Strands FTW!

It’s official. I love Strands!

I started playing around with the service about two weeks ago after iJustine tweeted about it. I had some problems right off the bat, which turned out to be a good thing because it got me even more invested in the website. I couldn’t use Justine’s invite code for some reason, so after whining about it on twitter, Drew Olanoff (new Strands employee/enthusiast) sent me an invite and got me squared away.

Simply put, Strands is a feed aggregator similar to FriendFeed, but adds a reccomendation component (which I assume will only get better as the Strands community grows). I tried FF, but didn’t really get into it. It collects pretty much anything with an RSS feed (with a few exceptions that I’ll get to in a moment) so here’s a shot of the feeds I’m currently streaming to Strands:

My twitter account is not there because of a current problem with the Twitter API, though other people have their twitter accounts integrated and it makes me a little jealous. My Facebook status IS there, because John Rogers is THE MAN and helped me figure out how to get the RSS link from the new facebook. We sent a long volley of emails back and forth and he was all about helping me figure out Facebook’s tricky ways. He felt bad that it was taking so long so he sent me a Strands tshirt (which I just opened yesterday and love because it fits and is totally comfy) and even scored me some extra Strands invites which I promptly distributed to my plurkers and Harrisburg twitterati friends.

Modeling my new strands shirt!

I really like the Strands layout. The left hand column has a ton of filtering options so that I can take a look at just what my Central PA Stranders are up to, or what images people have been posting or what music my contacts on the Strands team have been listening to. These make it easier to sort through the noise to find some truly interesting stuff, which is probably what I like the most– I’ve actually discovered interesting or funny or thought provoking stuff through Strands. Then you can track comments which allows for actual dialogue, which fosters community.

Filtering options on the side bar

There are still rough patches, to be sure, but the Strands team is super excited about this service and eager to help out whenever possible. I, for one, am planning to stick around because I think this service will only keep improving as more features are released and the community grows.

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Speaking of community growth, I’ve been saving my last Strands invite for this blog post. If you’d like it, just leave a comment asking for it, and also add your favorite pickup line (which doesn’t need to be directed at me– I just enjoy pick up lines).  First come, first serve. Even if you don’t want the invite, you should comment with your fave pickup line anyway, because they are fun.

Explore posts in the same categories: Social Media

Tags: iJustine, Social Media, Strands, twitter

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