This week saw the unveiling of the new Xbox video game console, the “Xbox One”. New technology is always exciting, especially when it means new ways to play and connect with friends.
Many people use about.me to convey their identity by including professional accomplishments, schools attended, clubs, or a new business. The popularity of gaming continues to rise with release of fantastic games and even professional gaming. Unsurprisingly, people are including gaming profile info on their pages more frequently.
The Xbox community spans the globe and the web, including a large contingent on about.me. I’ve selected some gamers who included their Xbox gamertag on their page to be featured in this post.
Lookin’ good, Cap!
Did I miss any great gamer pages? Let me know in the comments!
We’re thrilled to announce that the first version of about.me premium is now available. Using about.me on your own personal domain has been one of the top requested features from our users and is now ready to use!
Having your about.me page on your custom domain (example: yourname.com) is the ultimate in personal branding and is a great way to come up on the first page for a Google search for you name. For just $4/month, here’s what you get in addition to the free features:
Domain Mapping
Display your about.me page on your custom domain. If you don’t currently have a custom domain, we makes it easy to purchase a custom domain through Namecheap.com after you upgrade.
Remove about.me Navigation Bar
Minimize the about.me branding on your page and create a cleaner look by removing the top navigation bar.
Google Analytics
Add Google Analytics to your site to get more in-depth statistics about your page.
Priority Support
Get to the front of the line with any support or help request.
If you already have an about.me page, head over to about.me/upgrade to upgrade your account to about.me premium. If you don’t have an about.me page, please sign up and you’ll be able to upgrade after you create your page. Signing up takes less than two minutes.
About.me premium is the natural progression of our main goal to provide you with the best starting point for your personal identity service on the web. We are interested in hearing your feedback about premium and any features you’d like to see in the future.
Start the weekend off with a look at the comedians of about.me. These funny men and women bravely embrace the mic to entertain audiences near and far. Check out their pages, read a tweet or two, and let them know what you think!
Is there anything as funny as a bald man in cookie monster underpants? (Answers: Yes)
That far-away look in Ben’s eyes is so enthralling, you might miss that he’s wearing a bathrobe on the beach.
Michael is clearly an award-winning comedian with a lot of heart. I had blast collecting these pages, there are so many interesting comedians on about.me! If I missed some great ones, add them in the comments below.
We love to see all types of appealing uses for about.me. These baking-related pages crank up the heat and look absolutely scrumptious! We chose a baker’s dozen of our favorite pages related to the art of baking to show off the bakers (like Michelle, above) and some tasty baked goods.
Roi’s page shows off his passion, not just his professional information.David is not a baker, but he’s clearly a cake enthusiast. Yum!
Luc’s black and white background photo helps his bio image stand out.
The two pages below look great, but might benefit from darker bio box to help the text stand out.
Angelina makes great use of an opaque bio box, allowing her text to be read easily over her colorful background photo.
Have you seen any other scrumptious pages? Let us know in the comments below.
This week our World Tour brings us to Turkey, a nation that connects 2 continents and shows off both the ancient and the new. Turkey has a vibrant culture and a beautiful landscape that boarders the Mediterranean and Black Sea. From designers to actors (like Begüm Günceler, above) to aerospace engineers, all sorts of people represent Turkey on about.me. Here are a few of our favorite pages:
Sema’s illustration really makes her page standout.
Selim shows off a great way to include an interesting photo of yourself using a mirror.
A tactfully cropped photo on a white background helps Cansu’s page catch the eye.
What do you think of the pages we’ve selected form Turkey? Any great ones we missed? Add the links in the comments!
We’re excited to announce that about.me has acquired Wefollow. The Wefollow service is a beautifully designed directory that enables people to discover others with common interests (e.g. sports, politics, comedy, etc.).
Wefollow started as a Twitter directory in 2009 and was founded by JeffHodsdon and Kevin Rose when they were still at Digg. When Digg was sold in 2012, Jeff re-purchased Wefollow and began building it to where it is today. Wefollow has since grown to a community of over 1.3 million users.
This is an exciting step forward in the evolution of about.me as a service and as a company. As about.me continues to grow, it’s increasingly important that we simplify the way users discover people on the about.me platform. Discovery has quickly become one of the most popular uses of about.me and represents a significant opportunity for us to further evolve our platform.
Wefollow’s prominence scores and algorithms help organize and surface users, and will become a key search offering as about.me enhances people discovery on our platform. Eventually, the Wefollow service will be merged with our own and integrated under the about.me brand. In the short term, as we complete an integration of our two products, Wefollow will continue to operate as a stand-alone property.
We are beyond thrilled. Jeff is an amazing talent and a perfect fit with our team and product focus. He will contribute expertise in building beautifully designed consumer web products. We’ve known Jeff for several years, having first met him when he was a co-founder in Milk with Kevin, a True Ventures investment that was acquired by Google last year. Kevin is the lead investor from Google Ventures in about.me, so there is perfect continuity going forward. Jeff will join about.me’s A-list development team with a broad product and engineering role around people discovery and growth. He will work closely with both Ryan and I as well as CTO Andy Hao and the team on product and growth initiatives.
People from many different walks of life use about.me for professional, personal, and artistic reasons. One of the most visually interesting groups don’t just walk, they dance!
From ballet and modern to african dance, all types of choreographers and dancers can be found on about.me. Take a look at some of the pages we admire!
Large images that capture movement in the moment make these pages especially appealing
Sophie is a great example of how to use a vertical image, like a headshot. For help using an similar image check out the tips article here.
Add your feedback and favorite dance pages in the comments below!
In honor of International Jazz Day, we are shining the blog spotlight on Jazz musicians of about.me. Originating in early 20th Century America, Jazz is a vibrant and creative artform played all over the world.
If we could get all the people below into one room, they would make a fantastic band!
In concert halls and dimly lit clubs, Jazz musicians express themselves through music.From Germany to the USA to Venezuela, Jazz is enjoyed all over the world.
Know any other jazz musicians on about.me? Share their page in the comments!
I’m a travel videographer and quintilingual translator. To me, it’s great fun to look at beautiful images and read about the accomplishments and passions of people from around the world. It’s also quite a thrill to receive an e-mail with a compliment like “You’re creative” or “You’re cool.” It’s easy to send them too, so I spend a great deal of time on about.me.
As I was reading a profile, telling myself it was late and that this really was the last one before I went to bed, it occurred to me that I wanted more interaction with the people I had “met” there. The challenge was finding a way to collaborate in a way that was easy and fun for everyone even though they came from such different walks of life, spoke a variety of languages, and were probably very busy.
My solution was to use the e-mail function on About.Me to individually contact the people who had interacted with me. I sent about 30 messages.
I asked these people to send me an image that represented one or more of my favorite things, namely joy, fun, and adventure, and explained that I would turn those images into a slideshow. After all, my mission is to make the world a better place, one video at a time.
I worried that this was an odd request to receive from a stranger and that no one would write back, but in the end I was very touched and inspired by the response I got.
I recorded my voice, selected music, made screenshots of the participants’ about.me pages and created a video using those elements. I was also careful to put clickable links to their about.me pages in the video description box so that their pages, their work, their perspective on the world, would have just that much more exposure.
I firmly believe that the more we know about people different from ourselves—and the more different, the better—the better off all of us will be, and I’m grateful that About.Me was created in such a way that made it so simple for me to reach out and ultimately create another fun cross-cultural video project with such fantastic people.
This time our global adventure takes us to Scotland. Known for its food, drink, and accent, Scotland is well-represented on about.me. Here are some pages we discovered:
From singers and photographers to members of Parliament, a diverse group make Scotland their home.
Looks like more than a few people based in Scotland love to travel!
Did I miss any great gamer pages? Let me know in the comments!
