Go to a LIVE mob

YouMob lets people on the web gather around any page. As live mob participants, mobbers can share their reactions, shout out, and be counted among those who consider a page interesting, entertaining, important, or even unacceptable. Simply put, YouMob creates LIVE mobs on the web.

You can go to a mob by just following a link to one. YouMob.com lists the top mobs by those with the Most Mobbers, Most Recent, Most Visits, the Last Shout and those with the Most Supported and Most Opposed mobbers.

You will also find links to mobs in the form of YouMob beacons, which are placed around the web by other users, your favorite blogs, spaces, and popular sites.

When you go to a mob, you're instantly counted among everyone there. You'll see everyone's reaction to what's going on, and be able to share yours. You'll also see other's live shouts, and can shout out at any time.

Moments after leaving a mob site, you are automatically removed from the mob. You can return anytime just as easily.

Finally, you can add mobs to your favorites, and use them from a personalized list kept in your free, My YouMob page.

Share how you feel

While in a mob, you'll notice the YouMob reaction bar and it's moving graph of mobber reactions. The reaction bar constantly shows the feelings of all mobbers there, as well as your own. Share your reaction at any time by clicking one of the five reaction buttons. Your reaction will be included among the totals broadcasted, and stay that way until you change your reaction or leave the mob.

When you enter a mob, you are automatically counted with a neutral reaction, but if you add a mob to your favorites, you can optionally set a default reaction that will be shared whenever you join in. Here are the five reactions you can share:

• Yay! - strongest support
• I support this - support
• Interesting - neutral
• I oppose this - opposition
• Booo! - strongest opposition

Note that when you shout, your current reaction automatically accompanies each shout you send.

Shout Out

YouMob lets you send a shout to all mobbers present. Since a mob can be attended by literally thousands of people, shouts are displayed in the order they were submitted. Each shout is displayed for a few seconds before the next one is shown.

If you are interested in reading shouts faster than they are presented, you can click the 'next' arrow button to advance through as fast as you like. After the current shouts run out, you'll automatically see the next one received.

When you submit a comment, you'll notice that it's displayed with an icon representing your current reaction as selected in the reaction bar. Be sure to share your reaction when commenting so others will know how you feel.

Make Friends

When you notice people you're interested in, you can add them to your list of friends. YouMob makes it easy to follow your friends to interesting mobs. Clicking on a user anywhere in YouMob takes you to their profile, where you can see their favorite mobs, friends, and fans. You can also find out which mob they're currently attending.

When adding a friend, you have the option of accepting email when they start a new mob. You can also choose to accept emails that they send to fans, via YouMob. This is a great way to learn of planned events.

Note that any email sent to you is only on behalf of other YouMob users. Your email address is never shown to other users.

If you want to remove someone from your friends list, or change which email notifications you receive, just click on the friend's user id anywhere in YouMob, and select 'Settings" in their user profile.

Add Favorites

When you're in a mob that you like, you can add it to your a favorites. Favorites will appear in your My YouMob Favorites list.

When adding a favorite, you have the option of setting a default reaction that will be used whenever you go to the mob. For example, if you usually support a mob, you can show that support whenever you join, without clicking on a reaction button.

Finally, with a favorite, you may optionally receive email notifications of events planned by the owner of the mob site, or spontaneous events that attract lots of mobbers.

Adding favorites is free, and they are saved for as long as you like. If you want remove a favorite, just login, go to your My YouMob page, and click the 'Remove' button in your favorites list.

Place a Beacon

Beacons are one of the most exciting, powerful, and unique features of YouMob. Beacons are a way to inform and attract people to interesting mobs. Beacons can be used by all types of users, whether casual surfers, or operators of popular portals, blogs, or spaces. For popular sites, there's a special advertising incentive that help both the operator and YouMob generate deserving traffic.

Each of three beacon types has a different behavior and is designed for certain uses:

• Mob Beacon - takes the visitor to a specific mob
• Follow-Me Beacon - takes the visitor to whichever mob you are currently attending
• Partner Beacon - takes the visitor to a mob, and credits your site for free advertising

Mob Beacon

A mob beacon lets people know if a given web page is mobbed. If the page is mobbed, clicking the beacon takes the visitor there, where they can immediately share their reactions, shout LIVE, add to favorites, and even get their own beacons.

If the page is not already mobbed, clicking on the beacon will start the mob. Note that visitors do not have to be YouMob members to start or join mobs.

If you are a web site owner, putting mob beacons in your pages will let visitors mob them from within. You can get a mob beacon at any mob, or in the Webmaster area.

Follow-Me Beacon

Place follow-me beacons anywhere on the web, such as blogs, pages, spaces, or even emails. Whenever you're participating in a mob, the beacons will indicate that you are mobbing, and invite others to click and join you. They'll be able to share their reactions and shout right away.

Note that you must be a registered YouMob user to get a follow-me beacon, and you must attend mobs while logged in for others to follow you.

You can get a follow-me beacon from within any mob, or from My YouMob.

Partner Beacon

If you own a portal web site, YouMob can help drive traffic to your site for FREE! Partner beacons accompany outbound links that you think will make good mob sites. Visitors using your beacons are sent to the mobs to experience them with others. If a linked page has not been mobbed yet, the first visitor will start the mob automatically.

When a visitor attends a mob via your partner beacon, you are credited for the referral. Your site banner is then displayed on YouMob.com, at a rate proportional to the number of visitors you refer.

Get a partner beacon and instructions on using it from the Webmaster area.

Start a Mob

Any web page can be mobbed. All it takes is a web address.

To create a mob, paste or type a full web address (URL) into the Start a Mob form, and you'll be taken right to the mob.

Other people will be able to immediately join you, shout, share their reactions, add favorites, and more.

After the mob starts, it will automatically be listed in the YouMob.com Most Mobbers, Most Recent, Most Visits, Last Shout and Most Supported and Most Opposed mobbers lists, along with descriptive information and current mob statistics.

Mob your own site

If you own a web site, you can create a new experience, attract new visitors, and generate more traffic by having your pages mobbed. Remember that any mobbed URL within your site will show up in YouMob's ranked mob lists.

Starting a Mob

Just like any user, you can mob your own pages using the Start a Mob form. All it takes is the URL. Keep in mind that every unique URL will result in a unique mob.

Control Your Mob Listing

Every mob appears with certain descriptive information in YouMob's ranked mob lists. Normally, a page is shown with a thumbnail image, the page title, and page description if it contains one.

You can override this information by providing YouMob-specific meta tags within each of your pages. A special title, description, and logo image will set your mob listing apart from others. Simple instructions for controlling your mob listing can be found in the My Mob Listing form.

Use a Beacon

When visitors come to your site, they may not be aware that it's been mobbed. Place a mob beacon, using the respective URL, in each page you want mobbed. When users visit a page, its beacon will indicate if mobbers are present, and clicking the beacon will take them right to the mob.

If you want to advertise free on YouMob, use a partner beacon instead of a mob beacon. While the two beacons look the same, a partner beacon accumulates advertising credit on YouMob. Your ad banners link back to your site, and can generated more traffic from other YouMob visitors and mobbers.

Benefit from a blitz

YouMob periodically promotes each of its main topic areas. Scheduled campaigns are announced publically so that organizations and webmasters can plan events to take advantage of the visitors the campaigns bring in.

Send users during a blitz

When a blitz is happening in your mob's topic area, we recommend that you send as many visitors as possible to your mob. Since mobs are listed in the order of most mobbers, the more visitors you send, the more new visitors are likely to see and join your mob when they arrive.

Attend your mob during a blitz

While a blitz is underway, we recommend you attend your own mob in order to greet and interact with new visitors. Attending your own mob during a blitz is a great way to reach out to new users, convince them of your site's value, and create fans.

Contribute to blitz budget

When a blitz is scheduled, you can contribute to its promotional budget by making a secure donation via PayPal. When you contribute, all proceeds are used to generate more visitors to the selected topic area.