Social network fans look to calm update storm
US: Social networking fanatics deluged by updates and posts are
turning to services that promise more intimate communities increasingly
tied to real world activities.
Startups and software applications that were hits among technology
trendsetters at a renowned South By Southwest Interactive (SXSW)
festival in Texas focused on using smartphones to collaborate or cavort
with friends.
"Facebook has lost its ability to be personal and private," said
Brian Magierski, the chief executive of Appconomy, the Texas startup
behind group messaging service GroupedIn. "We need to make social
personal again."
Group messaging services let people exchange smartphone text missives
to collaborate and coordinate with selected circles, such as clubs,
teams, churches, schools and car pools.
"You are seeing a lot of different takes at this broad problem,"
Magierski said. "It's a 500 million person problem - a Facebook size
problem."
Social networking star Facebook has more than half a billion users.
Startups are seeing opportunity in connecting people to the small
number of folks they truly share their lives with, and then linking them
to local places, happenings or opportunities relevant to their
interests. "Facebook and Twitter don't go away by any stretch,"
Magierski said. "I still want to stay connected to the people I played
hockey with in college, but they aren't the ten people I want to stay
connected with all the time."
The slew of startups at SXSW included Evri, which lets people
personalize news feeds based on topics getting a lot of attention in
individual "social graphs" at Facebook, Twitter or other online venues.
"We search the Web and distill the signal from the noise into topics
people really care about," said Evri chief executive Will Hunsinger.
"We essentially create an on-the-fly news magazine of the things you
are most passionate about."
Evri, which is backed by funding from Microsoft co-founder Paul
Allen's Vulcan Capital, provided a sneak peak at an application being
crafted for Apple's popular iPad tablet computers.
"We think the table form factor is ideally suited for content
discovery and consumption," Hunsinger said.
Lori James and Barbara Perfetti were at SXSW to introduce an online
AreCafe that lets people form cliques based on what types of books they
prefer.
The women said that the idea came from the large community that
sprang up unsolicited at allromance.com, their website devoted to
romance novels.
"We decided to develop the AreCafe because people are on Facebook and
Twitter and that is a big ocean of people," James told AFP.
"You're friending your mom, your neighbor, your co-worker, and your
preacher, and you might not want them to know about the spicy romance
novels you are reading," she said.
"They might not have a lot to contribute to that conversation."
The virtual cafe features author interviews, book videos, and
literature news along with communities based on genres.
ZeneScene showed off an application that uses location capabilities
in smartphones to connect people with hip social happenings "in their
own backyards."
Once people check in at a venue using increasingly popular services
such as FourSquare or Gowalla they can start conversations with other
smartphone lovers by posting images or taking polls with newly-launched
Locaii software.
"It's a location-based conversation starter," said Locaii co-founder
Aaron Bannister. "You can list your favorite locations and get notified
when cool things are going on there."
Startup LifeKraze aims to get Internet users to embrace healthy,
active lifestyles using the power of personal social networks on
smartphones. Austin, Tuesday, AFP
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