Prosper Relases site Redesign and Other Features — One Bug Found So Far.

Here is the official announcement (here is a link to it on the forum: http://forums.prosper.com/index.php?showtopic=22667)

Hi everyone,

Tonight we released another update to the site. Without further ado…

Site redesign

The overall visual design of the site has been overhauled. The main pages have also been reconfigured to simplify the site and messaging for new users. The “Help” tab is up in the right-hand corner as a link, and the “Tools” tab is now the “Developers” link at the bottom left of every page.

See the new site now

Real-time API released

With this update we are releasing a real-time read-only API (Application Programming Interface) for researchers and developers who wish to use Prosper’s data on-demand via web services (rather than downloading a huge flat file). We hope to see lots of new tools for borrowers, lenders, and group leaders as the API continues to grow and developers become more engaged with the Prosper community.

Learn about and use the API

Recurring funds transfers

Now lenders can schedule a weekly or monthly recurring funds transfer from their external bank account to Prosper (or vice-versa). For example, you can schedule a monthly transfer of $500 on the 3rd of every month (just after pay day). Recurring transfers, along with standing orders, now allow lenders to lend consistently and regularly through Prosper without spending a lot of time managing the process. As Ron Popeil likes to say: “Set it, and forget it”.

Set up a recurring funds transfer now
Learn about funds transfers

Address verification for all borrowers

Until now, Prosper was only sending address verification postcards to borrowers whose address could not be verified through our electronic identity verification processes. In an effort to increase security and reduce the incidence of loans to victims of identity theft, Prosper will now require postcard address verification of all borrowers.

Learn about address verification

Lenders can remove supported groups

Before today, lenders didn’t have a place on the site to remove groups that they had added to the “supported groups” section of their member page. Now, lenders can go to “Your Account > Profile” and remove groups from their list on their own.

Update your supported groups list

Payments/transfers clear at 9:30 AM instead of 2:30 PM

Until now, all payments and funds transfers wait until 2:30 PM of the business day on which they are scheduled to clear to actually clear - that is, appear in your account (if you are a lender). We’ve moved that time back to 9:30 AM, so if you start a transfer before 3 PM on Monday, the funds will be available for bidding on Thursday at 9:30 AM. All times Pacific.

Those are the biggies, but as usual there will be a few nice surprises (if you find any un-nice surprises, let us know). Enjoy.

Best regards,
Andrew

This is great a real time API. Oh wait, just the bid and member objects. What good does that do? Where is listing? It is defined, but not activated. Must be some bugs in the system yet. I would rather them not release objects until they are ready, so I think that is a good move. This will give me a chance to get the current API working, even though I can’t currently think of anything useful to do with the bid and member objects. I suppose I could make my lender tracker at ProProsper real time, but I don’t think that is very useful. Can you guys think of anything useful to do with real time bid and member queries?

Another positive is that the site seems WAY WAY faster. They have removed a lot of images and replaced with simple text. I think the new look is cleaner as well, but that is subjective. What do you think?

I have found 1 bug. It seems that my account balance is missing my payments in transit. My account balance is ~$100 less than yesterday. The site only shows $1.64 in transit, but I have ~$100 in transit at the moment due to a loan payoff and normal loan paybacks. I would think that the payments when they reach my account will show up, but in transit they seem to be AWOL. Anybody find any other bugs?

April 3, 2007 | Filed Under Features, Prosper.com, Tools

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2 Responses to “Prosper Relases site Redesign and Other Features — One Bug Found So Far.”

Jaime on April 3rd, 2007

Hi Kevin,

I’m a prosper beginner that enjoys your blog. I found a little difference that in my perspective can have a great impact. They removed the “Fully Funded” link on the home page. Again, in my perspective, that simple change will make some of us stop bidding on listings that are fully funded (out bidding fellow lenders) since in order to obtain the fully funded bids you have to do a custom search using the “Search Loans” tool.
What is your opinion on this change??
Feel free to fix my grammar and composition, I’m a EE and English is not my first language and as you said, my grammar and spelling excuse is already in the open.
Thanks,

Jaime
Kevin on April 3rd, 2007

Thank you I am glad you like it.

I think it was a good change. There is no need to bid down listings beyond the weighted average. Personally, I don’t see any reason to bid down the rate below the weighted average plus 1.5%. I might even argue that the weighted average plus 1 sigma is as low as I should go…

Also, I really think there is large number of quality listings that are just missed. I have an RSS feed of under appreciated listings at ProProsper. These listings should be vetted by each lender for themselves, but the list has a number of high quality listings that are just missed. Here is the link: http://www.proprosper.com/ProProsper/index.jsp?pp=underappreciated