Yumondo Brings "Urban Stylesharing" to Social Networking
Yumondo is an "urban stylesharing" social network startup currently in private beta testing, that claims it will set new standards for community on Web 2.0. The site approaches community from a place and style standpoint. The vision is obviously one of creating local communities that branch outward (from a distinct place or location), rather than the traditional Web 2.0 model of remote communities reaching out to a diverse geographic user base. At Yumondo, users share their real home and their sense of style.
Yumondo is being developed by the German Web technology company Metaversum. CEO Jochen Hummel, a Silicon Valley veteran, is the founder and is backed by an impressive development team.
Yumondo (Meaning: Your World)
This site has all the earmarks of communities like MySpace and other clones, but it is focused more on what I would call "local mental maps" of the individual users. Good sharing, connection and tools are some of the basic community features of Yumondo - as is expected. But the focus has been realigned to target favorite activities and places in the physical world as well as the digital one. Users are immediately identified with their physical community on signup by name, and simple buttons labeled My Home, People, Places, Events and Things symbolize the simple message of community. Without going too far into the ethereal, I believe that people really think of their communities in the same rather compartmentalized and ordered way that this site is organized.
The Comfort of the Familiar
The site design is simple. The UI is not extraordinary except that it is perfectly usable and easy to understand. A Yumondo user can easily browse or search people, places, events and things - though data is very sparse at this stage. Google maps is utilized, as are tags - and a tag cloud gives relevant results for "nearby" sub categories.
Yumondo searchable tag cloud and Google maps
Sharing Events, Places and Fun
My first impression on realizing the "vision" or methodology behind Yumondo was that it would turn into a rather shallow local bar or club locator. But after creating something really special to share with our readers, I realized the actual utility and potential worth of the service. Not only can a user provide excellent suggestions and locations for visitors and friends, but groups of people can also share moments and events in the context of 'community' or place. This is perhaps the greatest aspect of an idea like Yumongo, the mental and emotional mapping of what one finds to be excellent or worthy in life - rather than in just either dimension of it (physical or digital). The image below is of an exclusive and excellent resort on the Atlantic coast of Georgia where I live. The simple creation of this place combined with the "homey" context is what sets this community apart. I expect this aspect is by design and know others will be pleasantly surprised by it. I had fun sharing the extravagance of a legendary and beautiful place near my home with other users.
My Brunswick Yumondo showing the familiar profile, simple buttons and a world class spa
Pros and Cons
It would be wholly unfair to over scrutinize any startup this early in its development. Yumondo is very well thought out at this point and there is user enjoyment and utility. The geographic, cultural and emotional aspects of what we too easily term 'community' these days is truly inherent inside this website.
Cons? Any web 2.0 community is reliant on getting users and traffic - and Yumondo is especially susceptible to this. The lack of video sharing and other media offerings is a drawback as well, but certainly this will be added at some point.
Conclusion
Yumondo is a social networking community of the next order. The developers have termed their refinement of an established idea "urban stylesharing". I suppose this is as good a tag as any, for a great place to mirror our actual communities. The simplicity and familiarity of the tools and services will make users feel at home. After a little time inside the site, any user will start to view places like MySpace as rather disjointed and fragmented by comparison. But make no mistake about it, this startup will need to get participation and network effects early on.
To be honest, I never thought I would write another positive review of a beta test for a social community. Well, we should all learn to "never say never", because the inevitable will happen. Yumondo has great potential in my view, and as I have said before the key ingredient to its success is 'you'. Sometimes that is a tall order, but I hope other people enjoy sharing places as much as I did.
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I will check this out, but am kinda overwhelmed with how crowded the social networking space is getting. Respect your opinion, so it is worth a peek.
OK. Signed up for as a beta tester.
Thanks Nomad,
I will see how many more people the test needs or can handle and try to get some people invited. Jochen their CEO is a great guy and I am sure will accommodate as many as he can.
As a blogger who writes about the community in which I live, I was intrigued by your description of Yumondo. I have long felt that the local communities and issues are under served by Web 2.0, in spite of the phenomenal number of "social-networking" sites. So, I requested permission to be a beta-tester, and received an invitation to do so almost immediately. So far, I've only spent about a half-hour on the site, but that was long enough for me to see that Yumondo has great potential both for people who want to network within their own geographic community, as well as for those looking to discover new and interesting places for visiting, business or relocation. You did a great job of describing the site, it's features and (current) limitations. I too think Yumondo has great potential to fill an unmet need, and look forward to seeing it evolve.
Phil, I see huge business potential for this site and I have reasons to believe that it will be as spammend as the other social sites.
The very example you gave us (the resort on the Atlantic coast of Georgia) makes me predict that all local owners of bars, restaurants, hotels, spas and so on, will ‚Äúhire‚Ä? users to ‚Äúshare‚Ä? these locations. Which is not necessarily a bad thing if the reviews are honest. But‚Ķ
About the other features (video, other media sharing) just give Yumondo time. I’m sure new enhancements will be added in time, to satisfy users’ requests.
Hi MIg,
I agree that the site is a perfect domain for local advertising, the key Web 2.0 variable in my mind is the quality of a site's ads and the people who reside there. Subtle and tasteful ads that do not detract from a site are actually a necessity.
I am a big proponent of higher priced ads. I think that I mentioned that in a post here on RWW earlier this week. A more tailored web is what I am after. On my site I would rather have 5 $2000 ads than 25 $200 ones. This is not strictly the case as ads of lesser value could be integrated with a shorter view duration but the principal is what I mean.
Sites like the ones we are crazy about should charge more and be more exclusive. I am sure RWW and a few other are to an extent. If TV had gone this route and not gotten too greedy then we might actually be able to watch the thing now without having to run out out Burger King the moment our shows go off. :)
Thanks for your review. It is really great to see that the idea of yumondo is seen so positively: Yumondo links up online what’s always been connected in an offline community: People, Places, Events, and all kinds of wonderful Things. People go to places that are run by people, who hold events that attract people to enjoy their favorite things… It’s the network of urban life. With Yumondo, you can connect the dots.
After your posting a *lot* of new users came flocking in. It seems like it is exactly how you described it,
an international perspective of presenting your local neighbourhood to a dedicated global audience could be rewarding even for very early adopters. We should mention that at this point we are still
in an alpha stage and lots of things will change and improve over time. We have still a long way to go
on our roadmap, which includes better usability, some cool surprises and pretty features based
on very valuable user feedback.