Release Notes

New features include search in new tab (IE9), installer UI changes, immediate app launch and more.

• Search in new tab (IE9): Users are now able to take over the new tab in IE9, as was possible in previous IE versions.
• Installer UI changes: In order to support lower resolutions (like those of Netbooks), the installer has been redesigned to fit and adjust to smaller screens.
• Japanese support: We now support Japanese across all toolbar features.
• Immediate app launch: We now support opening an app's window instantly (if it has one) after the app has been added to the toolbar by end users. This behavior will apply to apps added from any location, including:
• 1. Bing search results
  2. Conduit App Marketplace, publishers' websites, etc.
  3. Apps just added will appear already open
• Unified app behavior on the toolbar: Apps added to the toolbar by publishers will have the same look & feel and functionality as apps added from the App Marketplace by end users. This means:
• 1. All apps will have a 24-pixel icon
  2.  
  All apps will support badges, if relevant
  3. All Embedded Apps will have the open/close mechanism and will be closed by default
• More new features
• 1. New API: LaunchExternalProgram - Allows the launching of an external program on the user's PC from the toolbar.
  2. Facebook "Like" button language support - Ability to display "Like" buttons in the same language as the toolbar.

A new client version for Firefox 3.8 was released to production. Main features include: New Web Page APIs, Japanese support and more.

• Expanded localization: Full Japanese support across all toolbar features.
• Support for FireFox 8

New features to the Control Panel version include the move to a single sign-in with Conduit ID and managing multiple toolbars in one account.

• Single sign-in with Conduit ID: From now on, publishers will log in to ALL their Conduit services (Toolbar CP, Community, and Mobile – with Wibiya to be included soon) with ONE Conduit ID (email and password).
• 1. Publishers with Conduit Community or Conduit Mobile accounts already have a Conduit ID, and will therefore be prompted to log in with it.
  2. All other publishers will be prompted to create a Conduit ID when they log in.
• Managing multiple Community Toolbars in one account: The CP now supports multiple toolbars, so publishers can manage all their toolbars in a single Conduit ID account. The publishers’ toolbars will be migrated to their Conduit ID account. Missing toolbars can be imported.
• 1. A new header has been added to all pages, which includes a drop-down menu with a list of the publisher's toolbars.
  2. A 'Manage My Toolbars' page (located in Account Settings) has been updated to include: A list of Publisher's toolbars, the options to choose a toolbar to edit, to import a missing toolbar, and to create a new toolbar.

New features added to Search include support for Marketplace apps per publisher on the Bing Search Results page, and full support for FF 5.0.

• Marketplace apps will appear on the Bing Search Results page
• 1. As part of our ongoing relationship with Bing, we now offer “apps from the Conduit Marketplace” in the Bing Search Results page.
  2. We now also support the ability to hide the apps per publisher request. Publishers can request, through the AM team, that their apps be hidden.
• Full support for Firefox 5.0

New features to new client version for FF (3.6) include app notification communication.

• App Notification Communication: Publishers will now have more opportunities by way of Notifications they send from their apps. We now support communication between apps and the notifications that correlate to the apps, including:
• 1. Send Message – allows the notification to send a message to its source app
  2. Launch App – launches an embedded app and sends data to all related apps
  3. Close Notification – closes the notification from the API
     • This feature also allows for timed fade-outs and other UX capabilities

New features to Conduit Analytics include an advanced 'Unique Active Users by Location Report' and a new 'Revenue by Location Report' (for Pay Per Active User (PAU) accounts).

• Unique Active Users by Location Report: The new report provides more information about unique active users per country. This enables publishers to plan more effective campaigns by tailoring their toolbar offerings to specific countries. New report features:
• 1. A wider variety of options for defining reporting period (previous versions only provided data for the previous day)
  2. Displays country, number of unique active users, increase or decrease (in %) of unique active users
  3. Presents data visually in a pie chart and bar graph.

• Revenue by Location Report: The new report helps publishers understand how their revenue is calculated. The report specifies how much money the publisher has earned on a particular day and from a specific country. The report shows two views:
• 1. Summary View: Shows a list of countries with the total revenue earned for each country (based on the defined time period).
  2. Full Report View: Displays the date, country, number of active users, monthly index and revenue.

New features to the client version for FF (3.5) include an immediate app launch and unified app behavior on the toolbar.

• Immediate App Launch: App pages will now immediately launch after the app has been added to the toolbar by end users. This behavior will apply to apps added from any location, including the Conduit App Marketplace, publisher websites, etc.
• Unified App Behavior on the Toolbar: All apps added to the toolbar by publishers will have the same look and feel and behavior as apps added from the Conduit App Marketplace by end users. This mainly involves the following:
• 1. All apps will have a 24-px icon (instead of 20 px)
  2. All apps will support badges, if relevant
  3. All embedded apps will have the open/close mechanism and will be closed by default

New features to the Control Panel include a new staging environment for publishers and updated registration flow.

• Staging Environment for Publishers: The staging environment allows publishers to work on changes and test them out prior to publishing to the public.
• 1. Publish button: New changes will not be seen by users until the publisher clicks the new "Publish" button in the "Edit Toolbar" tab (or in some Settings pages, the "Save and Publish" button).
  2. Preview changes button: Using the "Preview Changes" button in the "Edit Toolbar" tab, publishers can try out the changes on the toolbar installed on their own browser.
• Sharing users' demographics with publishers: Publishers will now be able to see users' demographics in the new "Know Your Users" section in the Home tab. This gives publishers important insight into their user base that will help them tailor their toolbar to the interests of their users.
• Publishers who have more than 100 users connected through the publisher's Facebook app are able to see:
• 1. Number of connected users
  2. Geographic distribution
  3. Age distribution
  4. Gender distribution

New features to the Conduit App Marketplace include user comments, new site navigation, and reporting abuse.

• Comments: Users are able to now add comments (via Facebook Connect) to apps in the Marketplace. The comments box is located on the app description page underneath sample images of the app.
• New Site Navigation: The Marketplace has been reorganized to include the following main sections:
• 1. HTML Web App (based on the "Gadget" component)
  2. Embedded Apps (based on the HTML Component)
• Reporting Abuse: In efforts to keep the Marketplace a safe/appropriate environment, we now give users the option to report offensive content such as pornography, violence, or spam. The compliance department will review all reports.

New features to the control panel include a new icon gallery, new Promotion Tools tab, enhancements to the Edit Searchbox page, and enhanced Home tab.

• New Icon Gallery: The new icon gallery contains new Graphical User Interface (GUI), new set of 24-px icons, icon search by categories or colors, addition of new icons for holidays, special occasions, etc.
• New Tabs- Home and Promotion Tools: New Home tab has a new design including how-to's, messages from the Marketing department, and apps from the App Marketplace. The new Promotion Tools tab includes the old Banners in addition to e-mail campaign templates, toolbar's download link and ideas for sharing it, and tips for distributing on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Edit Search Box page: Publishers can edit the search engine icons provided by Bing (web search, images, video, and news).

New features to the Conduit App Marketplace include more room for targeted apps and greater social integration.

• Friends' Apps: Users in the App Marketplace can now see which apps their friends have added. Simply log in to Facebook from the Marketplace and choose if you would like to share what apps you have downloaded with your friends.
• Targeted Apps: The App Marketplace homepage is more personalized; users will not see apps they have already installed.
• Sort by "Most Liked": Users can select the 'Most Liked' filter. This allows users to sort through apps that were most liked on Facebook by other users.

New features to search include user control of the display language.

• Display language: Users can change the display language of the Search homepage. Users can switch to another language using the link below the searchbox, the user can always return to the default language using the link. The preferred language is saved and displayed when the user opens the browser.

New features to the Conduit App Marketplace include: search auto-suggest, collections, social enhancements, and an improved Category page.

• Search auto-suggest: The auto-suggest displays relevant apps as users type search items. Suggested apps are determined by targeted geography, language, browser and category.
• Collections: Users can now add multiple apps with one click. Collections include: Card Games, Music, Video, Cool Tools, and more. Each app in a collection can also be downloaded separately. You can find collection on the homepage, 'Collections' category page, and on each collection's page.
• Social enhancements: A "Most Liked" category has been added to hold apps that have received the most Likes on Facebook.
• Likes counter: A counter has been added to the homepage of the Marketplace to showcase how many likes apps from the Conduit App Marketplace have received.

New features to the control panel include: implementation of YouTube and Twitter and new templates.

Templates:

• Publishers can easily customize with their own content and branding and add to their toolbar or share in the Conduit App Marketplace.
• Templates can be uploaded or updated at any time, with no need for a new Control Panel release.
• The Create/Edit pages in the Control Panel include a dynamic preview that shows the outcome as the publisher customizes.

New features to the banners include Conduit branding on several banners and an introduction of the Banners Studio for all publishers.

• Conduit Branding: The Conduit logo and slogan "Powered by Conduit" will now appear on several banners.
• Banners Studio: The Banner Studio allows publishers to either grab predefined banners or customize them-modify and create banners from scratch.

The main features include toolbar skins, drag-and-drop toolbar editing, bypassing the Edit page for readymade components, and live support for new publishers.

• Toolbar skins: Publishers can now choose or create skins.
• Drag-and-drop toolbar editing: Publishers can now edit their toolbars much more quickly by simply dragging and dropping components into the position they want, using the toolbar preview in the Community Toolbar tab.
• Bypassing the Edit screen for readymade components: To further streamline the toolbar editing process, publishers will now be able to add the components below literally in a click without any customizing whatsoever. Components Include: All in the Readymade group, Radio Player, E-mail Notifier, Weather, Privacy Button, Games, TV, Gadgets, Facebook, Separator
• Live support for new publishers: To help increase successful deployment in the critical early stages, the Contact Support button will be replaced by a Live Support button for new publishers for the first month after toolbar creation, during our Publisher Success team’s hours. Clicking the button will open a chat with the team members.

New features to the Conduit App Marketplace include: a total UI facelift along with app targeting, promotional areas, a new search engine, and more.

• Total UI facelift: We updated the look and feel of the App Marketplace to have a cleaner and sharper UI.
• App targeting on every page: Now when users logon to the Conduit App Marketplace the apps that they see will be targeted based on their country, language, browser, and more.
• User Support: A new demo video, Learn More page, and Help (FAQ) page has been added to further support users.
• Social Features: "Happening Now" and "Recent Activity" sections have been added to the Marketplace. "Recent Activity" shows apps being used by your friends (should you be logged into Facebook) and "Happening Now" allows you to see current time use of apps.

New features to the Conduit App Marketplace include: Localization, App Categories and related changes to improve SEO.

• Localization: In this version, we focused on creating an easy way to support many different languages, starting with Spanish and Portuguese.
• App Categories

Notifications tab facelift includes new functionalities such as Scheduling, Geo Targeting, and Launching an App; and related elements to increase publisher awareness.

New Notification Features:

• Scheduling: Plan notifications easily and strategically by setting the start and end date in advance.
• Geo Targeting: Localize campaigns by selecting target countries.
• Launch an App: Define an app that will open when users click the notification. This is a huge leap for app distribution and specifically targeted notification campaigns.

Elements to increase publisher awareness:

• Sample notification as a prompt: Publishers who haven't sent a notification for the last 30 days will get the notification below when they enter the Control Panel.
• "Live" example in the Notifications tab: A new "See an example" link pops a sample notification (like the one above) onto the screen, letting the publishers experience it as their uses will.

The main features include a Support button on all pages, adding Facebook by default, enabling publishers to protect their login, AB testing for the Browser Apps tab, Registration page API, and removing the 2go button.

• Addition of Support button to all pages: In order to increase deployment by making support more accessible, all pages now have a contact support button at the top right.

Adding Facebook by default
To give publishers another push for creating a sticky toolbar:

• Conduit’s Facebook app will appear by default on all new toolbars.
• It will be offered to end users in the first-time dialog after installation, for toolbars where the publisher removed it.
• It appears in the Settings tab, on the new Advanced Security page. Publishers enable the feature by contacting Customer Support.

Remove 2go button

• A strategic decision was made to remove the 2go button from the App page’s sharing options and the entire Control Panel. All live 2go buttonswill still work.

More items included in this version:

• "Get Your Toolbar App" button restricted: This promotion option ("All-in-one") will appear on the Community Toolbar page only after the toolbar has passed compliance review.

Publishers can now use notifications effectively and leverage their full potential.

New 'Your Notifications': The "Your Notifications" table now includes a quick glance at the analytics for each notification, without publishers having to visit Conduit Analytics.

• The new CTR (click-through-rate) column shows each notification's rate and links to the notification's report in the Analytics tab.
• A new "View reports" link takes publishers directly to the Notifications Usage report in the Analytics tab.

Instant access to promotion channels

While editing their Community Toolbar, or as soon as an app has been created (and the app page opens), publishers are offered the following distribution buttons:

• Post on your Facebook fan page wall.
• Send an e-mail to your users: the e-mail is automatically generated for the publisher to copy/paste.
• Get a banner (for Community Toolbar) or Get a 2go button (for apps).
• Get your Toolbar App (for Community Toolbar) or Share to Conduit App Marketplace (for apps). (The Toolbar App lets the publisher offer his entire toolbar to users as one app.)

Restructured Apps tab

Publishers can now create and distribute apps without creating a toolbar.

• Publishers are offered two web app types:
• 1. HTML Web App (based on the "Gadget" component)
  2. Embedded Apps (based on the HTML Component)
• This requires some changes for publishers who are sharing apps in the Conduit App Marketplace.
• 1. Apps to be removed from the Conduit App Marketplace: RSS, Menu and XML Menu app types.
     These will continue to work as components on the publisher’s own Community Toolbar.
     Publishers and users who had already added them from the App Marketplace will be able to keep on using them, but they won’t see any future updates.
  2. Apps that remain in the App Marketplace: Gadget apps (converted to HTML Web Apps) and Embedded Apps.
     - These will continue to function as apps and appear in the My Apps list.
     - They will also remain on the publisher’s Community Toolbar as a toolbar component. Note: The toolbar component and the app will now function as separate entities, so editing the app won't impact the component and vice versa.
• Enhanced publisher's app page with instant access to promotion channels, links to the app's install page and directly to the installation, "Edit" link, and "Add to My Toolbar" link.
• New "My Apps" page

Support for the 24 x 24-pixel look and feel for apps and support for the Toolbar App (see 12/9 release).

This version also includes:

• Badges in the App Marketplace: Users will now be able to easily identify a publisher's official app by its "official" badge.
• Meta tags and meta description: Publishers now have control of their Download page’s Page Title and Meta Description.

The main features include the merge of the Community Toolbar and Conduit Engine, and a new look and feel for Conduit Engine and Conduit-powered apps.

Community Toolbar/Conduit Engine merge

Conduit Engine is now part of every Community Toolbar installation. The Community Toolbar is built on Conduit Engine like any other Conduit-powered app. Conduit Engine replaces the My Stuff feature and includes new and enhanced behaviors.

New Conduit Engine behavior and look & feel (24 px)

Conduit Engine and Conduit-powered apps now have a revamped design and user interface.

• The "+" (Add Stuff) button was added to the far right side of Conduit Engine.
• Conduit Engine can be horizontally stretched all the way up to the search box.
• All apps are displayed as a 24-px icon with rounded corners and other enhancements. Individual app types have the following UI improvements:
• 1. Gadget: Minimize/maximize feature. Menu: New design with arrow for the drop-down.
  2. RSS: New badge shows number of unread items.
  3. Embedded App: New design for minimize/maximize, now also has unified 24-px icon in collapsed mode.

Toolbar App

Now publishers can offer their entire Community Toolbar as a single, standalone app. The Toolbar App has all the toolbar components, including the search box.

• Every toolbar that is created comes with a Toolbar App available for the publisher to share.
• It’s displayed on the browser with a 24 x 24-pixel icon like any other app, and expands when clicked.
• Users can grab a Toolbar App like any other app: in the Conduit App Marketplace, via a 2go button, and on the app page.
• Does not include user settings, such as change default search engine, etc.

Community Toolbar (right-click) context menu

The new toolbar context menu gives users easier access to all toolbar options and new items for the App Marketplace and sharing.

Integration of Facebook features into the Conduit App Marketplace

• Facebook Share button on app pages − users can post their favorite app directly to their wall.
• End-user ratings on app pages − users can rate apps after logging in to Facebook Connect.

Conduit Marketplace apps are now featured on the Welcome and Uninstall pages, users can:

• Add their own favorite content to the browser immediately following installation.
• Add apps to their browser after they chose to uninstall the Community Toolbar.

Facebook Connect on the Welcome page

• Share button: Enables users to post their new Community Toolbar on their wall.
• Recent Activity box: This Facebook social plug-in shows friends’ activities in the Conduit App Marketplace.
• Like button: Posts the Community Toolbar on the user's wall.

• The banner gallery has been updated with enhanced graphics.
• The Top Slider and Bottom Slider banners have expanded clickable areas that include most of the banner.
• The Community Toolbar Image banner has been enhanced; when content is added to the toolbar, users will not have to scroll horizontally to see the entire toolbar. The toolbar image width will be fixed, but the content will remain dynamic. If the end of the toolbar exceeds the fixed width, it will dissolve out of the image.

• User’s search terms linked to a definition This feature displays the user’s search term as a link to its definition. The link is located in the line of text that shows the total number of organic results. Clicking the term opens The Free Dictionary website to see the definition. This service is available in several languages.
• New Infrastructure This release represents a major engineering upgrade. It includes improvements from solving memory leak issues to enhancing localization business logic and overall stability and performance.