Streamy: Doesn’t Intend to Kill Digg, but Somebody is Dying

Finally, after getting my groupie on and hanging out at Streamy Forums, I finally managed to get an invite. I have seen a few screen shots, but nothing could prepare me for the full experience once I started navigating the site.

Streamy, while avidly advertising that they are not a Digg killer, will manage to kill loads of other things. It has real-time chat, status updates, link sharing, subscription communities, group chat, and tons of other features that are listed below.

“With that in mind, we do intend to kill the dry, boring RSS reader. I’m talking about the inbox-style RSS reader that is not intriguing, not social, and makes little or no attempt at personal relevance. We have created a system that aggregates syndicated content, channels it through your new and existing social networks, and creates a sum that is greater than its parts. Otherwise, as an aggregator, we do not replace tools - we mesh them into a new experience.” (Streamy Blog)

Current Features include:

Add/Remove/Share Feeds
Ability to create category folders
Upload OPML files
Interact with other Streamy members via different Streamy Groups
Create Streamy Groups (public or private).
Make friends and chat with them
Ability to see what your friends are reading
Create Feed Filters
Leave comments on articles
Pull data from 9 Upstream sources (Google Reader, Twitter, Pownce, Digg, del.icio.us, YouTube, last.fm, Jaiku and Facebook) and show them on your profile.
Create and save personal notes
Discover new blog feeds
Search Streamy member database, blog entries, feed resources and groups
Ability to see how many other Streamy members are subscribed to the same blog feed. .

Streamy is advertised to be the next generation feed reader. It was developed by two dudes, Donald Mosites and Jonathan Gray. Upon navigating the site, it’s obvious that they had “beauty” in mind while designing.

After a grand total of an hour or so of usage, it managed to convince me to fire Google reader. I loved Google reader, but everything in Streamy from the viewing to the subscription navigation is GREAT. I will go as far as to say that Streamy is miles ahead of most paid feed readers I tried. Features such as the instant chat, and status updating, tip-toe on twitter and pownce like features just a tad. Once enough of my active pownce friends navigate over to Streamy, pownce will surely be fired as well. That’s just my opinion of course. I only need one place to real time chat with friends and status update.

The shot above is how the profiles look. It shows subscription, friends, and feeds from pownce, twitter, digg, jaiku, last.fm, and a few other sources. It also displays your updates and saves.

The above shot is the view of the “Downstream”. Here you can see updates from your friends, along with shared and saved links (options are provided to select what you want displayed).

This is a shot of your “Networks” sidebar. You can drag stories above friends or groups to share with them instantly. VERY useful and beautifully implemented. I link spammed a few people during my experiments.

This shot is a shot of a real-time chat I had going on while browsing within one of my groups. The real-time chat is outstanding and seamlessly integrated within the site. You can surf around and maintain the chat at all times. You can even create group chats by dragging other friends into the conversation.

Feast on these few shots while I dive back in and feed my newest addiction. I will post another update pretty soon once I get more friends added. Sadly they only gave me two invites which I used already.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 8th, 2007 at 2:22 pm and is filed under Just Blogging, Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Just Blogging, Social Networking

14 Responses to “Streamy: Doesn’t Intend to Kill Digg, but Somebody is Dying”

Geoff Livingston September 8th, 2007 at 2:30 pm

I’ll have to check this out. Thanks for the referral…

ob81 September 8th, 2007 at 2:31 pm

As soon as I get some more invites Geoff I will be sure to hook you up. They are being pretty stingy at the moment.

sugarsharrk September 8th, 2007 at 2:38 pm

Great article. I NEED to have this. Hehe I’m on page 97 at Inviteshare. doh!!

Karthik Kastury September 8th, 2007 at 3:13 pm

hey hi. I have some invites of streamy to share with you guys,
you should consider reading this page on my blog
Thanks..

ob81 September 8th, 2007 at 3:27 pm

@Sugarsharrk- Same way I felt for the past 2 weeks!
@Karthik- Nice and thanks! I couldn’t hold on to my invites that long!

Peety September 8th, 2007 at 3:43 pm

I can see streamy becoming very addictive!!

Jeff September 9th, 2007 at 2:07 am

I never thought Streamy was ever going to kill digg, I always thought Streamy was a friends sharing RSS feed thing. Not sure tho since I am still waiting for an invite. So if Anyone has an extra send one my way thanks.

Wayne Smallman September 9th, 2007 at 8:55 am

There’s no doubt that Steamy is a damn fine idea. Sort of reminds me of what can be done with Yahoo! Pipes, but with a shared social angle.

Problem is, Streamy is just one more reason why we really need some portable, open personal profile manager, much like OpenID, but with the smarts to help us manage our Social Networks.

Something that the likes of Streamy, Digg, Pownce, Twitter, StumbleUpon et cetera support…

James Mowery September 9th, 2007 at 9:06 am

Hey Hey! James Mowery from Tech In Demand here.

Just wanted to thank you again for talking to me on Streamy and your blog is awesome!

Hope we talk again soon!

James Mowery September 9th, 2007 at 9:09 am

@Wayne Smallman

Problem is, it will never happen.

No site would want to be involved with something like that because of security issues. What happens when someone gets the master password? Then they have to deal with people contacting them about how their accounts have been compromised.

The idea of one identification is pointless in my opinion because very few sites will support it, and the threat of someone stealing your information is more risky.

If you have ever heard the saying: “Never but all your eggs in one basket.” Well that applies here.

OpenID is a great idea, but it will never reach the level of expectation you give it.

Your comment has inspired me for an article though. So thanks for that

ob81 September 9th, 2007 at 9:49 am

@Wayne: I am going to have to agree with James. I tend to use different passwords, locations, and sometimes the way I spell my name, in order to avoid someone being able to access all of my profiles if they got the master password. I do agree that there are other sites that could greatly benefit from implementing a “Streamy Like” idea to their existing structure. Streamy feels like a small town on the internet.

@James: I seemed to have gotten disconnected so I went out to eat No problem, I will surely catch you around Streamy soon.

Wayne Smallman September 9th, 2007 at 11:38 am

Hi guys! The personal profile space is already populated with guys thinking along the same lines as. So it’s already happening.

When the likes of Sun Microsystems and Microsoft are looking into similar services (Microsoft have had something like this for years with their Passport service), there’s no escaping the momentum they create.

This is a topic I recently included in a 4-part study of Social Networks, which helped uncover some serious shortcomings, as well as some glimpses into a very interesting future.

As for the security implications, I can’t remember the name of the guys right now, but the issue of multiple usernames & passwords is already in hand, too.

The system works by issuing ‘disposable’ profiles, which work only once. All by negating the problems with single username & password sign-ins.

The reason that someone like OpenID will emerge and provide a unified profile manager is because people want it.

And like any other industry, needs-based services that fill a void win every day of the week and twice on Sundays…