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April 12, 2005
Yahoo! 360° Beta
The day I received my first invite to join Yahoo! 360° Beta I hesitated. My immediate thought was oh god no, not another Friendster-like place. Since the origin of the invite was from someone who doesn't usually opt in on these types of things, I decided to check it out.
There are a number of options available in this latest social networking widget. You can create your own blog, (which is a good thing if you're not currently maintaining one and want a simple way to do it - along with a comments area and RSS feed [tk],) share music, post lists, reviews and photos, and write a profile of yourself, if you want. You can decide if you want the world to see it, or limit your blog, etc. to only friends and friends of friends. In other words, you're in complete control of what is seen and what is not.
Then there is the friends area, where you can invite/see/browse -- your own friends, other friends, and friends of friends. I was curious about one person's friends list and went to their blog, read a bit, then experienced that 5 degrees of separation thing. In reading some of the names on this person's list, I came across Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle (he writes the Chronicle's technology column.) I've known Dwight since, oh, 1995 or '96. He wrote a kick-ass review of my web site (circa '96, back when I was a famous and world-renowned web goddess) and we had a beer or two in New York's Bryant Park way back when. Though we're both bad about staying in touch more often with each other, Dwight is in my top 10 cool and favorite people list. And suddenly there he was, just a few bodies away from me in Yahooyland . I immediately sent him a virtual poke, and...
... I digress.
So... I accepted the invite. I quickly set everything up to my liking, and found that even though I didn't want to begin blog #4 (this blog, the photo gallery, and the podcast blog are more than enough for me to maintain already,) I couldn't prevent myself from posting one or two entries. Each time I see the word photos on my page I have this urge to post photos, then think, "DUH!" I've already done that, just not on Yahoo!
Later on I invited some of you to join me in this latest widget wackiness. Of the 10 or so invites I sent out, only one person declined, stating that they hated Yahoo! (funny, I had the same opinion until I checked it all out,) and other invites are still pending response, sent mainly to folks I know who don't have blogs of their own. A few others accepted the invite but not unlike my initial reaction, decided not to go full-tilt boogie on yet another blog. I'm really undecided about this Friendster and Gmail on steroids widget; but it's worth a try if you're into it.
Cindy
Comments
Hey there!
I'm sorry that I don't know you, just been browsing technorati lately and was looking up info about Yahoo 360:P
I would love an invitation though, if it suits your fancy:P
I like your pictures! :)
Brain matter deposited by: Charles on April 12, 2005 7:29 PM
Well Charles, since you're a first-time visitor here, perhaps some additional flattering remarks are in order. :-)
Brain matter deposited by: Cindy on April 12, 2005 8:02 PM
Yea, I have been invited to 360 as well. Who knows, it may be fun! My name="ifthensoft"
~X
Brain matter deposited by: Mr. X on April 12, 2005 8:39 PM
I wonder if I'll ever use one of these things for more than a week. I try them all out, fiddle with them for a day or two, invite a bunch of people and then promptly forget they exist.
Six months later I remember, eventually manage to guess the long-forgotten password, spend an hour deleting spam and invite a whole bunch more people.
Then I never visit the site again.
Brain matter deposited by: Al on April 12, 2005 9:32 PM
I do the same except I usually don't invite anybody... at least I upload a picture:P
I'm working on programming my own social network/blog from scratch though as an academic experiment, so I usually like to check out what other people are doing to add more junk to my own thing:P
Brain matter deposited by: Charles on April 12, 2005 11:41 PM
it was i who declined, yes, humble me. like al, i'd forget about it after 2 weeks. anyone remember orkut/orknut whatever, that was making it's rounds last year (?) ?
Brain matter deposited by: zed on April 13, 2005 5:23 AM
Are we your new bestest friends?
We'll send you boxes and boxes of the most expensive choccies ever produced. And flowers. And caviar. And oysters. And a solid gold toilet roll holder (*) for an invite.
We Lurrrrrrve Cindy, we do!
(*)when we win the lotto
Brain matter deposited by: Piggy and Tazzy on April 13, 2005 8:57 AM
Piggy & Tazzy - of course you're my bestest friends!
Charles - do keep us posted on your project! BTW, Al is the mystery man. None of us knows what he looks like.
Mr. X - hi!
Al - no surprise there!
Brain matter deposited by: Cindy on April 13, 2005 9:54 AM
I hadn't heard of it either, but I'm not good about this type of stuff. Once it becomes a huge hit we'll all be able to say we read about it here first, though.
Brain matter deposited by: Kat on April 13, 2005 3:11 PM