KickApps 3.0

Today I’m delighted to announce the launch of KickApps 3.0, the latest version of our private label, hosted platform that’s powering social media experiences for thousands of web publishers around the world.

We typically differentiate our approach by speaking to the breadth of the KickApps platform and the ease of customization and deployment. We developed the KickApps platform as a suite of hosted web services (SaaS) to surface powerful web tools that allow publishers of all skill levels the ability to access the entire platform on a self-serve basis. The success and market acceptance of KickApps 2.x proved that these fundamental approaches are exactly what web publishers need. We now have over 14,000 enterprise sites that have integrated KickApps powered experiences and the rate of new sites being added is growing week over week.

With KickApps 3.0 we’re taking this vision to a new level by providing expert developers and others with minimal technical expertise the ability to deploy and manage the kind of compelling user experiences that are now proven recipes for rapid audience growth and deeper engagement.

First, for highly customized needs, we released our KickApps 3.0 API Developer Kit which provides all the information and sample code necessary for web developers to build new applications on our platform on a self service basis. While most web publishers will find that their needs are met by the hosted platform, the API Developer Kit provides everyone else the freedom to access the entire KickApps platform for deeper levels of integration and customization. This opens the doors for large companies with very complex needs to efficiently build out social media functionality on their websites using KickApps and for creative developers it provides the freedom to innovate on top of the KickApps platform.

On the other end of the scale, KickApps 3.0 introduces community creation to a wide range of non-technical web publishers. A powerful new WYSIWYG site creation and deployment interface allows web publishers with minimal technical knowledge the ability to build and customize social media websites and widgets with just a few clicks. These point-and-click features also help experienced web developers achieve rapid prototyping and fast deployment.

There are far too many things in 3.0 to mention them all on this post. The best way of finding out more is to create and deploy your own social media site. You can do that by signing up here. Remember, it’s free and you’ll have you own community site live in a matter of minutes. You can also read our press release and go to KickDeveloper.com where you can review our release notes and see videos about 3.0 and various features.