So I’ve been looking at a new service called Strands that’s in private beta right now. On the upside, Kalong, a University of Michigan student who provides support is earnest, trying hard, and engaging, though her humour ranges to the scatalogical. Still, she asked me to contact them via their feedback link, which I did, and I’m supposed to get a t-shirt for it. That’s cool, but I really just want an answer to my question. It’s been over 24 hours and nada, nyet, nothing. I could Twitter her instead, but I think that a startup service like this should provide way faster customer service.
As for the site itself, I’m not sure I get it. You enter your services just like most lifestreaming services, but what you get is an aggregated list of what you said or posted. What’s the point of that? I know what I said. I was there! I guess the point is that the service will find other items of interest based on the content of your various feeds, but the feature is kind of a let-down.
For example, I posted an entry about the new Facebook app a few days ago, so the system thinks that I want to read about some other guy who said he liked the new Facebook sign up page. Ok, but the only commentary about it is within the Strands Beta community, all of whom are people I don’t know. Hence, their opinion is of less interest to me than what people in the great old blogosphere, or better yet, my friends, are saying. It’s like having a conversation about fruit in the check-out line just because the stranger in front of you also has bananas. Ok for small talk and meeting people, but the online analog feels just as forced.
The interface is nice, but a little quirky. I’d give them feedback , but I’m not sure anyone is listening besides Kalong. And she probably has something better to do. All in all, Strands kinda sucks.
