Strands Blog

We’ve been working hard (and running a lot!) to improve Strands.com. We compiled the feedbacks/suggestions and will soon showcase our new and better Strands.com.  Our new features will make the training log easier to use, better analysis and of course fun and exciting!

Listed are some key features we’ve improved or added. We’ll provide an in-depth blog to introduce each new and improved sections later, but until then here is a sneak peak of what to expect!

Key New Features

• Custom workout title – name your workouts!
• Strands Parser – convert text to workout post!
• Social – share who you trained with!
• Race Prediction – compare your Race Prediction with others!
• Supplements – how do you recover?
• Trophy Case – earn your medals through your training miles and days!
• Goals – Faster time? Weight goal?
• Calendar – new design, easy view of all workouts
• New stats - new charts and graphs for easy viewing
• Questions – Training Questions? Shoe Review?
• Smart Routes – Search routes by distance and location. Compete and challenge against others!
• Tips – Injury prevention, best gear, supplement, routes, stores, sales…

Improvements

• Expanded layouts for better visualization
• Design overhaul throughout the site for better navigation
• Better filtering – filter your life stream
• More activity – just about any activity you can think of!
• Race Prediction – apply day off into the training calculation
• Improved view navigation – easily access your stats
• iPhone 3.1
• Improved Strands Tracker with bug fixes

Every few days, we’ll introduce each new feature in-depth so that you won’t miss a thing.

Stay tuned – it’s worth it!

Become a beta tester

We are recruiting 20 enthusiastic individuals to spread the word about Strands.com in their community. We are looking for individuals of all ages and abilities. If you have been an active user of Strands.com for at least 30 days and you think you would make a good candidate, send an email to Mike Reneau. Please include your name, home location, Strands.com user name and a paragraph why you would like to be a brand advocate.

Strands.com Brand Advocates will receive a Team Strands.com singlet, technical running T, water bottle, and the opportunity to earn more Team Strands.com gear. They will be featured on the website on both the landing page and as recommended users for new registrants to follow. Brand advocates will have the opportunity to beta test new Strands.com software and iPhone apps if they choose. They will be provided with cool promotional material for community events, group runs and Strands.com user “Meet-Ups”.

Guidelines
Your participation in the Strands Brand Ambassador program is subject to the Strands.com Terms of Use and the following additional guidelines.

You must comply with the FTC guidelines relating to compensated endorsements of goods or services, 16 CFR Section 255.5. When you post or blog encouraging people to use Strands.com, you must disclose that you have received something of value from Strands. You should do this by including a link to this page (page that explains the Strands Brand Ambassador Program). You are encouraged to post positive comments about Strands.com, but you should NOT post negative comments about other sites that may compete in the same space. Posting anything that is false or misleading, about Strands.com or a competitor, is not permitted and is grounds for immediate termination from the Strands Brand Ambassador Program. Anything you write, post or tell people relating to Strands.com is user-generated Content as defined in the Terms of Use so please ensure that the Content is not illegal or offensive to the recipient.

Your relationship with Strands will be that of an independent contractor. You are not authorized to make any contracts or commitments on behalf of Strands. You are solely responsible for all tax returns and payments required to be filed with or made to any federal, state or local tax authority with respect to your compensation for participation, and Strands will not withhold or make payments for social security, unemployment insurance, disability insurance or worker’s compensation insurance on your behalf.

Full Length Guidelines

With a sleek new design and simplified user interface, version 3.0 is our cleanest, most user-friendly version yet. New and improved features include real-time tracking with live text-to-audio messaging and photo sharing, new stats and charts, calendar view for easy workout history browsing, event listings, and much more!

For a complete listing of new features or to download now, visit Strands for iPhone

Real Time Tracking at Events

Race participants running with the Strands iPhone app can be tracked real-time with other competitors on the live event page map on Strands.com. This feature was first tested with 2-time World Marathon Champion Abel Anton during the 2009 New York City Marathon. Earlier this month, another Team Strands.com athlete Paco Ribera and a group of beta testers ran the Eugene Half Marathon with the the Strands iPhone Application. Paco Ribera placed second overall in the half marathon. A replay of the live tracking from the Eugene Half is available here.

Real-time tracking is available at any event with an official listing on Strands.com. Click on the route map at the top of the event page and scroll down. 8 Hours prior to the race start time, Live button will be available. After the event has ended, Replay button will be available.

Official event listings are denoted with a gold shield. If you are a race organizer and would like an official event listing at your event, upgrade your Strands.com to a promoter account here.

If you would like real-time tracking you are attending, request an official event page for the event to Feedback

Run with Strands iPhone App

The Strands for iPhone real-time athlete tracking begins with the user (Eddie) launching the iPhone app and selecting Chrono from the Main Menu.

Strands Chrono displays real-time pace, average pace, time and distance. From Chrono, Eddie can select a music playlist, share photos real-time, or join a local event. Today, Eddie is just going out for a run, so he presses start, locks the screen, and dims the brightness setting for increased battery life. For other useful tips and information on button-by-button instructions, click on version 3.0’s new help button.

Eddie then heads out his run.

While Eddie is out running, he appears on the Strands Geo view. Other users on the app Click on the username (eernestjones) and you can view a live map from your iPhone–displaying real-time route, pace, time and distance. You can access the live map from your iPhone AND from your desktop.

In addition to real-time run data, Eddie can share photos from his route.

When Eddie takes a photo during his run it posts immediately to his profile and to the live map at the precise location where he takes the photo.

Real Time Live Tracking is also accessible on your desktop from your Strands.com online account. Look for the red dot associated with your friends profile and click on the “Now Running” link and you access a live map.

Type a few words of encouragement from text field on the live map and the text will be converted to an audible message on Eddie’s iPhone while he runs. Strands.com users can send text-to-audio messages to friends and family members working out or racing directly from their desktop at home.

Questions, feedback or problems? email us!

Strands.com is reviving the historic Hi-Lite Track Meet in Corvallis with the running of a high performance track meet and community events on May 29 at the Corvallis High School track.

The Strands.com Hi-Lite Meet will draw many of the nation’s best mid-distance and distance runners for the first high performance track meet hosted in Corvallis since the Oregon State University men’s and women’s track programs were cut in 1988. The Hi-Lite meet originated on May 30, 1974 under the direction of Oregon State Head Coach Berny Wagner. During its 14-year history, the meet was host to some titans in the history of USA Track & Field, including Steve Prefontaine and Mary Decker, among others. The meet will take place at Corvallis High School, where Prefontaine set the National High School 2-mile record 41 years ago.

“Corvallis has a tradition of great track and field and a vibrant running community,” said Strands.com Marketing Director, Matt Downin. “We thought it would be fun to host a track meet that brings together the community and some of the nations best track talent.”

Community events are slated to begin at 6:30 PM. Runners of all ages and abilities are invited to participate in an Open Mile, Boys Middle School Mile, Girls Middle School Mile, Pre-teen 400 Meter Dash, Kids 50 Meter Dash, and Corporate Relay (4 x 400). To register for the community events, visit the Official Strands.com Hi-Lite Meet web site and follow the registration link.

The elite meet will feature a men’s and women’s 800 meters, 1500, 5000, and a men’s 10,000 meters. Coaches and athletes interested in attending the meet need to contact Seamus Nally to register at nally@strands.com.

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been one year since we launched our free personal finance management software! A lot has been accomplished during the past year and we wanted to take a moment to review some of the highlights we’re proud of:

• Expensr Merger
  
  As you may know, in 2008 we acquired Expensr, a popular web-based personal finance application. After the acquisition we worked on incorporating the best features of Expensr with our own personal finance management site. In July 2009 we successfully did this and merged Expensr users into moneyStrands.

• Manual Accounts
  
  With the merger of Expensr we added the capability of creating manual accounts. The new feature allows users to take advantage of our free personal finance software, even if their bank is not supported through our automatic aggregation. We do this by enabling you to upload your financial transactions via a CSV, QFX or OFX file.

• iPhone App
  
  Shortly after our official launch, we announced our free iPhone app. Since launch we’ve done a number of updates including the ability to add transactions to manual accounts, edit budget goals and manually update accounts from within the app. We also made the app available in 77 countries including the UK and Canada!

• Currency Support
  
  moneyStrands added support for 44 currencies, which allows people from all over the globe to take advantage of our free money management software.

• More Cash Flow Features
  
  Since our initial launch, we’ve added several new features to help you better control your cash flow. These new features include split transactions, custom rules, budget goal hints and pending transactions.

• Partnerships
  
  MoneyStrands announced its partnership with Savings.com making it the first online personal finance solution to offer new ways to save by providing personalized online coupons to its customers.

  We also announced a partnership with SouthPointe Digital Technologies to power My Money Manager, a personal finance management service that is now available to all MyPersonalVault users.

• 100K registered users
  
  In seven short months we surpassed 100,000 registered users! This makes us one of the fastest-growing, independent online personal finance management services on the market.

• Strands Personal Finance
  
  In addition to these incredible milestones for moneyStrands, our B2B solution, Strands Personal Finance has also experienced significant growth. Over the past year, two of the world’s largest banks have been busy implementing customized solutions for their online customers powered by Strands Personal Finance technology. In Spain, BBVA launched their Tu Cuentas program, while ING of Netherlands completed a private beta of their PFM offering.

We could not have accomplished all of this without our users. Your feedback, suggestions and requests have helped us grow into one of the leading PFM tools on the market. Thank you all and keep the suggestions coming!

We have much more in store for our second year, so be sure to subscribe to our blog, follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook for the latest updates.

Customer confidence is an important aspect in any business, especially online retail. Customers like to know what other people are buying, if information is being collected on them and also the benefits of interacting with the site. Explanations are a perfect way to build credibility and also inform customers of why they are being recommended certain products.

A recommendation systems goal is to help customers find what they want easily and help them discover products they like but were not looking for. Customer’s satisfaction due to recommendations is becoming more and more important. Understanding how the recommender works and why a product has been recommended builds trust and customer loyalty.

Two types of explanations based on two personalization degrees can be given to build credibility:

1. Explanations Based On How The Recommendation Engine Works:

Sometimes customers are not conscious of that fact that the site they are visiting has a recommender system. By eliminating the typical black box recommendation process and adding transparency (see screenshot below), customers can better understand how a recommender system works and also use the system to improve the relevancy of their recommendations.This benefits both the customer in better recommendations and the retailer in increased sales.

In addition, if the recommender encourages customer feedback to correct the recommendations trust will be increased. These options include messages like: “more like this” or “don’t show me this again”.

2. Explanations Based On Customer’s (Stated or Learned) Preferences:

This type of explanation does not tell the customer why the recommendation are given and instead shows how. Such as “You Viewed” or “You Bought”

These explanations are based on the customer’s profile which includes: their purchases, visits, favorite colors, brands, sizes and tag cloud. The explanations based on the customer’s profile are clearly more personalized than the first type shown above, and may be more effective when helping customer’s make a decision.

In some cases explained recommendations might not be convincing enough. Encouraging customer’s input in ways such as “I own this” or “not interested” helps customers fix the recommendation to obtain better results, or to adapt them to their current preferences.

Retailers Also Benefit:

Some studies have shown how the user can even be manipulated to give a valuation or specific rating for a product. Although giving not very accurate recommendations, a sufficiently persuasive explanation can influence users’ decisions. A good explanation could make the retailer obtain benefit greatly as it can raise awareness and make the user to purchase products more effectively than without a personalized explanation.

Another advantage to the owner of the site, whether retailer or social media site, is that explanations can be fun for the customer. If the customer sees that they can interact with the system, it will engage the customer and increase their satisfaction with the shopping experience. Likewise, this higher interaction with the recommender will produce a greater amount of feedback, which helps the recommender and owner know their customers better.

Have you found value through explanations? Did it lead to a purchase? What are your thoughts? Comment or tweet at us @strandsrecs.