After a couple of weeks and thousands of phantastic submitted photos, the entry deadline for the big Jimdo photo contest passed yesterday.

We're really kind of overwhelmed - thank you so much for submitting such great photos from all over the world! Now it's our (very hard) part to choose the best images and to present them to you for the voting! Of course, we do our best to choose the best photos within the shortest period of time! And soon, you're welcome to vote for your favorite picture!

Unfortunately, we cannot show you any of the pictures yet - but we'll let you know as soon (as possible) as the time for the voting has come! :)

Best regards,

Your Jimdo Team

P.S. Need more information about the photo contest? Please click here!

All Jimdo-Users are familiar with it: the bar on the right hand side of your Jimdo-Page that always appears in editing mode. Here you can set your layout and font image, edit your Jimdo-Friends and work on general settings - in short: you construct the basic framework through the Site-Admin!

Now, the Site-Admin comes along with a completely new look! You can construct or change your basic framework even faster and more stable and get a better arranged overview, starting now!

An overview of the most important changes

At first glance you will notice the entirely new design and also the change of structure - but don't worry about any of these changes, you will find everything as easy and logically set up as you know your Jimdo. Soon you might neither remember nor miss the "former" look. :)

Along with the design for all menu points within the Site-Admin, this is new too: You can pull out the menu point of the Site-Admin that you're working on (e.g. Layout) to make it as large or small as you like. All depending on how much you would like to see at once. In addition, you can open and close the Admin completely, too.

1. Settings = is now "Settings" and "Jimdo Account" all in one!

The menu point "Jimdo Account" does not exist anymore. Partially this separation of "Settings" and "Jimdo Account" has caused slight confusion, therefore all formerly separated menu sub points are now gathered under the new "Settings". From now on, this is where you can manage your e-mail and domains, work on your user and blog settings along with many more functions...

Another very important change: Anyone wanting to upgrade to "JimdoPro" should look for "Upgrade" within the new Site-Admin for this has become its own menu point.

2. Layout and Style

Under "Style" you used to be able to only change the font image for your entire Jimdo-Page. This is a bit different now: in our opinion "Style" does not only include the font - from now on, background image and background pattern for your Jimdo-Page can be selected under "Style" as well.

Now, because of that, "Layout" simply means "layout only". :) Of course you can still choose between standard layouts, special layouts and your own layout for HTML- and CSS-experts!

As always, we're looking forward to hear your opinions on this! Do your like the new Site-Admin? Everything clearly arranged? Are there any questions, comments, suggestions...? Let it out, give us your feedback right here in this blog or write us an e-mail to support@jimdo.com!

Your Jimdo Team

Good news for all JimdoPro users! As you know as JimdoPro user, an own email account and three redirection addresses (so-called aliases) are components of our service package JimdoPro - and from now on, you can set up your e-mail account easily by yourself - in only few steps!

In our Wiki, the Jimdo Help Section, you'll find detailed instructions and tips how to set up your email account quickly and easily. Don't worry, the article might look a bit complex at the first sight, but it's really not difficult. If you have any questions while setting up your e-mail account, you can of course write us an email to support@jimdo.com.

All the best,

Your Jimdo Team

(Hobby) photographers listen up! The big international Jimdo photo contest has started - and you're all welcome to take part and to win awesome prizes!

Send us your photos – and they’ll hit the road…

The best photos do not only win great prizes, they'll also travel around the world: The top photos will be included in the Jimdo gallery and contribute to Jimdo Pages' appearances all over the world!

Take part and win!

• 1st prize: A Nikon digital reflex camera
• Start of the contest: October 23, 2008 
• Entry deadline: November 30, 2008

Read more about further prizes and the conditions of participation here.

We're looking forward to your photos - and good luck to all of you!! And don't forget to tell all of your friends about the contest - everybody is welcome to take part, even if he or she doesn't have their own Jimdo Page.

Finally, we change over to more easy readable URLs (=internet addresses, please check Wikipedia for further information) that are going to be loved by search engines. Example: The URL of a page called "about me" was the following until now: name.jimdo.comc/about_me.php. From now on, it'll be name.jimdo.com/about-me/. Pages on the second navigation level will be included in the new URLs, e.g. name.jimdo.com/about-me/friends/.

Your advantages:

• For search engines, it's much easier to find these URLs - so the chance that your website is found, increases (the SEOs among you will be happy about that news! - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization)
• Looks better and is easier in all ways - If you send the link via email to friends, if you integrate the link on another page of your website or if you tell somebody a link on the phone...
• Info for the pros: URL encoding in UTF-8

Before and after – comparison

Let's assume that the navigation of your website is the following:

What do I have to consider?

First, the most important thing is: Even though the links of your page will change - the old links will still work fine.

Example: Your page name.jimdo.com/sailing.php will change into name.jimdo.com/sailing/ - Friends and Google only know the previous link. But we built it in a way that they are redirected automatically to name.jimdo.com/sailing/. Your friends might not notice the change, but Google recognizes it at once and saves the new link at once (for pros: 301 moved permanently).

You should consider that pages in the second navigation level repeat the name of top page. Example: /skitrip.php changes into /trips/skitrip/ -> check if you like the names of your pages. Otherwise, name them whatever you want to.

When and how are the changes made?

• All new websites get the new names immediately.
• The URLs of older websites are changed directly at the moment, if you change the navigation.
• Within the next weeks, we'll change all existing pages to the new name scheme.

We're looking forward to receiving your feedback!

All the best,

Your Jimdo Team

P.S. Of course, we tested everything in detail, but sometimes we overlook something. So if you should notice any errors or any noticeable problems, please let us know and write an email to support@jimdo.com - THANKS!

At the beginning of July, we asked you to vote for the next Jimdo feature in our forum (take a look at it here). As a little reminder - you could vote for one of the following features:

• Restore/backup
• Own forum
• Poll
• Music player
• Counter
• Customisable fields for your contact forms
• Continuously adjustable image sizes
• Flash banners

The poll was finally closed on September 1st. Actually, it was a nip-and-tuck race between "Restore/backup" and "Own forum". It was so close that, summing up the votes of the English and the German forum, the score was even.

...and the winner is...

We thought about how to solve this stand-off and decided to develop "Restore/backup" as the next Jimdo feature. We really think that this is very useful and might be a great help after deleting something accidentally. Since it is a quite complicated process to develop such a feature, we won't be able to release it tomorrow :) But don't worry, we're working on it!

Those who voted for the own forum: Don't be disappointed! There are other ways to integrate a forum into your website! Several providers offer forum widgets for free - so it's not impossible! In our forum there are some posts in which an own forum is already discussed. Maybe you'll find some good tips here?

So, thank you all for voting! The winners of the JimdoPro packages will be informed by email! Congratulations to you!

Best regards,

Your Jimdo Team

Often desired, long awaited and finally there: The new music player for your Jimdo Page is online! From now on you can enjoy your favorite music on your own Jimdo Page!

That's how it works

And there's more behind it...

Looks promising, doesn't it? :) Great Pages and creative ideas - what do you think?

Best regards,
Your Jimdo Team

We all know this: Almost every day our email accounts are overflowed with spam mails... it's just annoying! And contact forms can be affected, too - unless you put some obstacles in the spammer's way: Captchas! Captchas are little tasks that can usually be solved easily by humans, but not by computers. So if the correct solution is entered, it is presumed that the user was human.

Since we received many questions concerning anti-spam protection recently, we decided to create a little Captcha for your contact forms that should preserve you from spam mails. However, since Captchas rely on visual perception, they offer only limited web accessibility. Users who are unable to view Captchas won't be able to perform the task. That is why you can decide when integrating a new contact form if you want to deactivate the anti-spam protection and offer full accessibility for your website (important for official websites of public authorities) or if you activate the anti-spam protection and get rid off spam mails.

Let us know what you think about it - does it work for you? Those who want to learn more about Captchas can look it up on Wikipedia.org.

Last weekend, our Jimdo packed the bags and to go on a little works outing! Incl. a mudflat hiking tour, barbecue and a night in a "hay hotel" (there were no rooms, we all slept in an old stable on the warm and cosy hay). Employees of other companies might not feel like spending a whole weekend with the company, but we all were really excited and looking forward to the weekend!

On Friday we started our trip in a good temper and spent the first night at Fridel's place (the old farm, where once the idea of Jimdo was brought into being). But before we went to sleep, we had a nice barbecue and celebrated... and so we were a bit tired when we had to get up at 5.30 a.m. :) Finally we made it and started our mudflat hiking tour in time and there was not even a not even a suggestion of fatigue when we arrived at the little island Neuwerk (it actually has only 36 habitants) off the coast in the North Sea. In the evening, we made some hot dogs while we were sitting on the levee, payed a visit to the crowded (and only) bar on the island, had a night-time walk and finally enjoyed our well-deserved sleep in the hay...

The next morning, we made our way back home to the mainland, had a second breakfast at Fridel's place and then all got back to Hamburg... We're already looking forward to going on the next Jimdo Tour! It was such a great weekend!

Enough the talking - we don't want to withhold the pictures any longer... Enjoy! :)

Have fun!
Your Jimdo Team

P.S. Want more? Take a look at our partner site - we started to make a list of great widgets we recommend for your website! If you have any suggestions, which widgets should be recommended, too - let us know! Just write an e-mail to support@jimdo.com

Add new pages, hide them (read more about this in our Wiki), and move them up and down or to the second or third navigation level... - it couldn't be more simple with the improved version of the Jimdo navigation!

A big Blog Beta Update is done! There are some changes concerning the teaser and the RSS feed, furthermore you can create categories > but we'll come closer to the details in a second..

First, we have to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH to all the busy Beta testers! Your incredible feedback, your suggestions and all your support helped us a lot - and is still helping us a lot to improve! Thanks! :)

Closed ends - open begins...

...and we would like to welcome all of you! Everyone who would like to test the blog, is invited to join the Beta! From now on, you'll not be asked to enter an invitation code - just go ahead and set up your Blog! Indeed, we'll stay Beta - that means, errors still may occur and other updates will be made, but everyone who fancies to have a blog should try it! We happily welcome every new Jimdo blogger!

And here are the technical details:

1. Teaser image and teaser concept changed

The figure you enter here, defines how many elements of the blog article's content are displayed as a teaser. Those who want to keep the originally considered appearance of the teaser (small image and introduction text), just choose "Text with photo" for the first element and the 1 for teaser length. But of course, any other element can be integrated after the heading... Just try it out - and we'll work on some good tutorials that will show you all features of the blog element step by step.

All existing teaser texts and images will be transformed into a "Text with photo"-element autmatically, so don't worry: no content will be lost!

Here's an overview of the changes for already existing blog articles:

• The option "Show teaser image" is no longer valid. All teaser images are visible now (because they have been transformed to a "Text with photo" element).
• You can change the size of your teaser image! (The quadratic shape of the image might be lost by changing the size)
• In the overview of the "Blog beta" element: from now on, the first element after the heading is displayed automatically in the teaser view.

2. Categories

Finally, here they are: Categories! Now you can sort your blog articles according to different topics.

And so the articles are sorted and categorized. The readers of your blog see the articles below the heading of the blog article:

3. RSS feed

We would be pleased if you let us know what you think of the update :)

Have fun blogging!

All the best,

Your Jimdo Team

Time for a change? At least, it's summertime and maybe your website needs a refreshing outfit...? ;) What about trying one of the new layouts? Just try them on - you'll find them under "Layouts"

Here you can take a look at the new layouts (click on the picture to enlarge it):

Do you like them? Let us know... :)

Best,

Your Jimdo Team

Some of you may wonder what OpenID actually is. So, here's a short introduction to OpenID: OpenID can get you out of the "account jungle" most of us suffer from on the Internet. It is a decentralized single signon system, which allows Internet users to log on to many different websites using only one username and one password. 

Your OpenID address looks like a www-address and can be linked especially well in different forums or other blogs. What is best: You can also register the URL of your Jimdo Page with your OpenID provider as your personal OpenID. If your homepage is at the same time your OpenID, you'll profit from some advantages:

1.) just remember the name of your homepage as your username for other sites
2.) Your homepage is linked automatically on other websites (e.g. if you login to forums via OpenID)

And that's how it works:

1. Get an OpenID from an OpenID provider

There are several providers you can choose from. Here you'll find a list of different providers, just have a look at them. It's free and easy: wiki.openid.net/OpenIDServers. Once you finished creating your OpenID, you can add the URL of your Jimdo Page in your OpenID account so that you'll be able to use it as your OpenID later.

Of course, you can also login at many other web services that support OpenID with your Jimdo Page (if you have ticked "Use your Jimdo Page as OpenID"). If you don't want to use OpenID, of course it's up to you whether you want it or not.

For more information on OpenID please check Wikipedia

If you have further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at support@jimdo.com. :)

All the best,
Your Jimdo Team

Finally... They are here! Our long-awaited and red hot Jimdo T-Shirts have finally made their way to our office. Needless to say that we had to jump at them to try them on and to have a little photo-session. Here are the results:

Also good news to the Jimdo Supporters: at least, we'll be able to send out the promised Supporter Package!! :)

All the best,
Your Jimdo Team

Do you like it colorful? Great - we've got something for you! From now on, it's time to explore our Pages Directory! Under "Explore" you can search for different tags - and the pages that fit your search key will pop up and catch your eye immediately!

So you can rediscover the world of Jimdo in a completely new way and see what happens at Jimdo! Just enter your search key under "Explore", e.g. "Jimdo" - and see all the pages that have been tagged with "Jimdo" pop up at once. Discover at first sight how many pages exist for certain topics. If you like one of the pages, just click on it and learn more: who created the Jimdo-Page, what other tags have been given to it? Explore endlessly through different pages and learn a lot - maybe you'll even discover some new Jimdo friends...?

How can you join? If you have already given your Jimdo Page under Jimdo Account > Tags some sensitive and fitting tags, you're automatically in because the new Jimdo Explorer visualizes everything which is a tag ;) So,
go ahead and take a look at your friends' tags - it's a lot of fun to look through the Jimdo-Pages... best thing is, you'll start your own exploration tour...

Receiving feedback from your environment is a great thing. You get recognition for what you're doing or suggestions and tips for improvement. At Jimdo, we have a new comment module for that!

Wow, we're absolutely overwhelmed! So many of you signed up for the Blog Beta and are now busy building up their blogs. Your feedback is just awsome, thank you so much! We almost can't keep up with answering your mails and comments.. :)

We continue to work on the blog features and already finished the technology for the categories. Now, we're working on the surface so that you'll be able to use it...

Furthermore, we added the following features to our list:

• Post new blog articles to Technorati
• Add widgets of blog articles to del.icio.us, mr. wong, webnews etc.
• Teaser image: changing the size

We'll keep you in the loop - thank you so much for your support!

Spring and Fridel,

Jimdo Team

Our new blog tool is waiting in the wings. Starting now, we are launching a so-called closed beta phase, which allows a participating users to test the new functions. Within the next 4-6 weeks, we will install additional functions and (hopefully) encounter few mistakes. If everything goes well, as we anticipate, we will makes the features available to all members.

Jimdo's new blog tool enables you to simply and speedily write you own Blog. (If you're not sure what a blog is, check out the Wikipedia article). What is so special about Jimdo's blog feature is that you can be in charge of your own design: you can integrate all the elements that you use for your Jimdo-Page-wether it's text, photos, videos or widgets...

If you want to be one of the lucky testers and want to test the new blog functions in the beta phase, than act fast. We are handing out 200 test accounts on the quickiest Jimdo Users. Later, however, we will also make more test accounts available-so apply now for a test account!

Already have a blog and want to finally transfer it over to Jimdo so that you can finally have everything all in one place? That isn't a problem- you can import your current blog without losing any of the blogs in your archive. Read on to find out how it works.

We are first and foremost excited to hear what you all have to say about the new blog tool. Simply leave a comment on our new blog :-) We look forward to hearing your opinion. You can also ask any questions by sending an email to support@jimdo.com or using our forums.

All the Best,
Your Jimdo Team

Would you like to find new friends at Jimdo? Or would you like to find out which friends are already Jimdo users? From today on it's very easy to find it out. Afterwards, you can easily invite those of your friends who are missing to Jimdo and so expand your network.

That's how it works

Search friends

You can also search for a single friend - just type in his or her E-Mail address or name. Then you can see whether he or she is on or not and add or invite him/her at once!

Have fun with your friends - find them and get connected :)

If you have any questions, please contact our Support Team and write them an E-Mail to support@jimdo.com.

All the best,

Your Jimdo Team

Dear Jimdo-Fans,

we have just released social features such as adding friends, sending messages and keeping track of friends’ newsfeeds within Jimdo. These features will hopefully help you a lot to make your Jimdo-Page a lot more interactive. You can see in the video down below how the new features work.

Since we launched Jimdo last year we had a clear vision of how the Jimdo-Page should develop. We wanted to enable you to create your own place on the net, a place where you can determine what you want to publish, what your page looks like, and who can access what information.
But it should also be a place where you could interact with your friends and family.

Up to know, you already had the possibility to create your own website. This release now is the first one that is going to make it way easier to communicate with your audience - you're able to connect as friends, send messages and even follow the updates of your friends pages via the newsfeed.

We hope that you'll enjoy the new features - what do you think of them?

Pages to the People,
your Jimdo-Team

The new Features

Quick Start.

1. Visit any existing Jimdo-Page i.e. jimdo-team.jimdo.com and click on "add as friend". Now go back to your Page, log in and check out the button "Friends" on the right side. If the person has accepted your friendship he or she will appear here. Make sure to try all new features under "Friends"!
2. Integrate the new Jimdo-Element into your Page. Just log into your Page, add the new Jimdo-Element and i.e. make your newsfeed public.
3. Search for new friends in the Pages-Directory.

How do you like the new features? We'd really appreciate your feedback in our forum or directly to support@jimdo.com. We're developing Jimdo to give you a first class product - and it's always good to know if we're on the right track.

But now, go ahead and add us as a friend: http://jimdo-team.jimdo.com! :)

Pages to the People,
your Jimdo-Team

Did you ever want to know how often a certain PDF was downloaded on your Page? If you use Google Analytics for more detailed statistics on your Page it'll from today on also show you how often your downloads have been downloaded. See here for more information of how to integrate Google Analytics to your Page.
Best,

your Jimdo-Team

Hard to believe, but it's true: the 7th language version of Jimdo is online! Recently, we launched an Italian and a Russian version, and now we continue with Spanish! As always, we're really excited what different pages will be created and
what feedback the Spanish version will get.

The brand-new Flash Picture Gallery is online and has packed some improvements that the visitors of your Jimdo Page (and you, of course) can enjoy! :)

First of all: Finally, it's there - the long expected full screen mode! In order to make the full screen mode possible, pictures will be saved from now on in a higher solution (for pros: 1024x768), which means: in a better quality. Furthermore, impatient viewers can click through the pictures with the arrow keys on their keyboard.

When editing the Flash Gallery you will not only note that the new technique abbreviates some waiting lines, but also that you'll find a little help section for the new picture gallery.

We would like to thank Jens Krause whose Slide Show is used for the Flash Gallery.

Now, we wish you a lot of fun with the new gallery!

Your Jimdo Team

...and here's a little preview of some of our photos:

Which places in the world have I seen? Where did I travel? Where do my best friends live? How can my guests get to my party? Or how do my visitors reach my company?

All these questions can be solved with the help of our new Google Maps Module! Just integrate the module as a new element, place your marks, define the type of your map, the control of the map and its size.

Furthermore, you're on the safe side using the Google Maps Module, because everyone knows that using card material can be quite delicate and being admonished is not uncommon. However, using the Module, you're on the safe side.

Jimdo's Birthday present: A forum!

On February 19, Jimdo celebrated its first Birthday! As a present to you, our users, we finally launched a Jimdo forum "From Jimdo users for Jimdo users". At first, only the German version of the forum went online, but the English forum was launched last week as well. Now, users can exchange their experience in several categories, submit tutorials or arrange Jimdo user meetings.

Have fun!

Dear friends of Jimdo. We recently integrated four new layouts now waiting to be tested by you! Just log into your Jimdo Page and chose "Layouts" under "Layout" and pick one of the new ones. Maybe it's time to give your Jimdo Page a new look...?

Have fun!

Your Jimdo Team

In 2008, you can look forward to several surprises and improvements! If you have any suggestions or wishes, please do not hesitate to write us an email to: support@jimdo.com! Keep at it!

All the best,
Your Jimdo-Team

Just in time we'd like to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and all the best!

Enjoy the holidays and we'll be back very soon.

By the way, we're processing support questions from tomorrow on again, so you can be sure to get a quick answer to your questions.

All the best again,

your Jimdo-Team

Many people bring important organizations to life and do voluntary work every day. Often enough there is too little attention paid to their projects and work, and frequently relief projects are not supported enough because of a very low awareness level.

About two weeks ago we launched our new editor (see: "Further improvements"). Now we have another goodie for you, which many of you asked us for: You can now also define the color of your font directly in the editor!

Last night we made the following improvements:
1. New editor for adding and editing texts.
2. New login-process

1. New editor for adding and editing texts.
We replaced the editor by a new one which loads way faster. The next time you'll add or edit a text you'll notice the significant speed improvement. So why not maybe add a new text to your Page?
A nice sideeffect (for pros): the XHTML-Code the new editor produces is way cleaner than the old one.

2. New login process.
When you'd like to logout out of your Jimdo-Page you now have the two options "View" and "Jimdo-Logout". If you choose "View" you're changing into the same view-mode the regular visitor of your Page sees. With a click on "Edit" you can easily change back into the "edit-mode" of your page without entering your password again.
If you click on "Jimdo-Logout" you competely log out of your Jimdo-Page.

It's finally online: our new font styling tool! It can give your Jimdo-Page a new look and it helps you to design your Page in a clearly arranged and well-structured way.

Videos, a music player or the current weather report – from now on, you can more easily integrate any kind of widget into your Jimdo Page. In order to include a new widget, all you have to do is add the new widget element, paste the corresponding source code – that's it!

Have fun trying out!

We're really happy to announce that the brothers Oliver, Marc and Alexander Samwer have invested in Jimdo (via their European Founders Fund).

The Samwer Brothers have already created successful brands like Jamba! and the German eBay clone Alando. In 2006, they established the European Founders Fund to invest in promising Internet companies.

The Samwer Brothers are our first large-scale investor. We are very happy that they're joining Jimdo. They just have such a widespread knowledge and experience that'll help us to grow Jimdo even faster. For you the investment of Jimdo will hopefully result in an even faster development of Jimdo!

Pages to the People!

Do you fancy something new? We just integrated 139 new background images that are now waiting for you to try them out.

What about one of these?:

Inserting a new background image is easy. When you edit your Jimdo-Page, you'll find them under "layout" > "background image". Pick your favorite image, submit the changes - that's it! :)

A Google Analytics tool is now available for integration into your website. Google Analytics generates detailed statistics, in addition to your Jimdo statistics, about visitors to your Jimdo-Page. You can, for example, find out where your visitors clicked from, how long they visited your website and which keywords they used to find you in search engines.

We have five new templates you can use to beautify your page in a very special way – display your interest in your favorite topic from head to toe, if you want to… You can chose between one of the following "special templates": Horses, Flowers, Rock star, Surfing and Halloween!
The new templates look particularly good when you load up your own picture into the heading area. Just try it out and see…
Here's the way it goes: Chose "Special Layout" under "Layout" and pick one of the new templates. That's it – you can get started!

You can see some examples of what your page could look like, here:

Have fun trying out!

Your Jimdo team

Starting now, you can use your own design for your Jimdo-Page. That means that you can not only personalize the content, but also the appearance, of your Page. Cool, huh?

Good news to all users of JimdoPro: At last, when you sign up for JimdoPro we can now offer you your own email account in addition to your own domain. That means you'll be able to use the email address name@username.com. This great new extra does not only offer you great benefits - it also provides some technical features.

• It supports both POP3 and IMAP
• Webmail access is through https://webmail.jimdo.com. Here you can set up additional features: Contacts, Calendar, Feed reader, etc.
• Out-of-office-reply (very useful while you're on vacation...)
• Substantial spam filtering and virus scanning

Of course, all existing JimdoPro users can install their own email account - just send an email to support@jimdo.com - we'll attend to this directly!

We're pleased to present a newly-added feature for your Jimdo-Page: the third navigation level. If you add this feature, visitors of your homepage can read through your Page via a more complex navigation bar.

We're really excited to announce the official launch of our Chinese version

Jimdo has had a large number of Chinese-speaking users from the very beginning, but, unfortunately, they have had to rely on our English-language version. We are now really pleased to have eliminated this language barrier with our Chinese version. We think it is a really great move to make Jimdo available in China. It's the first step in our strategy to further internationalize Jimdo (Pages to the People ;)).