Bebo, AOL’s social network, added a lifestreaming feature today that allows users to pull in updates from Twitter, Flickr, and Delicious, as well as from Facebook and Myspace. Bebo also introduced another new feature called ‘Lifestory,’ which displays your updates in a scrollable and zoomable timeline that is somewhat reminiscent of ThisMoment. With LifeStory, you can quickly create new events on your timeline and add photos, videos, and text. This feature, however, is not integrated with your lifestream.
LifeStory
As of now, LifeStory only displays your updates from within Bebo. While LifeStory features an interesting user interface, it would be nice if it could also (optionally) pull in updates from your activity stream.
In the long run, Bebo is also planning to allow its users to subscribe to updates from brands, bands, and celebrities, whose updates will then appear in their LifeStory timelines.
Lifestream
The new lifestreaming feature was built on top of SocialThing, a small startup that AOL acquired last year while it was still in private beta testing. The new Lifestream looks like a very basic version of FriendFeed, though it doesn’t feature too many functions besides the straightforward aggregation of updates from you and your friends. The simple fact that it also aggregates your friends’ updates, though, does give it an edge over Facebook’s newsfeed.
New Layout
In addition, Bebo also introduced a new layout for its user profiles, though Bebo’s users seem to be rather unhappy about this change.
Differentiation through Aggregation
According to the Guardian, Bebo argues that it is different from Facebook, because “Facebook is a closed, proprietary network that brings friends together through one website.”
Clearly, Bebo is trying to differentiate itself from other social networks by becoming more of an aggregator. Thanks to Bebo’s SocialInbox, you could already aggregate your friends’ updates on other services, even if they aren’t Bebo members. Bebo also allows you to check your Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and AOL Mail accounts from within the service.
