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According to a recent thread on Twitter’s API discussion forum, they have decided to disable an API method that Gridjit relies on in order to provide its service. This is due to the scaling / load problems that Twitter has experienced in the last few months.

It is odd that they decided to remove the method if nobody was using (as they seem to conclude from the messages on the forum) and it wasn’t causing any problems for them. Obviously this isn’t the case for Gridjit.

In the short term, Gridjit is essentially unusable, and for that I apologize. Very soon, however, I will be releasing a new version of Gridjit that gets around this limitation.

Twitter, in this decision, however, has removed a very valuable part of their network - the discoverable, open nature of the platform. This, in my opinion, was a key differentiator for them from FriendFeed (which Gridjit 2.0 will also support). I do hope they change their minds. If you agree, please consider dropping them a line and asking them to re-enable the support for this method. 

In the last two weeks, Gridjit traffic has skyrocketed (over 10x what it was before). It’s been getting lots of great reviews in at least 5 different languages. It’s great to see how much everyone enjoys this app.

With that in mind, I’m happy to make the following announcement:

Gridjit is currently undergoing a major overhaul in order to support a bunch of new features. The next release (coming soon) will add support for FriendFeed and a couple of extra goodies. I’m too stoked about this release to write anymore - as soon as I post this message, it’s back to work.

For now, here’s a screenshot of how things are shaping up:

I was a little surprised (in a nice way) by this:

Thanks to David Krug at the Blog Herald for the kind mention.

I just pushed a new version of Gridjit live. Users now have the ability to post to Twitter from within Gridjit. It’s a simple enhancement, but as a user myself, I’ve noticed that it greatly enhances my experience and usage of Twitter.

In order to post, just click on “What are you doing?” and a text field will drop down.

Most of the quirks should be worked out, but if you run into issues, feel free to comment here or ping @gridjit on Twitter.

Additionally, I’ve been hard at work designing the next version of Gridjit. There’s lots of neat stuff in store, so stay tuned!

Back in business.

As a result, Gridjit is not able to pull data from the API. When Twitter is up, Gridjit should be back to normal.

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.

Gridjit is a brand new web app (social portal) designed to reduce information overload and make navigating through social profiles easier.

Because I’m such a fan of Twitter, I started with Twitter.

Basically, you put in your Twitter screen name (if you don’t have one, you can try it with mine) and Gridjit will create a grid or portal view of the latest Twitter posts from the people you are following. You can drill through the profiles of the people you are following to see who they are following, allowing discovery of new people to follow.

My ultimate goal is to provide easy tools to help people connect better.

There is a lot more planned for this little app, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I’d love to get any feedback / feature requests.

Ways to get updates / provide feedback:

• Email: support at gridjit dot com
• Follow and message the Gridjit bot on Twitter: @gridjit
• Follow and message me on Twitter: @raygrieselhuber
• Comment on this blog

Gridjit is a brand new social portal. We built it because we wanted a cleaner way to visualize our Twitter relationships. More features are coming soon!