After reading this Techcrunch intro, I just joined Blellow today. While I’m not much of a bandwagon guy, as far as social networks are concerned, there are a couple of reasons, which I vocalised on this blog, why I dig the idea of this social network.

A short history of my adoption of social networks

When I started coming on Twitter, I was excited about creating a Hive Mind. What attracts me about the internet, blogging on Tech IT Easy, and social networking, is that it can be similar to forming neural connections between smart nodes, much like in your head. Twitter didn’t deliver much on that promise so far, however, because, even though there are a heck of a lot of smart people on the service, it’s very difficult to manage that data, let alone make it useful.

Friendfeed is another service I use and have written about. Two things that attract me about it: Friendlists, which allow me to segment my interests and social circles. For instance, I have a Tech IT Easy friendlist where I just see all the Tech IT Easy bloggers and their twitter-updates—many of you probably didn’t know that—allowing me to keep up to date, at a glance, on what these smart guys are up to in their lives.

What I also like about FriendFeed is their rooms, which allow me to focus on specific content like apps, and ask questions to an audience interested in that same content. The downside: there is no real working index for rooms, you just have to do a dedicated site-search on Google , I guess.

Let’s get to Blellow!

The service isn’t on the same maturity level as Twitter of Friendfeed yet, which is also partially why I’m asking you to join me. For instance, I cannot yet search for friends whose email-address I have (and I also hope they add searching for Twitter-contacts, like FriendFeed has). Following is a short commercial, which you will have also have seen on Techcrunch.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTV6fCo92xI&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

What Bellow does is the following:

• Instead of joining a stream of content, which grows exponentially with more users, you can just focus on groups that specialise on content like SXSW 2009, Apple, B2B marketing, Photoshop, etc., etc., you get the idea.
• You can create private streams between a select group of people, sort of a private IRC channel, if you will.
• When you create your profile, you have to add a lot of info about yourself, hypothetically allowing people to search for keywords and finding a kindred soul. The video shows a freelance flash developer searching for other developers on Bellow and getting the advice she needs.
• Other things it also allows, but which are underdeveloped, is search for jobs and projects. Sort of like e-lance, with the added benefit that you get to see what people say before you hire them.
• Meetups are another feature, but are, as usual, focussed on the US only, leaving us “old-country” Europeans in the dark.

That’s it! A short review of the first 30 min., I spent there. But hopefully I get to see some familiar faces soon!

Vincent

Related posts:

1. Favourite Web Tools to start 2009 with
2. What I'd like: a spoiler-and annoyance-free web
3. Get your Software fix at the Apps room on FriendFeed!
4. FriendFeed Rooms are re-enfranchising users!
5. Is Search the key to Twitter's Business-model?