At first glance FriendBinder, the UK based start up from the midlands, looks just like another ‘me too’ lifestream site.
Plug in your social networks including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Last FM and RSS feeds and watch a live stream of all your friends information. Use the update function like a Twitter client to update your Twitter and or Facebook account. So far, so familiar.
However, play a little longer and you will find some nifty features.
Using the search function at the top of the page, I can search for any word (not just hashtag) that interests me, in this example, The Next Web.
The search facility allows me to search for all mentions of the topic (like a Twitter search) or just my friends across the networks I have connected. This is a smart option to help me find relevant content against my trusted sources.
The trending topics function is also a cool feature to help me see what my friends are talking about and also who my friends are talking about or talking to. Yet more neat functions that helps me gain more value from my social streams.
FriendBinder access is currently free and does not have its own ‘network’ like Plaxo or Friendfeed instead allowing you to connect your preferred channels and manage the information stream in one place.
The combination of wide network harnessing and innovative information searching and management functions offers the potential for Friendbinder to become more than just a ‘me too’ liftesreamer. The mobile (m.friendbinder.com) version enables the service to be in your pocket at all times.
The biggest challenge for FriendBinder will be gaining and retaining users who may be apathetic to switching. Those that spend time using FriendBinder will find a rewarding experience that adds to the value of their existing social networks.
I have been playing with it a bit as well as with http://web.pond.pt (IMHO less interesting) and I agree with the analysis above. I’d like to add that there’s no need to invite friends to use it since friends’ feeds are imported automatically in the way SocialThing used to do before discontinuing its services.
Just tried it, get all kinds of errors. Seems like an Alpha release? Features are promising.
Hi guys,
Friendbinder has come a long way from what I had seen a few months back. Kudos to the team!
If someone is looking for an alternative to friendfeed as a lifestreaming service, you must checkout – http://www.arktan.com
It has some cool innovative things…and one of our users said – Arktan is what friendfeed wants to be! That was a huge compliment given the early stage we are in!
Srikanth
Arktan Co-Founder
I am on Arktan and like it, but friendsbinder’s difference is that it builds friends’ lifestream without the need to have them join the network. It grabs items from all those we’re friends with on other services and builds a feed. That’s its cool part.
Ah ah they call me Big Papa.
Just call me Big Papa.
Just get on the floor with your hos and my knob.
Ah ah Big Papa.
Having nothing special to do this evening I would have loved to try out FriendBinder…. But like a lot of other sites, you have to complete a registration process in order to test the tool..Don’t they ever learn?.. if they want me to change my habits in using their cool new service, maybe they should try to lure me with some eye candy, and cool feature demos; not by citing CNET and Louis Gray (who the fuck is louis gray anyway ?).
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
That is a wonderful question. Who is Louis Gray anyway?– Louis Gray
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
We’ve now put a link to a tour of some of the features on the front page (http://friendbinder.com/tour)I’ve also updated the links to include the recent "The Next Web", TechCrunch and Flickr Blog coverage we got last week.
Louis Gray is a blogger who is well respected for talking about social media and social media tools. If you are interested in that sort of thing his blog is at: http://blog.louisgray.com/
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News