ryantxr

I signed up for miio yesterday.  I sign up for every new service like this because I want to ensure that I stake out my user id even if I never use the service.  I read a few articles about it and tried it out a little.  It is way too early for me to truly have any solid insight on where this thing ends up.  But I had some initial reactions and I wanted to get them down here.

It's Twitter.  Yes, I know the Miio folks don't want us to think that this is another Twitter.  But it is.  They wrapped some features around it that Twitter does not have.  But it is still Twitter. 

• Update my status. 
• Replies
• Follow people
• and so on

It's a bit like having a car in stead of a pickup truck.  It has some different features, but mostly the same.

Initial Signup and Default Avatar

When I sign up for a service like this, I just want to get it done.  This was relatively easy. I typically skip all the suggested steps like importing contacts from other services, adding an avatar etc.  When I did this, it gave me a default avatar.  I was surprised to see that the default avatar was a sad face.  The idea, I suppose, is to push new users to add their own avatar so they don't have a sad face.  This is a bad idea.  If you use Twitter as an example, several people use the default avatar. Miio should realize that people are going to want to use the default.  And I'm puzzled that they would want to associate negativity with one of the first experiences a person has with the service.  This is an easy fix and it should be done immediately.

The sign up process sent me an email as most services like this ususally do.  The email had a code which I had to go back to the site and enter it.  There was no hotlink in the email.  This isn't a major transgression, however, users have come to expect this.  It should be added.

Where is the API?

I searched around and could not find an API.  Maybe I did not search enough.  If this is missing, then tools like FriendFeed, Ping.fm, Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and others cannot interface to it.  In general, I want to do updates in one place and have them automatically filter out to all the services I use.

Miio does have a feature where it can become your entry point and update your Twitter account for you.  Great.  But I already have an entry point.  I don't want another one.

Features

Miio has a ton of features.  I wonder if they need all of it.  The more complexity, the less people will use it.  Think MS Word - does anyone use 90% of the features in that thing?

The Party isn't in full swing

The real trick for any service like this is to get enough people actively using it so that it creates a snowball effect.  That is very difficult to do and has little to do with technology.  I am skeptical that Miio will be able to pull this off.

Where is this going?

Most new services like this go nowhere.  Once in a while a new service comes along and goes gangbusters.  I'm not getting the sense that this will be one of those services.  Think of Plaxo; good technology but no one uses it.