wundrblog

Apple's Joswiak: Wundrbar is Very Special!

2009-03-18T09:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at the iPhone SDK 3.0 event, Apple's Greg Joswiak claimed that, according to their most recent data, 98% of the apps in the iTunes App Store had been approved by Apple within a week of submission.

Unfortunately, our app, Wundrbar, was in that other 2%.

Now that Wundrbar has finally hit iTunes, we want to share the story of the long, frustrating, and ultimately successful path that led us here. Hopefully we can shed a little light on the process for other developers.

The Beginning

In September of 2008, Wundrbar started working on an iPhone version of our main application -- a quicker way to access the most popular stuff on the web. We built one version, beta tested with a bunch of users, built another version, refined the feature-set, fixed bugs, plugged leaks, and fine-tuned for months. Finally, just before Christmas, we declared the app finished and ready for launch. We celebrated over beers.

We had heard a variety of anecdotes about the App Store approval process. Some developers claimed turnaround in a day or two; others said it took a matter of weeks. The general consensus was that approval was initially slow when the App Store launched in July 2008, but that over time the process had become much speedier.

Yet with things generally slowing down around the holidays, and Apple warning about iTunes Connect being closed for a few days around Christmas, we were prepared for our app to take as long as a couple weeks to get approval -- perhaps stretching into the new year. We submitted on December 22nd.

And then the waiting began.

Phone Call After Phone Call After Phone Call After...

Three weeks passed. Our app, according to iTunes Connect, remained "In Review."

Concerned that something might have gone wrong with our submission, we decided to give Apple a call.

To get in touch with Apple, you only have one legitimate option, and that's to call the Apple Developer Connection. We called ADC on January 12th, and were quickly routed to a real person. One point for Apple.

We told the ADC rep that we were calling to inquire about the status of our app, as it had been 3 weeks with no apparent progress. She said that they were backlogged from the holidays, and that 3 weeks wasn't what Apple considers an "unreasonably long" period for approval, but that she would open a "case" for us, and if we hadn't heard from iTunes in a week, we should call back and they would "escalate" our case.

Fine. Another week would be frustrating, but manageable. At least they were now aware of us. She had opened a case, after all!

A week went by. No word from Apple.

As instructed, after the week had passed, we called back. We told the person who answered that our app was still in review after 4 weeks, that we had a case open, and that we wanted him to escalate it. He was very friendly, and agreed to escalate the case. It then occurred to us that we didn't really know what "escalation" meant. So we asked.

Escalation to Nowhere

This is where the oddness of the Apple review process became apparent. The guy at ADC told us that iTunes Connect is a separate entity from ADC, and that the relationship between ADC and iTunes Connect is essentially one-way. That is, ADC can send iTunes Connect notes that a developer called, and/or that they should give a certain app extra attention, but ADC could not glean any information from iTunes Connect about what might be holding up an app, where it stood in the queue, or whether it had even been looked at yet or not. He made iTunes Connect sound like a super-secret, Wonka-esque operation that didn't want to be bothered.

We asked if we could contact iTunes Connect directly to inquire about our app. He said yes -- but only via email, at their general email address, itunesconnect@apple.com.

We sent them an email asking about our app. We have yet to receive a response.

Around week five or six -- we don't even remember at this point -- we called ADC again. The "escalation" seemed to have had no effect, and we wanted to find out if there were any other options. We spoke with a woman who said she would escalate it again.

A second escalation? Who knew! For SURE our app would get reviewed now.

We asked her what she thought the hold-up might be. She went through the standard answers -- the holiday backlog, the heavy influx of submissions, general variations in app complexity, etc. But she could offer no real insights into our particular app, because of the aforementioned one-way relationship with iTunes Connect. Great.

We called ADC for the final time around week 7. This time, the woman who answered told us flatly that they had already escalated our case twice. Therefore, there was nothing more they could do. Apparently two escalations is the max.

A Happy Ending

Finally, after 10 weeks in review, we got a brief email from Apple saying that our app was "Ready For Sale."

While we were happy to finally have the app approved, we still have no explanation as to why it took so long. We've recently read about developers getting their apps approved in a day or two. We've also heard one horror story about an app taking 16 weeks.

Was our app just more complex than others, thus taking longer to review?

We have no idea.

Was there something potentially controversial about our app that required some legal review?

We have no idea.

Could we have done anything else to speed up the process?

We have no idea.

And that's the real problem with this whole process. A complete lack of transparency.

The Problem

For businesses, especially small ones like ours, deciding to devote precious resources to developing iPhone apps is not a trivial matter. If we don't know whether the approval process is going to take 3 days or 3 months, it's a serious disincentive. Because our app fits into a larger business strategy, any hold-up in its release has a ripple effect on other business decisions.

Meanwhile, for individual developers, the process disproportionately favors development of so-called "crap apps." Why should developers invest time in developing complex apps that might take months to review, when they could develop simple apps of limited utility that are more likely to get into the App Store in a day or two?

And good luck to you if your app is time-sensitive, like targeted for a certain holiday or major political or sporting event -- because unless you give Apple a several-month-long headstart, why should you have any confidence that your app will be released in time?

Of course, everyone's experience is different, and if Apple's numbers are right, most developers have sailed through the App Store process. But we know others have experienced frustrations similar to our own. Hopefully if enough developers make their voices heard, Apple will work to ensure that 10-week approval processes like ours become the stuff of legend. Then we'll all be able to spend less time on the phone with ADC, and more time cranking out the great apps that make the App Store such a success.

(Oh, and if you like great apps, please check out Wundrbar for iPhone!)

Wundrbar for iPhone is Mashup of the Day

2009-03-17T07:47:00.001-07:00

ProgrammableWeb, the best resource around for Web 2.0 APIs, has named Wundrbar for iPhone its "Mashup of the Day" today!

http://www.programmableweb.com/mashups

Thanks to ProgrammableWeb, and to everyone who has downloaded the app so far. If you haven't yet, give it a try!

Wundrbar now a Top 20 app on iTunes!

2009-03-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

Wundrbar for iPhone has broken into the top 20 paid apps in the Productivity category in iTunes, after only 2 days of release!

Thanks to all our users for making this possible. Help spread the word as we try to break into the top 10!

Check out Wundrbar on iTunes now!

Introducing Wundrbar for iPhone

2009-03-10T09:18:00.000-07:00

The long wait is finally over -- introducing Wundrbar for iPhone!

Wundrbar for iPhone is an app for quick search, reference, news, travel, local info, and more; it's a quicker, better way to get web content. With just a few taps, it lets you get the info you want from dozens of top websites.

fast

The iPhone comes with a great built-in web browser, Safari -- but sometimes it's more than you need. Loading entire websites, filling out long forms, and navigating page after page can slow you down, especially when you're on the move. With Wundrbar you get to the content you want -- quickly.

optimized for mobility

Like the web version of Wundrbar, Wundrbar for iPhone hooks into some of the most popular sites on the web. News, travel, entertainment, sports, reference, blogs, and more -- all in one app. But the Wundrbar iPhone app is custom-built for mobility. That means more tapping, less typing. Open it up, tap the content you want, and put it back in your pocket. It's that easy.

70+ apps in one

Wundrbar for iPhone has the power of over 70 individual apps in one. That means you can stop cluttering your iPhone with individual apps for every different kind of web search or content. Just do it all with Wundrbar.

available now

Wundrbar for iPhone is available on iTunes now. Give it a try!

Update: Wundrbar iPhone App - Coming... Soon!

2009-02-25T11:37:00.000-08:00

Well, what would a product launch be without a few last-minute hiccups?

That's right, we have to delay our app launch just a tiny bit longer, but rest assured it's to make sure you get the absolute best bang for your iTunes bucks. We'll be back in a day or two with an update. In the meantime, visit wundrbar.com and enter your email address to get a reminder email as soon as it hits iTunes.

Thanks for your patience -- we promise it'll be worth the wait!

Introducing the new Tripeedo, Tripeedo widgets, and Tripeedo blog

2009-02-19T13:41:00.000-08:00

Today we're announcing a new and improved version of Tripeedo. To go along with it, we've launched a new tripeedo blog.

The new Tripeedo has a slew of new features for fast and easy flight search, including simultaneous searches, saved searches, and widgets that let you embed tripeedo anywhere else on the web. You can read all about it at the new tripeedo blog.

As always, we welcome your feedback!

Tripeedo a Featured Site on MakeUseOf.com

2009-01-22T12:30:00.000-08:00

Tripeedo, the faster, easier airfare-search site powered by Wundrbar, is featured in a great article today entitled "6 Sites to Make Flying a Whole Lot Easier" on popular productivity site MakeUseOf.com. The story has some great travel tips, including links to help you find wifi hotspots and power outlets at airports around the world. Give it a read!

On a related note, Tripeedo will be getting a major update in the weeks ahead, making the search for airfares even simpler and more powerful. More details coming soon!

The Wundrbar iPhone App is coming soon!

2009-01-13T15:45:00.000-08:00

Happy 2009! Just a quick update on things over here at Wundrbar. We've been working hard on our soon-to-be-released iPhone app, and we wanted to let you know that it's been submitted to Apple for review. If all goes well, the app will be in the iTunes store within a few weeks. If you want to be notified when the app is released, you can go here and submit your email.

Wundrbar Update - New Commands

2009-01-13T13:09:00.000-08:00

While we've been working hard on our iPhone app, we've added a slew of new actions to the wundrbar website. There's some great new stuff in there, including (examples in italics):

Flight status - check flight status by flight number, by route, or by airport
- flight status bos sfo

Craigslist search - search 'for sale' listings
- craigslist sf furniture desk

We've also added some San Francisco-specific actions:

BART schedules - check BART schedules and estimated arrival times at stations
- bart schedule civic center millbrae
- bart sch civ mill

Caltrain schedules - check caltrain schedules between stations
- caltrain san francisco palo alto
- calt san fran palo

There are plenty of other new actions too, including ticket searches via Ticket Stumbler, currency and unit conversion from Google, and news feeds from lots of popular news sources and blogs. Check out the index of all our actions at our help page.

Wundrbar Just Got Way Better: Introducing Live Results and Pegging.

2008-09-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

Today Wundrbar is unveiling two big improvements that give users faster, greater control of web content and information. We call these features Live Results and Pegging.

Live Results

Since Wundrbar's launch in March, our users have consistently told us how much they like Wundrbar's immediate, dynamic interpretation of what they enter. They've also told us that they wish the results of actions could be displayed in the same immediate, automatic way. Well, starting today, we're doing it: for many actions, Wundrbar now brings back live results from commands as they are entered. Instead of just redirecting the user to results on another website, Wundrbar brings the results back to the user. Instantly.

Here's how it works.

Let's say I want to search YouTube to find video clips.

I start by entering something like y or yt or youtube to begin my action. Wundrbar displays a list of possible actions on the left. I select YouTube search, if it's not selected already.

Then, I just enter my search term.

As I do, Wundrbar queries YouTube and immediately brings back a selection of links for me, with thumbnail images, titles, and clip length information.

I can then click on the link to the video I want to watch. Or, if I don't see the video I want, I can simply modify my search, and Wundrbar will fetch a fresh set of results for me.

In this next example, I'll search Yelp for restaurant reviews.

I start with something like yelp. Then, I enter what I want to search for, and where. I'll search for thai food in my neighborhood.

Wundrbar instantly lets me know that it's searching Yelp for my results.

Then, Wundrbar displays a selection of listings for me, with thumbnail images, addresses, phone numbers, and star ratings:

In one final example, I'll use Wundrbar to pull up events from my Google Calendar.

(I can do this because I've signed up for a free account at Wundrbar.com -- and so should you!)

To start, I can just enter a keyword like cal, then select Show Google Calendar events from the action list, and enter a date, like thursday.

Wundrbar accesses my Google Calendar and brings back the events I have scheduled for that date.

Wundrbar has hooked into some of the most popular services that make their data available via APIs to bring users these live results. They include Google web and images searches, Google Calendar, Yahoo web search, YouTube, Amazon, eBay, GasBuddy, Weather.com, and Yelp. And we're going to keep adding more services every day.

Live results are now available both at our website and via our Firefox toolbar. To get the live results with the toolbar, just be sure to download the latest version. Live results work in all major browsers, although Internet Explorer users will only see them for a subset of actions at the moment. We're working hard to have full compatibility with I.E. soon.

Pegging

The second enhancement that we're introducing today is something we're calling pegging. It's a great way to compare results from different providers, to keep track of your commands, and to save your results for later use.

Say I want to search the web for halloween costume ideas. I enter something like "find scary halloween costumes" into Wundrbar.

When Wundrbar interprets my command, it now shows a small pushpin icon on the top-right side of the preview pane.

Clicking on this icon will save the contents of that preview pane to an area on the page below, with a helpful timestamp telling me when my results were pegged.

I can then do another search, and my pegged results will remain on the page. They'll stay there until I navigate away from (or refresh) the page.

Pegging also lets me perform one action with multiple providers. For example, I could leave my search term ("find scary halloween costumes") in the search bar and simply select Yahoo search. The preview pane is immediately updated with results from Yahoo.

I can then compare these Yahoo results with my results from Google, which I had pegged below.

If I want to save these new results, I can peg them as well. My pegged Google results are pushed down, and my Yahoo results are pegged above them. I can keep repeating this pegging process as long as I remain on the page.

To remove a pegged item, all I have to do is click the x in the top-right corner of the pegged results pane. The pegged item immediately disappears.

Pegging is a really great way to compare results from different providers. It's especially useful for tasks like shopping.

For example, let's say I want to shop for a new iPod. Because I do.

I can enter a command like "buy 8gb orange ipod nano", preview the results from Amazon, peg them, preview the results from eBay, peg those, and compare the results -- all without leaving the page.

Then I can just click on the result I want, and I'm taken to that product page.

One final note about pegging -- in some cases, it will happen automatically. For example, if you search for gas prices, or get your calendar events, or retrieve your latest twitter messages -- basically if you execute any action that brings back information -- we'll automatically peg the results, so you can easily keep a running feed of your command results.

So, those are the two improvements we're unveiling today -- live results and pegging. We think these are great additions to Wundrbar, and a big advancement toward our ultimate mission of creating a completely user-centric web experience.

There's starting to be significant movement in this direction, between the Ubiquity plugin for Firefox, and features in Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome. We're working hard to stay at the forefront of this trend while maximizing our compatibility with different products. In fact, there's good news coming about compatibility between Wundrbar and Ubiquity - but more on that in a later post.

Please keep in mind (as we do) that this is pretty new territory, and we're constantly iterating to provide the best experience for our users. So these features are certain to evolve. But we're excited about the new functionality. So give the new and improved Wundrbar a try today, and let us know what you think!

Wundrbar vs. Ubiquity -- Our Thoughts

2008-08-28T00:05:00.000-07:00

A new Firefox extension called Ubiquity, from Mozilla Labs (and UI superstar Aza Raskin), has just joined the fray. We know Aza, and we welcome Mozilla's effort to explore a better interface for the most common tasks users perform online every day. Wundrbar users know that this has been our mission from day one. So we've been getting a lot of questions asking our thoughts on Ubiquity, and how the two products differ. We thought this would be a good opportunity for us to illustrate what we see as the advantages of Wundrbar, and invite discussion on this evolving area of interface design.

Wundrbar

First, a little about us.

Launched officially in March of 2008, Wundrbar is an intuitive, intelligent search bar that hooks deeply into hundreds of different online services. We like to think of Wundrbar as one interface, for everything. We have a web version (at http://www.wundrbar.com), a Firefox extension version (available here and here), and will soon release versions of Wundrbar for a variety of other formats and platforms, including mobile devices. All of these versions incorporate a dynamic UI built around real-time command interpretation, an important innovation that helps users refine their searches. This combination of a better interface and broader scope of functionality makes Wundrbar a more compelling, powerful search experience. And we think the emergence of tools like Ubiquity just confirms Wundrbar's position at the forefront of an impending wave of innovation in this space.

The Information Problem

Both Wundrbar and Ubiquity address the same fundamental problem -- namely, that access to information and services online could be greatly simplified and unified. As more sites expose APIs and tear down barriers to their content, the need to visit individual websites and sift through complicated forms becomes increasingly obsolete. Websites themselves become an unnecessary barrier between the user and the desired information or content. Instead, this information could be accessed from a single point of entry, searched and retrieved in one action, eliminating the need for the user to hunt for content that might be distributed across dozens of websites or require extensive form submission, account verification, navigation, etc. In short, the user should no longer have to go to the content; the content should come to the user.

Both products are taking the first steps toward solving this problem by providing a single access point for some of the most popular destinations on the web. Going beyond just traditional web search, Wundrbar and Ubiquity both provide access to deeper searches within such sites as Amazon, Yelp, and Wikipedia. While it appears that Wundrbar has integrated a greater number of services, we've admittedly been at this a little longer, and we're sure that both products will continue to expand their breadth of service offerings in the weeks and months to come.

The Interface Problem

Both Wundrbar and Ubiquity also take strides toward improving upon the traditional search interface, which has been dominated for years by a certain product that we all know and love. When people think search, they think Google. And when they think Google, they think typing in a box and hitting enter.

Aside from auto-complete, this interface hasn't significantly evolved in the past 10 years. But it needs to. Really.

So, the problem is clear. Wundrbar and Ubiquity simply tackle it in different ways.

Footprint Differences

For starters, Ubiquity and Wundrbar take different approaches to the placement and appearance of our interfaces (Ubiquity as a quicklaunch overlay field in the top-left corner of the window, Wundrbar as a persistent search bar with a customizable location within the browser toolbar), and different users will have different preferences. We've worked hard to respond to our users over the past few months, and we think they appreciate our search bar's small footprint and constant availability.

UI Differences

Providing live search results as a person types is, in our opinion, one of Ubiquity's best features. In their Amazon search interpretations, for example, they've integrated the API to such an extent that they bring back search results on the fly.

Wundrbar also brings back certain results, such as gas prices, Netflix confirmations, and Twitter status messages, into the interface as well. We're continuing to bring more and more results into the search interface itself, to give the user as much information and feedback as possible at the time of command entry.

Ubiquity also uses a nifty auto-complete feature to provide suggestions of the actions the user is likely trying to perform.

With Wundrbar, we're going a step beyond. Not only do we interpret the action, but we interpret the parameters. So if a user types something like "fly from dc to miami tomorrow," we not only interpret that they are searching for airfares, but we can recognize their origin city, departure city, and date.

We interpret this as the user types, so we can provide immediate visual feedback of our interpretation and allow the user to modify their command if they've (or we've) made a mistake. This makes the search experience vastly more transparent and intuitive. A user can be much more confident of their search results before they even execute the command. It's not just simple autocomplete of the first few characters of a possible action -- it's intelligent interpretation of the user's entire command.

And this gets to the heart of the differences between the two products. With Wundrbar, we process the semantic information that a user enters to better understand what they're trying to achieve. By recognizing entities like zip codes, movie titles, and train stations, we can not only provide a user with guidance as they search, but we can better understand the intent of the search itself. It's one thing to redirect someone to Amazon.com with a search string attached -- it's quite another to really understand what that search string means, and to pull in related information that may be relevant to the user, and may not come from Amazon.com at all. Ultimately we think this will be one of Wundrbar's greatest strengths -- to really understand searches and commands, to draw information from multiple services, and to connect users to information in ways never before possible.

Additional Functionality Differences

Finally, Ubiquity seeks to help users interact more deeply with pages as they browse. An example they cite is the ability to paste a Yelp review or Google map into an email without leaving the GMail website. While we think this is a really interesting feature, it doesn't fit with our overall mission for Wundrbar, so it's not a direction that we intend to go in at this time.

Extensibility and Customization

Ubiquity has the goal of letting people build customized commands and service mash-ups. We do too. We'll soon be opening up Wundrbar as a platform, so that users can add services, create shortcuts, and write scripts hooking services together. More on this very, very soon.

In the meantime, users with a Wundrbar account can already customize lots of their most common search specifications. For example, if you do most of your weather forecasts for a certain zip code, or most of you car rentals from a specific airport, you can set these defaults with Wundrbar and never have to specify them again.

These preferences are available system-wide, meaning they can (at a user's discretion) apply to every action the user can perform with Wundrbar. This level of personalization makes using Wundrbar an even quicker, more powerful experience.

Personal Accounts

Ubiquity currently gives users access to a few services like Twitter that reside beyond the additional dreaded barrier of the log-in process. We see this as an important feature of any interface that acts as a single point of entry. That's why Wundrbar not only lets users access Twitter, and additional sites such as Google Calendar, Netflix, and PayPal...

...but we give users the ability to manage these logins through wundrbar.com, so they can register and unregister accounts at will. We're also currently beta testing dozens more of the most popular personal account services, and will be rolling them out soon.

Availability

Ubiquity is currently available as an extension for the Firefox browser. Wundrbar is also available as a Firefox extension (here and here)...

...but we additionally have a website interface at wundrbar.com, meaning users of Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, and other browsers can access it. We love Firefox, but we also want to make Wundrbar available to as many users as possible. And we can (and will) be distributing Wundrbar in many other forms, beginning in the near future.

Conclusion?

So, overall, while we acknowledge that there are some similarities between the two products, we also believe that our feature sets are significantly different, and that there's room for both Wundrbar and Ubiquity in this new and exciting area. And we're confident in our approach with Wundrbar. We've been working hard over the last 8 months to continuously build, test, and improve Wundrbar in response to the great feedback we've been getting from our users. By all means, let's keep this conversation going as we all continue to explore the best ways to make using the web as easy, productive, and enjoyable as possible.

Wundrbar Firefox toolbar now available from Mozilla

2008-08-27T14:52:00.000-07:00

We've just posted our Firefox toolbar to the Mozilla website. It's in the sandbox, which means you'll need a Mozilla account to download it while it's under review. But once you do, you can rate it, leave a review, and help speed up the approval process. That means we'll get out of the sandbox faster, and approved for mass distribution!

Of course, if you don't want have (or don't want) a Mozilla account, you can always download the toolbar here:

http://www.wundrbar.com/static/extras

Either way, we'd love your feedback on it, so install it today and share your thoughts with us.

Wundrbar adds del.icio.us, MySpace, LinkedIn, and 20 other new services

2008-08-26T09:03:00.001-07:00

Today, Wundrbar is announcing the addition of a slew of new services to its search offering, extending its reach to some of the most popular destinations on the internet.

From day one, we've noticed that many of our visitors use Wundrbar to search for information on other people. So, starting today, users can search MySpace pages, LinkedIn profiles and job listings, Plaxo contacts, and Anywho phone numbers, all through Wundrbar.

Our tech-minded users can now search popular sites like TechCrunch, Mashable, and Lifehacker. You can also now use Wundrbar to search del.icio.us bookmarks.

There must be a lot of foodies out there using Wundrbar, because we constantly get asked to add recipe searches to our app. Well, we're happy to announce that today we're adding the ability to search top recipe sites like Food Network, Epicurious (which includes content from Gourmet and Bon Appétit) and All Recipes.

And we're extending our media offerings with access to sites including Hulu and Getty Images.

These are just some of the new features that Wundrbar is offering, starting today. As always, we add content in response to our users, so if you have a site you'd like Wundrbar to hook into, just let us know.

Thanks, and happy searching!

Wundrbar launches Tripeedo

2008-08-12T06:20:00.000-07:00

Today we're really excited to announce the launch of Tripeedo, a customized version of Wundrbar that offers super fast, super simple travel search.

With Wundrbar, we made search simple. We eliminated complicated forms and replaced them with one incredibly easy, incredibly smart search bar.

Since we launched, our users have consistently told us that finding airfares is one of the best actions that Wundrbar offers. So we decided to take our simple search bar and customize it specifically for travel search.

With Tripeedo, you can just start typing the details of your trip, and Tripeedo will instantly start plugging them in. As you type, Tripeedo shows you a live preview of your trip details. For example, just start typing the first few letters of a city name or airport code -- Tripeedo will finish it for you. Enter your travel dates in any format, and in any order. Tripeedo will figure it out. You can even specify things like preferred airline, cabin class, and number of passengers. Tripeedo is that powerful.

Just like Wundrbar, Tripeedo offers a wide selection of search result providers. We've hooked into some of the biggest online travel providers -- Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Kayak, Sidestep, and CheapTickets -- and we'll be rolling out more in the weeks to come.

So, that's Tripeedo -- a faster way to get there. Try it out! And let us know what you think - we'd love to hear your feedback.

new Wundrbar interface!

2008-08-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

We've just rolled out a new UI at Wundrbar that we're really excited about. Just start typing into Wundrbar-- you'll notice a whole new preview pane that appears below the search bar as you type. There are lots of new features here, but the two big ones are...

A list of possible actions

As you type, you'll see a list of actions that Wundrbar thinks might match what you're typing. This list appears in blue on the left side of the preview pane.

Keep typing, and you'll notice that the list shrinks as Wundrbar refines its interpretation of your search.

You can scroll this list by hitting up/down, or by rolling over it with your mouse. When you find the action you want, just select it by clicking on it or by hitting enter.

We think this list is a big leap forward. It'll let you perform your desired actions much faster. And it'll help you discover new actions you may not have known about.

An improved preview pane

We've gotten better at interpreting what you're searching for.

Want to enter an airport or city name? Just start typing the first few letters, and we'll figure the rest out.

We've also added a list of keywords to the preview pane. These are words you can enter to perform a given action. Using these keywords will help make your next Wundrbar search even speedier.

These are just a couple of our new interface improvements, and we've got more in store. So stay tuned. And in the meantime, give our new UI a try!

Wundrbar seeks an iPhone developer

2008-07-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

Wundrbar is seeking an iPhone app developer for a short-term, ground-breaking project (approx. 2 weeks long, starting ASAP). It'll be a fun, innovative gig with an opportunity for great exposure and the possibility of ongoing work in the future.

Our ideal candidate:

• Killer UI sensibilities
• Reliable
• Excited about working in a fast-moving startup environment
• Available ASAP
• Located in SF a definite plus, but not essential

Compensation:

We're a startup, so we're on a tight budget. But we're willing to consider a small stipend and/or equity stake for the right candidate.

If you're interested, please send a little info about yourself and a portfolio of any relevant work to Andrew Dudley (andrew@wundrbar.com) by Tuesday, August 5th. Thanks!

New interface, toolbar coming soon...

2008-06-23T14:42:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update --

It's been a busy month over here at Wundrbar. We've been working hard on some significant enhancements to the interface, which will greatly improve the discovery and interpretation of commands. We've also been getting a lot of great feedback on our firefox toolbar, and we'll be releasing a new version very soon. It'll be FF3 compatible, customizable, and will incorporate the new interface elements from the website, along with a few other new features.

But the biggest changes are happening under the hood. We're putting the finishing touches on a major re-design of the entire application. Most end-users won't notice a difference, but it's a crucial step in enabling the next phase of Wundrbar's evolution.

So, it's shaping up to be a big summer here at Wundrbar. Look for these and other changes in the days and weeks to come -- and keep all the great comments and suggestions coming!

New office!

2008-06-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

Wundrbar has been going through a lot of changes recently, including moving into our first office space. We are sharing with Heysan and a bunch of other cool companies. You can find us at:

Suite 270
301 8th St
San Francisco, CA 94103

Wundrbar review at strottrot.com

2008-04-21T11:19:00.000-07:00

There's a nice write-up of Wundrbar over at strottrot.com. Give it a read!

New Screencasts

2008-04-21T11:11:00.000-07:00

We've just uploaded a couple of new screencasts to the website. These short videos take you on a tour of Wundrbar's main features, and give you a little guidance on how to perform searches. Check 'em out!

Wundrbar Startup School Open House

2008-04-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

Wundrbar is hosting an open house at our home / office this coming Sunday, April 20, 12-3pm.We're in Palo Alto at 639 Middlefield Rd. All Startup School attendees and other YCers are welcome to attend to chat, share, hack, and enjoy some snacks. Take a look at the Facebook event page to RSVP. Hope to see you there!

What's Cooking - soon you can script the web

2008-04-16T23:58:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy month for us since we launched. We've gotten a ton of great feedback, we've seen how our system holds up under some load, and we've been hard at work developing our scripting platform. Our next major release, coming very soon, will make wundrbar customizable and extensible - you'll be able to create new actions, and to link existing actions together to make all kinds of interesting mashups. And that's in addition to just adding the simple shortcuts you might want to put in. This is a lot of functionality to roll out, thus the quietness in the interim. Stay tuned!

Welcome to Wundrbar

2008-03-13T18:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome to a new kind of search bar! Wundrbar is a next generation search bar that lets you control your personal accounts and launch any kind of web search. For example, you can manage your online calendar, start a flight search, update your twitter status, and much more. And you can do it all from the same search bar.

We created Wundrbar to help you (and us!) use the web faster and more easily. If you're like us, you have personal accounts all over the place - Google Calendar, Netflix, Open Table, Paypal. All of these are great services, but sometimes it just takes a little too long, or is too much hassle, to open up Netflix to add that movie your friend recommended, or open up your calendar just to add that one event. And don't even get us started on flight searches - why in the heck do all those travel sites make us click twenty times just to start a flight search? All these things should be as simple as saying them. And that's exactly what we've tried to do with Wundrbar. Want to add a new event? Type "create drinks tonight 9pm with john". Want to rent that movie? Type "netflix superbad". Want to do a flight search? "Fly sfo nyc tomorrow return 3/30". Wundrbar is built to be intuitive and flexible, so you can enter commands in a whole variety of ways. No need to worry about syntax or formatting.

We've already hooked Wundrbar into a lot of popular services. For example, we're connected to several providers for travel searches involving flights, hotels, or cars. We're connected to a few personal services, including Google Calendar. And we're connected to a lot of simple services so you can do things like 'amazon harry potter' or 'ebay ipod'. We'll be rolling out new features very rapidly in the days ahead - stay tuned.

Now here's the best part - Wundrbar is built as a programmable framework, so that anyone can hook it into new services, and so that existing actions can be linked together in new ways. We're really excited about the potential for creativity here. The functionality to create a new action is not quite ready for public consumption, but we'll be releasing it soon.

In the meantime, if there is an action you think Wundrbar should perform, add it to the public wishlist. And while you're there, vote up the other ideas that you'd like to see implemented. We'll create some of the most popular actions, and soon you'll be able to create them to. And in fact, you'll get recognition for creating actions that are highly-requested! We're planning some cool prizes.

Also: be sure to check out the Wundrbar Firefox toolbar and search plugin, so that you can use Wundrbar from anywhere on the web.

Finally - and most importantly! - we are very much in beta. That means there are plenty of bugs, lots of room for improvement, and a huge list of awesome features yet to come. Please stay tuned, and bear with us as we go through some inevitable growing pains!

We hope you enjoy Wundrbar, and we'd love to hear your thoughts!