The release notes for the 2.5 release are now available on our release notes page.

We’re happy to announce we’ve upgraded the Sprout platform once again. You should notice some performance improvements that stem from having turned on asynchronous calls, as well as improvements to the user-interface for the slideshow and Jukebox components. Finally, and this is a biggie, we’ve integrated YouTube’s new AS3 library into our video component. As always, if you’d like to learn more about the release, visit the release notes page.

Thanks and keep on sprouting!

We’re happy to announce the launch of Starburst’s Your Other You engagement campaign on Facebook. This Sprout powered application ask users four questions as part of the process of identifying “their contradictory self”. Once users’ unique contradictory selves been identified, they can upload a photo, or take one with their web cam, to insert in their characters’ portraits. Users can then share their creation with friends on Facebook. Check out the campaign and find your contradictory self.

Sprout Builder is now integrated with the leader in community-powered support, Get Satisfaction, to give our users a channel into the Sprout feedback cycle.  Users can share an idea, ask a question, report a problem and/or (if you like what we’re doing) give us praise. We have integrated Get Satisfaction widgets across our support section.

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Recently I was thinking about how a useful tool called “Jing” and Sprouts could work together.

Jing is a lot like Twitter at first: when you try it you might think, “Interesting, but when would I ever use it?” Then you start playing around with it, see how others are using it and you’re hooked.

This is a guest blog post by Michael Britt, host of The Psych Files podcast.

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The rush to create engaging Facebook fan pages is on, and we’re thrilled to leverage our platform to bring great brands to Facebook. Moving forward we’ll be showcasing some of the best fan page examples through our blog to get you inspired. For example, the band 311 just launched a new fan page to showcase their new album entitled Uplifter. Check it out and take a moment to listen to the entire album through the Sprout. We’re also happy to see REI’s page that features the latest deals from the REI outlet.

And, you can always see our latest examples in our Facebook fan page gallery.

I recently had a conversation with Walter Gross, the Senior Director, Digital Strategy at EMI / Capitol Music Group about how his team of Flash developers / designers are using Sprout to create interactive Flash content quickly and efficiently. Walter has been immersed in the web and Flash design tools since the late ’90s, at a time when, as he puts it, was bombarded by “big and glitzy” Flash elements. Before Walter’s team had discovered Sprout, they were creating all of the content by hand-coding each element. Sprout has turned out to be a huge time-saver and made Walter’s team more efficient.

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Sprout’s video player has been upgraded to better support YouTube videos by integrating their newly released AS3 Chromeless player.

Improvements include better playback quality and reliability. You’ll also notice there is now a YouTube logo which appears in the bottom right corner of the player (as it is does in all YouTube videos). In addition, the YouTube play button will appear in the center of the poster-frame image before the video starts playing, rather than our custom play button. When you pause, however, you’ll see our custom button.

There is one minor issue that we’ll be trying to resolve shortly involving the poster-frame. Currently, the poster frame is not showing up and the first image in the player is simply black. Also, when paused the image will be black. We’re working with YouTube to resolve this issue.

The results from the Pepsi Throwback campaign are now in and we’ve wrapped them up in a new case study about our work with Pepsi and their agency Weber Shandwick. The campaign was focused on the release of Pespi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback, all natural versions of their popular sodas.

Before reaching out to Sprout, Webber Shandwick had already used Sprout Builder to create an awareness widget to promote their product launch. Because they’d had success with their own effort, they decided to get in touch to see how else Sprout might be able to help. That’s when we popped open a can of our Sprout Engage to create a Facebook application that would get their community engaged.

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On 10/13/2009 the Huffington Post launched an article titled, “Help The Steins: Mother Who Went Blind To Save Her Children’s Sight Struggles With Medical Debt” which chronicled the struggle of a mother who couldn’t raise the funds necessary to support her child’s unique medical needs. Traditionally, in order to raise funds for a cause it was necessary to provide an address or a bank where contributors could send money.  Sprout Builder removes this barrier with the ChipIn component.

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One of the distinguishing characteristics of MySpace, which no other social network has been able to replicate to date, is personalization. Personalizing a user profile on MySpace represents a desire that’s deeply woven into MySpace’s culture and community. This is one of the reasons that MySpace are different than Facebook users. True, there are MySpace users who have transitioned to Facebook as new features have been added to serve their needs, but personalization is a nut that Facebook has yet to fully crack. In this post, I’ll discuss why this is the case and how it’s about to change.

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