Please take a second to update your Me.dium version by selecting Tools | Add-ons (or extensions) from your browser menu-bar. Select Find Updates and then restart your browser once it completes installing. It takes just a few seconds and it’ll make a huge difference in your Me.dium experience.A few fun things to point out in this latest update. The Friend and Talk tabs have been redesigned to allow you to access elements from both tabs simultaneously and we’ve made some nice improvements to the fonts. I know, you’ll all the miss the days of squinting to see where your friends are, but you’ll get it over someday.Your input drives our development efforts and we’d love to hear the reactions to our latest update in our Mr. Smith forum.Thanks again for participation in Me.dium and I look forward to seeing you online.

We’ll be doing some system maintenance this evening starting at 10 PM MST and you’re Me.dium Sidebar will be unavailable.There will be a new version available for you once we’re back online. Jud posted a sneak peak at the upcoming features in his notorious “node 666″ post yesterday.Thanks in advance for your patience.

We’ve been hard at work on some truly groundbreaking improvements to the Me.dium Sidebar. Very soon you’ll be able to enjoy them when we officially launch our Mr. Smith release.Let me walk through the highlights…

Dual Tabs

A challenge we have had from the start has been giving users the best of both worlds when it comes to tapping the value of the Me.dium discussion board (aka the “talk/shoutout” tab), and the “Friends” tab. Our current interface allows you to enjoy only one at a time; you’re either immersed in discussions, or viewing your friends and their locations. With the introduction of what we’re calling “dual-tabs,” you finally get the best of both worlds. We have built a truly innovative way of consuming contextually relevant discussion, while keeping tabs (pun intended) on what your friends are up to; simultaneously. Regardless of whether you like having discussions as your primary view, or your friends, the essence of both is never more than a glance away. We’ve been enjoying “dual-tabs” internally for a few weeks now while we have applied the finishing touches and we hope you’re as impressed as we are.

Look & Feel

You’ll also notice several other improvements designed to give you a more meaningful experience: color changes to provide a more consistent and contextually relevant experience, use of people icons to indicate public vs. private discussions, increased font sizes for better readability, and improved message formatting. Another notable change is that the “shoutout” tab is now represented with our Me.dium logo. This is the place to initiate, or Reply to/Read, public discussions. This tab will eventually become your “inbox” for all sorts of messages and notifications.

Down the Road

The Me.dium Sidebar provides an incredible amount of functionality and information. As I’ve said before, conveying such a rich set of features is a challenge. In future releases (we’ve started on our “Zion” release) you’ll see some elegant, and downright beautiful, ways of communicating Me.dium’s richness and depth. You’re going to love them.Internally, we’re kicking the tires on the IE7 version of the Me.dium Sidebar, and we’ll be getting that to you ASAP. We’re balancing the need to get our products into your hands as early as possible, while ensuring we’re providing enough value and stability to give you a great experience.This impending release completes our Mr. Smith project, and we would appreciate your feedback in the Mr. Smith forum. Our product is in your hands!Jud Valeski, Director, Product Management

Who? You. Yes, you!What? Be our featured Me. of the Week and share your online experiences, interests and adventures with our entire community.Where? Right here in this blog and in the shout-out tab in the Me.dium sidebar.When? Any week that works in your calender.Why? Because you yearn for the attention of others and want to share your blog, your Cherry Tap profile, your Second Life creations or just your own peculiar surfing habits. You need an audience and we need a superstar.How? Just email support@me.dium.com and we’ll handle the rest.Who knows? We may even have a little surprise for you as a bonus.

Not that it should come as any surprise to any of you, but Me.dium has been nominated as a finalist in the Webware 100 as one of the best Web 2.0 sites around. We’re in the Community category up against some pretty big name competitors and some of my favorite sites (I think it’s so cool to be in the same category as Digg and Dogster). Voting runs today through June 11th.But why wait? Go vote now!In the spirit of fair competition (I kill myself sometimes), we’ll be featuring the other 249 finalists over the course of the contest in our daily Me.dium tours. Just hop over to Me.dium.com/blogs to join us as we explore the intracacies of the other finalists.Did you vote yet?How about now?