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The Future is Bright

This week the YouVersion development team came together and planned out the next few core releases. There has been a lot of activity here at the YouVersion Ranch…a lot of phone calls, a lot of faxing, and a lot of…well…planning. And as you are reading this, I know you are thinking…phone calls and faxing??? Why? Well, phone calls and faxing is how you work with publishers, and there has been a lot of that going on!

The Future is Bright…and over the next few weeks we will be releasing Beta R7.0 and sharing some cool news with you guys! Stay tuned, and subscribe so you don’t miss it.

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Welcome, North Point Community Church!

To our friends from North Point Community Church, Buckhead Church, and Browns Bridge Community Church we say welcome! As you explore the Bible during “Text,” we hope that YouVersion can provide a place for you to experience Scripture in a meaningful way. You can organize content that’s important to you, connect with others, and share content with your family, friends, or anyone online.

We are excited to have you join the YouVersion.com community!

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One Year Bible on YouVersion

**post from Swerve**

Our Digerati team has quietly continued to update and improve YouVersion since the public beta launched a few months ago. In fact, the 6th update was released a couple of weeks ago. You can read about the details of that release here and check out the updates at YouVersion.com.

One thing that has rapidly expanded since the original release is the number of translations that you can use. Currently, YouVersion contains the following translations:

American Standard Version (ASV)
Amplified Bible (AMP)
English Standard Version (ESV)
King James Version (KJV)
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
New Century Version (NCV)
New King James Version (NKJV)
The Message (MSG)
World English Bible (WEB)
La Biblia de las Americas (Spanish)
Nueva Biblia de los Hispanos (Spanish)
Reina-Valera Antigua (Spanish)
We have licensed and will soon release the Contemporary English Version (CEV) and Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). We are also in discussions with other publishers and hope to announce some additional translations soon. So, to put it simply, there are now many more options.

One of the main goals of YouVersion is to engage people with God’s Word. If you have not read the entire Bible, today is a great day to start. If you have read it through, you might try reading through a different translation this year. There is a one year reading plan on YouVersion that should make it easy (and free) to start now.

What translation(s) would you recommend that new Bible readers use? How about suggestions for people who might be looking to read a new translation? Are there any one year reading plans that you have used and would recommend to our swerve readers?

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YouVersion Beta is Now Public

**Post from Swerve**

Three months have quickly passed since we revealed the concept of YouVersion.com – a free online Bible that connects the interactivity of Web 2.0 with the timeless truths of scripture. After several stages of Alpha testing and one Private Beta release, we are excited to announce the Public Beta version is now LIVE and ready for you to explore!

Simply go to YouVersion.com to see how it works. Everything is free and will remain free, but to interact with some of the personalized features you’ll need to go through a simple registration process.

Here is what you can do with YouVersion in this release:

• Search for scripture, jump to a book/chapter/verse, or scroll through our Bible Reader
• Star verses and content
• Tag verses and content
• Contribute and/or associate images, videos, links, and text to verses or series of verses
• Start journaling in the “My Journal” feature
• See what others are sharing
• Email items to your friends and family
• Rate content
• And so much more…

Currently we have integrated the following Bible translations:

New King James Version (NKJV) – Thomas Nelson
New Century Version (NCV) – Thomas Nelson
English Standard Version (ESV) – Good News Publishers/Crossway
King James Version (KJV)
World English Bible
American Standard Version (ASV)
Smith and VanDyke Arabic Bible

We have signed license agreements and will very shortly be making available:

The Message (MSG) – Navpress
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) – Holman Bible Publishers/B&H

We also have a commitment from:

Contemporary English Version (CEV) – American Bible Society

At this point, default translation will be King James Version, but you can easily change that if you’d like by simply clicking on the title.

Our Digerati Team has been eating, sleeping, and dreaming all things YouVersion for the last three months and it is nothing short of incredible to see how their commitment has paid off as we are right on schedule. I’d also like to express our appreciation for the hundreds of Alpha and Private Beta testers who contributed their time and given feedback! Additionally, I’m very thankful for the publishers who have captured the vision of this project and been willing to allow us to use their translations. We certainly couldn’t have made it to this point alone.

This is just the beginning. Several more features will be rolling out in the coming weeks as we continue to develop this tool.

Now it’s your turn to discover YouVersion and help us make it better by giving us feedback during this beta release. For those of you that blog, we’d love to have your post your thoughts about it. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for this new community of people reading, reflecting, and sharing how God is moving in a brand new and exciting way. I’ll see you there!