ambient

Last Monday, I announced Gridjit via Twitter and this blog. For those who don’t know, Gridjit is an easy way to turn your list of Twitter friends into a grid view. To be honest, I was surprised at the positive response.

Gridjit, initially, was for me. My brain is just wired in a way that prefers to see things arranged along both x- and y- dimensions — in a grid, as opposed to a list. The default Twitter view and the majority, if not all, Twitter clients out there use a list view to visualize conversations and relationships (using the y-axis only).

I built the initial version in a few days, started using it myself, and made it public last week. My goals for Gridjit are equally simple. I want to continue to make it useful for navigating networks and relationships. More than a few people have told me that I’m on to something here, and I plan to see where it goes.

The response, given my efforts at marketing it, was fantastic. Within a few days, @gridjit had dozens of followers on Twitter, was mentioned in hundreds of places around the blogosphere, was tagged rather well on del.icio.us, and was even Dugg (lightly, of course - more Diggs welcome :)). Traffic numbers are very comfortable. People seemed to love the simple utility of Gridjit: an easier way (for some) to scan Twitter conversations, discover new people to follow, and navigate relationships.

One of the responses that was most exciting was the email I received from Nik Guinta. Nik is an artist and designer, and she does great work. She sent me a CSS file that she had created to customize the Gridjit view to her own liking.

The design (screenshot below) is clean and really helps to bring out individual Twitterers. I had been planning to build in a themes system, and Nik’s email validated to me that this was a good idea. I plan to have her CSS available as an option, as well as the ability for people to create their own, in the near future. Thanks, Nik!

Where is Gridjit going next?

That depends on what people want to see. Yes, I have a vision for the application but I believe that the best products (even Apple’s) are created with a clear understanding of what people want. The only way I know what people want is if they tell me, so feel free to talk to me on Twitter, email support at gridjit dot com, or comment on this blog. I can, however, provide some hints at where Gridjit is going:

• Additional networks and content types
• The ability to update status and follow people from Gridjit
• Insight into hits to your Twitter profile

What else can I say? I love social media for one reason: It brings all of us back to what makes the internet great to begin with. For me, it’s not about making a lot of money. Sure, I need to eat, but I believe that sustenance follows value, and social media is just a fancy word for the relationships we have the opportunity to create through our communications. Gridjit has allowed me to do that, and I’m grateful for all of the people who have supported it this week.

Please continue to use it and let me know what you would like to see next.