Two sites enter, one site leaves... ahem, sorry got carried away. Yes, there is yet another social networking site open. Does the Internet need this? I'm not sure we need any, but they are here and we have to deal with them. So why Ziki? One, it's probably not (yet) blocked by your company's firewall! More realistically, it acknowledges that you may want to use other sites besides Ziki. Ziki lets you add all your RSS feeds (blog, photos, bookmarks, etc) to your profile and put this content on your profile's home page. It also lets you add profile links for other popular sites, such as MySpace, Yahoo 360, Facebook, etc. Tag yourself (not in that sense, sicko), add friends to your network, view visitors, groups, and all the other basics are covered.
One feature I really like is Ziki takes all your RSS feeds and combines them in to one mega feed. This mega feed doesn't embed ads, link tracking, or other slimey marketing fingers - which honestly was a bit of a shock. Not going to place a bet if it will stay this way (after all, there is a need to make money behind the site), but it's nice.
Okay, some pain points. First, it threw and error when I signed up. I still got the confirmation email, and it worked, but I'm not convinced there isn't some long term damage. Time will tell. I did get a message from one of the Ziki staff, and it seems to be sent by an actual person and later confirmed when I replied and got an immediate response. He didn't auto add himself to my network either (in your face Tom!).
Next, OPML - why is it so hard to read my OPML from a URL? For a format who's job it is to list RSS feeds - something that always has a URL - every site insists on "import / export" routines from the dark ages. Maybe that's Web 2.01 (the service pack). At any rate this means my "Reading List" on Ziki will fall out of date so you'll need to use my Links page to stay current.
I like this, but may be an issue for some; messaging. There isn't a mailbox on Ziki for you to check, instead messages sent to users on Ziki come from your email address so others can reply directly to them. Obviously some people want to keep their email address private and may not realize this exposes them. Gmail keeps me pretty spam free, so I swing mine around like a dime store hooker. If your concerned, sign up with a different email account (not dime store hooker) than you would normally use.
If you've read this far I'll let you in on the little secret Paul told me: right now the first 10,000 accounts get their name sponsored in Google, Yahoo and MSN for free. How can you turn down free adwords? These adwords will drive people who search your name to your Ziki page, so they are really a clever way to advertise Ziki, but that's okay by me.
There are plenty more features than I've covered here, so take a look at Ziki if you want to know more. If you sign up, be sure to say hi!
