We're Still Wary of the Open Web

In a poll last week, Internet Evolution readers weighed in with their thoughts on data portability and the idea of merging all social networking identities on singular platforms. While 30 percent seem interested in data portability, our scattered results show that many are still uneasy about decentralizing their social identities.

As yet, the idea of decentralized social networking is fairly new, with Web users still tending to identify themselves as Facebook users, MySpace users, Bengay users, and so on (and so forth). But things are starting to change, and new sites, applications, and tools for bridging the identity gap are cropping up like pixillated weeds.

Below are a handful of sites and applications -- some popular, some lesser-known -- which aim to port your social identities to one location.

FriendFeed: Here's an obvious one. FriendFeed was first introduced last year as somewhat supplemental to Twitter. Here you can post microblogs but also import your social activity from 57 other sites. From FriendFeed you can track other FriendFeeders and find out what they're doing all over the Web (Mindy just added Boniva to her Wish List on Amazon.com!). While I happen to fear FriendFeed, others, like Andrew Keen, believe it to be the future of online communications.

Plaxo Pulse: Just saying Plaxo can leave a bad taste in one's mouth (a taste fairly reminiscent of spam), but here's another company looking to leverage the data portability craze with Pulse. Pulse is a dashboard where users can keep an eye on what their contacts are doing across 30 social sites, including YouTube, Digg, MySpace, Flickr, and Google Reader.

Seesmic Desktop: An Adobe Air client, Seesmic Desktop allows users to update and monitor their activity streams on Twitter and Facebook from one location. This was made possible by Facebook's opening of its stream API, allowing developers to create third-party applications that tap into Facebook user updates. Similarly, there's TweetDeck, another Adobe Air client that lets users view their Twitter updates and friends' Facebook status updates, while also having the opportunity to cross-post a Tweet as a status on Facebook.

Chi.mp: This is a newer identity management platform in which users are given their own .mp domain name and from there can update various social accounts. Those checking out someone's Chi.mp page can then see that person's activity on a handful of those sites, including Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook. Users can create various "personas" -- making different data available to friends, coworkers, and family.

Data portability is beginning to catch on as the next "necessary" phase of the Web, at least from the developers' point of view. But, as our poll results indicate, users haven't yet fully warmed to the idea. Further, with sites like Facebook starting to direct their traffic and eyeballs away from the main page where ads are, that nagging monetization question may only get louder.

? Nicole Ferraro, Site Editor, Internet Evolution