For the longest time, we technophiles had a nagging problem. You see, we were creating all this content and interacting with others on countless social networks across the web every day, but as more and more must-join networks cropped up and unending avalanches of friend invites poured in, it all became increasingly difficult to maintain... 

Then came our aggregation salvation (or so we thought):  FriendFeed. 

With much fanfare, the brainchild of some former-Googlers arrived on the scene and promised to make sense of all that scattered social media information, aggregating into one, easy-to-follow interface. Phew, what a relief.

But, alas, we all know that when it comes to web 2.0, solutions are just invitations for new problems, and this scenario was no different than the rest. 

For just as the early adopters had started to get their FriendFeed on with a vengeance, out of the cracks came countless new startups vying to be the bigger, better social aggregator. 

Second Brain. Swurl. Profilactic. iminta. Socialthing!. The list, unbelievably, goes on and on. And then, to make matters worse, other established web services like MyBlogLog, blogcatalog, Facebook and Plaxo started making "lifestreaming" a core part of their own offerings, too.

Before we knew it, we had effectively moved from a web 2.0 landscape of social media overload into an era of social media aggregation overload. So much for technological progress.

But hey, don't give up hope, for I have a solution. 

That's right, with this post, it is my great pleasure to present to you a project I have been slaving away at, which will solve this exact problem.

This service is admittedly still far from market-ready, but if Cuil has taught us anything, it's that being market-ready is extremely over-rated. And so, in true web 2.0 fashion, I'm excited to launch my startup prematurely so that you, the user can risk all your data help me iron out the wrinkles and improve the service prior to the "real" launch. 

So, without further ado I give you the answer to your aggregation frustration: Streamulo.us.

What is Streamulo.us?

Quite simply put, Streamulo.us, which is currently in private pre-alpha (omega?) testing, is the aggregator for all your aggregators. It is the lifestream for your lifestreams. It's the...ok, ok, you get it. It's pretty darn amazing.

Using this wunder-app, it will only take you 5 minutes to pop in your credentials on an exhaustive list of 15 aggregators, and presto- all your aggregations are belong to us will be automatically fed into your Streamulo.us stream!

With the advent of Streamulo.us, you will never again have to visit 15 sites in order to not have to visit 100 sites! 

Still not convinced? Well then check out my '3 Ways Streamulo.us Will Probably Change The World.'

1) You'll Never Visit Another Aggregation Site Again

Have you ever seen a Twitter Tweet talking about some Shiny new Tech object that promises to help you manage your social network clutter, only to follow the link and realize that, oops, you already signed up for that thing the last time Rubel Tweeted it.. and you've never been back?

I know I have.

And clearly, if we can't even keep track of our keeping-track-of-stuff apps, something is amiss. 

What we need, obviously, is another app. A better one. To keep track of the keeping-track apps. What we need... is Streamulo.us. 

On Streamulo.us, all the activity of all your friends from every aggregation service that has ever been launched (and 2 that don't even exist yet) will be fed directly into your personal stream! No more logging into dozens of services. No more hassle. 
 
2) You Can Use Steamulo.us as Your Web Megaphone, Too

But Streamulo.us won't just be useful for managing all your aggregation streams. It will also be an excellent way to broadcast yourself to the masses. Let me explain with an illustration.

Have you ever felt like no one listens to you on social media networks? 

Come on, you know what I mean. You post a witty, insightful Tweet on Twitter, and sit back with a sheepish grin, waiting to see the flood of @-replies praising you for your mastery of the delicate balancing act that is mixing humour and intellect. 

Only, no replies are forthcoming. 

It's like that old proverb: 'If you send a Tweet on Twitter, and nobody is around to care, does it still make that annoying sound in Twhirl?' 

Think about it.

Anyway the point is, many of us often feel like no one listens when we are active on social media. But luckily, Streamulo.us can help!

That's because, with its super-aggregation powers, Streamulo.us can also be an awesome amplifier for your online voice. If you take full advantage of its aggregator-compatibility, for example, you can force a single Tweet to appear in your friends' stream up to 15 times!  

Ignore that, Scoble! 

Just take a look at the screenshot below to see this awesome broadcasting overkill in action (Click here for a bigger version):  























When it comes to blatant self-promotion, it doesn't get any better than this.

3) Follow Your Favourites Closely With Our Patented "Stalker Streams"

Finally, Streamulo.us will be different in one other important way: we'll have Stalker Streams.

This feature is still under development, and will not be included in the alpha release because I am still ironing out the "legal wrinkles." And I can't provide screenshots at this time for the same reason, but I still want to give you a taste of what's to come because it's so creepy awesome. 

The Stalker Stream will be a one-of-a-kind feature that allows you to track your favourite online friends in very fine detail. 

Using patented technology that hijacks borrows your identification information for other aggregation networks like those I listed earlier, and exploits makes use of weaknesses in their respective APIs, Streamulo.us will be able to tell you everything your favourite friends have been up to, whether they want you to know or not, in one quick glance. 

The level of trivial detail in this Stream will be much greater than in the regular Streams and you will be able to click on each item to dig down further if you want (and you know you do.)

Frankly, this incredible feature is best demonstrated with an example, so just to give you an idea of what to expect, here is a plain text rendering of my own Stalker Stream of Louis Gray:

Louis Gray has Logged In on Blogger.com 
Louis Gray has Saved A Draft on Blogger.com ["How to Write Blog Posts Without Getting Distracted by Social Media"]
Louis Gray has Logged In on Friendfeed
Louis Gray has Clicked Ten [10] Links on FriendFeed
Louis Gray has Liked Six [6] Items on FriendFeed 
Louis Gray has Commented On Two [2] Items on Friendfeed
Louis Gray has Retrieved a Saved Draft on Blogger.com
Louis Gray has Saved A Draft on Blogger.com ["How to Write Blog Posts Without Getting Distracted by Social Media"]
Louis Gray has Commented On One [1] Items on Friendfeed...

You get the idea. Needless to say, the potential for snooping on your soc-med pals will be truly limitless using this feature. Stay tuned.


So, To Sum It All Up:

Streamulo.us is the future of tracking social media-tracking media, socially. 
Streamulo.us is the shiniest, newest startup to launch this week.
Streamulo.us is the Answer to Your Aggregation Frustration.

So what are you waiting for? Why not give it a spin? Sign up for the closed pre-Alpha here now, and be sure and let me know what you think in the comments!

21 comments

  1. Unknown // August 5, 2008 at 4:27 PM  

    This is what I was waiting for. Great post!

  2. Unknown // August 5, 2008 at 7:58 PM  

    On Streamulo.us, all the activity of all your friends from every aggregation service that has ever been launched (and 2 that don't even exist yet)...

    Dude! You've gotta give me the addresses of those 2 services that don't exist yet. I've gotta be in on those alphas!

    Good satire! Uh... it IS satire, right? :)

  3. Daniel Smith // August 5, 2008 at 8:51 PM  

    @AK: Let's be honest, this is what we've -all- been waiting for.

    @evano: I would love to share details about the not-yet-launched aggregators with you, but you know, NDAs and all. I can give you the names, that's all: FeedStream and Friendsterrific. They'll fit nicely into the Streamulo.us fold, I can assure you of that.

    Satire? What is this "satire" you speak of?

    Daniel

  4. sarunasr // August 5, 2008 at 11:40 PM  

    Daniel, nice post. I'm looking forward to test driving this puppy. When is it ready? Keep me posted.
    Sarunas at http://twitter.com/sarunasr

  5. Anonymous // August 5, 2008 at 11:57 PM  

    Sign me up: username: RobertScoble PW: Milan I wish I was as smart as you. Then I wouldn't have to do those videos at FastCompany.

  6. Anonymous // August 6, 2008 at 12:00 AM  

    OH NO YOU DIDN'T. My release of the STREAM-A-NATOR is coming out next week. We'll have twice as many features and we'll pay people to sign up. Take that BTW. Very well played post. I love U guys.

  7. Daniel Smith // August 6, 2008 at 12:14 AM  

    @sarunas: It could be...awhile. I would recommend you read the post a few more times, just to be sure you want to be a part of the alpha, and if you still do after that, I'll send you an invite ;)

    @Anon: Robert Scoble, is that really you? Wow, I've never known you to be one to comment anonymously on...anything, but the only other option is that someone has left a comment here pretending to be you, and that is just beyond belief. Well then, I guess your invite's in the mail Scobleizer!

    @Pete: Oh, I'm sorry, did you forget the Immutable Law of Web 2.0 (also known as the Twitter Law)? First-to-market wins, no matter what. Sorry dude. Better luck next time. (Tip: I foresee a need in the very near future for an aggregator for aggregator-aggregators. Why not get a jump-start? Our API, for one, will be wide open!)

  8. Scobleizer // August 6, 2008 at 3:10 AM  

    Daniel: that wasn't the real Robert Scoble. But I think this is fun.

  9. Daniel Smith // August 6, 2008 at 6:53 AM  

    @Robert: Thanks for coming by. I knew that last guy was a poseur - tongue-in-cheek doesn't always come across online :P But I know this time it -is- you, because you commented on Friendfeed too. Good as litmus. I'm glad you got a laugh. ;) I've responded to your comment on FF too.

    Daniel

  10. Unknown // August 6, 2008 at 11:23 AM  

    I don't care if it's satire or not, I want an invite. No wait, begging for invites is soooo January 2008. I think I'll just subscribe to tracking the updates of your aggregated feed...

    Great post (esp. the "Louis Gray clicked ten [10] items" bit...)

  11. Daniel Smith // August 6, 2008 at 11:33 AM  

    @Nils: The Grand Streamulo.us Alliance has met and deemed you an acceptable test subject. Just carry on as usual, and one day, you'll just wake up in the pre-alpha test group. That's how it works.

  12. Anonymous // August 6, 2008 at 2:49 PM  

    @Daniel,ROFL! I love it and just dugg it too! Hehehehe, stalker stream, lol!

  13. Daniel Smith // August 6, 2008 at 5:09 PM  

    @Karen - thanks for the comment and Digg and support as usual! You're the best. Glad you like my latest project :P

  14. Daniel Smith // August 6, 2008 at 5:17 PM  

    UPDATE:
    Thanks to the hilarious Mike Fruchter (his blog here, his friendfeed here), there are a few really funny comment threads over on Friendfeed. Basically, Mike, who has a pretty large following on FF, posted a link inviting people to ask for Streamulo.us invites, to very funny effect. Check the conversations out here:

    The FriendFeed Thread

    Also, Jennifer Van Grove has a great post offering invites over on her blog here. This is all too funny, thanks for helping to prove my point all the more Mike and Jenn!

    Daniel

  15. Charnita F. // August 6, 2008 at 9:43 PM  

    This sounds interesting....... hope it's worth all this hype.

  16. Anonymous // August 7, 2008 at 3:27 AM  

    Haha, brilliant! And if you can come up with an API we'll allocate all our resources on connecting Streamulo.us and we could collaborate on making the "social media infinite loop from hell".

    Johan
    Product Manager
    Secondbrain.com

  17. Daniel Smith // August 7, 2008 at 12:46 PM  

    @ChaCha: That is unlikely.

    @Johan: Thanks for stopping by- I can honestly say that your startup is one of the ones that truly inspired our work ;) The "social media infinite loop from hell" sounds promising, but we may want to go back to the drawing board on the name. We can discuss this more later.

  18. Anonymous // August 7, 2008 at 12:54 PM  

    @daniel that was very nicely done and I am going to @everyone with the URL and plurk it too! :)

  19. Anonymous // August 15, 2008 at 3:09 PM  

    This sounds really wonderful. Thank you.

  20. Anonymous // August 15, 2008 at 11:00 PM  

    You had me there for a minute....
    Thought maybe there was REALLY something I could use. Maybe I really need someone to checkout my blog at http://thecenturytreereader.com and give me a way to put one of these great new programs in place? :)

  21. Anonymous // November 19, 2008 at 12:35 PM  

    Fantastic! Can't wait to check it out.
    Before I spread the words about it, got to try.
    But thanks for your great post...very entertaining!

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