Even before the social media revolution, we have always linked to popular things things we find online, usually the latest trends and things that popular people are using. I like Will Smith and might be willing to check out the gadgets or apps he is using. However, not everyone likes Will Smith (outrageous, I know). But we all like our friends (at least we hope so!).
Usually, there is a very good reason we’re friends with the people we are – we have a lot in common. So, if they liked something, there is a very good chance you might like it too. Strawberryj.am, wants to show you what is popular, right now. The web app does this by analyzing what links your friends are sharing the most. Let’s take it for a spin to find out more about this social app.
Overview
The main objective behind Strawberryj.am is to find what is most popular amongst your friends and display that content in a smart, unique, and well designed form. The reason behind this idea is if your friends share it, you will probably listen/respond to it. And if a bunch of your friends are sharing and talking about a particular item, there is little doubt that you will pay even more attention to that particular item.
Overview
The app is currently in closed beta. I got my invite after about a week of submitting my email address at the homepage. Strawberryj.am currently is focused on theTwitter stream and also lets you sign up with your existing Twitter account.
User Interface
Instantly after signing in, the app starts analyzing your Twitter stream. Usually, I am accustomed to a certain wait time or empty dashboards while the apps index the social stream. Thankfully that’s not the case with Strawberryj.am. The app starts showing results instantaneously and a cute progress indicator at the top right corner keeps you informed of the progress of the indexing process.
User Interface
As for the user interface, the app is designed to perfection. A neat array of icons to the left is accompanied by a steam of tweets. And that’s all about it. Oh, some might consider the flashy background image distracting, but it fits nicely into the design.
Ease of Use
By default, the preview is turned on and this means that all popular tweets with URLs have a brief description about what the link is all about. If you find it to be consuming a lot of screen real estate in your stream, you can always toggle it off. In addition to the badge that indicates the number of mentions the tweet has got from your circle, tiny profile icons are associated with each tweet for you to see for yourself which one of your friends have retweeted. To retweet it yourself, just hover over any of the profile pic and just hit retweet. Don’t think this is an apporiate moment to send out a tweet? Add it to your Buffer app queue to be tweeted at a scheduled time (you will need a separate Buffer app account).
Consuming News
It’s the small things that make Strawberryj.am such an awesome app. For instance, let us consider the number of ways one can read the news (the URLs). First you can hit the read more link and open it in a new tab or window to read it in full glory. Alternatively, if you plan to read it later, just hover over a tweet and you will find a link to add it to your Instapaper account.
Embedded Read
If you are feeling too lazy to actually do either of those things, use the read now button and the content of the article is displayed in full – sans the design, advertisement elements of the original webpage – embedded right into the app.
Filters based on Duration
For those who want to be in the know, there is the real time section which, well, shows popular tweets instantly. There is no preview for the real time stream though. However, if you happen to be a laid back honcho like me, tweets can be filtered based on eight hour intervals instead.
Search and Summary
Saved Searches
You can search for keywords and hashtags and if you search frequently, save them all for future use. All saved searches can be quickly accessed from the drop down menu at the top.
Daily Summary Options
Automated email summary is another feather in the cap of team Strawberryj.am. At this moment, only daily summaries are supported, but the ability to include four different trends in a summary is a neat little addition.
Final Thoughts
Strawberryj.am is the newest among the crop of apps trying to capitalize on the social media gold rush. And it does a great job in making trends more visible than ever. I am not sure if they are genuinely not ready for public consumption or just trying to build hype by restricting sign ups, but the app does make you take notice.
What makes Strawberryj.am increasingly unique is that instead of showing you the latest news about what is mainstream popular, they show only what is popular “to you.” The app makes your friends as natural filters for all things you like and dislike. Since we only tend to follow people we like, stuff they tweet about is worthy of our attention too. Hope they open the doors sooner for everyone to get the taste of the sweet social jam!
Share Your Thoughts!
What’s your social media stream like? Think Strawberryj.am will make your social experience more engaging?