It has been unofficial lifestreaming month here on andydesoto.com, and although we’ve talked about Swurl, Sweetcron, Friendfeed, and other lifestreamers and aggregators, there’s been one microblog platform quietly chugging along that I didn’t even know existed: soup.io.
If you’ve known about this service for quite some time now, feel free to move along; released in the last quarter of 2007, it’s hardly new, especially in the rapid-fire world of Web 2.0 startups. But if you’ve never heard of it like I hadn’t, read along: soup.io just might be what you’re looking for.
Soup.io: Tumblr or Swurl with a different flavor
I became aware of soup.io thanks to an offhanded mention in a Read/Write Web article earlier today, and I must say that I’m awfully impressed with the service so far. It seems as though every new lifestreaming service I discover is more and more credentialed to serve the niche. Much like these two other services, the concept of soup.io is simple: it aggregates onto one attractive-looking page your activity on any of the following sites:
- Delicious
- Digg
- Flickr
- Last.fm
- Plurk
- StumbleUpon
- Tumblr
- Vimeo
- YouTube
- RSS Feeds
- and more!
The result? A clean, simple, easy-to-read page perfect for personal blogging or aggregation. Add in the ability to manually clip items from the web or enter text, audio, and video and you’ve got all you need for a no-hassle personal site.
Take a look at the service in action here. Not too bad, hmm?
Why soup.io over the alternatives?
If you’re a dedicated Tumblr or Swurl user or even prefer a more full-featured blogging platform, here’s why you might want to consider using Soup instead:
- It looks better than Swurl.
- It supports CNAME entries so you can set it up on a personal domain or subdomain.1
- It’s less complicated than Tumblr and offers more import options.
- As Richard MacManus says, it has “Ajax-y goodness.”
I plan on using mine for a personal lifestream of sorts, at least until we see what Sweetcron is all about in less than ten days.
So there you are: if you were behind the times on soup.io like I was, you now know about a new service that’s definitely worth checking out. If you have an account over there or are planning on starting one up, comment with the address! I’d love to check it out.
Which do you prefer? Tumblr, Swurl, soup.io, or some other service?
- Swurl and Tumblr do this too, but it’s worth mentioning, especially if you dislike the .io top-level domain like I do. [↩]
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I’m really liking soup.io, however it does lack some of the attractiveness of tumblr. I guess that will improve once custom themes become more available, but even without that I find it easier to use than the other tumblelog platforms.
I hadn’t heard of it either … thanks for discovering and sharing! I’m going to give it a test run right now.
James, you think Tumblr is more attractive? I don’t know, it’s a pretty close match. I’ll have to stare both layouts down for a while longer and see if I can make a more confident opinion. I wonder if we’ll ever see good custom themes for soup.io out there… hmm…
No problem, TJ! Let me know what you think. Would love to see the finished product!
Soup.io is everything that you say it is. I’m using to maintain a running list of the guest posts that I write for other blogs. I really like it.
@Andy I think it’s the themes that make the difference. I’m sure soup.io will catch up once it gets more users.
Hi Andy — cheers for the shout-out, glad you like Soup. Let us know at http://getsatisfaction.com/soup if you have any feedback or feature requests!
Mark, that’s a great idea! Mind providing the link so I can take a look? I love hearing about unique ways of utilizing these services.
People like their looks, that’s for sure, James. I just wonder if it ever will, especially since the service has been out for almost a year and this article now ranks #1 for “soup.io themes” on Google!
We do have several user-contributed CSS customizations you could borrow, but it’s admittedly not a huge selection yet — my name’s the link to the samples. (I’m being extra cautious after my previous comment didn’t go through, suspect it was caught in the spam filter for including a link.)
Anyway, thanks for the shout-out! Much appreciated.
We’re somewhat better-known in German-speaking countries – for example several Barcamps and similar events in Germany have used Soup to aggregate photos, blog posts, tweets etc about the event.
Soup’s still very much unfinished though: We have lots more planned.
Hi Christopher! Thanks for stopping by, I’m sorry Akismet is being a naughty guard dog tonight. I apologize you had to comment twice!
I’m glad to hear there are some customizations and am super-eager to check them out. It sounds like you’re having some great success in Europe, too (as I’d suspect from being based over there). Austria is a beautiful country, I spent a weekend there last summer and wish I could have stayed longer.
Glad to hear there’s excitement on the horizon; I’m now a proud user. Thanks for the welcome!
Always liked Soup and had one from the very start. One thing that’s often stopped me actively promoting it is that it’s often slow to update, esp. Twitter. Other than that it just works.
I still like FriendFeed the best thanks to a third party customized widget that goes well embedded in a page. I can also embed my friends lifestreams so now I use my page as a jumping off point to find their new content too.