A few weeks ago, in a comment on this blog, Lars Teigen introduced me to Secondbrain, a content management tool to “collect, organize, search and share all your web content in a single library.” Whenever the Founder and CEO of such a service takes the time to comment on your blog, it behooves you to check it out, and that’s exactly what I did.
I’ve been using Secondbrain since May 13 and have been pretty pleased with the experience, logging in every once in a while to see what’s new in the community. As the number of social networks and services increases daily, it’s aggregation tools like Secondbrain that will make the internet navigable, many have said, and I’m inclined to agree.
Compared to what some call the reigning competitor in the aggregation arena, FriendFeed, Secondbrain enjoys some unusual twists. Some of my favorite features include:
- the ability to organize and label your content into “Collections”
- a UI that’s easy on the eyes without looking bare
- a greater emphasis on tagging (e.g., in navigation)
Overall, I’ve been enjoying the service because it doesn’t overwhelm me like FriendFeed can. I can look at the stream of updates and breathe deeply, rather than begin to panic. And I like that.
I’ve been filing my Secondbrain content into collections analogous to the ones on this blog on a semi-regular basis. If you enjoyed this post, you might want to look into one or two of these collections for more goodies:
Check back every once in a while for more, or, even better, sign up for the Secondbrain Beta and friend me!
On FriendFeed: 0 comments, 0 likes. 
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Andy, I’ve been using SecondBrain for a while now and I have to say I love their collection and tagging system. It seems aimed at making everything clear and easily accessible. Since I’ve joined, I’ve read quite a few articles on FriendFeed and other similar services. And I have to say, once you get used to the twists of SB, it’s hard for someone to convince you the competition is better in any way. But I’ve heard it works the other way around
So, great job SB.
Agreed! I enjoy the site and Lars seems to really have a drive for doing great work. Now, if only there was incentive for me to visit more regularly…
What’s your favorite part of SB?
well, right now there’s the incentive of the contest of course
I believe it takes getting used to it a bit, unless you really need to find something specific in your content and that of your friends. At that point, it would make sense searching through your collections and tags and others’ as well, instead of visiting every social media profile and doing the search there.
Service wise, the tagging and collection system is what I love most about SB. When it comes to the people behind it is the effort they put into getting feedback and acting on it.
What’s yours?
Yeah. Personally, I think I’m still in the “getting used to it” phase, as I really haven’t made a concerted effort to get to know the community better and find my role within it (my loss, I know). Another problem is not having enough real-life contacts who would actually be interested in joining the service, and those real-life contacts are the ones that can cement the whole experience together.
But it’s definitely on my to-do list, integrating myself a bit. In the meantime, I just really enjoy how clean and usable the interface is. The stream seems more like a manageable river than an enormous flood as it does on other services. I’ll have to come back and give you a more detailed opinion in a few weeks!
That makes sense, I’ve had the account for about two months and I still haven’s used Second Brain to its full potential. Maybe we should compare notes in a few weeks
Sounds good! Looking forward to the rendezvous!
Leave a Comment