The past few days I have been checking out a new operating system for social networks (hope I got that right) but in a nutshell Pip.io aims to be a universal social networking client along the lines of Trillian or Pidgin for instant messengers. From one central interface on Pip.io users can check Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a News Reader for now, but more applications are on the way so Google Buzz should hopefully be there soon.
The basic premise is simple, from a central webpage you can interact and control all your social networks (hence dubbed a social networking operating system) but unlike a desktop application all of this takes place inside of a browser. The interface is simple and very streamlined and Pip.io also was surprisingly fast and took hardly any time or effort to setup and start off with. Once you are signed up you will need to associate Facebook and Twitter with your Pip.io account. Once done you are ready to interact with Facebook and Twitter right from within Pip.io i.e. you will receive updates, posts to your wall and will also be able to make posts and status updates to Twitter and Facebook from within Pip.io. Among other options you can create Channels and also do a global search for any particular city to check the updates posted from that location. This will let you reply to those posts and also make new friends or online acquaintances. Obviously with these features Pip.io aims to bring in location based services to the forefront but unfortunately I could not test it out much since there was only one user (who was not online) for my city of Hyderabad.
For first impressions, I’m very much impressed with Pip.io and its easy learning curve and the integration of Facebook and Twitter as well as the fact it works without any lag or delay right from within the browser and is very easy on the resources. I would love to see the addition of Google Buzz and also a mobile app among other things since most of my posting is done on the move and from my smartphone. For now I will continue to take a look at Pip.io from time to time and keep the updates rolling in.
