I’m on a quest (as I’m sure many others are) for the One Gold Ring – a single interface that will be my functional portal into the web. Right now, I go to too many places (iGoogle, Yahoo Mail, Google Reader, Flickr, Pageflakes, WordPress, Twitter, Plurk, Amazon, eBay, etc., etc., etc.) to “do web stuff,” and the fragmentation of these services is inefficient and frustrating.
For many years, I’ve mulled over ideal software interface designs, and have an electronic trail of litter behind me consisting of many boxes and flow diagrams exquisitely mapped out in…well, Powerpoint. In a prior post, I tossed out some very early-on concepts for an ideal social media interface. But the holy grail for me is much larger – I want to see a meta-interface that helps me conduct most of my on-line life.
Why do we need this? Well, fundamentally, the tools we used were designed only to fulfill specific purposes. They weren’t designed for me, to pull my life together, but to do one or two things. However, I don’t need another gardener or cook or chauffeur. I need a Chief of Staff. For a throwaway branding term, I’m going to call it MetaMee – because it’s about me.
What would this MetaMee interface be like? Here’s my highest level list:
- MetaMee would consolidate the main functional activities I have on the web into one simple interface.
- MetaMee would be a hybrid off-line/on-line system, built in part using Adobe Air or Google Gears or similar.
- MetaMee would allow storage and controlled release of varying levels of my information to different people/applications/businesses/other entities.
- MetaMee would talk to existing platforms (such as those listed above) in a widget-ized fashion.
- MetaMee would use intelligent bot/crawling technology to find, recommend, and deliver what I want, so that I spend less time searching.
How would this project get done? Here’s where it gets interesting. I’m not a programmer. And I know that there are tons of talented bloggers/socializers out there who are loaded with great ideas and talents far beyond mine. So I’m just going to put out a series of posts this month, outlining my preliminary ideas for this “dream” application, and invite all of you to discuss, refine, contribute, ideate…let’s see if we really mean what we say about social media. I think this app ought to be crowd-designed, and then someone will take the bull by the horns and start making it. Ready?
In the next day or two, I’ll post part 2 – the five main functions that I foresee in a MetaMee-type app.
Links to the entire One Interface to Rule them All series:
plus…The Ideal Social Media Interface
Related post: Share Media vs. Tell Media
first we need something to stem the rapid and almost uncontrolled proliferation of web 2.0 twitter friendfeed tumblr plurk posterous identi.ca toolou facebook linkedin plaxo myspace socialspark -type/like apps! or pretty soon i’ll have to microoutsource sign-ups instead of signing up for all of them myself.
[...] 8, 2008 by Steve Woodruff In a previous post, I outlined a handful of reason why I think it is time for a pull-it-all-together user-centered [...]
Steve, I believe you will have no shortage of thoughtful ideas and support for this holy grail. I am often frustrated by the lack of centralized administration for managing my online work life. In addition to apps galore and apps that manage a portion of the apps, and passwords and emails to match each..oh well you know the drill…it’s cumbersome and irksome.
[...] I’d like to thank all those readers who have left comments and given input on my prior posts (part 1 and part 2). We’re all wrestling with the problem of having application-overload, and while [...]
[...] you’re just arriving for the first time, I’d strongly suggest a quick read of part 1, part 2, and part 3 for context and backstory so that this one will make more [...]
[...] 19, 2008 by Steve Woodruff I recently completed a six-part series (One Interface to Rule them All) on my StickyFigure marketing blog, regarding ideas I have for the [...]
Hmm, very interesting post. Great blog
[...] If you have any interest in other visions of what’s next online beyond my two thoughts. Check out Steve Woodruff’s thoughts on One Interface to Rule Them All. [...]
That’s an interesting idea. Do you think that Web 3.0 or the Semantic Web can lead to this MetaMe web?
Steve,
Swing over to gathr.me. Leave your email. I’d love to give you a peek at what we’re up to.
@mdurwin
[...] and improved AlertThingy coming up…this appears to be another step in the evolution toward MetaMee. Can’t wait to try it [...]
Give a look at chi.mp, contact me directly if you have any questions. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the offering and our commitment to owners rights. We will be re-lunching the chi.mp site in a few weeks with major releases to the product soon after.
My email is rob@chi.mp I am the VP of Marketing and a Co-Founder of chi.mp and would value hearing your input.
Thanks
Rob
[...] is just the way life is conducted. The early, transitional tools will be irrelevant, because much smarter platforms will soon appear, with far greater ability to connect, find, aggregate, filter, and [...]
[...] it’s Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Posterous, blogs, Flickr (perhaps even my dream platform, Metamee) – the bits and pieces don’t really matter, they’ll evolve and converge. Each [...]