New Ideas in Search and Social Networking - MyLifeBrand
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MyLifeBrand is not exactly a social network per se; it's an aggregator. It lets users manage and aggregate their favorite social networks, communities and friends. Niche social networks can integrate their entire existing social network web site, members, and log-in credentials into MyLifeBrand. In this way, the niche networks may raise their profile and grow their own customer bases.
Member profiles are auto generated into a niche network's database and site any time someone joins that community from MyLifeBrand. And users have a single log in whether they go to the community from MyLifeBrand or directly.
The icons across the top give users some interesting options. Click on the stars, and you can create a free individual account. The guitar lets musicians create a showcase page to promote their music. The Oscar is for people working in the media to create a page to promote their career. The Olympic medal is for gurus who offer any type of expert service. The last symbol is for companies to create their own showcase pages. There are only minor differences between the applications - and it looks as if they really are applications, as one of the required fields for each of these forms is a textbox in which to answer the question "Why do you want to be a member?"
I ran into some problems with the search mechanism. On the other hand, the sneak peek that I walked through (the red link on the lower right in the screen shot above) looked pretty impressive. MyLifeBrand takes a tabbed approach. The four main tabs are labeled "Community," "MyLife," "Networks" and "Search." You use the Networks tab to browse to your favorite social networks. You can add or manage up to eight social networks, and set it up so that you're automatically logged in to each one.
Under the "MyLife" tag, you can manage all your friends from all of your networks. You can communicate with them without leaving MyLifeBrand, sending individual messages or even broadcasting a message to all of them. Little icons next to your friends' images show the logo of the social network through which you know them. You can also manage your content for all of your social networks under the MyLife tab. Another feature that registered users may find handy is the Community Directory; it lets you search, discover, and join new communities.
I was a little disappointed with the search function. It did turn up communities and even people, but as an unregistered user, whenever I tried to click on a link I got a screen that urged me to sign up and gave me no further information about the community. It would have been helpful to see a few paragraphs describing the community to give me some idea as to whether I'd be interested in joining. Keep in mind, though, that I did my search without registering for the site; it's possible that I would have seen something different as a registered user.
The whole idea of a site from which you can manage all of your social networks is brilliant. I wrote about Google working on an idea like this earlier this month. The search engine teamed up with Carnegie Mellon University on a project called Socialstream. The bad news was that the project ended in 2006, and Google said that it had no intention of creating a real product from the research. Then again, that may be very good news for MyLifeBrand.
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