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Xerpi's launching a new feature! It's a hybrid technology that combines web browsing with email! I was so excited that I cornered one of Xerpi's new-hires, and he spilled the beans about the new button that Xerpi's built for web browsers...even though it hasn't been officially announced!

"Xerpi has traditionally been a place to store bookmarks," explained Andy Wall, one of Xerpi's newest developers. "What we've just finished putting together is button you can install in your browser allowing you to share links! Instead of just storing them on Xerpi, it lets you to send an email to a friend -- it pulls up an email interface where it's stored your addresses. So it's a really convenient, one-click way to share a link."

And best of all, they're releasing a sneak preview for readers of this blog! Just click this link. It's a bookmarklet! It's an email! It's really cool, and I love it!

I was curious about the philosophy behind the button, but Andy said he'd been working on building something that's as easy-to-use as Xerpi itself. "You type in the first couple of letters of the person that you want to send it to. You can give it an extra note if you want -- or not. You click 'send'...and it's gone!" He's pretty excited about the concept -- and with easy forwarding, it adds the potential of "exponential" popularity for the links being sent. And the email tells friends about Xerpi, too, since the email indicates how the link was forwarded. "What I was trying to think of is how do we make Xerpi more viral," Andy confided, "and I wanted to have it in a way that was non-intrusive, so people were doing it naturally in the course of using a service that we provided that they were enjoying!"

Andy also told me another secret: that working for Xerpi is like working for a promising startup company. (Though when I asked if that meant everyone runs around in a coffee-induced frenzy, he laughed and said it's a little more chilled out than that.) "In general, we just have fun. It's like a small group of friends." But I had to laugh when Andy told me how he got the idea. Apparently one of the great things about being a developer is that when you've got a pet peeve, you can fix it for everybody!

"One of the things that actually annoys me when I'm online is it's hard to share links. You've got to open your email account, cut and paste the link into an email, address it, and send it. It should be easier than that.

"So I was thinking: why doesn't Xerpi build that...?"

Xerpi just keeps getting better.

If you've logged in recently, you've noticed it looks a little spiffier. But here's a complete rundown of all the new features.

• Old School Favorite Management

  I love that name -- and I love this feature! Let's say you want a break from Xerpi's elegant, intuitive simplicity. Just click this hyperlink (after clicking the "Xerpi tools" icon at the upper-right of your screen.) It'll show all your favorites as just a big ol' list -- the name, the URL, plus links for editing (or deleting) the link! It's a great way to get a giant, all-at-once look at all your favorites.

• Browser Buttons

  The other Xerpi tool is one of the handiest. I've talked about it before (further down this page) -- but if you've missed the buzz, here's two words for you: Browser Buttons.

  After clicking the Xerpi tools icon -- it's still at the upper-right of the screen -- you'll see hyperlinks for instructions about how to install two new Xerpi buttons directly into your browser. One button will let you send any web page you're visiting on straight into your Xerpi home page! And the other button lets you return to Xerpi with just one click...

• Importing Bookmarks

  Here's an even easier way to add new favorites to your Xerpi home page. Now the bookmarks in your browser can become the bookmarks on your Xerpi home page!

  Just click on "Import bookmarks" at the upper-left of your screen. It describes an easy geek trick that saves your browser's bookmarks to a file on your hard drive. Then just click the grey box that says "Import" -- and presto. They're on your Xerpi home page. (And your browser's bookmark folders each become a separate link block!)

  Right now this only works with the Firefox brower -- but if you're using Internet Explorer, there's a workaround. Just open up Firefox, import your IE bookmarks, and then save them to your hard drive for uploading to to Xerpi!

• New icons
  

  There's some other changes that make Xerpi even easier to user. Now there's a new row with little icons -- right over your Xerpi favorites. These buttons make it even easier to add a new block of favorites to your Xerpi home page -- a block for new links, for your friends' favorites, or for links that matched your tags.

  And there's also an "Add Widget" icon. (A "widget" is a useful tool for your Xerpi home page -- like a search window that lets you enter words for a definition from Dictionary.com!) I couldn't live without my Google Maps widget.

For me the most exciting thing about all this is that Xerpi is evolving. I feel like I got in on a good thing, early -- and now I'm watching it grow.

It was already cool and easy to use -- but now it's even easier.