Apr 3, 2009 10:45 pm US/Central
One-Stop Shop To Manage Your Social Networking
(WCCO)
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Advertising agency Fallon Worldwide has come up with Skimmer, an Adobe AIR-based application that consolidates Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, YouTube and Flickr feeds all into one stream.
CBS
If you've ever felt overwhelmed by all of your online social networks, a local company may have a solution for you.
Advertising agency
Fallon Worldwide has come up with Skimmer, an Adobe AIR-based application that consolidates Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, YouTube and Flickr feeds all into one stream.
"Our intent was not to become a software company. We're a brand company that wants to provide value to people and this was a way to do that. If you look at it under that lens, it makes a lot of sense," said Fallon's Director of Brand Innovation John King.
Skimmer is available on Fallon's Web site as a free download. Once downloaded, a user must register each of their social networks.
Brenda Fogg and her husband, Chris Wiggins, came up with the idea. Both die-hard social networkers, they wanted a way to make it all easier.
"We're in the business of offering things that delight people. That's what this is," she said.
Each user has a Skimmer profile. The program allows people to upload and view photos and videos, post updates, check profiles and more for each of the networking sites. Facebook did put some restrictions on how it's used in Skimmer.
"Going forward, we'd love to include more of that. That is one of the requests were getting, please, please more Facebook stuff," Fogg said.
So far, 13,000 people have downloaded the software from the Fallon site. Fogg and her team are constantly working to update the program. She reads and tries to answer each e-mail regarding Skimmer and monitors the Skimmer Twitter comments.
The interface was designed to be clean, easy to read and advertising-free. There are three modes – full screen, regular and widget.
Some online reviews mention minor problems with crashing or posting Tweets. Many critics like the Flickr and YouTube presentation.
While the most likely users seem to be true online social networkers, King said people, like his mother or brother, might benefit more because it's easy to use.
"That's not a trendy thing or a youthful thing. It's just smart," he said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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