Getting Started with Yahoo Meme

Meme is a Tumblr-like service recently launched by Yahoo. Many have called it a Twitter clone, but the similarities are pretty minimal. The only things they share are those basic features you would find with any microblogging service. Meme is basically a blog where you can post random stuff. There is no 140-character limit, but you probably wouldn’t want to use it for lengthy blog posts.

Your home page on Meme will include your posts as well as anything from the people you follow. If you have no idea who to follow and you’re tired of staring at your own posts, you have a couple of options:

• Popular – You would think that this page would show you the most popular items, but i’m not sure that’s the case as the headline on the site says, “What’s being posted recently.”
• Find – This page allows you to easily browse through existing Memes so that you can subscribe or follow new people. I’m not sure why Yahoo has chosen this terminology, but your blog on Meme is called a Meme. I’m all kinds of confused about that.

Posting to Meme is pretty self-explanatory, so allow me to explain:

• Text – This is just basic random text.
• Photo – You can upload a photo from your computer or paste a link to a photo and include an optional caption.
• Video – Post a link to a YouTube or Vimeo video to add it to your Meme. You cannot upload videos from your computer, which makes sense.
• Music – Add a link to an mp3 file here. You cannot upload an mp3 directly to the site. Meme will create a nifty embedded player for you.

Choosing not to host music and video seems to make sense if Yahoo is trying to keep this service simple. This also eliminates you having to upload your video to yet-another-service. I would like to see them support more video services, though.

Each item on Meme shows you how many times it’s been reposted. There is a focus on resharing items you find interesting into your own feed. Avid Tumblr users will find this very familiar. You can also add a comment on any item. There is no “Like” feature, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they add it later.

Meme is currently invite-only, but if you know someone with an account, they probably have a spare invite. I’m not sure where Yahoo is going with this service, though. It’s not really anything new and I don’t see any killer features. There are also many services available that provide similar functionality (FriendFeed, Tumblr, Twitter, etc.). I won’t go in on it too hard, though. It’s still private and I’m hoping they are planning to do something exciting in the near future.