Share any kind of online content in one place with Noovo. This “social discovery engine” is a blogging, bookmarking, lifestreaming, content sharing application – not a social network. The Noovo Corporation is based in California and Slovenia, and the Noovo app recently launched out of private beta last week.
Noovo aggregates the most interesting stories, photos, videos, events, people and groups, then recommends the ones they think may be of interest to their members. Users can publish their own content, republish any other online content (including stories found on Noovo), and share the content with anyone or just their Noovo friends.
The recommended stories are listed under the “Cover” area where users can add interesting stories to their profile, read the reason why the story was recommended (through the light bulb image), and add something (story, video, photo, etc.) to the current public Cover stream. Thumbs up and thumbs down signs are also provided to determine whether a story is popular amongst Noovo users.
Noovo members get to sync their Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Wordpress and Blogspot accounts to their Noovo profile. Account holders can select which languages they want to read their content in, add an avatar, configure how often they would like to receive their Noovo notifications, add widgets like Last.FM, and change the design of their profile. To save time, Firefox users can drag and drop the “Take it to Noovo” or “Noovo Broadcaster” to their browser’s bookmark toolbar to add something to their profile or share with other Noovo members. Settings include updating Facebook status and Twitter account through a conversation bubble provided in a member’s profile.
Buzz Meter Ranking: 2 out of 4 Buzz Bees
Positive: Customization allows users to define their space; Noovo offers an array of designs and even allows you to upload unique design. When something doesn’t work, you are notified and then Noovo automatically takes you to their feedback page.
Negative: After joining the Noovo community, it is hard to decipher how to get started beyond customizing your profile. You have to really work with your Noovo account to realize that the “Cover” area is where your recommendations are and to get to your profile you have to click on “Settings.” The enormous number of features can also be overbearing for users, especially when a get started tutorial is not provided. Additionally, importing and/or inviting friends from Facebook and Gmail accounts can seem “spammy”.
Conclusion: I think Noovo is an interesting application and provides an abundance of useful features. Noovo still needs some polishing before it can become that one stop shop it desires. Try it out and let me know what you think!
Love the idea of merging all the social media feeds and accounts into one interface and will have to give this a try even though it sounds a bit intimidating and has some kinks. I’d rather things just “work.”
Thanks – we just launched and still lots of tuning and work to be done. Thanks for your feedback.
@Natalie – Definitely give Noovo a try. I’m sure once they’ve fixed their kinks it will be that tool you’re looking for.
@Andrej – I enjoyed trying Noovo! It’s definitely a great application, and I look forward to using it more.