We are preparing to release version 2 of the Rapleaf API, which will bring API functionality better in line with that of the Rapleaf website. You may have noticed that while Rapleaf profiles have steadily become richer with the addition of membership info and demographics, the API hasn’t kept up. With the release of v2, the API will now offer access to all 3 components of a user profile: reputation, demographics, and memberships. Additionally, the new API has been updated to conform better to REST standards, making better and clearer use of HTTP headers and status codes, and utilizing clearer URLs.

Rapleaf Privacy and the API
Rapleaf empowers people to manage their privacy on the web by alerting them to the public sources of personal information and by providing fine-grained control over which parts of their information are made available via the Rapleaf website. These privacy settings naturally apply to the API output as well, so lookups of email addresses via the API will yield the same information displayed via the website.

“Trustfuse” is now Rapleaf API v2
Some people may have heard the name “Project TrustFuse” to refer to the functionality provided in the new version of the Rapleaf API. As we prepare to release the v2 API more generally, we are making Project TrustFuse public by fully releasing our API.

Usage and Pricing
Performing lookups for reputational information is free of charge for all API consumers, just as it has been with earlier versions of the API. However, access to demographic and membership information via the API will only be available to partners who sign up with Rapleaf for premium access. This prospective revenue source is how we intend to build our business and support the Rapleaf service.

Availability
Available now: Rapleaf API v2 Documentation

We’ve added a highly useful feature for people doing Rapleaf searches. If you search for someone on Rapleaf that we have not seen before, we now have an easy way to click to be notified (via email) when we get the information on the person you are interested in. Just click the big ‘Email’ button and we’ll deliver you the results when ready.

This is great for getting a reminder in your inbox that the search is complete, and a quick way to know when to check back to Rapleaf for the information you were seeking.

Give it a try - search any email address and if we haven’t yet seen the email before, you’ll have the opportunity to receive an update via email once the search is complete.

The other day we announced the release of our new badge designs, and multiple users requested HTML code to add the new badge on personal websites, blogs, classified listings, etc. We’re happy to now make available the ability to embed your Rapleaf badge in a few quick steps.

You can grab our quick embed code straight from your Rapleaf profile when signed in. That code can be pasted on any site that accepts HTML, and will display the same Rapleaf badge that you see on your profile. The best part about using this embed code is that the badge scores will stay up to date automatically. As you increase your Rapleaf score, there is no need to keep getting new code to add to your website – the scores will automatically refresh. Additionally, the badge will link directly to your Rapleaf profile to view social networks and profile stats.
Sharing your Rapleaf badge is a great way to be trusted everywhere you go on the web and another way to gather feedback from buyers, sellers, and friends. We love some of the creative ways that people are coming up with to use the badge, and we’re very excited to make this feature available now to everyone.

For alternative badge designs, check out the ‘Share My Reputation’ page (must be signed in) where you can select from 3 available badge designs that can be used anywhere.

The other day Brad Fitzpatrick (co-founder of LiveJournal) wrote an excellent piece on the evolution of social networks on the web. Brad’s main point is the issue of portability of the “social graph” and being able to transport your friend relationships across multiple social sites as you please. As Brad explains, there is no decentralized “social graph” service, and web users have to struggle to find the same friends on every new website they join. Additionally, small startups with a cool product lag behind because they spend too much time having to redevelop their own version of a social graph.

At Rapleaf, we fully agree with Brad and we are working hard to help create ‘online identities’ for web developers to benefit from. One of Brad’s future hopes is for a “reputation/trust API” that can be used, for example, to prevent comment spam on blogs. The Rapleaf API is a step in that direction – you can lookup the email address of blog commenters on Rapleaf and learn who they are. Additionally, the Rapleaf API can be used to leverage online identity across commerce sites, forums, and other web services that benefit from having a reputation/identity aspect. Over time, we also hope to unleash further aspects of our API that can provide a greater depth of benefit to web developers.

We also help users directly, not just web developers. Rapleaf helps you identify friends who you didn’t know had a profile on another social network. You can easily add them as a new friend on those networks to maintain that relationship. We’ve made this as easy as possible – all you need to know is your friend’s email address, and we’ll find them on the web. A great example is someone who you are exchanging emails with – search that person on Rapleaf and you can now find them on any matching social network where you both have profiles.

The social graph is an important part of the internet, and we’re excited that Rapleaf has a place as an online reputation and identity engine. Thanks Brad for helping define what a social web will look like.

Over the weekend the Rapleaf team relocated right around the corner and into a new, spacious, and well-lit office space. It sure beats the one cramped room that our oversized engineering department had to squeeze in before.

Our new offices still give us the access to the awesome lunch spots that we’ve grown to love (Specialty’s, The Toaster Oven, and Chipotle) but have the added benefit of being on the top floor of the building. We’ve got a great view of the city of San Francisco and also unbelievable lighting coming in through the windows. It’s very exciting to be able to graduate from our original offices and grow up into a larger facility.

Some pictures below of the new Rapleaf HQ:

Above: Front entrance (conference room on the left)

above: plenty of space for us to occupy!

above: first dinner at the new place

We have a bunch of fantastic engineers at Rapleaf, and we’re happy to announce the launch of our Engineering Rapleaf blog. Engineering Rapleaf is a blog written by the software developers themselves, and talks about the obstacles and challenges that the Rapleaf engineering team faces on a daily basis - whether it be fighting with Mysql, exploring the guts of Ruby, or parallelizing complex pieces of code.

The first excellent post by Bryan is now up about Mysql Replication Adapter.

We hope that Engineering Rapleaf, which is for engineers and by engineers, will help share some of the lessons the Rapleaf team has learned with software developers at other companies and around the globe. We also hope to get feedback from the community about things we can do better or cool ideas from the outside. So if you want to read about first-hand experiences with Rails and Mysql from hardcore coders, check out the new blog.

Engineering Rapleaf

Over the last week we rolled out a brand spanking new Rapleaf badge design, along with an updated Rapleaf scoring system on everyone’s profile. Take a look at the sleek and shiny goodness of the new badge.

The Rapleaf scores are now updated to reflect your overall online reputation, taking into account social networks and other online information.

There are 3 scores on the new Rapleaf badges:

-The big number is the “Rapleaf Score”, and is the main value used to represent a person’s online reputation.

- The “Rapleaf Commerce Score” (designated by the ‘commerce’ label) is calculated by the ratings given in commerce, via buyers, sellers, or swappers.

- “Positive Percentage” is the percentage of a person’s commerce feedback that is positive.

We’re all really excited about the eye-catching beauty of the new badge. Its something I’d show off wherever I go on the internet, and we hope that by encouraging people to share their badge, we can be one step closer to making the world a more ethical and trustworthy place.

To all the incredible people out there - we’re still looking for Amazing Software Engineers and a Phenomenal BD/Sales person to join the Rapleaf team and help change the world! This summer we’ve already had two new rockstar engineers join us (Bryan and Sean), and we’re hunting down more. But the big news is that we’ve increased our referral bonus. If you know someone who is the best coder in existence and an amazing software engineer, we’re now offering a $10,007 referral bonus. (Yes - that’s a 7 at the end). And for the Biz Dev/Sales position, we’re offering $10,000 as a referral bonus.

To refresh your memory, you can view the full job specs here:

-Amazing Software Engineer

-Phenomenal Biz Dev/Salesperson

And another memory refresher - our old referral bonus was only $5000. So let the resumes pour in! All emails please send to jobs@rapleaf.com.

View all job positions at Rapleaf here