dumped me, said I remind her of that uncle from "Napoleon Dynamite".
I can't wait to find love, being loved & making lots of little babies… isn't love all about family?
I think that everyone should love me. How can they not?! I'm hot, young & my hair is perfect.
Love is gay.
I got one love for ALL my girls.

Now lets see the results...

10-16 points:

You are a smart fella, we'll give you that. You know lots about computers, science & technology, but most people don't really get you. They think you are nothing more than a geek – you know that, cause as we said before, you are brilliantly smart, and you hate the fact that people think that "you have no life". That's why you are doing all you can to show them that you are so incredibly busy, in EVERY second of the day.

In other words, Twitter & Wakoopa are the social networks for you: With Twitter you can let everybody know what you are up to, showing them you are one active dude, and with Wakoopa you can open up your private world even more – letting people know which software you are using and when.

17-25 points:

If it's not clear to you by now (and we assume it's not, cause you don't seem to have self-awareness) YOU ARE LIVING IN THE PAST. All you ever think about, dream about & talk about isn't relevant to our beloved year of 2007. You should move on, it's really pathetic.

In other words, Friendster & Classmates are the social networks for you. You are loyal and what can we say, being old-school isn't that bad – you can always say you were there first.

26-35 points:

You are almost the real thing, but we're sorry, you are not quite there yet. You've got a good soul, you enjoy the sunset & your friends are great - They really do care about you. But you want more, you want to grow, be bigger than life. You want to be a MySpace user, but you can't handle all the spam, dirt & glitter colors.

In other words, Bebo, Xanga & Hi5 are the social networks for you. They will fit perfectly in your little life – you will be able to stay in touch with your old-too-normal-friends, without dealing with filthy garbage in your face. Maybe one day everybody will be just like you, so straight & pure, but we wouldn't hold our breath. It's more likely that you'll have to accept trash in your world as well, or stay alone forever. Sad but true.

36-45 points:

You really do think it's all about you, don't you? Well, there are almost 200 million people who feel just like that – What we are trying to say is that you are not so special. You're an Emo kid with black hair? Join the club. You're a perfect girl that can't stop picturing her self with a bra? C'mon, that's already a cliché.

In other words, MySpace & Facebook are the social networks for you. Everybody you know got their own shiny profile in one of these networks, and underneath it all, you like to be like everybody else. You love yourself, you want to share yourself and your oh-so-cool pics & videos with everyone. You have loads of time to insert html widgets, design html profile layouts & add friends or bands, but you will never-ever let anyone call you a geek. Don't get embarrassed – it can happen to the best of us.

46-55 points:

You are an elitist, semi-artistic, music adorer and basically, a typical hipster. You like everything to be smooth, esthetic & special. Probably, and this is just a wild guess, you live in the city, inhaling indie culture like a guy in the suite inhales a cigar, wearing only thrift store clothes & some-sort of geek (you know what we're talking about).

In other words, Flickr, Last.fm, imeem & Mog are the social networks for you. With Flickr, you can share with the world all of your artistic photos, concert stills and images from you so-cool lifestyle. Beside that, we know how you like to educate the world with your magnificent taste in music & films, so with Last.fm, imeem & Mog you can show everybody exactly what you are listening too, and that will help you in your triumph attempt to make this universe a better place.

56-60 points:

We don't know how to tell you this, but it's obvious that you are not black, even though you wish you were. Your answers were too ridiculous to actually be true, and no one talks like that, except of course from wiggers like yourself.

In other words, BlackPlanet is the social network for you. It's the only place that will make you feel like a real Afro-American, while it hides your true white identity. Use BlackPlanet to meet hot mammas, use Ebonics & get connected to somebody else's roots. Word up.

The social networks are getting bigger AGAIN! (or: MySpace is taking over AGAIN!)

alon — Thu, 03 May 2007 13:35:13 -0400

So many researches about social networking are getting published everyday, that it's hard to know the truth – What are the hottest new networks? Wich socail network is most likley to get you laid? Which network will change the way we consume air? And… well, you get our drift.

But every once in a while a certain research gets lots of attention, and that's when we are starting to act like everything that's written in it are plain facts (yeah, some of us at the 8hands mega-team are suckers). This time we are all circling around the latest research of Hitwise that was published last week and showed the 20 most popular networks and some very interesting statistics – and no, we are not talking about the fact that MySpace is the biggest network (with 80.74% of the market), our parents could have said that themselves.

Here are some of the findings:

In 2007, social networking visits increased 11.5% from January to February.
Social Networks hold 6.5% of the overall internet traffic in February 2007.
Traffic to social networks gone 87% up since last year (comparing February 2006 to February 2006).
Some networks are growing like crazy! From January to February Buzznet went up by 148.4% and our beloved Imeem grow by 145.7%.
Some other networks are doing well too… From January to February Hoverspot jumped 19.6% up & Bebo (before you'll blink we will add 8hands support for it!) climbed by 17.8%.
As we mentioned above, we are trying to avoid any MySpace Statistics that were found here (ok… we get it… you are BIG), but the next finding is astonishing: The other 19 networks on the top 20 list, received 25.8% of their upstream visits from MySpace – that is 1 out 4 entries!

Here are the top 20:

So… We are happy to see that little & new social networks are on the (atomic) rise – personally we are tired of all the MySpace madness (everything been said before: the layout, the spam, the eager-to-be-popular Tom – Been there done that!). It's the smooth & clean iMeem, Last.fm & Super Deluxe that get our love these days, and you know how it is - it changes by the week.

That's why we would love to add to 8hands as many social networks as possible – We keep registering ourselves in so many sites, knowing that soon enough we will be able to control them all from one location - our tiny & handsome desktop application. Facebook, Bebo, Friendster & Xanga will be added to the long list of the networks that are already supported by 8hands, and after them – many others. All we want to know, is which networks will you, the 8hands users, would like to see in the app. Leave a comment, mail us to info@8hands.com or even stop us on the streets. You know who we are – damn it, it's not so hard, we've got 8 hands!