Review of social aggregators / lifestreaming services

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939740.post-64105909649141511422008-03-11T16:28:00.001Z2008-03-11T16:28:26.992ZReview of social aggregators / lifestreaming servicesThe difficulty in keeping track of one's activity on an increasing number of social media sites (Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc.) has, somewhat ironically, spawned a whole new breed of site - the social aggregator (a.k.a. lifestreaming services). Below is a review of 15 products currently in this space. I've tried to keep the focus on aggregators, rather than services which have more of an emphasis on inputting new content (e.g. microblogging platforms such as <a href="http://www.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a> or <a href="http://www.jaiku.com/">Jaiku</a>) although the lines are clearly blurred. Key to success in this area is minimising the work the user has to do to setup their aggregation. Scanning services against specified usernames (rather than adding each service individually) or automatically pulling in friend lists from the services added are both massive timesavers which lower the chances that you'll decide it's not worth the hassle and give up. Another important factor in determining which aggregator is the best fit for you, beyond which services they supports (see comparison table at the foot of this post), is whether you want to keep track of your own activity, your friends' activity or a combination of the two. The below services all handle this in slightly different ways, both technically and presentationally. 1.) Profilactic <a href="http://www.profilactic.com/">http://www.profilactic.com</a> <a title="Profilactic" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2326252891/" border="0"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3095/2326252891_176b30e7aa.jpg" border="0" /></a> Launched way back in 2006, Profilactic is the daddy of social aggregators, not least because it's notched up support for an astonishing 144 services. It also has a decent UI and some nice bits of functionality, including search and filtering of your 'mashup' (poor choice of label imo - too many other connotations). I also like the fact that it pulls in decent sized Flickr images rather than thumbnails, although I guess that's just personal preference and others may feel they take up too much space. Perhaps Profilactic's most compelling feature (now shared by newcomer socialthing!) is that it automatically draws on your friend lists from the services you add rather than forcing you to add them manually, which removes a massive barrier to take up. Pros: number of services supported, search & filtering, large Flickr photos, automatically pulls in friends from other services Cons: Lacks the design elegance of socialthing! Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/5stars.gif" alt="5 stars" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/5stars.gif" alt="5 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/5stars.gif" alt="5 stars" /> 2.) socialthing! <a href="https://socialthing.com/">https://socialthing.com</a> <a title="socialthing!" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2326248185/" border="0"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3216/2326248185_a46f0ab2bc.jpg" border="0" /></a> Still in private beta, socialthing! is a masterclass in the less-is-more school of interface design. The main page is filled with your 'Lifestream' with everything else tucked away behind a 'Settings' tab. Adding feeds is super easy and you can choose on a per-service basis who to share updates with (everyone, only friends or only friends on that particular service). There is also a checkbox to determine whether your friends' updates appear in your Lifestream or not (although they seem to appear regardless of whether I have this box checked, which I'm guessing is just a beta bug). The major drawback of socialthing! at this stage is the small number of services currently being supported, although that's likely to change as the beta progresses. I have 10 socialthing! beta invites to give away - leave a comment if you'd like one. Pros: Sweet interface, iPhone-optimised version, draws on your friend lists from the services you add Cons: Limited number of services supported, bug whereby friends' updates always appear Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/5stars.gif" alt="5 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/5stars.gif" alt="5 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/5stars.gif" alt="5 stars" /> 3.) FriendFeed <a href="http://friendfeed.com/">http://friendfeed.com</a> <a title="FriendFeed" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2327063418/" border="0"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2297/2327063418_6d48c8f05c.jpg" border="0" /></a> Founded by a handful of ex-Google employees, FriendFeed is as spare and functional as you'd expect. It accepts feeds from 28 of the most popular social media sites and boasts a simple user interface with three main tabs (friends, me, everyone). Throw in a a decent Facebook app (which saves time by keeping your Mini Feed updated) and some nice extras (stats, recommended friends and, best of all, add an 'imaginary friend' to keep track on feeds from friends who don't yet have a FriendFeed account) and you're looking at a decent alternative to Profilactic. Pros: good range of services supported, clean interface, decent Facebook app Cons: feeds have to be added individually Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/5stars.gif" alt="5 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> 4.) iminta <a href="http://www.iminta.com/">http://www.iminta.com</a> <a title="iminta" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2326253057/" border="0"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2071/2326253057_f483c21c8a.jpg" border="0" /></a> iminta (strap line: what are you inta?) matches FriendFeed for number of supported services but doesn't quite match its simplicity of interface. It does however, offer some neat bits of additional functionality including the option to limit visibility of different feeds to different friends (via groups) and the ability to filter the stream by type (e.g. stories, events, videos) and/or by site. Pros: groups, filter stream by site/type Cons: busy interface Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> 5.) Plaxo Pulse<a href="http://pulse.plaxo.com/"> http://pulse.plaxo.com</a> <a title="Plaxo Pulse" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2326248581/" border="0"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2250/2326248581_51faa2a568.jpg" border="0" /></a> After an <a href="http://blog.plaxo.com/archives/2006/03/an_apology.html">inauspicious start</a>, Plaxo seems to be back on the straight and narrow and rapidly gainly in popularity. It's Pulse component can accept feeds from an impressive 34 sites (second only to Profilactic) and you can choose whether to share updates with friends, family, business contacts or a custom group on a per-service basis. There's also a nice option to sync your Plaxo Pulse status with Twitter and a drop-down enabling you to filter the stream by type. The interface is more cluttered than socialthing! or FriendFeed, although it is trying to support a fully-featured social network. Pros: Twitter-sync option, filter by type Cons: Slightly cluttered interface Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> 6.) Readr <a href="http://readr.com/">http://readr.com</a> <a title="Readr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2327063878/" border="0"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3149/2327063878_6016b94ef0.jpg" border="0" /></a> Readr falls very much in the middle of the spectrum of social aggregators. Aesthetically, it borrows very heavily from Twitter, right down to the customisable wallpaper backgrounds, which is no a bad thing - the Twitter design works very well. Functionality-wise, it covers all the basics, including the ability to make individual feeds public or friends-only. However, it fails to make it into the top tier by not automatically pulling in friend lists from added services. Pros: live update of your lifestream as you add services, range of embeddable widgets Cons: Friends have to be added manually Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/4stars.gif" alt="4 stars" /> 7.) Second Brain <a href="http://secondbrain.com/">http://secondbrain.com</a> <a title="Second Brain" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2327064510/" border="0"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2218/2327064510_2f06d12dd9.jpg" border="0" /></a> Second Brain provides a clear and simple layout with some nice interface touches including speech bubbles for tweets and preview thumbnails for URLs bookmarked using del.icio.us. Unfortunately the finessed design isn't matched by the usability - adding feeds is a laborious process, involving lots of authentication and watching a spinning progress indicator, which other services seem to avoid. Pros: Clean interface, search functionality, tags Cons: Adding feeds is laborious, erratic feed updates Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/5stars.gif" alt="5 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> 8.) Soup.io<a href="http://www.soup.io/"> http://www.soup.io</a> <a title="Soup.io" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2327067662/" border="0"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2130/2327067662_70c31c643d.jpg" border="0" /></a> Soup.io is visually very appealing, offering customisable 'skins' and pulling in large Flickr photos, Digg icons and full blog posts. It doesn't offer much in the way of additional functionality though and lacks much integration with your friends activity (beyond a link on the homepage). Pros: Large Flickr photos and full blog posts Cons: Limited functionality Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/5stars.gif" alt="5 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> 9.) Onaswarm<a href="http://www.onaswarm.com/"> http://www.onaswarm.com</a> <a title="Onaswarm" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2327089996/" border="0"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3116/2327089996_085b99ea1a.jpg" border="0" /></a> Visually very clean and simple, Onaswarm is another site whose functionality doesn't live up to the polish of its visual design. 'Calendar' sounds intriguing but turns out to be a blank page, whilst clicking on 'with friends' doesn't appear to present anything different to the individual view. It does however offer one very cool piece of functionality which is the ability to scan available services for specified usernames. I was thus able to turn up fabricoffolly accounts on multiple services by just typing in one word. Pros: Good looking, scan services for username feature Cons: Broken or opaque functionality Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> 10.) where is me? <a href="http://www.whereisme.com/">http://www.whereisme.com</a> <a title="where is me?" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2326249103/" border="0"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3268/2326249103_ae03b47481.jpg" border="0" /></a> where is me? supports a relatively modest 13 sites but manages to cover off most of the big hitters. Adding feeds is a relatively straightforward process, although both Flickr & Twitter require you to look up and enter your ID number, which is a bit of a pain. Another minor frustration is that updates can only be ordered by service type not chronologically, so you don't get a true picture of your updates over time. One cool feature, which the other services would do well to emulate, is the ability to specify a tag so as to only show posts which match that tag. Pros: per-service tag-filtering Cons: can't order stream chronologically Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> 11.) liveZuu <a href="http://www.livezuu.com/">http://www.livezuu.com</a> <a title="LiveZuu" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2327064278/" border="0"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3192/2327064278_a3596f317d.jpg" border="0" /></a> Matching FriendFeed and iminta for number of available services (28), liveZuu is let down by an esoteric interface which squeezes most of the interaction into a tiny portion of the screen and forces the user to adopt a trial and error approach to finding what they're looking for (it took me ages before I realised how to get to the fullscreen lifestream). It's a shame because the actual functionality is pretty good (although I couldn't get it to play with my Flickr feed). Pros: Good range of services, Facebook app Cons: Confusing UI Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> 12.) Superglu<a href="http://www.suprglu.com/"> http://www.suprglu.com</a> <a title="Suprglu" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2327067358/" border="0"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2223/2327067358_77c50906cb.jpg" border="0" /></a> Superglu offers a blog-style presentation of your lifestream with main content updates down the left and a column on the right with recently listened to tracks, tags and month-by-month archives. Unfortunately the pulling in of the feeds seems a little erratic (no update on mine between the 12th Feb and 1oth Mar). There's also an issue with the image crashing into the right-hand column (see above grab). The good news is that Superglu does enable advanced users to manually edit the stylesheet (so I could go in and sort if out were I so inclined). Pros: Manual CSS editing Cons: Erratic updates, lack of friend integration Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> Ease of use: Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> 13.) iStalkr <a href="http://www.istalkr.com/">http://www.istalkr.com</a> <a title="iStalkr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2326251727/" border="0"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3124/2326251727_d2d470eb59.jpg" border="0" /></a> The functionality of iStalkr is really not too bad but it's let down by poor design and UX, not least the fact that there is so much furniture at the top of the page (Google Ads, logo which isn't clickable, Digg icon) that the main event (the stream) is invariably pushed down beneath the fold. The user is just made to work too hard (why do I have to type in the name of the service? Why can't you do it and I'll overwrite it if it's wrong?). There are some redeeming features, including search functionality and an activities timeline (although the labels are often too truncated too be meaningful and the full description doesn't appear on hover), although they're not enough to counter the UX shortcomings. Pros: Activities timeline, search stream feature Cons: Sub-optimal design/UX, Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/3stars.gif" alt="3 stars" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> 14.) correlate.us <a href="http://correlate.us/">http://correlate.us</a> <a title="correlate.us" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2327067580/" border="0"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2014/2327067580_4af77b2b60.jpg" border="0" /></a> correlate.us is the most lo-fi of the services reviewed here, employing a del.icio.us-esque design aesthetic and linking to photos and videos rather than pulling them into the data stream (or 'river', as correlate.us calls it). Only six services are currently supported (although they are some of the biggest hitters) and adding feeds can be a bit of a pain (to add last.fm you have to log in the last.fm site and temporarily change your country to Timor-Lest). On the plus side, there's an aggregated tag cloud and some basic stats on what number of posts are coming from which services. Pros: tag cloud, basic stats Cons: limited number of services supported, convoluted feed additions, doesn't pull media assets into stream Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/2stars.gif" alt="2 stars" /> 15.) OneSwirl <a href="http://www.oneswirl.com/">http://www.oneswirl.com</a> <a title="OneSwirl" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dantaylor/2326251965/" border="0"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2102/2326251965_75fd00a0c7.jpg" border="0" /></a> OneSwirl didn't fair too well in my testing, returning MySQL database errors on the homepage (doh!). The only feed which I could get to appear in my stream (Twitter) wasn't very effectively presented (too spread out, necessitating a lot of scrolling) and the design looks very dated to me. In fairness to the developers, it's only been live for two weeks and they're clearly aware they've got some way to go with it. Casting around for a redeeming feature, I did quite like the inclusion of a calendar, enabling you to easily jump back to specific dates (although, of course, it doesn't work). Pros: Er... Cons: Database errors, not all feeds successfully updating lifestream Features: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/1star.gif" alt="1 star" /> Ease of use: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/1star.gif" alt="1 star" /> Design/UX: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/1star.gif" alt="1 star" /> Overall: <img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/1star.gif" alt="1 star" /> <center>Comparison of services supported by social aggregators<img src="http://www.fabricoffolly.co.uk/images/social_aggregators_comparison_table.gif" alt="Social aggregators comparison table" /></center>Dan Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14353661015592665890noreply@blogger.com