There are two new social sites on the block, SocialBrowse and Social Median. Both have gotten a lot of press lately, and both are sincerely a lot of fun.
I’ve already written about SocialBrowse, in the past, but I think it warrants a second look.A lot has changed, although the basics are the same, the toolbar has gained additions. The actual FireFox addon has become more stable, and is easier to use.
Not only have they added the ability to change categories of sites submitted, but now you can add comments too.
The comment system has really taken the social aspect of SocialBrowse to the next level. Conversation and debates form around sites as users bring in new facts and information.
SocialBrowse also has a “Popular Page” that ranks sites based on how many times it’s been shared. Already, the “Popular Page” has shown its worth as a great place to find quality content.
But all is not great with SocialBrowse. My biggest gripe is that SocialBrowse’s best feature, the FireFox popup that notifies you of new shares, can be CPU intensive. If you follow a large number of people starting FireFox can stall your system shortly, as it loads all the share notices.
Overall, SocialBrowse is a great startup, and definitely one to follow. I have full faith that the CPU need will be addressed soon, and that new additions will continue to roll out. If you want to play with the addon, it’s still in private beta. However, I have invites left, so just leave a comment here asking for one.
The second of the great new sites, is Social Median. I was totally blown away by this site when I signed up. (If you want to follow me, here’s my profile)
What exactly is Social Median? Think FriendFeed + Digg + Twitter. On Social Median you can submit new sites, write short notes, follow “newsmakers”, and create rooms.
Submitting news is simple and intuitive. Once submitted, site users can “clip” or vote on the article. The more votes it receives the more popular it becomes.
You can also share submissions with networks, which are similar to FriendFeed Rooms. Social Median also prominently displays the top votes from each of those rooms, and recommends other rooms and people to follow.
Signing up is easy, and with Twitter integration syncing Twitter followers is quick. You can also use their “Tell a Friend” module to send invites to your friends via email.
One of the things that I enjoyed is that Social Median has an option to email you top stories from your networks. I think this is great because it keeps me in the loop, and keeps me informed with what’s going on, without having to go to the site. Obviously, it also reminds me to check it out whenever I get an email.
Social Median is an extremely robust website, that has really taken the best of every social site. My only fear is that it will be difficult to use, and that may turn away people, just like it did to Plurk.
Thankfully, Social Median has tool tips to try and make the site as easy to use as possible. In the end, if you’re willing to take some time to get used to the site, it’s a great place to find awesome content.
On FriendFeed, this post was liked by 0 people and commented on 0 times 
{ 1 trackback }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Zack 08.06.08 at 2:39 pm
I’m a co-founder of Socialbrowse - thanks for the thoughtful discussion of our product! We’re very sensitive any negative browser effects, so we’re working to improve performance of Socialbrowse for users who are following hundreds of others (like ourselves!). It’s a big technical challenge, but with each release we are getting better. We’ve got another release coming out in the next couple of days, and it should improve the browser performance even more!
Samir Balwani 08.06.08 at 2:51 pm
Delicious | Digg | StumbleUpon | Technorati | TwitterThanks Zack for the comment! Like I said in the post, I have complete faith that you guys will fix any issues.
Good luck with SocialBrowse, I look forward to seeing what features you guys release next.