logabottle.com news

logabottle log notes

logabottle.com — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 18:34:00 +0000

Have you noticed the new "Log Notes" at the top of the logabottle.com front page? Or the "Add a log note" link on your personal Home Page?

We added the Log Notes feature to encourage our users to share their wine thoughts with others. It's like your own personal wine blog, in addition to your wine log! You can comment about a bottle you recently tried and logged, or ask a general question, or just jot down a few thoughts about wine.

Each note will not only show up on your newly revised Home Page, but also on the front page of logabottle.com – so that all users who visit the site will see your Log Note and have the chance to comment on it.

To add a Log Note, simply go to your Home Page and click the blue "Add a log note" link, write down your thoughts, and click submit - it's that easy! We look forward to hearing what our users have to say about wine.

Wine of the month

logabottle.com — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 23:41:00 +0000

Greetings from logabottle.com!

We have a new site features we want to tell you about today.

We are introducing a new "Wine of the Month" feature on logabottle.com. Each month, we will choose a widely-available wine and log it on logabottle.com. We encourage you to try the wine then share your tasting notes and opinions with us and other users. It's very easy to add to your bottle log - we've already logged the basic information, you just have to add your thoughts!

For January, we chose Columbia Crest's 2005 Grand Estates Merlot. This wine is traditionally a great value and shows up regularly on the Wine Spectator's list of the Top 100 Wines of the year.

Take a look here and add your tasting notes this month, and every month.

http://logabottle.com/home/wineofthemonth.php

That's all for now. As usual, please send us your comments and feedback at comments@logabottle.com or on our chat boards!

My Bottle Stats

logabottle.com — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 20:58:00 +0000

It's been a while between updates here, but we have been improving the site all the time, just a bit lazy with the blog. A bigger addition to let you know about today.

We’ve added a My bottle Stats page which can be accessed from your My Home Page. On your new stats page you'll see your average grades overall and then broken down by wine color, grape, country, region and subregion.

We hope you'll find the stats useful, but if there's anything you think needs to be added, please respond here or at comments@logabottle.com.

More updates soon, including another in early January.

Happy Holidays and keep up the logging!

Steve, Katie and Jon

Houston, we have a forum

logabottle.com — Tue, 22 May 2007 15:57:00 +0000

It’s been a while since we’ve posted here, but rest assured we have been making subtle improvements to the site for the last few months. Today we’ve made a much more major one – we’ve added a site question and answer forum.

You can get to the forum from the top navigation links on logabottle, or from one of the “active forum topics” lists you’ll find on the right side of many pages (or here).

In the forum you can post questions, and help others with answers about pretty much anything wine related, with our current topics being:

General Wine Questions
Wine Tasting Notes and Discussion
Wine Events and Wineries
Wine Deals and Values
Miscellaneous

You’ll also see Front Page Wine News in the forum. This is where you can comment on the news that gets posted to the front page of logabottle.

In the forum you’ll see users with images next to their name when they post. Remember, you can add your own image by going to My Home Page and clicking on My Profile

We’re very excited about the forum and believe it’s going to be a great resource for the whole community.

As always, please let us know your thoughts on improving logabottle, either here or at comments@logabottle.com.

Thanks! Steve, Katie and Jon

A Search Box and a New Page Layout!!!

logabottle.com — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 06:14:00 +0000

I don’t typically use multiple exclamation points in a title, but these two additions to the site are deserving. First the simple (but powerful one):

On your My Home Page and All Logs page there is now a search box on the upper right. You can type in whatever you want to search for about a wine and see the results from all the site users. For example, type in "Cabernet", or "Mondavi 2003 Merlot", or anything. It’s a great way to find new wines and wine notes.

On the results page you can use the "sort and filter" options just like before to search even deeper. The old "sort and filter" may have been a little underwhelming to some, but the combination of "sort and filter" with the new search box is a very powerful tool. You could quickly type in "cabernet Napa" and search, and then from there filter to only see bottles with a grade higher than B+.

On your My Bottle Log Page the search box functions the same but will do a search of just your own log. For example, type in "Best Cellars" to see the wines you’ve bought at Best Cellars, or "white" to quickly see all your white wines.

Now of course the new page layout for all the logs on the site. We’ve never been totally happy with the way the site logs looked but were always very happy with all of the information quickly available because of the format we chose. We feel like we finally have a page layout that still gives all the same information (more in some cases) but looks 100% better.

There are pictures to go with bottles and users now, along with bigger fonts and an overall cleaner, clearer layout. We may still tweak things here or there, but we generally like the way things look now and think you will too. Surprisingly, there isn’t much else to say about this big change.

These two new aspects of the site are, frankly, very exciting. logabottle.com has never looked better or been easier to use.

Enjoy!

Katie, Steve and Jon

A Users page and a moved profile link

logabottle.com — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 02:29:00 +0000

We’ve added a users page to the site, which you can now find on the main menu on all the pages. It’s a great place to see who’s new to the site, or even just who’s around. Each user is listed with:

Username
User image
Number of logs
Location
Most recent bottle logged

You can sort the listing based on a few different options on the right of that page.

Location and user image are completely optional in your user profile, but it can add a lot to the site to know someone is from a certain region. And user images really make bottle logs look nice, so I encourage everyone to upload one if they haven’t already!

These optional fields can be found in your profile, which is no longer on the main menu, but now linked from your “my home page.”

More updates to come…soon!

New front page with news and more

logabottle.com — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 05:05:00 +0000

If you haven’t been to the site in the last day or so, you haven’t seen the new front page. We’ve added:

- News links from around the web. When we find interesting stories in online newspapers, magazines, or blogs, you can find those linked from our new home page

- A link to some great buys at wine.com – right now it’s inexpensive highly rated wines, certainly a fine combination

- Our own picks of individual bottles that we’ve tried and enjoyed so much that we're recommending them to you

We’re still tweaking here and there and we’ll post new updates here as they happen.

Two important things:

1. Please check back often for the latest news on our new front page, you’re sure to find some good reads.

2. Don’t forget to keep logging. We’ve added news, but we’re still logging bottles first!

Thanks! Steve, Katie, and Jon

Add an RSS feed of logabottle wines to your homepage

logabottle.com — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 05:33:00 +0000

Keep track of the latest wines logged at logabottle on your personal homepage. At the bottom of the All Bottle Logs page you can find links to quickly add the feed to your Google, Yahoo or Microsoft homepage. Of course, you can view the feed in any RSS reader if you use something else…

Finally, French Regions!

logabottle.com — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 01:58:00 +0000

After months of researching, writing and editing, we finally uploaded our French Wine Regions reference manual to the logabottle.com Wine Guide this weekend. A handy, concise and organized guide for those of you who are interested in learning a bit more about French wines – or just decoding French wine labels!

We included the regions we thought were both most popular and relevant, but if you have a suggestion for one we should add, please do not hesitate to contact Katie at katie@logabottle.com. Next up: California Regions!

Add label images to your bottle logs

logabottle.com — Thu, 11 May 2006 16:55:00 +0000

Now you can add label images from your computer when you log a bottle. You can either add an image at the time you log it initially, or go back and edit your bottle (from "my bottle log") and then add the label image. It is an optional field under "Purchase & Storage."

Important notes –

When you upload a picture, your bottle will be logged as normal and be immediately accessible. The label image you have uploaded will be immediately viewable from your own bottle log ("my bottle log page").

The label will not be viewable on public bottle log pages until it is approved.

Images will typically be approved within 24 hours, often more quickly and occasionally more slowly. You need not do anything special to notify us of your new image, we will see it.

You can upload either a JPEG (.jpg) or GIF (.gif) file.

Only upload the label image, not the whole bottle. You can use any photo editing software to crop just the label off whatever picture you take.

When the labels are uploaded they are saved as only medium quality, and their width is reduced to 220 pixels (their height is adjusted relatively). This is done to make sure the images fit in the space on the site, and also to reduce the storage and bandwidth the images take up. If you want to save higher quality label images, you must do so on your own computer!

That's about it. Remember:

1. Upload only the label from a gif or jpg file
2. Your label will be viewable immediately on your own log
3. Once your has been approved it will be viewable on your public log

As always, let us know about any problems you have with this new feature, as well as suggestions and comments. Thanks!

Log bottles from your cell phone!

logabottle.com — Thu, 04 May 2006 20:09:00 +0000

Last week we introduced the ability to browse and search logs from a cell phone, blackberry, or any mobile device with internet access. Today the big news is that you can now log bottles from there too.

Just like our traditional web logging, only the first set of fields is required. After that, you are free to go ahead and log the bottle, or else fill in more fields, like notes and a bottle grade. Of course, you may always edit and add to your bottle log online later.

The convenience of logging directly from a wine tasting, a restaurant or a party, while a glass is still in front of me to try is quite exciting.

We hope you think it is too. Again, all the details and simple instructions are here.

Logabottle mobile

logabottle.com — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 16:12:00 +0000

Now you can view your bottle log away from a computer! When we first started building logabottle.com we knew mobile access was something we wanted to do eventually. None of us expected it to come just a few months after we launched the site, but is has.

Even in its current basic state, mobile access adds a great deal of value to your log. Anywhere you have your cell phone, Blackberry, or other mobile device with internet access, you now have access to your log. We think this will mean much more informed purchases at the wine shop for our users! Whether you’re shopping for yourself or a gift, knowing what you’ve tried makes all the difference in the world.

See all the details and simple instructions here.

We hope you enjoy this new feature, and rest assured we’re adding more to it all the time. Please post any comments or problems with the service here, or email comments@logabottle.com. Thanks!

E-mail Wine Bottle Stats

logabottle.com — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 19:27:00 +0000

The new feature du jour is a little "E-mail this bottle info" link below wine each bottle’s wine stats. The page is set up so you can easily e-mail a friend a wine you think they may want to try or just know about.

On the send e-mail page, you can add your own comments below the stats that show up, and even edit those stats if you want. After all, it’s your e-mail!

You can also send each recommendation to multiple recipients by separating their e-mail addresses with commas.

It’s an easy way to spread the word about the great wines people are logging, and also just let friends know about logabottle.com.

Enjoy!

Updates for Wednesday

logabottle.com — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 18:00:00 +0000

Just a few quick updates for today that all show up on your "My Profile" page.

Now you can choose whether or not to display Google Maps on different pages. You can choose whether to show a map on:

Your "My Bottle Log" page
Your public bottle log that other users can view
Your personal lists of wines you make, like wish lists, gift lists, or anything you want

Second, we’re going to be sending out a roughly monthly e-mail to all our users. If you want to, you can chose not to receive this e-mail by selecting the option in your profile.

That’s all for now!

New Site News Icon

logabottle.com — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 18:46:00 +0000

We’re making improvements all the time, but two quick changes we made today are:

Bottle grades show in the main listing on the Grape, Country, Region, and Vineyard Pages. This way it should be easy to see the highest (and lowest) graded from a particular place or of a certain type.

We’ve made a big yellow icon to let you know when we have new site news. It’ll show up on the site index after you log in, and on my home page. The icon for new news will remain until the next time you log in. We hope that makes it even easier for everyone to keep track of the changes and improvements we’re making here.

As always, please let us know what new features you’d like to see or any comments you have about the site. The easiest way is to just comment on this blog.

That’s all for now. Enjoy the wine and keep on logging!

Pages for Grapes, Countries, Regions, and Vineyards

logabottle.com — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 20:45:00 +0000

Now you can click on most of the attributes of each wine to go to a specific page for that grape, country, region, or vineyard!

For example, you can quickly go to a page with all the bottles from Australia, California, or Jefferson Vineyards.

Some user inputted data does not link up with other wines – for example some mixtures of grapes and regions we haven’t added yet.

Also, since vineyard names are input by users each time (we like it that way so you aren’t restricted at all in what you can input), matching those is more difficult. You may notice the odd match or two, but usually you get just what you want.

All in all we think these are useful new ways to find and compare wines. Enjoy!

logabottle lists

logabottle.com — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 16:16:00 +0000

We’ve added a new feature that lets you keep your own "lists" of bottles of wines.

If you’re browsing someone else’s log and see one you may want to try, you can add it to your "wish list". Or maybe you want to start a list of wines you are considering getting as a gift. You can even have a list of your own wines you consider your favorites.

You can create as many lists as you want and name them anything you want. Just click "Add this bottle to a list" when viewing a bottle log to get started.

Your lists appear on the right side of your personal home page.

We have news!

logabottle.com — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 16:50:00 +0000

Sorry for the delay here but we’ve been quite busy with the site squashing a few bugs and adding features. The newest of which is a “site news” link right on the top of your home page which brings you here. The link will also show the word “new” next to the link if there is new site news since you last logged in.

Hopefully this will make it easy to see what’s going on with the site and encourage feedback. We want to know what you want to make the site better!

Here are some more of the bigger recent changes:

- Google maps

- A new darker main color for the site

- A wine references section in our wine guide with some great links

- Wines sorted by date drank by default

- Accents and foreign characters now don’t break the site (our programmer took WAY to long to fix this one. Oh wait, that would be me.)

We’ve got lots more planned and coming up soon, so stay tuned…

Logabottle Goes Live!

logabottle.com — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 00:12:00 +0000

Welcome to logabottle.com!

We're all extremely excited to have launched our site this evening - so excited, that we'll probably end up drinking a bottle or two to celebrate.

Check back here for the latest site news, including new features and updates. And, this blog is the best place to add your questions and comments about the site, as well as suggest new features. We all can't wait to hear what you have to say and suggest.

Well, what are you waiting for? Help us celebrate! Register and start logging today!