While many write about social aggregators like FriendFeed and Profilactic, I come to promote Secondbrain. I think my reasons, aside the subjective note, will prove that Secondbrain is the new “it”:

• the name of the service doesn’t remind me of medicine (from Profilactic to prophylactic, which means medication or a treatment designed and used to prevent a disease, the plunge is not too deep) but it does make me thing of brain surgery or at least of brain transplant…
• the design of the site is refined, discoverable and elegant (unlike FriendFeed which features the ugliest Web 2.0 logo imaginable and some squeaky ducks as main graphics that all made me wonder about the users’ age range… but what else would you expect from ex-Google employees?)
• the vision to become the Web’s largest user generated content library makes Secondbrain the most ambitious social media aggregator and somehow… greatness is made of bold dreams. Secondbrain is on the right path.
• compared to FriendFeed and Profilactic, Secondbrain still has a few more baby steps to take to become at least popular. The Macbook Air and xbox 360 giveaway is a nice touch: it motivates subscribers to become active users, to contribute to Secondbrain’s dream of becoming Web’s largest content library. In a few words Secondbrain is about “people and knowledge growing together.” But unlike FriendFeed and Profilactic that counted on users to improve their service without giving much in return, Secondbrain has the courtesy to reward and motivate social contributions with prizes of genuine value. I’d like to add this too at the reasons why I like Secondbrain and I will not stop…
• only a few days ago Yvonne Russell started a very interesting conversation at the Writer’s Café featuring Secondbrain. Her excellent review received positive comments not only from her usual readers, but also from Secondbrain founder Lars. When startups’ founders take the time to provide feedback where needed, it’s always a good sign. Will Lars keep up this good habit in the future, when Secondbrain becomes at least as popular as FriendFeed? Time will tell. For now his actions show a rare feature trait: respect for the web users. Good move! After all, without these users no lifestreaming service would ever have a chance to grow and survive competition.
• last but not least, I always admire companies able to listen to their customers. In Secondbrain’s case the customers (users) are also the “employees” as their contribution is vital in Secondbrain’s growth. A recent blog entry on the SB blog denotes respect for the SB members as well: they are encouraged to provide feedback that will help Secondbrain aggregate new services that are truly valuable for the users.

Secondbrain already aggregates content from del.icio.us, digg, StumbleUpon, twitter, fave, blogger, Metaweblog, WordPress, Google Docs, MindMeister, Slideshare, Zoho, Flickr, Revver, Picasa and YouTube. This is nothing compared to 180 services supported by Profilactic, but it is a lot to start with. In fact, these are the most important and most popular services right now and for many users they are more than enough. Somehow services like Secondbrain make the less savvy web users fear adopting them – even on Yvonne’s blog we see that although they sign up the users let their accounts “sleep” because they find SB too difficult to use. Secondbrain has a very clear tutorial for beginners on site, but maybe the link to it should be placed in a more visible location instead of the website’s footer.

The Time to Become a Secondbrainer Is Now

Social aggregation is not just a trend; it is part of a clear evolution towards the semantic web which is another definition for Web 3.0.

Social networks and social bookmarking sites were just the modest beginnings.

The early adopters of these movements are still harvesting the profits. In an article by top stumbler Brian Reeder we find out how he became a “top stumbler”:

If you think becoming a Top Stumbler isn’t possible, you’re wrong. I signed up on StumbleUpon in October 2007 and by December I was one of the top 50 stumblers in the world. I try to find 30 to 50 new websites a day – I look for good content that hasn’t been discovered yet.

For a StumbleUpon user it is pretty clear what “top stumbler” means: more traffic to his StumbleUpon blog, hence more traffic to his bookmarks.

Becoming a “top user” in any social community has the same effect. Becoming a top user of social aggregation service can have even more ramifications: traffic yes, but popularity and authority will skyrocket. These “social skills” are a must in the modern employment scenery – many employers look for candidates at FaceBook, digg, propeller and so on.

Becoming a top Secondbrainer now will give you more than the advantage of being popular and boosting traffic to your bookmarks, it will also make you eligible to win a Macbook Air or other prizes.

The win in the long term may prove more valuable, as social aggregators compile all your web content in one place making sharing faster and easier.

On my Secondbrain page you’ll see real time updates of my activity, you’ll be watching me step by step, live. All these updates will also appear on the Secondbrain main page under “recent updates.” Thousands of visitors access this page in a day, and this is just the beginning. As the community grows so do the chances for these feature entries to reach to a larger audience.