Web 2.0 applicatons were completely foreign to me until a few weeks ago, when I had to research a web 2.0 application as part of a class assignment. After browsing “The Complete Web 2.0 Sites Directory” for nearly an hour and a half, I discovered Secondbrain.
The purpose of Secondbrain is to import content from all your favorite services to one place. You can browse and search all of your content, organize your content and keep track of your content in a single library. You can also find people through content, and content through people.
People who have a wide variety of social media accounts, i.e. del.icio.us, wordpress, blogger, Google Docs, flickr, etc. would be most interested in this application.
Pros of Secondbrain:
- Follow people with similar interests and browse their content
- Save other people’s content to your library
- The list of icons under the users’ profile pictures allows quick and easy access to their social media sites
Cons of Secondbrain:
- The overall design is cluttered and not the easiest to navigate
- People might be hesitant to upload their content because the site is not extremely well-known
- Some profiles have too much extraneous information to sift through
This application could be used in a PR context because it is an easy way to showcase all the different social media platforms that you use. You could send a link to potential employers and let them track all of your content on one website. This application could also be helpful in terms of sharing content with fellow employees.
Overall, I think this application is well on its way to becoming a useful tool for avid social media users. The design lay-out needs some work in terms of organization, but the way users can organize their personal content is very user-friendly. I looked at the CEO Lars Teigan’s Secondbrain page to see how he manages his content on the site. He has by far the most “followers” and a large library full of content. For me, this helped to legitimize his site to see him taking advantage of all the benefits Secondbrain has to offer. I think the key to making this application useful is to register more users and motivate them to share their content with other users.
A Play on Words. 