One social-network repository to rule them all

I've stopped accepting requests to join new social networks. I can barely keep up with one, much less 10. More to the point, I don't want to have silo'd data repositories. It's this last point that keeps me grounded in e-mail.

Sure, we now have OpenID to provide a central clearing house for identity online, but what I really want is to be able to send a Facebook message and have it show up in my e-mail, or somewhere central that I routinely use. I've come to accept that my IM client will be separate from my e-mail client, but I'm not prepared to add a Facebook "client," LinkedIn "client," etc.

Is there something out there to collect and coalesce my social communication? Is anyone providing a central repository for my online communications? If so, sign me up. I'd actually use Facebook if the things I did there were portable to my e-mail client, which was portable to my Flickr activity, which was...you get the idea.

Because each of these social applications forces me to live inside it, rather than connecting to other applications and storing the resulting communication data between them all, I use them sparingly or not at all. This is, I think, what Tim O'Reilly is getting at when he describes the social network as infrastructure rather than applications.

Will someone fix this, please? I think there's a lot of money in being that social network data repository. Heck, if Exchange weren't so creaky, Microsoft should be doing this.

[daveman692]

Matt, I completely agree that this sort of product is needed. I wish that Google would integrate my Facebook messages inbox with GMail though understand why they haven't with Facebook not providing APIs and all.

One minor nitpick around how you're describing OpenID as it is actually not centralized from a technology perspective. It certainly allows you to condense the number of different identities that you use online, but in no means forces you to use just one or as a technology does it operate via a central service.

[iburned]

I agree that it would be nice not to have to log into each network separately to engage someone there. I've bumped into this problem many times, and I end up transferring the thread of communication to, say, email from MySpace, but that's awkward and you lose the first bit of the conversation.

And of course the downside of this is the exposure of your various "selves" to personal and business associates alike. It's the bane of the MySpace user who created a funny, very personal profile, only to find out too late that a potential boss has carefully reviewed all of those pictures from that wild weekend at Lake Havasu. (Some things are best left silo'ed...)

[bhartlen]

There is a web browser that is attempting to do such things. I can't say for sure that it incorporates all the social sites out there, but it certainly combines your access to Facebook, Flicker, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

Its called Flock. It's based on Firefox. I've come to use it as my sole browser now. Give it a try, it might just bring some levity to your situation!!

http://www.flock.com/

Cheers!

[DarrenBounds]

Matt,

Get ready for Cliqset... It's nearly here.

[G|Net]

Matt, don't forget that the teens initially made many of these sites popular, and the "silo" nature of them is exactly what the teens have enjoyed about these sites. Before adults started exploring myspace and facebook, etc., they were enclaves of teenhood, where they could exist in a world their parents and teachers knew nothing about. Of course the cat is out of the bag at this point, but I'm just pointing out that to the young generation, e-mail is for old fuddy-duddys (even though, ironically, you need an e-mail account to get an identity on these sites) and for years these teens have reveled in a universe of phone texting, IM'ing, SMS'ing and sites like these, and not e-mail. It's mostly us 'older' folks who have the large need for unifying it all into our existing Outlook inbox or what have you (see, there we go! Outlook! ha! kids don't go anywhere near stuff like that). Most of these kids will likely get to the point of wanting this unification, but it'll be when they're not teenagers anymore...

[bp22]

Try Digsby. It is one app that supports email, IM, and social networking sites.

[chumfrombrum]

Another vote for digsby on PC, or if you are on a Mac (which I think Matt sometimes is), try Adium. It has plugins for facebook and email, and it is open source.

[Matt Asay]

Sometimes is? Always, my friend! :-)

[WeCanDoBIZ]

I agree with what you say. But I would like to see even more still, in that my social graph resides with the same authority as my user login details and my messages. Clickpass have cracked making OpenID friendly and are working on some of the rest. I kind of thought Microsoft might do this after buying Credentica, which they could easily roll into a site with mail, but no signs of it yet.

Perhaps Genome will do it next month? I'll be watching with interest.

View Genome CEO's profile at WeCanDo.BIZ: http://www.wecando.biz/profile.php?bid=329

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

[Jenniferlaurenb]

I try to stay current with new networks, but it just gets too overwhelming! I also stick by the principle that there should only be so many ways for a person to be able to get a hold of me, or check out what I'm doing, when I'm doing it....

While I agree there should be one centralized way to manage networks, it does appear that some are taking the steps to join forces. (Update Twitter from Facebook status, Myspace toolbar paired with Me.dium Search ( http://me.dium.com/search ) , Facebook integration in Me.dium sidebar---you get the idea. I think these networks understand that we are getting stretched too thin, and that's why they are combining.

Thanks for the article!
-jenny
http://blogme.dium.com