buzzoop FAQ

If you have questions or need help using the application, please send us a note at support@buzzoop.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Every question is welcome, even though you may think it trivial, for this will help us build our "Frequently Asked Questions" list.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I sign up for buzzoop?
2. Which operating systems and browsers does buzzoop support?
3. How do I install buzzoop?
4. How do I get my buzzoop password?
5. How do I reset my password?
6. What if I forget my password?
7. What happens if I right-click the taskbar icon?
8. Why has the buzzoop taskbar icon changed?
9. Why has the buzzoop taskbar icon disappeared?
10. Can I stop the page capture feature?
11. Can I control the buzzoop Alert options? How do I change them?
12. How do I capture and save/catalog information with buzzoop?
13. How do I search for saved/catalogued information?
14. How do I get support for buzzoop?
15. How do I configure buzzoop to work through a proxy?

 

1. Question: How do I sign up for buzzoop?
Answer: Signing up for buzzoop is simple. As described below, just download the application, install it, and then register with us through the application.

2. Question: Which operating systems and browsers does buzzoop support?
Answer: At present we only support Internet Explorer [both IE 6.0 and IE 7.0] and Firefox [Version 2.0] on Windows XP. However, we have plans to support Safari on OS X Tiger [both from Apple] in the near future. We are an early-stage company trying to maximize our limited resources, so if you think we should support other operating systems and/or browsers [Opera, anyone?], please let us know which one and why at feedback@buzzoop.com. Thanks.

3. Question: How do I install buzzoop?
Answer: Installing buzzoop is really quite simple. First, download buzzoop from our website; it will be saved to the 'download location' set in your browser preferences. Next, open (double-click) the file and follow the onscreen instructions:

1. Welcome to the buzzoop Setup Wizard . Click the Next > button.

2. End-User License Agreement (EULA). Click the "I accept the terms in the License Agreement" radio button, which will enable the Next > button. Click the Next > button. [Note, if you wish to save a copy of the EULA, you should copy-and-paste it into your favorite word processing program (e.g., MS Word).]

3. Browser Information Message. You must shut down any open browsers so we can install buzzoop properly.

4. Ready to Install. Click Install to install buzzoop on your system; installation progress will be displayed.

5. Completing the buzzoop Setup Wizard. Decide if you want to launch buzzoop immediately (the "Launch buzzoop" checkbox) and if you want buzzoop to launch automatically every time your system is started (the "Start buzzoop on Windows startup" checkbox); both are defaulted to yes, but you can uncheck the boxes if you wish.

Click the Finish button and begin enjoying buzzoop.

Upon installation, you will find that buzzoop has installed the following items:

1. If you had the "Launch buzzoop" checkbox selected during the installation process, the buzzoop icon will appear in your taskbar.

You can open (double-click) buzzoop from here, or access other options (Login / Logout, Set Options, Start / Stop Capture, and Exit) by right-clicking this icon (see here for more).

2. The buzzoop icon on your desktop . You can open (double-click) buzzoop from here but only if it is not already open.

3. The buzzoop icon in your start menu . You can open (single-click) buzzoop from here but only if it is not already open.

4. The buzzoop icon in the buzzoop folder [Start >> All Programs >> buzzoop (folder) >> buzzoop (application)] . You can open (single-click) buzzoop from here but only if it is not already open.

Please note that if you already have (a previous version) buzzoop installed on your system, you will have to uninstall it first. Simply follow the on-screen instructions and then re-run the installer.

4. Question: How do I get my buzzoop password?
Answer: Once buzzoop has been installed, you will need to signup/register.

1. Right-click on the buzzoop icon in the taskbar and the Login menu item.

2. The buzzoop login window appears. Enter an username and password, and click on the SignUp button.

3. Fill in the registration form and click on Register.

Only the starred items (Desired username, Password, Confirm Password, and EMail) are required. [The other information is for internal use (e.g., personalized communication, localization) and will never be sold or used to spam you. If you have any questions about this, please let us know at support@buzzoop.com. Thanks.]

You will receive a confirmation email with instructions on how to complete the registration process.

5. Question: How do I reset my password?
Answer: Resetting your buzzoop password is simple.

1. Right-click on the buzzoop icon in the taskbar and choose the Login menu item.

2. You will get the buzzoop login window.

Click on the Change Password link which will bring up the Reset Password window.

3. Enter your old password, your new password (and then confirm it) to change your login password. Click on OK.

6. Question: What if I forget my password?
Answer: If you forget your buzzoop password, simply request for a password reset.

1. Right-click on the buzzoop icon in the taskbar and choose the Login menu item

2. You will get the buzzoop Login window .

3. Click on the Forgot Password? link.

Enter the email address that you initially used to register the account. Click on OK. A new password will then be emailed to you. Once you have logged into buzzoop, we suggest you reset your password (see here for more).

7. Question: What happens if I right-click the taskbar icon?
Answer: When you right click the buzzoop icon in the taskbar you can access several options which control your buzzoop application.

1. About - provides buzzoop version information.

2. Logout [or Login] - allows you to login to (or logout from) buzzoop. When you logout from buzzoop, it is still running but you cannot perform any searches or page captures until you log back into the application.

3. Options - allows you to control the Alert settings and other buzzoop options. (see here for more)

4. Stop Capture (or Start Capture) - allows you to turn off the page capture feature. When you select Stop Capture, buzzoop is still running but you cannot perform any page captures until you re-enable the page capture capability. This is useful in cases where, for example, you plan on reading news articles for a while and you do not want buzzoop alerting you to potential pages that you may want to capture. (see here for more)

5. Exit - allows you to exit the application. When you exit from buzzoop, it is no longer running at all and you will need to restart buzzoop by clicking on your desktop, startmenu, or program file icons. You cannot perform any page captures from the browser until you restart buzzoop and log back in.

8. Question: Why has the buzzoop taskbar icon changed?
Answer: If you logout from buzzoop or if your system loses network connectivity (i.e., your internet connection), the taskbar icon will change from...

to.

[Note that if you lost network connectivity, the application still considers you to be logged in; therefore, you will see the Logout option when you right-click the icon; the application will reestablish contact with the server once network connectivity is restored and the icon will be restored to the bee icon.]

If you select the Stop Capture menu item (see here for more), the buzzoop taskbar icon will change to...

9. Question: Why has the buzzoop taskbar icon disappeared?
Answer: If you exit buzzoop, the buzzoop icon will disappear from your taskbar. You can restart buzzoop by clicking on the desktop icon or the startmenu icon.

10. Question: Can I stop the page capture feature?
Answer: Yes. Simply right-click on the buzzoop icon in your taskbar and choose the Stop Capture menu item. Note that the taskbar icon has changed (see here for more).

To turn it back on, simply right click on the buzzoop icon in your taskbar and choose the Start Capture menu item.

11. Question: Can I control the buzzoop Alert options? How do I change them?
Answer: Yes. Simply right-click on the buzzoop icon in your taskbar and choose the Options menu item.

You will get a window with three (4) tabs: Popup Alerts, Autocapture, Startup/Proxy, and Help Messages.

1. Under the Popup Alerts tab, you have two (2) options:

i. Would you like to manually capture information from this page using the buzzoop sidebar - Checking this box will disable the popup (in the lower right corner) asking if you want to capture information from the webpage you just navigated to.

[Note that buzzoop will still scan webpages to see if there is any information that might be worthwhile capturing. If so, buzzoop will capture this information automatically and show you what it has captured through a Preview of Information Captured alert. If you do not want buzzoop to scan at all, you can disable capture (see here for more) or by exiting out of buzzoop altogether.]

ii. Preview of Information Captured - Checking this box will disable the popup (in the lower right corner) showing you what information will be captured from the webpage you are on.

2. Under the Autocapture tab, if you do not want buzzoop to scan and automatically attempt to capture information from a particular URL, then you can prevent this by entering the URLs that you want to exclude into the fields provided.

3. The Startup/Proxy tab allows you to configure whether buzzoop starts on windows startup and it also allows you to manually configure the proxy connection, if needed.

4. Finally, under the Help Messages tab, you have the option to turn on/off individual Help messages that are available to help you use buzzoop.

12. Question: How do I capture and save/catalog information with buzzoop?
Answer: Our intention is to provide an easy way for users to catalog information on products that they view when they are window-shopping and in the process of doing so, also provide price and product transparency for the buzzoop community and thus level the playing field with sellers. To achieve this goal, we felt it was important to design and build buzzoop such that it is extremely easy to capture and catalog items, and leverage the knowledge of the buzzoop community.

Keeping this in mind, here is how buzzoop works:

As you surf the WWW, buzzoop scans the web pages to see if there is valid product information like prices, item names, descriptions, and so on. If buzzoop finds valid information, then it ALWAYS first tries to autocapture the information (more on this later in this section) and if it cannot it presents an Alert (see below) asking if you wish to capture information from the current page. Note that the display options for these Alerts can be configured through the Options menu. (see here for more)

a. You have the option to do nothing (the Alert goes away after a few seconds)
b. Click No (the Alert goes away immediately).
c. Click Yes (the buzzoop capture capability is displayed).

[Note: The buzzoop capture capability can also be brought up manually by clicking on the buzzoop icon found in your browser toolbar.]

In the buzzoop capture capability there are three (3) buttons available and many fields; the buttons include the following -

a. Capture, which is clicked when you want to capture information from the current page. [Note that when you click on Yes in the Alert, the buzzoop capture capability is displayed with the Capture button already clicked.] Clicking on the Capture button does the following:

• Disables the Capture button
• Enables the Reset and Save buttons
• Highlights content on the webpage that is available for capturing.
• Disables the ability to browse

b. Reset, which is clicked when you want to return to browsing. Clicking on the Reset button does the following:

• Enables the Capture button
• Disables the Reset and Save buttons
• Removes the highlights from the content on the current webpage
• Returns the browser to normal browsing mode

c. Save, which catalogues the content placed into the available fields (Item, Description, Price, and so on) to the buzzoop server and makes the content available to the entire buzzoop community to see when they conduct searches using buzzoop Search. Clicking on the Save button does the following:

• Enables the Capture button
• Disables the Reset and Save buttons
• Saves the content placed into the fields

In the event that an Alert (asking if you would like to capture information from the current webpage) does not popup, you may access buzzoop Capture by clicking on the buzzoop icon in the top right of the browser toolbar (see figure below)

. Once the buzzoop template is up (and you have enabled capture by either clicking on the Capture button or by clicking Yes when the popup Alert is presented), you can place content into the available fields. You select text by clicking once on the highlighted text. This action attaches the piece of text to the mouse pointer.

Then, move the pointer to the desired field and place the text there by clicking on the field (see image below). If you accidentally grabbed the wrong piece of text or want to grab an alternate piece of text, you can undo the attachment of the text to the mouse pointer by hitting the 'ESC' key on your keyboard while the text is still attached to the pointer. Note that you can also type text into the field directly.

. All fields in the buzzoop template can be edited; only the Item, Description, and Price fields are required and have to be filled in, either with text that you have selected from the web page or text that you have typed into the field.

. Once you catalog content from this web page, the next visit to the same web site will result in buzzoop attempting to automatically capture information from the new page being visited using the template you created. If buzzoop is able to automatically capture this new information, an Alert will display the content which was captured (see image below).

13. Question: How do I search for saved/catalogued information?
Answer: The Search window is brought up either when you click on one of the buzzoop icons on your desktop, in your startmenu or via Start > Program Files > buzzoop, or, if buzzoop is already running, by double-clicking on the buzzoop icon in the taskbar or by launching a search from within the buzzoop sidebar in the browser.

The figure below shows what appears the first time buzzoop Search is started.

General Search Window
Here is a brief description of each of the features marked in the figure above:

1. The terms used for each search will be displayed in tab(s) across the top as shown. New tabs are created for each new search.

2. The General Search field is where you enter search terms.

• You can search buzzoop for any term (e.g., Motorola) or collection of terms (e.g., hydration drink). A minimum of two (2) characters (e.g., tv or Z3) are required. Each term must be separated by a space. Search results will include at least one of the terms in each search result.
• All search terms are case-insensitive. For instance, ML-2571N is the equivalent to ml-2571n and to ml-2571N.
• An asterisk (*) can be used as a wildcard; it must be appended to the end of a search term of at least two (2) characters (e.g., hd* will bring up hdtv as one result).
• If you need a result which includes a specific term, then place a '+' symbol in front of the term with no space If you need a result which excludes a specific term, then place a '-' symbol in front of the term with no space (e.g., +samsung +hdtv -plasma will return only those results that have both the terms Samsung and hdtv but not the term plasma in them).
• If you need a result with an exact match for a group of words, then place the words in quotes (" "). For example, "samsung ml-2571n" will only return those results that have the word samsung followed by a space and then the term ml-2571n, as in <The network-ready Samsung ML-2571N packs blazing 25ppm print speeds and ..>
• The search field maintains a history of prior search terms used and auto-completes, if possible. The terms can be cleared by selecting Clear search history.

3. Click the Search button to run the search You will get one of the following displayed in the result field underneath. (see here for more)

• Listing of results.
• Fetching results - the buzzoop client has made the request from the buzzoop server and is waiting for results.
• No Results Found - buzzoop was unable to find any results which match your criteria in the catalogued information. Relaxing the constraints of the search, such as removing any operators like include ('+'), exclude ('-') or quotes (" "), and re-running the search may bring back results.
• Unable to connect to Buzzoop, please check your network connection and try again - this is displayed if the buzzoop client loses connection with the buzzoop server because your PC has lost its internet connection.
• Sorting results - buzzoop is resorting the current results.

4. Click the Advanced Search link to further refine your search. (see here for more)

5. These fields show the total number of registered users in the buzzoop community and the number of buzzoop users currently online.

6. This area shows the Username of the person currently logged into buzzoop.

7. This area shows the number of results found for the current search.

8. A progress bar for the current search is shown here.

9. This area shows a list of folks who have contributed the most content to the buzzoop community.

10. My Captures allows you to quickly view the information that you have either auto-captured or manually captured over the selected time-period of either ALL, Today, Past 2 days, Past 7 days, Past 30 days or Past Year.

11. My Groups allows you to create Groups of users. When performing an Advanced Search, you can use the Group that you have created as one of the switches to narrow your search; for example, you may use Advanced Search to find All Content that your Group has catalogued over the Past 7 days.

12. Invite a friend links to a webpage from where you can invite friends and family to join the buzzoop community

Advanced Search
Clicking on the Advanced Search link brings up the Advanced Search window, which allows you to further refine the search criteria to get more focused results. The figure below shows each of the elements available in Advanced Search.

1. You can refine your search based on the combination of parameters set in the fields. The Advanced Search fields have all the capabilities of the General Search field (see here for more), plus the capability to enter an asterisk (*) in the "any of these words" field as a wildcard term for ALL (i.e., it need not be appended to a two-character term). This can only be used under the following conditions:

a. You limit the search to a single website/domain, and/or
b. You limit the search to one or more buzzoop users.

2. You can limit your search to the checkmarked input fields; by default All is checked, but you can limit your search to terms in Item or Description.

3. You can include or exclude a specific website in the search by selecting From website/domain or Exclude website/domain respectively and then inputting the website/domain of interest in the associated field.

• If you select From website/domain and type dell.com in the associated field, then only results from dell.com are displayed.
• If you select Exclude website/domain, then all results except for those from dell.com are displayed. Note that you do not have to (but may) include the "www" in the website/domain input.

4. You can limit your search to information catalogued in a specific timeframe; choices include Today, Past 2 Days, Past 7 Days, Past 30 Days or Past Year. The default is All, which returns results without any time limitations.

5. You can limit your search based on price: two (2) fields are provided for lower and upper bounds. The bounds are inclusive; if you type 49.99 in the lower bound, then all results with prices of $49.99 and above will be included while those at $49.98 and below will not be included. You do not have to use both fields; you can set just the lower or upper limit, or use both to set an inclusive range.

6. You can limit your search to show only those results that have Images and/or a Coupon/Promo Code associated with them.

7. You can limit your search based on who catalogued the content. You can include content catalogued by yourself only, or content catalogued by one or more other users, or content that is not from specific users, or content from groups that you have created.

• For content that is either from or not from a specific user, make the appropriate selection from the drop-down box, enter their username in the space provided and then click Add User to include / exclude information catalogued by that user.
• Each username needs to be an exact match, and you can input multiple names if you wish.
• To take a name off the list, highlight it and click Remove User.

Search Results
After you have entered the search terms and clicked on Search, you will see one of the following messages and/or results in the space below the Search button.

1. No results found if no data has been catalogued by the buzzoop community.

2. Fetching results. and a progress bar if buzzoop is in the process of getting the results from the server.

3. Your search results and the Total number of results found, after buzzoop has received this information from the buzzoop server.

The following are unique characteristics of each set of search results.

1. Each search result is displayed in a separate tab that can be closed by clicking on the green X in the far right of each tab. At a certain point, when there are too many tabs open, the leftmost one(s) will be hidden and a set of directional arrows will allow you to navigate to the tab of interest.

2. Search results can be displayed either in List view or Thumbnail view by clicking on the respective button.

3. Information from each search result is separated into columns representing the Item (name), Price (of the item), User Name, Website (where the information was captured from), Date (that the information was captured) and any Tags (to categorize the information) that may have been added. Three dots after the term ADD under the Tags column indicates that the listing has been tagged.

4. Each column can be expanded or contracted horizontally as desired by placing your cursor over the divider (typically, it will change from a pointer to a double-arrow) and dragging it to the desired width.

5. By default, the results are sorted in ascending price order. Clicking any of the column headers toggles the results between ascending or descending order for that column.

6. Moving the mouse over any listing will present a popup showing you more details on the item.

8. In the popup that is presented, clicking on the Show All Details will open a Window that shows all the information that has been catalogued for a given Item.

9. Search results can be further refined using the Refine Search capability either by selecting individual terms that exist within the listings or by timeframe.

10. A listing can be deleted, edited or removed by selecting (clicking on; CTRL and clicking on it again will deselect it) the listing (it will be highlighted) and then right-clicking it; the option to Delete, Edit or Remove the listing is then presented. Deleting a Listing(s) remove them entirely from the buzzoop database while removing a Listing removes it from the Search results displayed in the current tab. Listings can only be deleted or edited by the person who originally catalogued the information.

14. Question: How do I get support for buzzoop?
Answer: During this phase of development we ask you to contact us at support@buzzoop.com with any questions and issues. If you want to send us general comments, suggestions, or you just want to chat about buzzoop, please send a note to feedback@buzzoop.com. We promise to respond to all emails. Our plan is to eventually move all this to our wiki/forum, but that will have to wait until our next release.

15. Question: How do I configure buzzoop to work through a proxy?
Answer: buzzoop currently supports direct connections to the internet and manual proxy configurations. For manual proxy configurations, buzzoop allows you to specify the IP address or URL and the corresponding port in the Options menu under Startup/Proxy and Manual Proxy Configuration. We do not currently, but plan to, support automatic proxy detection and proxy scripts. A work-around for proxy scripts is to place the location/URL of the proxy script into any browser address bar and then download the .dat file using this method. The .dat file (which can be opened using any text editor) will contain the proxies that are available for use. Copy the URL and the corresponding port from this file and paste it into the corresponding spaces available in the Options menu under Startup/Proxy and Manual Proxy Configuration. If you need further help, please send a note to support@buzzoop.com.

 

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