AlternativeTo - Blog

We know, it’s only been a day since we released our API, but we have something nice for you today as well. In our quest to help people find better applications our latest project is a Wordpress plugin that you as a blogger can add to your post and display great alternatives to applications you write about.

The plugin is really simple to use. You just add the shortcode [alt2app app=firefox category=desktop] and it will add some basic info about the application and its top rated alternatives on AlternativeTo.

There are three different skins avaliable right now, but feel free to modify it the way you like it, or build your own plugin based on our API.

Default

Small

Minimal

Hopefully we will see more plugins in the future - both made by us and by the AlternativeTo user community. If you are a developer and have done something nice based on our API please let us know so we can tell our users about it.

We would also appreciate imput from experienced php and Wordpress developers on how to improve the plugin in any way.

You can download the plugin from the Wordpress plugin directory and you can always contact us on hello@alternativeto.net with any questions or suggestions. Enjoy!

Wohooo! Today we are releasing an early beta of the AlternativeTo API. It is in its early stages but we want to get it out to you guys so that we can get your opinions which will help us develop it the way you want it. The API lets you get basic information about applications and users on AlternativeTo.

The API returns data formatted in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). The plan is to  support more data formats in the future. You can read more about how to use jQuery to request and consume JSON data on this website:

http://docs.jquery.com/Ajax/jQuery.getJSON

We really want your feedback on the API so if you have requests for more methods, what kind of data you want to get or any other questions or suggestions then please feel free to comment or send us an e-mail at hello@alternativeto.net

Common parameters

app

The app parameter is the name of the application in the same formatting as it has in our urls. Example: If you want to get information about Adobe Photoshop you set “adobe-photoshop” as the app paramater.

user

The same principal as the app parameter. When you want information about a user you send in the username as it is in our urls. In my case that would be “ola”.

count

This determines the number of results you want. Max is 100.

category

Selects a specific category to get the results from. Right now we have two categories: desktop & mobile. If you do provide a category it will default to desktop.

Get an application and it’s alternatives

Example: http://api.alternativeto.net/api/apps/alternatives/?app=firefox&count=5&category=desktop

Returns information about the specified application and the specified number of alternatives. In the example above it would return Firefox and its top 5 alternatives.

Get recently added applications

Example: http://api.alternativeto.net/api/apps/recent/?count=5&category=mobile

Returns recently added applications. This will get the 5 most recent applications from the mobile category.

Get a list of applications a user likes

Example: http://api.alternativeto.net/api/user/likes/?user=ola&count=5&category=desktop

This method returns a specified number of applications that the user likes. In this case we get 5 applications that the user Ola likes. They are sorted by “most recently liked”.

Get a list of application a user has added

Example: http://api.alternativeto.net/api/user/added/?user=ola&count=5&category=desktop

Returns the applications that the specified user has added to AlternativeTo. In the example above it would return 5 applications that the user Ola has added on the desktop version.

Get a list of recent user activities on the site

Example: http://api.alternativeto.net/api/user/activities/?user=ola&count=5

Returns a list of activities that a specified user has performed on AlternativeTo.

Unfortunately we’ve had a problem with OpenID the last couple of days that caused some issues with both new registrations and signing in to existing accounts. If you have been registered for more than a week and haven’t experienced any issues then you should be fine. If you have had problems signing in the last couple of days it should work just fine now.

If you signed up during the last couple of days with Yahoo or Google OpenID there is a possibility that AlternativeTo will not recognize your OpenID login if you try to sign in now. If you experience any issues like this please send us an e-mail at hello@alternativeto.net and we will try to solve the problem.

We’re very sorry for the inconvenience.

It’s getting cold outside (we’re from Sweden) but on AlternativeTo it’s definitely heating up! We have been hard at work trying to enhance the look and feel of the site, and as always we added new features and got rid of some bugs as well.

• New startpage with featured applications.
• Updated design across the site.
• Automatic userlevel system.
• User profiles have been updated with support for Gravatar and the option to show what country you are from. More updates on the profile will come in the near future.
• Public “points” system. Points are based on your actions on AlternativeTo and your total amount of points is displayed on your profile. And of course there is a list of the top contributors.
• You will now see how many likes an app have in all types of application lists.
• In order to keep the lists of alternatives as correct as it possible we have made it easier for you to alert us when something is wrong. Please use the link called “Not an alternative?” when you find something that is wrong.
• New RSS feed with the latest applications with more than 10 likes. You find the links to all RSS feeds in the sidebar.
• Every application now have a information tab with some basic info about the application and some stats.

As always, please give us feedback if you have anything to share. Thank you!

It’s now possible to add AlternativeTo Search to your browser. We have tested this in Firefox (2+) Internet Explorer (7+) and in Google Chrome. Just go to our search page and click on one of the links to the right to add them. If you use Chrome or Firefox you can also assign a keyword to your search which makes it possible to search directly from your adress bar. Just follow the instructions below and when you are done you should be able to typ something like “a photoshop” (keyword application) in the adress bar and find some good alternatives to Photoshop on AlternativeTo.

Firefox

Click the little arrow right next to your search box. A list of providers are shown and at the bottom of that list there is an option called “Manage Search Engines”. Just click that and then “Edit keyword” to set a keyword (or a single letter) for the search engine you want to edit.

Google Chrome

Right click in the adress bar and in the menu that pops up you should find “Edit search engines” at the bottom. Click that one and then find the search engine you want to add a keyword for. Simple as that.

Please write a comment or send us an e-mail if you have any questions or if you have instructions for other browsers.

Anything else?

We have also fixed numerous bugs and made some small enhancements during the last couple of days. It is now possible to use gif and jpeg as icons instead of just png. We have also fixed a couple of bugs that caused errors when you posted messages or comments.

If you want to be notified when we do smaller changes be sure to follow us on Twitter and if that is not your thing you could become a fan on Facebook. As long as you show us some love we are happy :)

We recently added some new features that will make it easier for you to tell your friends about cool applications you find on AlternativeTo. If you “like” or comment on an application you now have the possibility to publish that on Facebook or Twitter. We thought that if you really like an application it’s likely that you have friends who would like it as well.

Sharing on AlternativeTo is really simple. When you like an application you will see a new yellow bar at the top of the page. To spread the word just click on Facebook or Twitter and you will be prompted to add an optional personal message to your friends.

We hope you are having a really nice summer (or winter if you are down under), and keep those app recommendations coming!

We recently created a page for AlternativeTo on the popular social networking site Facebook. And while we were at it we even snatched the nice URL facebook.com/AlternativeTo to make it easy to find.

If you use Facebook and like AlternativeTo then add yourself as a fan to stay updated and show your support. See you there!

By the way, you can also follow us on Twitter if you want to catch the small messages and updates that never makes it to this blog.

It’s been a while since we updated the blog or released a new version of AlternativeTo, but that’s because we’ve been hard at work finishing the first major update of the site. This update includes many small changes and bug fixes, but most importantly it has a whole new version focused on applications for mobile devices such as iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian S60 and more.

The version was released today and if you want to check it out then go ahead and visit the site and look for the new links under the logo for fast switching between the “Desktop” and “Mobile” versions of AlternativeTo. The mobile version has some applications added already but many are missing so go ahead and suggest your favourite apps!

If you have any feedback then we would be happy to hear from you. We would also love any help spreading this news! Digg it, tweet about it, write on your blog and tell your friends. Thank you and enjoy!

Hello again! We have made some new updates to the site the last couple of days. The most notable are:

• Possibility to filter the alternatives by tags. You simply get a list of all the tags that the application has and you can choose one of them and only the alternatives with the same tag will show up. This feature of course depends on that we have good quality on the tags so please help us suggest changes!
• You can now send messages to users on the site. You can also choose if you want to send it privately or public.
• We have built a notification system that notifies you if you get a new message, if someone “comment on a application you have commented on” or if we approve a application you have added. You will also get an e-mail with these notifications but you can of course turn that off on your settings page!

Of course we must mention that yesterday we became this week’s “Website We Just Can’t Get Enough Of” on Tekzilla. This is huge for us since we are big fans of Tekzilla, Veronica and Patrick. We knew that we had a great idea but all positive feedback we have got for the site has really been beyond all exceptions!

Hi people! As you might already know we recently moved to a new server and things seems to be working really well now. Unlike our previous solution everything should scale well if we hit another traffic boost in the future. In other news, we just uploaded a new version of the site with some nice fixes and features!

Here is a short summary of what’s new:

• The lists of alternative applications has a new design and now shows the icon, tags and a new button for liking the application.
• The urls to applications and users are a lot prettier than before which makes it a lot easier to post links to AlternativeTo. The new format is alternativeto.net/desktop/application-name and alternativeto.net/user/username
• Tabs have been added to the user profile page. It lets you browse the applications the user likes, all comments he or she has made or the applications he has added to the site.
• If you search for an application and you get it exactly right, and there are no other applications containing that name, you will be transported to it’s page instead of the search results.
• If RSS isn’t you thing, you can now subscribe to new applications via email.