I started using Me.dium (which launches officially today) as part of their closed beta last October. The concept is that it helps you see the activity of your friends in real time, as I’ve described previously. Since October I must have installed, removed, disabled, and reinstalled Me.dium about 20 times. Sometimes it made my browser slow (or so it seemed) and other times it creeped me out a little. I’ve commented that I didn’t think the UI metaphor was working, and watched Me.dium struggle with figuring this out. But lately, the situation has improved quite a bit. The new UI metaphor of “extending outward from me” makes so much more sense to me, I haven’t noticed any browser slowdowns in quite some time. Best of all I’m discovering interesting stuff through Me.dium on a regular basis now.
I’ve also been watching a Me.dium has quietly played with a widget concept on Tiki Bar TV for a few months now. Today they released a generalized widget that allows you to see what other readers of the site you’re on are doing. This is a fascinating way to discover new stuff that a community of readers that you’re a part of are doing in real time. This is probably best described as a MyBlogLog style “what’s hot in my community” but in real time and more focused on the site you’re visiting now rather than all the sites you visit.
The Me.dium widget is on my right hand sidebar. It extends a little too far right now so I’ve asked for a size scalable version (which I guess would be a smaller Me.dium).
Me.dium also announced support for IE7 today. You should probably tell your not-so-hip (non Mac) friends about that, so you can have a better chance of winning one of the iPhones Me.dium is giving away this month.
Me.dium is best experienced with lots of your friends. When I had just a few at first it didn’t do much for me, but now that I have 40 or so, it’s much more useful. My Me.dium name is “DavidCohen”, or you can just sign up using my invite link if that’s easier for you.
