In the last six months or so, the real-time web has really started to take hold. Services like Facebook, FriendFeed, and YouTube are finding ways to update their services on the fly with impressive results. But aside from Twitter, there haven’t been many sites built from the ground up with real-time in mind. Until now. Today sees the launch of Vyoom, which may well be the first robust social network to launch with real-time at its core.
The site behaves (and looks) like a mix between Twitter and Facebook. You’ll be spending most of your time in the ‘Social Stream’, which is a constantly updated list of the latest status updates posted by both your friends and other members of the site. The Social Stream is broken down into two sections: the public stream, which shows every update posted to the site by anyone, and the private stream, which shows updates posted by your friends. All updates are displayed immediately after they’re sent — you never have to refresh the site or click a ’show new updates’ button. And if things are flowing by too quickly you can always hit pause.
This can add up to a lot of content, so Vyoom lets you filter and search through each stream, which is where the site’s real power may come from. The public stream allows you to restrict updates to a certain network (for example, I could display only updates that came from San Francisco) while the private stream lets you search for updates by a certain friend. Finally, there’s a stream-wide search similar to Twitter Search which allows you to find any updates with a certain keyword. If the site manages to achieve a large number of users (which is obviously easier said than done), then this search functionality could prove more flexible than Twitter’s.
Outside of the main stream, the site has most of the features you’d expect from a social network. You can build a profile displaying your photos and interests (along with a Facebookesque Wall), and there’s an integrated Mail system. The site includes a nifty feature called RPilot that’s effectively a miniature version of the Social Stream described above. The RPilot (pictured below) allows you to navigate through the site without ever having to take your eye away from the constantly updated stream.
Another way that Vyoom differentiates itself from Facebook is its point system and Rewards store. Facebook has been toying around with points and a payment system for a while now, but aside from a few Platform apps in testing the only thing you can use them for are virtual gifts. Vyoom is taking a different approach. The site rewards users for executing various actions on the site, like inviting friends to join, sending messages, and so on. After accumulating many of these points, you can exchange them for gadgets like cameras and PS3s, though these go for millions of points (you start with around 70,000, and get 5,000 for every friend you invite who winds up joining the site — so start inviting).
Vyoom is quite well done and I like the fact that real-time was kept in mind during the site’s formation, rather than as a tacked on feature. But the social network space has become very difficult to carve a niche in — everyone seems to already have a Facebook (or decreasingly so, MySpace) profile, and getting them to maintain yet another site is going to be tough. The site’s Rewards features may be enough to entice some users, but it may also be a double-edged sword: if Vyoom makes it too easy to win expensive gadgets, they’ll quickly run out of money; make it too hard, and users will scoff at the points system entirely. Still, rewards system aside, Vyoom does a good job walking the line between Twitter and Facebook, which may be enough for many users to give it a shot.
Vyoom: Where Social Activity is Rewarded! from Mark Takenaka on Vimeo.
Wow. Thats a crapy name.
yea wow i agree, they truly TRULY need a new name
No, it isn’t. It’s a crapPy name.
And the idea is pretty crappy too.
If you replace the intrinsic motivation in online socializing with extrinsic incentives (”earn points”) you basically build a community of spammers and marketeers.
Who wants to be part of such a “community”? Apart from spammers and marketeers, that is.
My thoughts exactly. Not a good idea at all. But we’ll just have to see how people use Vyasdsasda.
If they enable users to filter content effectively it can still be interesting platform. But as someone already mentioned budget to successfully launch social network like this would have to be humongous.
Probably seeking a buyout from MSN or Googol and they can change their name to BingBook or Bingspace or Orkbook
i never thought the day would come. A flurry of TC commenters expressing the importance of a good domain name.
did you hear vyoom use the term “Friend Locator” to keep in touch with friends? nice.
NetworkLocator.com – connect the dots
Hate to break it to you but stupidLocator is too long to spell to be a good domain name you should try brainlocator
Its not hard at all; check a dictionary (or dictionary(dot) com) its a pronunciation of “view” and add a “m”.
view [vyoo]
Maybe some people should go back to grade 5
I bet same was said about “google” 10 years ago too…
Can you imagine the amount of marketing you would have to do to take a persons social influence away from facebook? do you really see a company with a URL like vyoom doing that? friendster, myspace, facebook are all easy to spell, catchy and you know how to pronounce.. vyoom.. doesn’t do it for me.. and do you really think click to show post is such an annoying thing.. some find it nice to have that option.. keeps the feed nice and slow. I never look at twitter because the feed goes too fast.
they seem to be well organized and have tight and fresh perspective on the same stuff twitter does, but I agree 100% they’re going NO WHERE with that domain name. sorry guys, but proper domain selection should have been part of your precision.
Oh…new spin…gaming real-time twitter.
Dumb….bad name, bad idea, whatever.
BTW, michael jackson just died.
The first test they administer to new employees is the challenge of spelling the company’s name.
looks like VYCOM based on logo. meh.
Branding is everything, just like first impressions.
That’s exactly what I first read – vycom. Yep, poor branding both phonetically and visually.
RIP MJ and vywhatever
We’ll see how this does in the long run, it seems like everybody is jumping up to make a social media site now.
Eh…
Real time bubble not social networking bubble.
Or where have you been the last 5 years ?
Real-time is so passe…
The future is what counts NOW!
And here comes the social networking bubble….anyone hear a pop coming?
And Vycom fills an unmet need I have how? Can I login with my twitter account or facebook ID and bring my contacts with me?
If it is truly open and allows me to import/export contacts I might be interested.
Yet another one…
It seems like Twitter finally got a serious competitor in Vyoom. Since it has the combined features of Facebook and Twitter, it could become quite popular in a very short time.
Your comment is the best prove for my verdict (see above).
Good try but what a mighty suck.
This article looks like a paid placement.
Sorry, I expected better.
it’s about time people start getting paid for contributing and building a site. Twitter, Facebook…where is my payout?
How funny the people behind the site are leaving comments…like JP – twitter where is our money?
hehe techcrunch is a joke.
mj is dead
people would be rushing so hard to earn points that the sincerity of most of the user content would be questionable
Quit the “real time” BS… it’s not real time!!!!! In order for an event to occur, another event must come before it! You call yourself technologists… do some reading up on science!
Name sucks. I agree. Never put the least used letter on the keyboard in your domain name! That’s a recipe for failure in the first place!!
Mail server is borked.. never got my account confirmation email and they don’t have a page where I can re-send mine… guess I won’t be using their so far dreaded web service.
Earn products for being active. What a damn joke… that’s worse than when Revver shared ad revenue! We all know what happened to that company.
Vyoom or however u spell it needs to come back as a niche social community with a different name and new business model.
MG… Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett cashed in their chips today, story broke on Twitter… Where are you? I thought for sure you’d be buzzing this up on TC, no?
umakeitcool.com lets you run a virtual company, and do social network; and lets you make money; not points.
maybe techcrunch will feature us someday.
There’s no user interface
it’s comming; finishing it now. it’s facebook, mixed with myspace, for media commerce; later products, and services.
this shit is wack. wtf is umakeitcool.com
Vyoom should have been named VaginaSpace.
if this is the future of tech, America is over…the Communists win.
the future is coming on, is coming on, is coming on.
Vyoom – now available in Facebook blue.
Really??
This is like Amway meets Facebook meets Twitter. But mostly it smells like Amway.
I agree with several other comments above… this will be a “community” of spammers and marketers (and people who don’t value their time much relative to the price of say, a $500 flat screen TV).
Looks pretty cool. I have a weird feeling that nothing will come of it.
It has a HORRIBLE name and the blue that they use is almost identical to that of Facebook.
Never been a fan of services who’s main differentiator is paying users to use the service.
I completely agree
Same here. Sites like those always look like (or are) scams. I don’t want to get payed for using a social network.
As noted in the article everyone already uses the other sites so why not allow them to use what they already have to become a part of your site in a much easier way ( imagine how quickly they could build a user base if they allowed FB/Twitter sign in).
Allowing them to do so will let users experience the site without the hassle and if it’s truly a better experience they’ll probably stay.
I was going to say the same thing..it is hard to get motivated to fill out sign in forms.. they could pay me $10 and I would be like nah..
“the public stream, which shows every update posted to the site by anyone, and the private stream, which shows updates posted by your friends. All updates are displayed immediately after they’re sent — you never have to refresh the site or click a ’show new updates’ button.”
Wow comments updated in real time and shown on the front page? /yawn
I liked it the first time, over a year ago, when it was called NING and still is. lol
It might look and stream in different, but old trick, new magic hat.
I sign up and Vyoom crashes…sigh
What fyool came up with such a gyoofy name. Following words with two o’s does not make you cool or memorable. Ok, even when you get past the ridiculous domain name, the site still reminds me of the boat/car. It drives like a boat, but floats like a car. It’s not quite twitter, and not quite Facebook. And don’t think for a second that you will whore me for points.
Gyood jyob guys!
hyiilarioous comment
Getting active users is the only way to prove sustainable value.
2009-10 will see new interaction paradigms and evolution of the same. Who will win, only users can tell.
Real Time would be MJ posting a tweet from the Pearly Gates at this moment.
This is a shitty idea. Points systems don’t work – you wanna start paying people for making friends? Seriously?
Shitty design. To break into facebook’s share, you need something radical that attracts the “it” crowd – after them, others follow.
I just can’t believe MJ died though…sucks balls big time man
Agreed with Jason about the difficulty in getting a user to maintain a new “general” social networking profile.
Niche (top oriented… like car forums, etc) networks have a much larger chance of obtaining a viable userbase these days than “just” a social network…
…as I type this the F Connect button hovers to the right… tells you something about market penetration …
Registering is not possible?!?!?!
Tired 2 email-accounts but no confirmation email received…….
so f… it
Awesome job copying Facebook’s UI! Really original!!
Did you just open up Firebug and copy and paste the HTML and CSS? Your designers must have sweat this one out.
And the award for corniest and cheesiest name goes to *drum roll*: Vyoom!
Seriously, that’s the best they can come up with? Sounds like the noise a 8 year old makes when he plays with toy cars.
URturn was the first social network launched at the University of Michigan rewarding activity almost identically to that of this company, whoa, how similar. Why would VC’s invest in a company to compete with FB/MS, etc…? i can’t see how they will be successful…
I think it is an interesting concept but they cant even maintain the site. I made an account as soon as i read this article because i figured i have nothing to loose and for the last 2 days there site hasn’t even worked.