Whoisi is a central site that allows users to add people and their associated web feeds, and then track any number of these people and their feed items using a follower model. Whoisi is a side project by open source evangelist and Mozilla contributor Chris Blizzard. Currently it supports feeds from Flickr, Twitter, LinkedIn, Picasa and any Atom or RSS feed. Once you have added a number of people that you follow, it presents their feed activity in a time-based interface similar to FriendFeed and MugShot, making it easy to track a large number of feeds.
In Whoisi, any visitor to the site can define a person or an identity, and add the feeds associated with that person for other users to find and follow. To prevent vandalism, there is a revision history so that changes can be reversed. The database already has a large number of names within it - and when you search for a friend or feed you’d like to follow, if they are not already on the site, you can add or edit their feeds easily. Users do not need to signup for an account with Whoisi, as user data (such as followers) is all session-based using a browser cookie, which means you can’t move your follower list between browsers.
You can edit and customize any persons profile with “aliases” to provide alternate names or groups. What this means is the TechCrunch feed can be tagged “Michael Arrington” or “Mike Arrington.” You can also have a TechCrunch group, so Nik Cubrilovic’s feed could be tagged “techcrunch:nik.” The grouping feature is very simple and it could be developed further by users and used for other purposes.
Whoisi is a very clean site, as there is little on the site except for data. An open API is provided that publishes RSS feeds for each defined user, so that the data can be integrated into other applications.
I find friendfeed a bit overwhelming, so maybe this is a solution that keeps me sane
I’ve noticed a trend of domain names being spelled with ebonics. I saw another site on the crunch forum a few months back called yofamilytree.com and now we see whoisi.com . Will this replace domainr, flickr, everythingr?
Gangsta names?
Users do not need to signup for an account with Whoisi, as user data (such as followers) is all session-based using a browser cookie, which means you can’t move your follower list between browsers.
Not quite accurate. If you click the “Login Later” button, you get a URL which you can use on other browsers and get access to your “account”.
welcome
Very cool post Calley. I’ve been getting into FriendFeed, so maybe I’ll give this a try.
Hoping you’ll write more!
This seems like it could be useful to me if I was ever able to actually read anythign anyone else has written. Unfortunately I am a caged troglodite that is trapped in my dungeonesque domocile… coding myself into a more perfect sphere of my former self. HELP!
On another note loved the article. I will try the service today, but only because I need to get back to my roots G-Dawgitty-C to tha A to tha douba L and tha E-Y… ye-yeh-yay!
I’m lost. Call me when the dust settles from the twitter/tumblr/friendfeed one-offs.
Am I missing something, or is this possible in friendfeed already with the “imaginary” friends feature? Adding feeds for people who don’t yet use friendfeed or for organisations you want to track? Have I missed the point of whoisi, or can I just stick with friendfeed? Have I asked enough questions? Should I stop?
Dear Techcrunch, but you don’t insert any “Via” on your post? Also i write yesterday about Whoisi on my blog. So, Mugshot dot com doens’t exist.
So how do you pronounce this website’s name?
O:-)
:@
:-!
B-)
:-/
:-$
:’(
:$