Like a lot of people I have profiles on a lot of different social networks. Flickr, LinkedIn, Facebook etc. I'm also on places that don't get my attention as much as they used to (Listal, MySpace, Pownce to name a few).
Some of this is due to a change in routine. Take for instance Last.FM. I got into this late compared to some, but I like the thinking behind it and the radio part got my tastes most of the time. The thing that changed my use of this, or more accurately the use of iTunes, was the arrival of an iPod. I won one and since receiving it I've hardly opened my iTunes at work - therefore Last.FM has gone on, sans my scrobbles.
Also a lot of the "stuff" I had to log in to the network to do has been replaced by Adobe® AIR™ applications, widgets or by using Flock so I don't visit the spaces too much. Add to the mix twitter, IM, email, blog posts and RSS feeds and there's a lot going on that doesn't revolve around any one source on the web.
I was thinking about this when I signed up for my Mahalo profile (I know, STOP for goodness sake) and wondered if I could get an RSS feed of the sites I recommend. Not seeing it readily available I contacted my man on the inside, who passed it my way (available to the public soon) and I scooted over to my YahooPipes to add it to the "follow me" pipe I was building.
My thinking is this...
Portable Social Networks are still a little ways off and even though Google's OpenSocial is out there I haven't seen much produced from it and either of these may still not do what I want. What I wanted is a place that I can start pulling all the "stuff" I'm doing online, open to people of different networks and the web at large as well as offering me the chance to put it anywhere I want. Answer = YahooPipes + RSS + Feedburner + SpringWidgets.
Is this going to revolutionize the Internet? No.
But what it does is illustrate that information about you, your company or your products can be easily be gathered, filtered and placed wherever you want it to be as well as offering subscription (through RSS/Feedburner), a shareable version (click options on the widget) and possibly a lot more.
So if you have to know all my tweets, blog posts, comments on other blogs, music & film preferences, bookmarks, recommended sites, photos I've taken, blogs I read or events I'm going to just grab the widget.
Let the stalking begin :-)
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