Ether Blog

Several New Features from Ether

Marketing Team — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:21:00 GMT

Using Ether to “sell what you know” offers many benefits as you probably already know. There is no set-up fee and Ether provides you with a rich set of tools and features for you to manage your business (Learn more about getting the most out of Ether features). We’re hard at work to expand and improve Ether features and programs to enable you to more effectively market and deliver your services, and as part of these efforts we’re excited to announce the launch of the Ether Directory!

Be Found in the Ether Directory - You have knowledge or information to sell, but perhaps you aren't sure how to reach your audience or you wish to expand it -- submitting your listing to the Ether Directory is a good place to start. Your listing in the Ether Directory gives you a presence online for customers to find you and to be found in search results on search engines like Google and Yahoo that crawl and index your Ether Directory listing. Submit your listing to the Ether Directory and increase the opportunities to grow your business.

Create a Better Listing - Your Ether listing is an online profile with information detailing the services you provide. When creating your listing, try to distinguish your services from those offered by others in your field. With the new option to display in the Ether Directory, you’ll need to update your listing to describe yourself and your services in more detail and place it in a particular category where customers seeking your services can find you. Learn more about creating a better Ether listing.

Build an Online Reputation with Reviews - Customers often rely on reviews, ratings and comments from other customers when making decisions to purchase a product or service online. Customer ratings and reviews are enabled and displayed on all listings in the Ether Directory to help you build an online reputation, differentiate your services, and provide a better customer experience. Your reviews will give customers unique insight into your level of experience and the level of satisfaction of your customers, which may be the most important information you can provide to gain your next customer.

Feature your Listings - Like any business, your ability to get and keep customers will affect your success and how much business you generate using Ether. Submitting your listing to the Ether Directory lets you promote your listing in top spots in your listing category through the Featured Listing program and increases the likelihood of reaching highly qualified potential customers who need your services.

Distribution through Ether Vertical Directories – By participating in the Ether Directory, your Ether listing will be available for distribution through Ether marketing programs including vertical directories that may be promoted by Ether and/or its marketing partners. We expect to launch these programs in the coming months, and you’ll be able to take advantage of these marketing efforts as long as you have opted to be listed in the Ether Directory. Below are a few examples of vertical directories that are currently powered by Ingenio (parent company of Ether):

http://www.liveadvice.com/tech-help/
http://www.healthyrelationshipscenter.com/

We encourage you to take the simple step of updating your listing (and/or create a new one) and submitting it to the Ether Directory today to take advantage of these new opportunities and more. To appear in the Ether Directory, you need to log into your account and edit the listing you want to submit by going to: My Ether – Click on the Listing Title you want to submit – Make the appropriate required new edits - Click continue at the bottom of page – Select a category for your listing - Uncheck "Hide my listing from customers browsing the directory" the box in the Directory and Reviews area - and then Save.

Your listing will be submitted for approval into the Ether Directory (reviews will also have been enabled for that listing). Please note that no listings will appear in the Ether Directory until they have been reviewed and approved. Learn more about our listing guidelines and policies.

Your thoughts, insights and suggestions are encouraged, so please send them our way via: the forums or by sending it via the support form by selecting Suggestions/Comments from subject drop down menu.

Best,

Duncan

AT&T Agrees to Acquire Ingenio

1050380archived — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:25:00 GMT

As you may have heard already, yesterday it was announced that AT&T has agreed to acquire Ingenio, Inc., the company that built and manages the platform on which Ether is run. Please click here in order to read the press release about the acquisition.

We don’t have much additional information to share with you at this time, but we wanted to be the first to give you this exciting news. You can expect the same dedication to building great products and providing outstanding support so that you can continue to successfully manage your business on our platform.

More than ever, we appreciate your business and look forward to pursuing opportunities to expand and grow our business together!

Free then Paid from Ether

1050380archived — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:15:00 GMT

We wanted to give you a heads up about a new feature launching this week on Ether: “Free then Paid”. You might be asking yourself, what is Free then Paid? As a result of your feedback and suggestions, we’ve created a new seller listing type that allows you to market your services in a more effective way than just offering a Free (no charge) service.

If you select this option for your listing, whether creating a new listing or changing the pricing on a current listing, customers will be able to begin their call to you for free. During a call, you let your caller know when you’re ready to begin charging, then you simply press the * key on your phone, and the customer will be prompted to pay your rate before continuing the call.

Customers are more likely to call you if it starts off for free even if the free period is very brief. It gives you the opportunity to let the customer know what you can offer them and why they should pay you for your time. Offering this type of listing is a great way to help maximize your efforts to acquire and retain customers.

Please note: If you have “No Charge - talk for free” enabled for your listing, these listings will be changed to “Free then Paid” once the feature goes live later this week. As a default for any listing that was No Charge - talk for free before, we’ve set the pricing at $10/hour. You can easily make changes to your listing's rates by visiting here: http://www.ether.com/MyAccount/Default.aspx.

Your thoughts, insights and suggestions are encouraged, so please send them our way via: comments, forums or by sending via the support form by selecting Suggestions/Comments from subject drop down menu.

Therapy in the Ether

scott — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:37:00 GMT

Some entrepreneurs from Philadelphia have created a comprehensive counseling-and-therapy directory using Ether to handle paid phone sessions. Check out Luminent Counseling for help with everything from depression to anger management.

Very creative use of our APIs, cobranding, and combining both free and paid listings for the optimal patient-counselor experience.

Great stuff...

The Global Ether -- improved international calling

scott — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 21:00:00 GMT

Upon launching Ether we immediately had many eager users from the international community. They informed us, however, that our call flow for international customers needed to be better customized per country.

We listened, and today we're launching an improved international call flow, so that each country's particular conventions are easily followed. Ether is now available in 22 countries, with India to follow next month. So thanks for the feedback, and good luck exploring the global Ether!

Ether love spreading

scott — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 21:13:00 GMT

It's been more than a month since our launch, and it's exciting to watch the Ether love spread. Check out the different ways people are using Ether to sell everything from moped expertise to online dating tips:

Bill Wilson – Indie Music Expert

http://norevolution.blogspot.com

Ian Christie – Career Counselor

http://www.boldcareer.com/blog

John Colascione – Search engine marketing consultant

http://www.searchen.com

Dave Evans – Business Consultant for Online Dating Providers

http://dating.corante.com/

Dr. Randall DuPont - Business English Tutor

http://learn-business-english.blogspot.com

Andy Beal – SEM/Blogger consultant

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com

Rob Huebner – Moped Expert/Guru

http://www.mopedshop.com/

Brad P’s Underground Dating Seminar – New York-based Dating Consultant

http://datinggurubrad.com/?content_id=32

Dave Myers - Computer Support

http://defi.nitelymay.be/

Mandy Singh – Web Development and Usability Consultant

http://mandysingh.blogspot.com

From Beta to Zeta

scott — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 04:25:00 GMT

We're finally finished with our closed beta and are ready to open our doors to anyone who'd like an Ether Phone Number! We've had many folks lining up outside our doors the past few months, so we're looking forward to unlocking that energy and creativity of everyone who has something valuable to say. We look forward to the businesses you create as you offer what you have to say out into the ether.

Ron mentioned below that, in this age of endless betas, we'd like to do a real closed-environment beta that has a beginning and an end. This marks the end of our beta, and since we're still new yet have come a long way, welcome to our zeta.

Product Perfection First

scott — Wed, 10 May 2006 23:17:00 GMT

We've been a bit quiet here lately -- that's because we've had our heads down working on our closed beta. We've been focusing on our core group of beta testers, finding what works, what needs improvement, and stomping out any bugs crawling around the system. Andy, Nitin, Chandru, and Katie have all been working hard on this. When we open our doors wide open next month we're looking to be just right.

Our beta testers have been extremely helpful. Some good feedback today from Web 2.0 blogger Pete Cashmore at Mashable: "My Week in the Ether." Overall we're very pleased with the reception we've gotten from sellers -- they seem to appreciate the tools we've built for them to sell what they say.

We've also gotten a lot of feedback requesting that we provide a directory so that buyers can find sellers using Ether. This makes a lot of sense to us, too. Our near-term focus, though, is to perfect the feature set for sellers to sell their time -- setting up calls, bulk-minute pricing, appointments, schedules, call queuing, etc. There are many important details there, and we're determined to get them just right. That means in the near term, Ether will be a product for sellers who have their own buyers -- sellers such as popular bloggers like Pete, computing-forum posters, or experts like therapists who already have an audience at their web sites.

Since Ether is currently B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Buyers), there will be many sellers who create Ether Phone Numbers but don't have the audience to drive themselves calls. That's okay for now -- they don't have to pay to get an Ether Phone Number, which is free (you only pay a 15% commission when the product successfully works for you). These sellers can still shape the feature set and help spread the word, and eventually we'll provide them with not only a perfect product, but perhaps buyers as well.

Ether Sightings

scott — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 06:25:00 GMT

Now that we have more people than our immediate family using Ether, Sean did a quick look at our weblogs to see where in the Ether we're showing up. Here are some of the places our great Beta testers have placed Ether buttons:

Trademark Law Blog:
http://trademark-blawg.com/

Ravi Shankar's Art of Living (Ether Phone at the bottom)
http://artofliving.tamu.edu/

Shel Holtz (A business blog master and great person)
http://www.holtz.com/

Brand Expertise:
http://brandedbetter.blogspot.com/

Tech support:
http://www.mdlconsulting.net/contact.htm

Search Engine Marketing:
http://www.simplesem.com/

Perry Lawrence of Apple Week:
http://www.appleweek.com/index.php

Gadget Guide:
http://www.opticalpoptitude.com/

And a Craig's list poster:
http://forums.craigslist.org/?ID=40677087

Internet Consulting:
http://www.zprava.com/

Pastor Marty on New Tools to Get the Message Out:
http://adventistpastors.org/

Web Developer:
http://tylerhall.ws/

Greg's Food Advice (Disclaimer: Ron's cousin, but what a mensch)
http://gregsfood.blogspot.com/

Tris Hussey Business Blogging
http://blog.larixconsulting.com/blog

Severance Package Lawyer:
http://www.severance-package.com/

Mark Jen (Hey Mark)
http://blog.plaxoed.com/

Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing Expertise:
http://gadgetomnia.blogspot.com/

Real Estate Tips for Albuquerque - in Craigslist no less :)
http://albuquerque.craigslist.org/apa/143681877.html

Hollywood Actor
http://www.hollywoodactor.com/

Life and Self-employment Coach:
http://www.authenticeccentric.com/

While we have thoughts on the areas of expertise and service that are great for Ether we're continually surprised by the range of services offered by the few people that we've given Beta access. This isn't an exhuastive list of the Ether siting and we'll be sure to post more. Thanks to all of you out there testing and let us know if you want to be added to the next list of Ether Sitings.

First Call

Ron — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 13:14:00 GMT

It's been a crazy couple weeks at Ether/Ingenio HQ. Chandru has returned from getting married (congrats) and our invite-only Beta is in full swing.

We celebrated a great milestone for us since we last blogged: Our first customer to seller call out in the Ether -- i.e. nothing to do with an Ether employee testing.

The honors go to our friend Jeremy of Livedigitally.com who had a reader of his blog give Ether a try. The feedback was great and thankfully there were no bugs. This, and the calls that have followed, gave us the confidence to invite a few more folks into the Ether party to give us feedback. So look for your Access code and keep the feedback coming.

Ether - Ingenio - Keen

scott — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 05:25:00 GMT

We're thrilled with all of the great feedback we've gotten since yesterday's launch (see previous post). However, there's understandable confusion about what Ether is in the context of Ingenio's other products and services like Keen and our Live!Advice directories.

Unlike directories like Keen.com, Ether is a entirely distributed model rather than centralized in a directory. It turns the model inside-out giving tools to sellers to sell their time wherever they have customer relationships and has built new functionality to serve these sellers.

Simply, Ether is like PayPal for time, while Live!Advice directories like Keen.com are more like Ebay.

In addition, Ether also introduces an entirely new set of features designed from the ground up to meet the needs of traditional service providers such as therapists, tutors, and lawyers. Those types of professionals charge not by the minute but by the hour or session. Ether therefore has bulk pricing plans in which sellers can charge, for instance, $75 per hour, or $50 for the first 10 minutes and free after that. You can imagine the complexity under the hood that goes into building these bulk-pricing phone calls, their partial use, and expiration! But that's what's necessary for a professional to use Ether -- they don't want to be bothered with a phone call unless there's, say, a guaranteed $50 session.

We've also built Ether so that the system helps you set up phone calls with you -- through callbacks, appointments, and schedules -- like your own professional secretary. You just publicize your Ether Phone Number and we do the rest to make your conversations happen.

Ether is entirely focused on sellers -- specifically those sellers who already have their own traffic at their own website, blog, radio show. Ether gives them all the tools to sell whatever they have to say (though selling adult content is not permitted) at their own place of business.

As for Ingenio's Pay Per Call, this is a search-based online advertising solution that allows businesses to purchase phone leads from the Web. In this case, the "seller" (or advertiser) pays to acquire customers identified through Ingenio’s advertising network.

Hope this helps!

Ether Out There

scott — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 04:52:00 GMT

Already on the first day there's an incredible energy flowing out there in the ether: the super-quick Mike Arrington, Stuart Henshall, Shel Holtz, Tom Keating, Mitch Ratcliffe, Rich Tehrani and the super-genuine Robert Scoble.

The incoming flow of beta testers is causing poor Kelvin's inbox to spill over.

That energy out there is exactly the spirit of Ether. The key to the Ether product is that it happens out there, in the context of where people are interacting and selling services. Graduate students could offer their tutoring services on their university web pages. Gadget experts could offer advice straight from their blogs. Retired baseball stars could offer conversations with fans from the Red Sox web site for $50 each. Talk radio guests could announce their Ether Phone Number over the air to talk with interested listeners. The applications are countless -- though we won't be allowing adult-oriented services to be sold through Ether. It's a distributed model (Web 2.0 if I dare say it) in which we facillate the sale of services wherever trusted relationships already exist.

This is a significant new offering that differs from Ingenio-powered directories such as this computer-help site or Keen.com. Concentrated online directories work well in specific contexts, but the ether is so much bigger than that, turning the model inside-out. With a decentralized approach, Ether can be everywhere -- in each individual's web home, wherever that may be, with all the tools they need right there to sell what they say.

Update: Due to some bleary-eyed, post-deployment posting, we accidentally attributed Shel Holtz's post to Shel Israel. We got it right on our Press page, but we're only 1-for-2. Sorry, Shel H!

Into the Ether

scott — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 10:33:00 GMT

At midnight tonight we flipped the switch and, after countless late nights, finally exposed Ether to the outside world. Already in just the first few minutes we're seeing a flood of beta testers sign up.

The idea behind Ether is simple: Give out for free all the tools to sell what you say. We can't wait to see, and hear, what you'll do with Ether...

Down to the wire

Ron — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 10:01:00 GMT

Well, we're down to the wire. We're going to launch our Invite-Only Beta tonight at 12:01AM. It's getting very exciting, especially since we put this schedule together quite a while ago and are launching on time. My buddy Sol at Stickydrive asked me what we did to develop all that we've built on time without killing anybody except Matt.

There are plenty of other more comprehensive sites that detail out the software development approach (see Extreme Project Managment in wikipedia), but here's what we did:

1. A physical calendar in the Ether room - This is such a simple one and seems primitive compared to the information age's wikis and MS Project, but nothing beats the countdown on the wall. We printed a huge calendar including milestones and dependencies and taped it to a wall that everyone could see. We even included dates when a team member was going to be out, like Kelvin's much-deserved vacation and Chandru's wedding trip to India (congrats Dude!).

2. War-room - Proximity increases productivity, and that's why we all squeezed into the Ether room. Except for the time that Hartej's cold spread to the rest of us, we were definitely more productive. This was even proved by a study done by Teasley, et al. (2000). They found war rooms to be twice as productive as traditional office spaces. I'd say 100 times, but I'm just Hirson, et al. (2006).

3. Standing meetings - a literal and figurative meeting twice a week where all team members came to the little Ether room and told us a) what they'd finished since the last meeting; b) what they were going to finish by the next meeting, and c) any dependencies on their work. This was invaluable in communicating the status of the project and keeping everyone on the same page. Yup, we stood the whole time so that people (namely me) don't yammer on.

4. Milestone celebrations - I've worked at companies where milestones came and went without any recognition -- this zaps motivation. Every time we hit a milestone, we would do something. Nothing extravagant, but at least get out of the office for a movie, drinks or even Hyperbowling (which only cost us $140 for 12 people, including beers!).

5. IM - An invaluable tool to communicate especially when you bring in place-shifting. If someone isn't sitting within 10 feet of you, they may as well be in Bangalore. Flip that around, if you have devs in Bangalore or New Zealand (what's up Steve?) they can communicate as if they were down the hall.

6. Wiki - Since not all of our developers are in the office, we also have a wiki where we'd post discussions, dates and meeting summaries. This helped with collaboration and kept everyone informed asynchronously.

7. Cut Features - We started by looking at everything that we'd like to do. No-limits brainstorms. We then turned those brainstorms into requirements. Of those requirements we determined what was absolutely necessary to deliver the level of funcitonality and service that we feel comfortable with. This was the hard part. We had to cut a lot of whiz-bang features and AJAX niceties and in some cases cut some very valuable V2.0 features that we now have slated for right after launch. Everyone has their pet feature and to ensure an on-time launch, we all had to reluctantly acknowledge when something didn't meet the bar of absolute necessity.

8. Management support - The management team has been phenomenal in letting us make the tough decisions, giving us the resources, and empowering us to deliver. You can't make a company have an enlightened or empowering management team, but you can always choose where to work.

9. Empower people - It was important to push responsibility to the edge. To move quickly, you can't concentrate all decisions in an individual, so we decided to let indivdual teams make decisions around design, development and the detail level of functionality.

Well, there's 8 hours left to go and we're demo'ing the product to friends and, well, anyone that's interested in hearing our spiel. Wish us luck.

Beta Beta

Ron — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 08:06:00 GMT

The feedback loop has started. We're getting great info from our Alpha testers and their insights (and bug fixes) are making their way into the Ether (couldn't resist). No matter how much you think you have this stuff dialed, real users will find things you've never thought of. I just looked at my "checkin" folder which captures bug fixes and feature builds and there were 1036 items from the end of last week. Wow. Special thanks to the top Alpha testers: Sep, Suzanne and Tessa. This week we sent out our Beta screener survey to help us choose who should be a part of the Ether Beta team. There were a couple hiccups (sorry for the broken link and the success page hanging). We should have betaed our beta mail :-) About 50% of those who signed up as interested in Ether filled out the survey. For those of you that didn't fill out the survey, we will still keep you posted on what we're up to. We'll have our first wave of Beta users selected in the next week or so. I can't wait to see what they find. Coming soon: Forums.