Care2's Official Unofficial Blog 

Today we are excited to launch the makeover of Care2 Connect. This is the first step in a larger initiative to find ways to make Care2 easier to use, make it easier for our new visitors to discover the many ways they can make a difference on our site. There are lots of great things happening at Care2, but (and we'll be the first to admit this), sometimes it's hard to find them. Over the next few months we will be rolling out updates to our interface that we've been working on.

C2C is one of the best kept secrets here at Care2. It has become one of the most important and lively parts of the Care2 experience. In essence we realized that Care2 is Care2 Connect, and Care2 Connect is Care2. To reflect this we have promoted the most important parts of C2C to a higher level of prominence on the site.

A more detailed explaination is offered here, but most important:

We're dropping the "Connect" lingo. "C2C Groups" are now "Care2 Groups", "C2C People" are now "Care2 People". And so on. "People" and "Groups" tabs are being added to the Global Care2 Navigation bar (these are the gray buttons at the top of every page). Now it will be even easier to get to these sections no matter where you are.

As we roll out this change, and all future changes we'd love to get your feedback. Drop into Care2 Feedback and Suggestions and let us know what you think. Hope you like it as much as we do!

Just wanted to give everyone a "Head's up!" and a "Don't panic!"

Several months ago Care2 launched an internal initiative to find ways to make Care2 easier to use, make it easier for our new visitors to discover the many ways they can make a difference on our site. There are lots of great things happening at Care2, but (and we'll be the first to admit this), sometimes it's hard to find them. Over the next few months we will be rolling out updates to our interface that we've been working on.

Next week you're going to see our first update. A change to Care2 Connect. C2C is one of the best kept secrets here at Care2. It has become one of the most important and lively parts of the Care2 experience. In essence we realized that Care2 is Care2 Connect, and Care2 Connect is Care2. To reflect this we have promoted the most important parts of C2C to a higher level of prominence on the site.

To help you understand what's going on we wanted to explain what's changing.

• We're dropping the "Connect" lingo. "C2C Groups" are now "Care2 Groups", "C2C People" are now "Care2 People". And so on.
• "People" and "Groups" tabs are being added to the Global Care2 Navigation bar (these are the gray buttons at the top of every page). Now it will be even easier to get to these sections no matter where you are.
• "My Connect" is now "My Care2". This this page will become a window into your entire Care2 experience, not just C2C.
• "Photos", "Events" and "Care2 Share" are now a part of "People".
• The Care2 Connect "Blue Tabs" are gone, making more room for your content. The quicklinks that used to be beneath the blue tabs are now on the top right of every page.

And finally a fancy diagram to illustrate some details of what's changing:

As we roll out this change , and all future changes we'd love to get your feedback. Drop into Care2 Feedback and Suggestions and let us know what you think. Hope you like it as much as we do!

New Look and Organization
We've done some reorganization of C2NN in hopes of making it easier to find and note the stories that are important to you. So, what's new?
• Most Active Stories! For many hot stories, getting to the front page is just the beginning. The hottest stories go on to get hundreds of notes. We now spotlight the most important stories of the day, as determined by the day's "noting" activity. Look for the the "Most Active Stories" section on the front page, and on each category page.
• The all new Front Page gives you more ways to get started in discovering interesting stories.
• The Newly Submitted section has been streamlined and is easier to use.
• Search was slow. Now it's Faster!
• Plus many bug fixes.

Oh, and Tagging!
One of the most requested features for C2NN is "More Categories". And while we've added two new categories "Green Living" and "Business" we couldn't agree on what other categories were most important. So we decided to let you, the members who submit the stories, decide. This is where tagging comes in. You may already be familiar with how tagging works in C2C Photos and Care2 Share. Tags are member-defined categories. A story can be tagged with several tags, and hence categorized in multiple categories.
Now you can surf the most popular stories by tag in addition to Category. What are the most popular tags right now? Have a look.

A lot of Care2 members contribute to make the Care2 News Network the amazing resource it is. Whether you're submitting your own stories or voting/"noting" to help get the most important stories to the Front Page you're making a difference.

As one measure of the reach, I just came across an interesting stat I thought worth sharing. We currently have over 35,000 subscribers to the "C2NN Daily" which we launched a few weeks ago. Obviously, there are many many more people who visit the Care2 site everyday to read the stories, but it's nice to see that so many of opted to get it delivered to their mailbox every day.

If you haven't yet subscribed, just go to the C2NN Front Page and enter your email in the slot at the bottom right of the page.

Way to go Care2 News Network contributors!!

Video is all over the web these days. But where are they on Care2 Connect? Wouldn't you love to put a video on your MyPage? Of course you would. And guess what... now you can!

Head on over to your MyPage and you'll see a new module in the right column called "My Video". Click the "[edit]" button. Paste in the URL of your favorite video. The video just has to be hosted at one of these sites: Google Video, YouTube, Jumpcut, Vmix or MySpace Videos.

Go ahead, give it a try!