I have been talking a lot about Lifestreaming, Lifecasting and Social Awareness Widgets lately and it is not because i want to give Mark Krynsky some competition, i am not, he is doing a great job already. it is simply because there is a lot of buzz on that niche right now. and of that buzz, there are Widgets news to cover.
And in the middle of all that buzz and hype, i always regret not having covered pioneer Startups first before getting to cover what is predating them.
One of those cases is Profilactic. they are pretty much the main Social Aggregator Profile Network and one of the First Lifestream and Lifecasting Solutions made easy. they Aggregate 173+ services and you can customize your own services to be aggregated into, do web clippings (limited) and keep up with the update rate you and your friends have online.
It is pretty much THE Social Aggregator Network Profile in terms that you can put all your information in there.
They have been around for some time now, so how it is that most have not heard of them?
Well, that is another matter that i find very very understandable, given the uninspired design, the over complicated way to sort features, the bad logo that makes me think of Rocketeer and Cadillacs without forgetting the terrible name.
I would explain that further, but this is not the right blog to do so, i will profile them later in one of the new blogs i am cooking up.
Now, don`t get confused by what i said, i am not saying i don`t like their service, in terms of what they do, they do more than any other service and provide simple way do grab a badge so you can extend what they are doing for you to your Blog or Site.
You can make a Online Awareness badge so people know where to find you online:
                      Â
    And you can also make a badge with your Online Lifestream and take it with you.                  Â
While i think that Profilactic have done great by making very easy for users to have their Badge and Widget. they should consider offering customization so you can have it on different forms and factors.
Offering versions of their Badge and Widget done in Flash or Silverlight would also be a win, Get High Spread so they can be easily installable, etc. and on very personal opinion replace their button with something that can actually be read and look decent.
Obviating the Branding, Organizational and Design wise mess Profilactic got in their hands. they are still the best solution if you are a power user that got a very active Online Life and Online Presence, at least up to now. but they still got time to make it work right and gain mindshare before their new competitors can Out pace them.
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Thanks for the kind words Derek…and no worries I’m also a Lifestreaming evangelist and appreciate others furthering the concept for each of the respective niches. Widgets and badges are a huge part of it.
Many of the services offer widgets. I list some on my comparison page here and also some nice ones from MyBlogLog & Lifestream.fm. There’s also a site dedicated to building a Lifestream badge here http://www.escaloop.com/.
That should keep you busy reviewing widgets for a while. I’m here to help and I look forward to watching your Lifestream category list grow!
@Mark:
While me and Derek are good friends, we are not siamese twins or the same person at all. but i guess some people get that impression the first time. i am also better looking than Derek.
And i will check out your suggestions. thanks for coming by.
Haha, sorry buddy. I saw the “email Derek” and assumed it was you. Keep up the good work.
yeah, no problem, sometimes the “by Avatar” post indicator bellow the titles is not enough.
(i kid, i kid)