Aggregate your Social Web
So you’ve got your AIM account from the good ole days, Facebook, Twitter and now you’re even using Google Buzz. You also use and ha
ve contacts across gmail, yahoo, msn/live, skype and maybe even a few others. What do you do? Well, for many users, the answer is to log in and out of various applications and services individually as needed, which can be a bit daunting as your list of contacts grows over time. I’ve personally been using Gmail and AIM integration for the last year or so, but I’ve found as my contact list has grown, so has the number of preferred clients for the people I want to speak with on a regular basis. For many, the preferred method of contact with not-so-close contacts is facebook chat, for others its Yahoo! Messenger, Live messenger, Twitter, etc. Each of the networks/sites/protocols can have a specific use, and what’s more confusing is that many people have multiple profiles/accounts with each of the networks. Keeping up with a complex social web of chat, messages, alerts, notifications, statuses, events and more across a ton of platforms can be extremely difficult, to the point where we actually lose much of the efficiency gained from being able to communicate easily on the web. So the goal of this search was to find the best mode of managing all of this in an easy to use and intuitive interface. I tested a bunch of software platforms and found one that I like.
First, I searched the web for aggregation apps that could combine all of the various platforms that I use on a regular basis, which is primarily composed of Gtalk, AIM, Skype, MSN, Yahoo! and Facebook. I found pretty quickly that there were going to be a number of different options in terms of the actual application infrastructure and everyone will have a different preference on the type of application they’d like to use, but here’s a quick rundown on some of the pros and cons.
Web Based: Web apps are contained within the browser itself, making them easily accessible from a variety of locations and constantly updated and improved upon without user input needed.
Pros:
- They work in the browser, so no downloads are required.
- They work almost anywhere, because they have no OS dependencies, only browser and add-on requirements.
- They have a common profile that can be accessed from multiple locations
- They are quick and easy to fire up, and most of the time require less CPU and memory than desktop applications
Cons:
- More limited in terms of the overall “power” of the application because they’re constrained to the browsers resources
- They fact that they have to sit in a browser window means you’ll need to either have a browser window or tab dedicated to the platform, which can be a bit of a pain when simultaneously browsing the web
- They don’t have all the bells and whistles of a desktop application
Desktop: Desktop applications are full blown software that installs on your Operating System and runs as a process separate from your normal browser.
Pros:
- Loads of features, including themes, log file storage, use of computers other resources (video, voice, etc.)
- Flexible customization of most components (you make the UI, to a degree)
Cons:
- Memory and CPU utilization can be an issue for users that have older computers
- Applications can be extremely complex, hard to set up, attempt to install additional toolbars, adware, etc.
Plugins: Browser based plug-ins are easily added to your existing browser of choice and run alongside your normal web browsing experience.
Pros:
- While used in the context of a browser like firefox, they can sit on the side of all of your normal browsing, allowing you to engage with others within the context of your day to day browsing experience.
Cons:
- In my experience, browser based plug-ins can be much more prone to bugs and cause crashes to your entire browser, leaving you a bit more vulnerable than standalone applications.
Now that we’ve got a bit of background on some of the different platform infrastructures that exist, lets take a look at some of the popular aggregation options that exist. Some of them allow you to integrate everything, while others only support certain applications and social networking or chat platforms, so everyone will have a different preference based on their own usage of the various social applications out there.
Digsby:
Digsby is a standalone desktop application that allows users to integrate instant messaging, email and social networking platforms including AIM, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, GTalk, Jabber, Facebook Chat, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, IMAP/POP accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and LinkedIn. So far, Digsby is the winner for me. The only thing that’s missing from the Digsby experience for me is the ability to integrate Skype chat and voice. That may be more of an issue with Skype allowing access via their API than Digsby itself, but it covers about 95% of my personal usage. It allows for a user to easily create a single experience for almost all of their social networking and instant messaging accounts, even going so far as allowing multiple profiles for each of the networks to be integrated seamlessly. Overall, the only problem I’ve had with Digsby thus far is handling the sorting of my 1000+ contacts in a meaningful way so I can easily find the person I’m searching for, but that’s probably going to take care of itself over time with the ability to sort by “log size” as well as platform, status, etc. The integration with Twitter, various email accounts and Facebook alerts also provides a useful way to quickly see if you’ve gotten any new messages of importance across all the platforms without having to log in to each one individually.
Trillian:
Trillian, like digsby, offers a single sign-on desktop application that integrates almost everything. It even adds in Skype for good measure. Unlike Digsby, however, Trillian is significantly more complicated, requiring 30 minutes or more of tweaking to get the UI into something that’s meaningful for my usage behavior. With that said, it’s probably a great platform for those that heavily use multiple social networks and want to use them all from a single dashboard. Trillian also offers a “pro” version, which can be seen as good or bad, that allows you to use the application from a web interface as well as a few other features. Trillian also requires you to create a separate, trillian Astra profile, which for me, was a bit of a turn-off. After all, I’m trying to integrate all of my existing platforms and applications, not create new profiles on an unknown network. While the application itself is highly customizable and the installation process is pretty painless, Trillian falls short of Digsby on ease of use.
Yoono:
Yoono is a browser based plugin that allows you to integrate your social networking and instant messaging accounts. I had high hopes for Yoono being my application of choice, given that I’m always using firefox and I love and use tons of plug-ins. However, in my experience, the application lagged significantly behind its desktop counterparts in both ease of use, stability and performance. The plugin could not consistently connect to a number of my accounts, and even caused browser crashes on the newest version of firefox in multiple-instances. One thing I’ve found with firefox plug-ins, is that if you run too many of them at once, firefox can slow down to a crawl, so it may be more of a function of the number of plug-ins I use than the actual Yoono add-on. As I think about my use of Digsby and other web applications, I think it would be difficult for me to fit all of my social networking and instant messaging into a side bar very easily in any case. While this seems like it has huge potential, my experience with the plug-in was sub par at best. I uninstalled it after just a day of use.
Meebo:
Meebo has been around for years and is an excellent service for instant messaging within the browser. It allows you to easily connect to AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN, Facebook chat, Gtalk, ICQ, Myspace, Jabber and more. Meebo also allows you to create a meebo account, which will then store all of your connection settings and preferences so you can easily access the application from multiple locations. That’s a huge plus for people that use a lot of different PCs and laptops throughout their day to day web use. Meebo also has a nice iphone app for all you iPhone users out there. Meebo has, at this point, stuck to their guns and continues to provide an excellent chat service. What it doesn’t do, however, is aggregate all of your social networking profiles and email accounts, something that will be extremely important to those that are looking to extend their use beyond basic instant messaging. As far as the instant messaging component is concerned, meebo is as good as it gets for browser based chat.
GMail (Google Talk & Buzz):
Gmail is worth noting as a web application, if not for the simple fact that it’s been my service of choice for the last few years. Gmail allows you to easily chat with users that you email on a frequent basis, and it also integrates directly with AIM, which for me was a big plus since that was the chat platform I used for the longest period of time. With Google Buzz now popping up as a possible contender for some of the social networking / status update / social bookmarking market share, it’s also become an even more powerful app. The problem, in my use, was that I had to run Gmail in browser alongside desktop applications for Yahoo!, MSN, Skype and more, so as far as consolidation and aggregation is concerned, it won’t fit the bill.
At the end of the day, every platform will offer a different level of utility depending on the end users usage behavior. For those that only chat online or can’t install software on a work PC, meebo might be the best bet. On the other hand, for heavy twitter, facebook and social networking platform users, Digsby or Trillian may be necessary. Even still, having all of your contacts in one place may not be something that everyone is interested in doing. Some people have their regular conversations inside of a single platform like email, or facebook and have already abandoned others, but for many of us who reach out to others, it’s a necessity to use “their” platform of choice, which makes aggregating all of these into one application of huge benefit.
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