declutter, technology
Lent decluttering: 14 – social network aggregators
During the last six months I have developed an interest in social network aggregators (solutions to bring together all activity performed on several sites online, in one single location that people can subscribe to).
While performing my investigations I signed up for nearly every single available service, until I lost track of what I was feeding into what else, and created quite a fair amount of duplication along the way.
Then a few weeks ago I started using FriendFeed, thinking it was going to be yet another lifestream/aggregating service. I fed it all my other services' feeds and left it alone for a bit.
After a couple of weeks I noticed that there was something unique about it, namely the possibility to merge together your friends' feeds in a river of posts, then comment on their activities or simply give them a thumbs up (a 'like') on what they have written.
It would be fantastic if these comments were saved alongside the original posts (in Twitter, Google Reader shared items, or blog posts, for instance, instead of within FriendFeed as it happens now). Apparently, you can do so with Socialthing (I have not yet checked out Socialthing myself).
So now I feel that my research is going somewhere, I can forget about certain aggregators I have used but that I do not need to track any more – and I definitely do not need to include in FriendFeed, unless I want to create a self-referential infinite loop. The casualties are:
Friday 21 March 2008 at 4:19 pm
Do you Flock? I find helps do pretty much a similar job but is desktop based.
I also use Netvibes in the same way, as it has Facebook and Twitter widgets, along with RSS feed aggregation for those regular blog reads.
Socialthing looks very cool tho ;-)
Saturday 22 March 2008 at 7:13 am
I have used Flock in the past (perhaps not at its fullest), and I believe it is a great product. My only gripe with it is that to me it feels very cluttered in its attempt to bring together every possible functionality you can dream of. I remain a Firefox enthusiast myself.
However, I have a confession to make: ever since enjoying web browsing on my iPod Touch, I have installed Safari 3.1 for Windows and contemplate most of the Internet through its clean, sober interface. It does not claim to be able to do everything, but it does it in such a simple and intuitive way that it feels like a very natural extension of myself.
These days I seem to want technology to assist me unobtrusively in my daily tasks rather than trying to do too much and distract me with endless possibilities.
Saturday 22 March 2008 at 1:44 pm
ahhhhhh I'm rather glad I posted this comment here.
I had not considered the iPod Touch as sloution to my current dilemma, but am really think about it now.
It is time to renew my current mobile contract, and with an unlimited data tariff, I am feeling constrained by the small screen experience of my existing Nokia N73. Have considered a new N95 8GB, an N82 or even an N810 internet tablet… but not an iPod Touch. Hmmmmm.
I do use iTunes to manage my music and listen to podcasts…so maybe it won't be all that bad. But I swear I am NOT having an iPhone. I will not go over to the white-side!
Safari? Hmmm. I'd even forgotten they'd done it for Windows, it so set the world alight hehe.