You may have noticed a little blue info icon next to your ratings.

This icon when clicked will display a results popup. The results popup shows the top rated content, created today, this week, this month and all time, for this rating widget.

This simply offers another dimension to the rating widget as it shows what is popular on your site based on the ratings it receives.

You can disable the rating results popup in the ratings editor. When this option is disabled, free users will still see the blue info icon but only a small popup will appear when clicked with a link back to the Polldaddy mothership.

For Pro users the blue info icon will be completely hidden.

All the text in the results popup can be customized, so you can localize the popup to match the language you use on your site.

Help on working with this feature can be found on our support site and on the WordPress support site.

If you have any feedback on how we can improve this feature or indeed anything else, please get in touch.

One of our much requested features has been to allow people to upload files through a survey. We’re pleased to announce that this is now possible with the new File Upload question type.

The File Upload question type is an ideal way to capture photos, videos, documents, and most other kinds of files. All uploaded files are available for the survey owner to view (if images) in survey reports, and download to their own computer. If you’re making use of our great report sharing feature, then the uploads will also be available to anyone you share the survey results with.

We’ve tried to make this easy to use for your respondents, and once a file is uploaded it is remembered for the duration of the survey. If a respondent incorrectly completes a survey their existing uploads will remain in place while they correct any errors – there is no need to re-upload.

Documentation about the file upload type can be found in the support guide. If you have any questions or feedback then don’t hesitate to let us know through the feedback form.

Last month we released a Polldaddy app for the iPad. The iPad is a great device for collecting data out in the field and we’re very pleased to announce that we’ve now extended support to the iPhone.

Pocket-sized data collection is now just a few clicks away – download it free from the App Store!

The application is almost identical to the iPad version, and still very usable on the iPhone’s smaller screen. You can use multiple devices from the same account, and data is merged in with website and email surveys, providing you different ways of collecting as much data as you can while summarising it together in a centralised report.

Data is still stored offline, so you can collect anywhere without worrying about a connection. When you’re ready you can sync the data back to Polldaddy.

On top of this we’ve added several new features:

• Review responses directly from the iPhone/iPad – very useful if you wish to talk about the responses with your participant
• Start and end messages are displayed
• Customizable tagline on the survey page (change ‘My Surveys’ to whatever you want)
• Syncing responses now has a progress indicator and a cancel button

A selection of bugs have been fixed, the most notable being that the date/time question type now correctly stores data.

We hope you’ll find the changes useful. From the feedback we’ve received the app has been used in situations ranging from usability tests to school classrooms. We’d love to hear how you’re using the application, and if you have any suggestions on how to make it better. As always, you can get in touch with us via our feedback form.

Following on from our Chinese, Swedish, German, and Arabic translations, we’re pleased to announce that Polldaddy is now available in Japanese.

As always, you can change your language by clicking the drop down at the bottom of any public page of the site, or by setting it in your profile.

A big thanks to Yujin Takayanagi and Naoko McCracken for their translation.

If you have ever deleted something on Polldaddy and regretted it later, this feature will give you some joy.

The trashcan will allow you to restore your content to its original folder, just like new, with all the votes, responses and reports intact. You can restore deleted polls, surveys, and ratings for now but we may extend this to custom styles and language packs soon.

You can see the Trash link in the poll, survey and rating list pages.

If you click on this link from the list page, you are directed to the trashcan will all your deleted content. You can then restore your content by simply clicking on the restore button.

This feature is available to everyone.

If you have any feature requests, please get in touch.

If you’re embedding a survey on your website then you may already have information about your viewer, such as their name and email address. Rather than ask for this again you can now seed a survey with data so that fields are pre-filled.

Seeding a survey is very simple – just pass the data along as URL parameters:

http://polldaddy.com/s/D1C633832CB816C1?q_1_email=test@address.com&q_2_url=example.com

You can also seed a survey with the JavaScript embeds:

<script type="text/javascript">
  polldaddy.add( {
    type: 'slider',
    title: 'Take Our Survey!',
    body: 'Please help us find out what you think by taking our survey at Polldaddy.com.',
    button: 'Get Started &raquo;',
    pid: 'D1C633832CB816C1',
    seed: {
      q_1_email: 'test@example.com',
      q_2_url: 'example.com'
    }
} );

Want to hide the data being passed? Base64 encode it!

http://polldaddy.com/s/D1C633832CB816C1?sv=cV8xX2VtYWlsPXRlc3RAYWRkcmVzcy5jb20mcV8yX3VybD1leGFtcGxlLmNvbQ

Seeding a survey allows you to reduce the amount of information people need to enter, which in turn will increase the likelihood that someone will complete your survey. When used in conjunction with custom survey tags it is a powerful way for you to get data in and out of a survey.

You can find full documentation about this (and the URL parameters) on the survey seeding support page, as well as details about custom survey tags.

You can now use the new enhanced media library with your polls.

In the poll editor, simply click on the media button under the poll question, or next to the poll answer and the media library popup will appear.

From here you can now upload images and audio files.

You also have access to over 20 online services to embed content into your polls, from YouTube, Scribd, Dailymotion to Google maps and Slide.com. The full list of shortcodes available can be found here.

To find out how to use the media library with your polls, check out the support article.
If you think there are any other services that would work well with polls, then get in touch and we’ll see if we can add them in.

Following on from our Chinese, Swedish, and German translations, we would like to introduce support for our first right-to-left language: Arabic.

As always, you can change your language by clicking the drop down at the bottom of any public page of the site, or by setting it in your profile.

Right-to-left support is still in development so you may experience a few inconsistencies on the site.

A big thanks to Mohammad Elsheimy for his translation and enthusiasm in making Polldaddy available in Arabic.

Currently it’s a little tricky to add media to your surveys – images have to be hosted off-site, and it’s a lot of work for something that should be so simple. Not any more! We’re very pleased to introduce a new media library for surveys:

The media library is available by clicking on the media button next to a question, or an answer in a multiple-choice question. The library appears in context with your question and allows you upload and embed media. On Polldaddy itself you can upload images and audio files. If you need third-party media then we also support a large selection of shortcodes that give you access to services from YouTube, Scribd, and over 20 other sites.

It’s now never been simpler to add your company logo, gather feedback about a video or a document, or just make your surveys more visually interesting.

Full details about how to use the media library can be found in the accompanying support page. Details of the available shortcodes can be found on the shortcode support page.

We’ll eventually replace the existing media library for polls with this design, so the same features will be site-wide. In the mean time, we’re looking forward to seeing more colourful and media-rich surveys. If you have any problems, or have suggestions for new shortcodes, please do contact us through our feedback form.

We have added JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) support to the API.

The API was originally setup to use only XML which works fine for internal use. However our recent development with other platforms like the iPad has highlighted the simplicity of JSON over XML. We found JSON to be comparably more lightweight and easier to use in general.

So why bother adding JSON support?

Well it makes it a little easier to use the Polldaddy API, not only for you guys out there but for us too. With JSON support, we can use the API with JavaScript more easily, which will allow us to provide a richer user experience.

Head over to JSON.org for details on all you need to know about JSON. You can find an good article there describing JSON’s advantages over XML, JSON: The Fat-Free Alternative to XML.

To find out more information about the Polldaddy API, check out the support page.