Comments for 35 Ways to Stream Your Life

35 Ways to Stream Your Life

2008-02-29T18:49:01Z

It's a pretty good bet that if you're not making a Twitter or Facebook application, you're probably making a lifestreaming application. Okay, so not everyone is into lifestreaming, but it is one of the hottest areas for development out there, and there are an overwhelming amount of services offering a way to aggregate all the little bits of your online life (which, for the purpose of this post, is the definition of lifestreaming that we'll use). Richard MacManus wrote an excellent primer on lifestreaming in January, but we touched on just 5 such services. The purpose of this post, rather than to review, is to just list the various options out there.

]]> Lifestreaming apps generally fall into two categories: those that help you keep track of and display your own lifestream and those that help you keep track of your friend's lifestreams (or both). For the sake of clarity, we've focused mainly on the former for this list.

Tumblr - Tumblr is a microblogging application that also allows the inclusion of activity streams from other services.
Onaswarm - Onaswarm, which is in private beta, is a dedicated lifestreaming app that supports a wide variety of other services.
Jaiku - The chief function of Jaiku, as a presence app similar to Twitter, is enhanced by letting users aggregate activity from outside services.
Lifestrea.ms - Lifestrea.ms -- in closed beta -- is a dedicated activity stream aggregator that quotes our review in the company line by calling itself a "standards based nerve center."
Soup.io - Similar to Tumblr, Soup.io is a microblogging application. It also supports outside status updates for 11 services and any RSS feed.
FriendFeed - Due to being founded by a bunch of ex-Googlers, FriendFeed might hold the crown for most talked about lifestreaming app. It supports nearly 30 web sites.
MyBlogLog - MyBlogLog, which specializes in creating ad-hoc social networks around blogs, just got into lifestreaming with an update last night.
Profilactic - Profilactic supports 135 sites. Yes, 135 sites. As well as the ability to add your own. Have fun.
iStalkr - iStalkr is a hub for your social media activity and that of your friends and family, with a unique approach to lifestreaming that puts your life on a timeline.
Correlate.us - Correlate.us creates a river of activity for a handful of supported sites, and graphs which sites you use the most, all with the design sensibilities of del.icio.us.
ProfileFly - Focused on social networks, ProfileFly creates a replacement profile that mashes up status updates from your existing social profiles.
Second Brain - Second Brain takes takes a slightly less automatic approach to life streaming by asking that you categorize and group your activity into collections. See our review.
Explode.us - Explode.us is a social media search engine that also offers "a profile to consolidate your various online presences."
liveZuu - A lifestreaming application that supports 28 networks and offer a Facebook app.
OneSwirl - A newer dedicated lifestream aggregator that celebrated its first public release today.
Socialthing! - Currently in closed beta, Socialthing! is a promising lifestreaming service that offers a nifty-looking iPhone optimized version. They're planning to release the service at SXSW.
iminta - iminta keeps you up-to-date on what your friends are "in to" and lets you share your own activity stream.
Plaxo Pulse - Most famous for helping to get Robert Scoble temporarily banned from Facebook, Plaxo's Pulse product lets you aggregate activity from a wide variety of third party services.
Identoo - A fairly standard social streaming site.
Escaloop - Escaloop is a free-form lifestreaming app that lets you combine up to 20 RSS feeds into a single stream (yeah, there are other RSS mixers out there, but Escaloop is notable on this list for specifically targeting lifestreaming).
Hictu - Hictu is a video microblogging app that supports importing activity streams from outside services.
Life2Front - Life2Front's LiFE-Line activity stream feature is a functional activity stream aggregator, if not the most attractive.
30Boxes - The online calendar app also has lifestreaming capabilities.
Readr - Readr mashes 21 different sites into a single profile feed.
Suprglu - Suprglu pulls content from the web services you use and then republishes them in blog format.
Where is me? - A lifestreaming app that pulls from 11 services or RSS feeds.
Slifeshare - Lifestreaming via a Mac OS X application (Windows promised soon).
MovableType ActionStreams - For do-it-yourselfers, MovableType offers a lifestreaming plugin for their blog platform.
SimpleLife - More for the DIY set, SimpleLife is a lifestreaming plugin for Wordpress.
WP Lifestream - Another lifestreaming plugin for Wordpress.
RSS Stream - You guessed it, a third lifestream plugin for Wordpress.
oneConnect - Yahoo!'s oneConnect mobile service includes activity stream aggregation features.
Facebook (?) - Rumor has it that Facebook will be opening up the news feed to outside service updates.
Socialstream - Nothing has come out of it yet, but this Google funded academic project at Carnegie Mellon University into lifestreaming has garnered a ton of press attention.
Jeremy Keith's Lifestreaming Script - Jeremy Keith's lifestreaming script was one of the first and inspired some of the services on this list.

Are there any we missed? Which is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below.

Comment from matthewvb on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T19:29:04Z

I find it really interesting that a little over a year ago (Sept 06) when Facebook launched their news feed feature that it was met with huge resistance from the Facebook community. There were groups started and claims that users were going to leave -- all because they didn't want their personal information broadcasted like the news feed does.

Now we have dozens upon dozens of websites that do just that; and the global web community has not only endorsed them but pushed them forward to be "the" sites to be on. Especially as more and more people join different social networks, the need for these aggregating/life-streaming apps has become a necessity as opposed to an invasion of privacy.

Comment from Nick Vidal on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T19:31:38Z

I would like to invite lifestreaming developers to ISS (Instant Syndicating Standards). ISS is a set of open standards that enable people to discover and syndicate information within their social network.

Comment from smorty71 on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T19:42:44Z

Josh, thanks for mentioning Profilactic. We really appreciate it.

Comment from harrison on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T19:54:38Z

I think Spokeo should definitely be included. Don't you?

Comment from Alexa on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T20:09:06Z

While not technically a lifestreaming app (it doesn't aggregate content into a time-based news feed), I've had some success using Pageflakes to aggregate all of my personal content into a "facebook profile" looking page, as demonstrated on my personal homepage:

http://www.jewskistreet.com

Pageflakes isn't perfect, but I like the module based approach (ideally combined with a feed -- you'll notice I have a tab that loads my lifestream from FriendFeed) -- because it prevents my stream from being completely dominated by Twitters!

Alexa

Comment from Mark Krynsky on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T20:19:16Z

Josh,

Nice roundup. I recently created a feature matrix showing 10 Lifestreaming services ranked by features This should help provide people with a better understanding of the features that differentiate some of these services. I also plan on adding more services and features to this list on a continual basis.

Comment from Wiktor on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T20:19:48Z

http://flaker.pl is a Polish lifestreaming site.

Comment from Lars Teigen on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T20:25:04Z

Thanks for including us on the list. Second Brain has changed a lot since your first review. What makes us different from other lifestreamers is that we organize the content into a personal library where you can browse, search and organize everything.

We're going to add value to people's online content by providing personal content management tools. That's our main focus. We want to help people keep track of everything and make it easy to remember and find content that they have created or bookmarked online.

Comment from Kyle Brady on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T20:29:58Z

Hey Josh,

Thanks for the shoutout to our new lifestreaming service! I don't want to nitpick, but you spelled it wrong... it's "OneSwirl" not "OneSwhirl" ;-)

But the link is right, so that's good.

Thanks!

--Kyle

Comment from Internet Man on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T20:33:32Z

YouTube is getting ready to include live video streaming as well ...

Comment from xavierv on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T20:38:43Z

I guess Twitter has become so obvious that we do not mention it anymore!

Comment from thion on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T20:53:01Z

I know Dashboard too (because I'm author of it ;)).

Comment from Varun Mahajan on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T21:02:59Z

I see one thing in future. We will need meta-life streaming websites which means the websites which aggregate the data from above-mentioned ones.
OMG...Information Explosion..(if this is not a pre-existing phrase..I have invented it now..and I put it in Creative Commons License)

Comment from Pierro on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T21:22:37Z

Howdy;

im a Fan of www.streem.us
Thats a nice "clone" like tumblr;
maybee better ?? Take a look .

Comment from Yakov on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T21:24:55Z

You can make a search for your name on www.qintura.com and then click Embed it! to embed a cloud of related terms onto your blog ot site.

Comment from Josh Catone on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T21:54:53Z

@Harrison: Spokeo is a great service, but my impression was that it was more about keeping track of your friends' lifestreams rather than publishing your own. For the sake of clarity, I chose to focus for this list mainly on services that pulled your information and aggregated it for others.

@Kyle: Thanks for the heads up! I've fixed the typo. :)

Comment from Narendra on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T21:57:13Z

Josh,

Thanks for the mention. The only other bit to add about 30 Boxes is that we were the first to break open this feature set of aggregating stuff and reporting on it as a life stream or people feed.

Now it is moving toward a mandatory part of social identity.

Comment from Nathan on 2008-02-29

2008-02-29T23:49:46Z

I got to this through Laughing Squid's Friendfeed stream. This seems like the logical extension of having so many competing services vying for our internet time. Facebook Aps seems like a way to try to put it all in one spot, but it is so clunky (and full of ads and zombie stuff). I like this because it takes me away from being tied down to one site (Digg, stumbleupon, etc) If I invest a lot of time in one and it goes away it takes a lot of time to convince your friends to all move to a different one. Now I can just point everyone to my lifestream and not worry about it so much.

Now the problem becomes picking a life stream service. Which one to choose? Yikes!

Comment from Bike Guy on 2008-02-29

2008-03-01T03:54:13Z

You forgot #36
Yahoo Pipes allows you to create your own ultimate lifestream

Comment from mayooresan on 2008-02-29

2008-03-01T06:29:14Z

what about yahoo's MyBlogLog.com????

Comment from Mobile gal on 2008-03-01

2008-03-01T08:03:36Z

Its too much services already.

Comment from ibmetom on 2008-03-01

2008-03-01T09:03:39Z

I'm guessing life streaming apps players are not a big sun screen user group.

Comment from Evden Eve Nakliyat on 2008-03-01

2008-03-01T12:25:27Z

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Comment from Olivier D. alias ze kat on 2008-03-01

2008-03-01T14:59:31Z

I thank you how you comment LiFE2Front/LiFE-Line way... I believe we need to separate our content and our bits of activity :o) .oO(so bad I'm not english, I introduced this in my french Labs)

While next days, I will launch (for my early members) a friendstream dashboard with same spirit. Named Seek-LiNE which don't need you invite your friends to fetch their content.

After Seek-LiNE launching, I will purpose "LiFE-Line Demo powered by MyBlogLog".

Comment from Sam Lawrence on 2008-03-01

2008-03-01T19:30:15Z

Poop. From the title I was hoping you were going to outline really cool use-cases for streaming.

Alternatively, it would be interesting to have a sense of the psychographic differences between these streaming apps. What's the difference in who's using them, what's being discussed, and/or how they're being used.

Comment from Nick on 2008-03-01

2008-03-02T02:41:20Z

www.feedeachother.com is very cool as well...kind of combines social networking and feed organization.

Comment from Sandra Love on 2008-03-02

2008-03-02T15:30:34Z

I think that http://WebCanvas.com is also another inovative way of streaming your life! :)

Comment from David H. Deans on 2008-03-02

2008-03-02T15:55:33Z

Josh, I've submitted a concept outline to the Cisco Connected Life contest. I called it Digital Lifescapes -- in an attempt to design the ultimate online news and entertainment service delivery experience.

http://dhdeans.googlepages.com/digitallifescapes

There's a link to a short video at the bottom of the outline, for those who don't want to read the background info.

IMHO, lifestreaming is a foreign concept to traditional media companies. They're focused on exclusivity and exclusion -- not collaboration and inclusion.

Comment from jonathan christensen on 2008-03-02

2008-03-02T17:41:02Z

Jaanix is another new "life streaming" app.. the major difference is that it has a netflix style recommender in the backend that learns what you like.. instead of making more noise out of all these posts, the algorithm reduces noise and increases relevance.. maybe there will be an API so all these other feeds can also benefit from the filtering.. anyway check it out at http://jaanix.com

Comment from ariel mcnichol on 2008-03-02

2008-03-02T18:35:33Z

Oh yes you missed mEgo.com - we aggregate all the usual suspect - YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, any RSS feeds - such in your myspace profile. And, we display a lot more than just a linear stream. We take that info and organize it into a unique UI with a small footprint that is portable to other places and soon, handsets.

Comment from Thomas on 2008-03-02

2008-03-03T04:14:49Z

Finally, we are able to mashup our personal informationen and spreak them even wider. Besides, I'm missing a lot of application interfaces for most of those website after I spend my weekend parsing the feed to get the informationen.

Comment from Kishore on 2008-03-04

2008-03-04T14:37:43Z

My favorite: http://www.NextBestAction.com

Comment from Sacha Fuentes on 2008-03-04

2008-03-04T15:46:35Z

Hi,

I'm one of the developers of Mi ID (http://miid.es), which combines an OpenID server with a lifestreaming service, and also a bit of social network, where you can track what your contacts are doing.

Currently, it's oriented to the spanish market, but it's open for everyone.

Comment from d on 2008-03-05

2008-03-05T17:14:40Z

Mugshot is in this category as well -- http://mugshot.org -- and open source to boot.

Comment from Yasser on 2008-03-10

2008-03-10T14:13:37Z

Feels like the world is stalking me sometimes...

Comment from Kurye on 2008-03-11

2008-03-11T11:33:43Z

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Comment from plaket on 2008-03-11

2008-03-11T11:35:35Z

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Comment from Pendik Emlak on 2008-03-11

2008-03-11T11:42:34Z

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Comment from Pendik on 2008-03-11

2008-03-11T11:48:28Z

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Comment from Güvenlik on 2008-03-11

2008-03-11T13:25:17Z

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Comment from fabricoffolly on 2008-03-11

2008-03-11T16:39:54Z

I've written a review of 15 lifestreaming applications here: http://www.fabricoffolly.com/2008/03/review-of-social-aggregators.html