Social Inter-Networking with Power
The race to find a single sign-on and synchronization service has been on since social networking sites hit global acceptance several years ago. Today, after working under the radar for the past year, and with a member base of 5 million users, Power.com announced its global launch with a mighty claim: "Our platform will break down the boundaries between social sites and allow users to synchronize their logins, content, messages and friends."
Calling it a 'social inter-networking' service, CEO Steve Vachani today explained: "Social is about people, not about place; we're making 'where' irrelevant."
Here at ReadWriteWeb, we have written extensively about the various efforts taking place to transform the Internet from the predominantly closed system it is today, to a more open and social experience; one where authentication is once only and data can be ported across sites. While we are certainly interested in any company that claims to have the answer, like everything else, time will tell.
What is Power?
Power is an interoperable platform that allows social network users to synchronize their profiles, content, messages and friends across various social sites. Right now, it works with Facebook, Hi5, MSN, MySpace and Orkut. LinkedIn is scheduled to appear before the end of the year, and Twitter, Flickr, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Skype as well as others should be part of Power's grid within the first few months of 2009.
According to Vachani, what Power is not trying to do is create one place online for people to send and receive updates, "we want people to continue using the sites they are currently using," said Vachani.
Additionally, Vachani explains that Power doesn't need the big websites to get together and agree to any commitment as the platform does not depend on their participation: "This independence contrasts with all previous efforts to bring social networks together, including Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect, Microsoft Passport, OpenID and OpenSocial," Vachani said.
How does Power work?
Once you register your social networks, Power shows you all the content from your registered sites; friends, IMs, e-mails, photos, data. Your home page will have three Power modules; your profile, your messages and your friends list. The technology is dynamic, so once you're logged in everything is served to you in real time.
If you want to reply to any of your messages, you can do it from within Power, in what Vachani calls 'Power Communicator' and send it to Facebook, MSN, SMS, MySpace, Gmail - all of them if you wish, or you can do it via your 'Power Friends' list:
"Profile Syncing" allows you to change your profile within Power, and gives you the option of updating it across all of the social networks Power supports.
How Power got 5 million registered users so quickly
According to Power, messaging is a prime driver of its user base. Users communicate with their friends across sites, via email and IM using Power Messaging to send millions of inter-networked messages every day and each message has a link back to Power.
Additionally, Power users have added Power widgets, links, and watermarks to their social network profile pages, so when friends visit, they click to learn more.
Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, Power.com is a privately held company with 70 people. This month, Power.com is opening new offices in San Francisco, California and Hyderabad, India. The company received an $8 million Series A investment led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and investors including Esther Dyson. The company expects to have over 30 million registered users by the end of 2009.
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I think people want simplicity more than anything - from the screenshots, it looks complex. Not to mention, just because you're content is all in one spot, doesn't mean you want to be at that same spot all the time.
The holy grail is single-sign on - not single user experience.
One other thing - having that orange be the dominant color is a big mistake, hopefully color scheme options are a top priority.
Congrats to them on the funding.
eeeeh. unified procrastination!
Brazilians know a thing or two about social networks and the internet in general. About social everything, in fact.
Power for Brazil!
O país mais grande do mundo ;)
( I am not brazilian btw... but. WHAT A NAME FOR A WEB PROPERTY!!!! ).
> I think people want simplicity more than anything
George you nailed it.
> from the screenshots, it looks complex.
"looks" perhaps, but pls give power a try, and us more feedback
> just because you're content is all in one spot, doesn't
> mean you want to be at that same spot all the time.
Again, nailed it. People matter. 'Place'? not so much. Lots of people are in more than one social network place. Lots more people have friends in more than one place. Social Inter-networking is about people knockin down those walls.
I will definitely check this out for sure for sure. It looks like a great tool to use. I have tweeted and stumbled this.
regards: rizzy
http://twitter.com/rizzy81
Don't see support for OpenID or Oauth - FAIL. Shocking to see investors pumping so much money into what basically is a phishing site.
P.S. How much did that domain name cost?
I'm not convinced.
First off, is there such a thing as a "power networker"? There are people who register profiles on as many mainstream sites as they can, but they tend to spend their time on only a few key ones (the ones they get the most attention on) and is managing a Facebook profile AND YouTube profile really such hard work?
Secondly, niche networks are the future and Power.com will find it hard to keep up with all of them. It also needs to use somthing like OpenID and OpenAuth to ensure that the interaction between it and and those networks is as seemless as possible.
I've long though a network aggregator services would be a great social media launch page, but it needs to have cross-site authentication with it, as well as enabling users to move their social graph around networks as they move, so they don't have to build a friends list from scratch.
I am not sure Power.com has all it needs to be successful, other than a great domain name -- in fact, I'd suggest that's the only reason it's getting the exposure it is.
Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz
Follow-up to the assumed six figure ( seven figure? ) cost of power.com domain name...
pow.er is available and just 20 bucks:
http://domai.nr/pow.er/
can u send me a copy of datsofwear
Using the antipattern of requesting username and password for other sites prior to even seeing any UI or features is a huge turn-off.
that domain must have cost an arm and a leg