Getting started with Hubbub

Welcome to a new way to manage your social network.

This page aims to help you get started if you have just installed Hubbub for the first time. If you don't yet have Hubbub, have a read of Hubbub private beta launched to see if you'd like to join our private beta.

If you have any problems after following these instructions, try the FAQ, the Hubbub Users Group, or the Hubbub room on FriendFeed.

Launching Hubbub

Once you've installed Hubbub, a shortcut will be available on your desktop:

Double-click the shortcut and Hubbub will open as a thin window at the top of the screen, called the stem:

Setting up services on Hubbub

At the top right you can see the toolbar:

To configure Hubbub, click on the settings button:

The stem will move lower down the screen to allow the configuration panel to appear. Here account details for the various services supported by Hubbub or third-party plug-ins can be set:

Once you've successfully set your details for the various services you want to use, the configuration panel will look something like this:

Using the FriendFeed service

To check that the FriendFeed service has been set up correctly, click on the friend palette button:

As with the configuration panel, the friend palette panel will appear above the stem:

If you see your friends from FriendFeed then the FriendFeed service has been set up correctly. Leave the friend palette open, because you'll use it to add friends to a hub.

Creating a new hub

Hubs display below the stem, and can contain any number of friends.

To create a new hub, click the '+' to the right of the Hubbub rose. A new hub will appear below the stem, with a drop target:

Drag a friend from the friend palette and drop it on the drop target for the hub. Your friend should now appear in the hub:

You can drag as many friends as you like from the palette -- just drop them onto the hub's drop target. Here we've created a hub that contains the Hubbub team:

Viewing FriendFeed activity for all members of a hub

It's easy to get a view of the activity of the friends you've added to a hub; simply click the 'ff' button at the top of the hub:

Using the Twitter service

To open the Twitter post gadget, click on the status update button:

The gadget appears just below the button:

FriendFeed's home feed

FriendFeed provides a summary of all of the activity of your friends (and their friends) via the 'home feed'. You can view this by clicking on the 'ff' icon in the toolbar:

The home feed gadget will open below the button, and won't affect any other open windows, allowing you to have more than one feed gadget open at a time:

Hiding all windows

Since Hubbub's windows sit on top of other applications, a 'hide all windows' button is provided to hide all of Hubbub's windows at the same time:

Hubbub's windows will also be hidden when you read any web-page that's linked to from a status update or comment.

When Hubbub's windows are hidden they are still active, which means that any music being played in a gadget will still be audible.

To restore all of the windows simply click on the 'hide all windows' button again.

Where next?

There's a lot more that Hubbub can do, so try clicking on your friends' icons, changing views with the eye button, and more.

If you have any suggestions, feature requests and bug reports then please join the Hubbub Users Group. You can also keep track of Hubbub's progress in the Hubbub room on FriendFeed.