SocialWhois Is About Everything Except Popularity

Even from it’s beginnings, the social media world has been primarily defined by popularity. Many of us seek a different path in how we use these social tools and fancy web 2.0 sites, but the majority drowns us out in their quest to get the most followers or the biggest audience.

SocialWhois gives us a different view of how social media can operate. It provides us a different perspective in how we connect with others across various sites and services. It’s brand new, but already shows promise in connecting with people who like the same stuff you like.

No Need To Sign Up

You don’t need an account to use SocialWhois, but you do need to authenticate using your Twitter or FriendFeed information to prove you are you. As always, this means you’ll have to give up your Twitter password (Twitter’s API still doesn’t allow for anything less intrusive). The plus side is that you can also use your FriendFeed account’s remote key, keeping your passwords all to yourself.

Profile Voodoo

One of my favorite features of SocialWhois is the “Voodoo” feature. Once you’ve authenticated, you can simply click “Do The Voodoo” to have your profile automatically filled out based on info from your other social networks. Don’t know about you, but I’m sick of filling out profile after profile with the same basic information.

Once that’s done, you’ll want to pay special attention to the last section, which asks “What are you interested in?” This is where you can add various tags and keywords that describe who you are and what you like. For instance, you’ll find me in “music“, “fitness“, and “blck” in addition to “social media“, “blogging“, and “development“.

Guessed Profiles

The same algorithm that fills out your profile for you helps you dig up information about people who haven’t even authenticated with SocialWhois yet. Simply supply a Twitter or FriendFeed name to look them up and find out their blogs and social networks.

Seems like a nice simple service that provides a lot of value. Rather than focusing on connecting with people, the focus is on connecting with people who share your interests. There is no “following”, “friending” or “subscribing”, so the popularity contestants need not apply.

The guy who created SocialWhois is always trying to give back. If you like the service, he’d rather you donate to “help kids eat and go to schools” then send him anything.