Making Their Mark in Hiztoria
Introduction
The concept is simple. Create an account, build a profile and then recommend your favourite websites to the rest of the world! Hiztoria is a repository for all that is good on the World Wide Web. Whereas Google will return thousands of results based on the phrases you put into it and Digg will recommend a single article, Hiztoria fills the niche for sharing your best website finds with a like-minded community. On the eve of the launch of Hiztoria 2.0 I managed to catch up with the man behind Hiztoria, Matt Callegari, to ask him a few searching questions about the website.
The Concept
I started by asking Matt about himself and for a brief history of the website up until now;
"I am a 20 year old business student at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri and I am studying management, marketing, and entrepreneurship. I originally developed the idea for Hiztoria in 2007, but it took me about a year to expand my ideas far enough to begin development. I originally hired a single programmer to develop the entire website, which never ended up going live. A few months later I outsourced to a team of 10 programmers, designers, and SEO specialists who created the version that is up right now. I have also worked with a great graphic artist in Tunisia (who created our new logo and the Hiztoria Monster), and an excellent writer in the UK. Even after hiring them it took us about 6 months to develop the current version. That’s partly because as our ideas evolved we were forced to redo and revise lots of code, which delayed the launch."
So, what is the main concept behind the Hiztoria site?
"Hiztoria may seem rather simple now, but we have huge plans for the future. Hiztoria like many existing review platforms, emphasizes the value of the “wisdom of the crowds”. We are set on creating a destination where you will be able to find an aggregation of reviews, a diverse cross-section of opinions, and independent feedback from internet users worldwide. Search engines will no longer lead you to an inferior website, or one that uses the advancements in SEO/SEM technology to assume the position of a top result. Hiztoria values integrity, and we look forward to the day when our website ratings, reviews, and information will bring true value and meaning to the internet community."
Technology
In 'time-honoured' Corrosive tradition I asked Matt for a little background on the technology that drives Hiztoria.
"Hiztoria is powered by both a powerful back-end and a very intuitive front-end (which you will see more clearly in the coming 2.0 launch). We rely on our team of developers and specialists to keep us running with the most up-to-date technology, and we are constantly updating and improving our system."
Community
I am a massive advocate of the 'power of community' and the WWW is the largest community you will ever find. OK, we all have different likes, dislikes, interests and goals but good quality websites span all of these. Hiztoria, like all other community sites, can only be as good as the users who hang out there. I asked Matt how they plan to grow the Hiztoria community into the future?
"I am a strong believer in the concept of idea-viruses, which are ideas that are remarkable enough that people will spread them for you. I’m not saying we don’t reach out and spread the word ourselves, but we know that no matter how many people we tell, the website has to sell itself. We will always choose to invest in improved technology over advertising."
Online communities can sometimes suffer at the hands of the porn-mongers and spammers. I know this from recent 'hands-on' experiences with a forum I help to moderate that has seen a pretty relentless 'herbal Viagra' attack. I'm not 'anti' but, let's face it, if someone stuck hardcore pornography on the walls of your favourite pub or bar then you probably wouldn't go there any more. Hiztoria uses a human review panel to ensure the upmost quality of submissions to the site. I asked Matt to explain a little further;
"All the websites that are submitted are reviewed by human editors, which can not only edit submissions, but reject them all together if need be. We intend on keep all the content clean, and so far so good."
Hiztoria 2.0
As I mentioned earlier, Hiztoria 2.0 is very near release into the big bad world. The current look and feel of Hiztoria benefits from a warm and friendly approach but I can certainly see where improvements could be made so I asked Matt what can we look forward to in the design/layout of the new Hiztoria 2.0 release?
"Only about 10% of Hiztoria was untouched during the revamping of phase 2. We scratched several old designs and features, and built a new system from the ground up. Some of the most notable would include the new user profiles, the new website profile pages, a much simpler navigation, a much faster loading system, cleaner page designs in general, and dozens of new features all across the board. Without giving too much more away I will say that Hiztoria 2.0 is definitely more professional and is only the beginning of what’s to come."
I noticed in the current beta version of Hiztoria that there is talk of offering 'Webmaster Widgets'. I do like 'plugging stuff in' to this website (as you may have noticed) so what I can I look forward to when it comes to Hiztoria tie-ins with Corrosive Online?
"Hiztoria 2.0 will reveal the first webmaster widget, which allows any webmaster (who’s website is on Hiztoria) to create a link directly to their website’s profile page and copy the links HTML code instantly. We’re hoping to ignite some support from webmasters worldwide, looking to get valuable feedback from their users. The widget is an easy way for webmasters to direct their users straight to their website’s page. Webmasters would benefit from all the feedback (ratings, reviews, comments, forum conversations, and fans), and users would benefit from the experiences and the ability to share their thoughts and opinions. Several more webmaster features are past conceptualization and are likely to begin being constructed this fall."
Like any good start-up website there have been a lot of requests for feedback from Hiztoria users. I asked Matt if the feedback has been useful in the progression of the website and how it has influenced the development of the 2.0 release?
"Hiztoria is a community, and without ideas from within the community we cannot deliver the best possible result. It’s very important, and will continue to be important that our users submit ideas for further improvement. All the ideas and suggestions submitted so far have been discussed, and many of them will be seen in Hiztoria 2.0. We encourage everyone to get involved because lets be real, Hiztoria is not for us to use, it’s for you!"
The Hiztoria Monster!
I love the Hiztoria monster (pictured left) and think it is a fantastic piece of branding work by Matt and his team. I wouldn't want the release of Hiztoria 2.0 to mark the end for the little green guy so I asked Matt whether 2.0 will retain the monster motif?
"The Hiztoria Blog Monster is alive and well, and will be back and better than ever. He was also the star of our latest video announcing the Hiztoria 2.0 release."
If you've not visited Hiztoria and seen what they have to offer yet then I'd recommend getting over there, creating an account and start helping to grow the Hiztoria community. I would like to thank Matt for his time answering my questions and wish him and the team 'all the best' with the new release. I hope that Hiztoria grows into the fantastic and well-loved and used website it deserves to be. I am looking forward to the new release and will post a small 'heads-up' in the news section of this site when it goes live. You can visit Hiztoria by clicking here.
