There are clearly too many social networks, and if you belong to one you likely belong to many. Boston based (soon to be relocated to San Francisco) ProfileLinker’s aim is to help you stay organized across those networks. Like Meebo did with instant messaging, ProfileLinker wants to aggregate your social networking experience.
The target user is someone with a profile on at least two networks - MySpace and Facebook, for example. You tell ProfileLinker your site credentials and it pulls your bio, friends and other information from those sites and centralizes it. You then use ProfileLinker to manage your activity on those networks: aggregate and manage multiple social profiles; discover new social networks and communities of interest within social networks; and receive notification of messages and friend requests from multiple networks.
The company is also launching a number of widgets that will pull data from all of your social networks and allow you to present it on another website. The first widget will be a “portable profile” with links to your various networks.
This differs from PeopleAggregator (our coverage), which has actually created software for customers to create their own social networks. ProfileLinker is trying to aggregate your data from existing networks and make it more useful.
To do this they’ll need to keep those networks happy, while taking some page views from them. They have one partnership sealed already, with Photobucket, and hope to do more. But for sites where they are unable to get a partnership they’ll have to gather information using the user’s credentials. There’s a risk that networks will simply cut them off.
The company is currently closing an angel round of financing. They are in private beta - sign up on the home page for an invitation.
Screen. shots of the current version are below.
See all
Post
Looks very interesting and centralized, signed up for the beta.
If it takes eyeballs out of the networks, the road ahead is not an easy one.
(I know… back to the design table. Or to LogoWorks for that matter. I’m on it :-))
I give Myspace 1 month before they cut off access to ProfileLinker
Not sure it is fair to say there are too many social neworks….same could be said about blogs….
This is a useful business model but I agree that it will cut down on the eyeballs which will definitely irk the social networks….
I’ve looked at a number of projects which would involve some sort of ‘man in the middle’ approach to managing multiple external services (blogs, social networks), and never think that it would fly because of the trust/security factor. Other developers I’ve talked to have the same ideas and hit the same roadblock.
At the heart of the issue is trusting that service in the middle - in this case profilelinker - to be as secure/safe (actually more secure and more safe) than the sites it manages. If profilelinker is compromised, my facebook/myspace/etc accounts are all compromised. Without firm agreements and APIs in place, you’re reduced to screen scraping, which is notoriously fragile, and can be broken by any of the external services (facebook, etc) even accidentally at a moment’s notice. Unless they have signed agreements in place, I’m not sure it’ll be able to fly long term.
OMG…..I had this same idea come to me about 4 days ago…rather spooky!!! But as #3 and 5 have mentioned….I really couldn’t see this flying due to the mentioned factors: Site like MySpace can eaisly cut off access, and the whole security issue is big too!
it’s funny I was trying to finish same ajax tool but I only finished myspace network and still on the implementation of few others the concept is the same no matter which is your “fun” network session active, just focus on my contacts
god job ProfileLinker !!!
can I have an invite to give it a look
ciao
Looking at it, meebo does a decent job, but I think the differences are greater than the first appear, which make it easier to do this with meebo than with a hosted web service.
A big difference is that with meebo, the encryption code for your initial user/pass are in javascript on the client side, available for inspection. Yes, your messages are still going through meebo’s servers, but at least part of the code is available for you to look at, if you wanted to.
Another difference is that meebo is facading a small number of known protocols, protocols with huge bases of installed software (client side IM apps). For IM services to radically change things like login handshakes and whatnot is a really big deal. It wouldn’t be that big of a deal with facebook to change their login/authentication process, as it’s a web-based app, and (likely) any user not using their login screen process is violating terms of service and has no room to complain if their screen scraping code doesn’t work.
Additionally, when you don’t use meebo, they don’t/can’t see anything else you’re doing on IM networks. technically, I guess they could, by signing on as you again (perhaps) but most IM networks likely wouldn’t be forwarding messages to my gaim client at home *and* the meebo version of me signed on (without my knowledge by meebo), and would notify me that ‘you are logged on in 2 places’ (or something like that). Bottom line, it’s hard for meebo and similar services to get at any sensitive data unless you’re using them directly. A proxy system for facebook/myspace/etc would, by necessity, be gathering info (messages, friend lists, news, etc) from multiple services every time I logged on, to give me a ‘dashboard view’, giving the proxy developers (and by extension, successful crackers) access to much more of my private life than I would expose by granting IM access via meebo.
I’ve been using Wink.com to keep track of my profiles at various sites. I’m up to 40. Profile linking is great but I’d rather be able to find friends across networks.
seen it already, it’s called profilactic.com
In the same spirit, Ziki gives you the ability to control your own image and promote your skills, content and business. It allows you to gather all your personal information and digital content (blogs, podcasts, photos, videos…) in one place, market your skills and content to others, be easily found on search engines, and connect with like-minded people, all on one web site.
Ziki is beneficial to both people and companies who want to promote themselves and their content (photographers, designers, bloggers, filmmakers, freelancers, small businesses…)
Michael, I know you covered Ziki months ago but the site has be redesigned with a stronger focus on content promotion.
http://www.ziki.com
Profiles are to social networks what source code was to Microsoft 30 years ago. Why is somebody going to give you their core asset for free to sit on top of them?
It is a good idea/concept - but I agree with the majority - myspace will squash it.
How is this different than FindMeOn.com?
Thanks to Michael for the coverage. For those who have posted questions regarding ProfileLinker, I’ll provide additional information:
Post #2 - The thought of taking traffic from other networks is a common concern in our space. We are not trying to build another Myspace or Facebook, but we aim to give users a richer social networking experience and will drive more traffic to social networks. When you search across social networks and click a profile, it drives you back to the original profile’s network (i.e., Myspace, Facebook, Bebo etc). Also, we support cross-registration when you register for ProfileLinker you can opt to get a Photobucket account. More network relationships are currently in the works and we are open to other business development opportunities.
Post #5 - Michael, you raise a great point - SECURITY. ProfileLinker does not require much to “work.” Just enter your MySpace name, Bebo name, or any other the 50+ social networks we support and we will do the rest, which includes pulling your friends into a unified list. Great, so what? We then do USEFUL things for our members through our LiveLink technology that will show you your recently updated friends on other networks. Keep in mind we can do all this without any passwords or login info.
However, if you do choose to supply your login/password, we take it one-step further. Without saying too much, your actual machine would have to get compromised in order for a security breach. We use all the information that is publicly available and make it work. One of our founders has worked with the US Cyber Consequences Unit (a Department of Homeland Security affiliate focused on cyber terrorism) and security is one of his primary concerns. Also, we are finalizing the selection of our security and privacy advisor(s). In a nutshell SECURITY and PRIVACY are our number one concerns.
Post #9 - We support live searches across social networks - similar to wink. Except, no sign-up is necessary.
All, please sign up for the beta and give it a spin. We really appreciate the feedback!
sounds a lot like spokeo.com
Bryan, thanks for the reassurance. I wasn’t trying to beat up on your service in particular, but I do think the genre of service aggregator sites like profilelinker do have an uphill battle both on the trust/security side and the API side.
Question(s): If you can aggregate all my info on various sites without needing a login, I’m assuming that my profile could be aggregated by multiple people. If there’s no authentication with the various sites, do you prevent the same myspace profile from being a primary node in a profilelinker profile? I’m probably not getting the terms right, but I hope you can see what I’m asking there.
So many open issues about security / trust / privacy. Next why not have a social network built on top of social networks?
Hope the same cantralization happens with multiple blog accounts too.
http://www.tekno-world.blogspot.com
i think it is a great concept and look forward to giving it a spin. unlike so many other web 2.0 apps when may be a cool idea or technology, but actually just represent another place to go, or thing to keep track up, this can save time and still deliver the expereince that brought us to social networks in the first place. i think if hey can stay ahead of the security curve and keep the social networks happy, they have a great chance of succeeding.
sorry for all the misspells in the last comment, I was distracted : )
Too bad. No orkut. People don’t have any idea, how big is that network.
I think orkut doesn’t allow other networks to get linked to it.
Ok, I am starting a project to do this
. Help!
Good job, Brian. ProfileLinker looks great!
To clarify previous comments, Spokeo is NOT a profile aggregator. Spokeo syndicates RSS and other publicly available content. Modeling after RSS readers and Digg, Spokeo is designed to drive traffic to content owners. In fact, we will release data to prove this (I think most of you here understand the value of RSS syndication, but many others don’t.)
Therefore, Spokeo does not compete with ProfileLinker. I think ProfileLinker competes more with Profilactic and Iceflake.
Being able to influence the experience a user has when using your community is necessary to optimize the value you can deliver to that user and ultimately to the success of your site. Aggregators reduce the influence a community operator has over that experience. So while aggregators sound good in concept, they actually limit the value a user gets from a community by limiting the value the site operator can deliver.
It seems to me that what sites like ProfileLinker are really trying to do is become their own uber social network by commandeering the assets that the other networks have built (richly developed, highly used profiles), all while doing it under the guise of user benefit (Robin Hood).
Again I come back to the question of what business person is going to knowingly give up their influence over user experience to become dependent on another site? Especially when it seems logical the aggregator is going to work very hard to increasingly control the user experience themselves so they can make more money from the other network’s users?
Seems like it will make my life a lot easier.
i agree, 1 month before myspace cuts them off. why did they go along with it in the first place?
The big SN’s could try to prevent scraping by re-arranging their markup.
Sharad
> … social network built on top of social networks?
really good idea ..)
Post 14) While Myspace is a huge network and may limit access to their site, there are other networks with users that will find this service useful. There is a lot of overlap between networks (Over 50%). Also, since the site also serves as a directory for users, restricting access to myspace, who is one member in the social networking ecosystem, doesn’t limit access to the other sites. The reception has been positive from other networks. We hope to announce other partnerships in the near future.
Post 17) Michael, We want all users to feel safe while using our site, so it is expected that potential users would have questions about safety. We do not take your comments / feedback as a negative but as doing the due diligence in managing your social identity. I agree with your comments that we have an uphill battle, but then again what company doesn’t face an uphill battle?
Thankfully for us, we’ve had a chance to get advice and speak to owners of tier-1 social networks to help pinpoint what is beneficial to them. Regarding the topic authentication, currently there’s no safeguard on major social networks to protect against this. For example, someone can copy your Myspace profile and be you within 5 minutes. This is not a limitation of ProfileLinker but more so of the network in which the fake profile is built. We are heavy users of social networks and have authentication methods on our product roadmap. It’s widget based and useful, all more reason to call 2007 year of the widgets.
On the topic of site differentiation – how are we different from Spokeo, FindMeOn, Profilactic, etc.? We have just got a different approach that focuses on the USERS. Why would I use this and how will this help me? In short, it goes along with Joshua Porter’s del.icio.us lesson of personal value. Our community will aid members manage their profiles, find friends on any network, and eventually will serve as a hub to aid members and their communities. We will do this while increasing traffic to all the networks.
Opps, Joshua Schachter* from del.icio.us.
I don’t know. I think there’s value in aggregation technologies such as those used in this, but I’m not 100% convinced this is the application that’ll stick just yet. It’s not uncommon with technology as everybody knows, and in the meantime, companies have to go with what makes sense. I think users are open to these type of things but it’s going to take time and effort to move them off either remembering where they post or pulling it into their “favorites” file on IE. Good luck to you guys! You sound like great people!
I don’t know about all these centralized aggregated sites popping up. Frankly, I want my data to be secure and I am in control of it. The only way to ensure that is for my data to stay on my computer, not on some central server/site somewhere else where hackers, bots and such can find and use it. I get so much freaking junk mail that I have had to open several new email accounts at yahoo and the likes to avoid it.
What we need is a service that allows you to connect to your friends, family, coworkers and such but NOT centrally stored. Plaxo and similar sites like Linked In have it somewhat right. Better though, is to store my data locally, as I know my data (who I am, address, phones, etc). If my computer blows up, I can reenter my own data very easily. The gold mine is not your profile data, as you can enter that anytime easily..you know it. The goldmine is the relationship management.. the ability to connect to users and have that managed for you. With something like this you may have to install a simple desktop piece and not be able to access it anywhere, anytime, but frankly, to me, thats security at its best. If I log in to yahoo at my brothers computer, with browsers remembering passwords and such, he can relog in as me quite easily and get my info. That’s no good.
Nope.. the best of the best is your data, controlled by you stored locally on your machines. You control who gets your data, and how much of your data they can have, be it your phone numbers, email, addresses, maybe more.
Just my .02 worth.
I agree with Michael. There are WAY too many social networking sites these days. I saw one today that was designed for people who wanted to stay in touch with their summer camp friends!!!
I suppose if you could create a social networking/dating site that generated good traffic and readership, you might end up getting bought by a larger company that just wants your membership to drive internet advertising revenue. Could be a pretty good pay-day as we have already seen with ohter companies in the same space.
https://davidchao.typepad.com
Neat idea… Is social bookmarking site next target?
Nice. I’ve been looking for something like this.
I am a fan of a ‘thoughtful,’ logical user interface. Something that lets you navigate fairly transparently…and providing a couple of different ways of doing the same thing. An example of this would be gmail’s means of deleting emails…which gives the user a couple of different ways of doing so. This means that I don’t have to ‘think’ like someone else…or perform a set function only one way.
MySpace has huge traffic, yet I truly dislike the poorly constructed interface. The lack of logic in the queries and sub queries of navigating means that you have to remember the MySpace way of doing anything. Did I say I wasn’t a fan?!
I have spent a fair amount of time recently trying to get comfortable with the site…and it just hasn’t happened.
I tried profilelinker and in terms of usability…I really like it. I also like the depth it could allow you to go to in terms of what information you can willingly provide…although I intentionally left many fields blank. I think this element can appeal to a younger demographic that wants to stand naked on a roof top and expose their lives to the world.
Logic-wise…easier to use…less frustration…although in just an hour or so of using it, I found this strange:
1) Inability to delete photos made me laugh, as how can anyone allow ‘adds’ but not ‘deletes.’
2) Mobile profiles are a pretty good idea for cross pollination of their product, however as you are choosing colors etc, you can’t see what it will look like till you save it. If you don’t like it…you have to start from scratch…hmmm.
All the best
RE: #10 Drew Olanoff
December 28th, 2006 at 6:42 am
seen it already, it’s called profilactic.com
——————————
Drew, it is slightly similar to Profilactic; however, after signing up for the beta of ProfileLinker, I can tell you that they are really not much alike.
ProfileLinker is simply grouping profiles. Not that interesting IMNSHO. There needs to be a content angle as well if you want other people to care about viewing these pages. Also, they seem to limit you to a set of social networkings, rather than letting you create your own links.
Profilactic, on the other hand, allows you to group all of your profiles. But it also mashes up all of the content you create on all of those sites. It allows you to bookmark things about you from around the web. And it allows you to connect with friends and pull together all of their content, too.
We’re rolling out tweaks to the beta this weekend that will update the UI, an advantage I think we have over ProfileLinker, FindMeOn and Spokeo (no offense, guys), and add a couple of new features.
http://www.profilactic.com/mashup/smorty71
Thanks,
sm
thats such a great idea! I have wayy to many usernames and passwords as it is i’m glad someone came up with this I wonder if it works through bebo proxies?