Update 8.21.2010: Miso has updated sport games…looks like just for NFL, didn’t work when searching for MLB. [pic]
I am still trying to figure out the best app experience for sharing activities to my friends. I am stuck between three apps that I use on my iPhone which all work well. Here I will break down my experiences with all three:
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Miso is the first iPhone app that I used to share with my friends what movies and tv shows I watch. I am big with watching new movies and see most of all the new ones that come out.
When I first heard about Miso I immediately thought “what a genius idea.” What I really liked about Miso was when you connect your Twitter and Facebook account it shares visual posters of movies and tv shows right on my Facebook to stand out to my friends and they can comment “that movie rocked!!” or “that movie was worst than Tila Tequila singing.” The big disadvantage of using Miso is you can only share TV shows and movies. If you keep reading you will see why Miso will have major competition. |
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Hot Potato was the second app I gave a try and enjoyed their user friendly application.
Now with Hot Potato you can choose from several “activities” and tell everyone what you are doing: watching, listening, attending, reading, thinking about, playing or you can even add a custom activity. The video game world is huge with a lot of potential in the social media world. To be able to interact with your gamer friends and tell them when you are playing and what you are playing is huge. Hot Potato lets you do that. What I really dislike about Hot Potato currently is, when connecting my Facebook account it will change my status rather than post a wall post. I think Miso does a great job of showing a visual representation of what I’m watching, I think Hot Potato lacks that. I also found that the activities are overwhelming and not very organized for Hot Potato. |
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GetGlue is my third app I gave a try to. I was impressed with GetGlue because it’s almost like Miso and Hot Potato combined but lacks a few things.
With GetGlue you can share with your friends: watching a show, listening to music, reading a book, watching a movie, playing a video game, thinking about a topic, chatting about a celebrity and drinking wine. I would like to point out that I find “chatting about a celebrity” and “drinking wine” odd topics to choose from. I don’t ever see any of my friends talking about the wine they are drinking nor do I care. Chatting about a celebrity makes me feel like I downloaded a groupy app. I think the first 6 options are pretty useful but they should add a custom topic like Hot Potato does. If I’m hot tubbin with 4 playboy bunnies (we can always dream big – don’t hate) then I can’t brag post with GetGlue….I would need Hot Potato. Another thing I noticed that was weird, was I click ‘watching a show’ and searched for MLB. When I posted it, for some reason their system makes MLB “thinking about” so it posts on my twitter and facebook that “I’m thinking about MLB” when it should be “I’m watching MLB.” |
After using all three applications, I think each one has road of improvements. I really like how every app has badges/awards. GetGlue is doing a great job about partnering up with HBO and doing custom badges for certain shows, that’s genius.
Seeing how I am a big sports junkie for the Colorado teams (yes I know the Rockies choked in 2007 World Series, don’t remind me), I always like to check-in and share on Facebook and Twitter what game I’m watching. I think every app lacks significantly for sports. I should be able to search for the specific game instead of just MLB (in my opinion) that would enhance the growth of the apps. If a normal user just check-ins to MLB, what MLB game are they watching??! You don’t know unless they add additional comments. Should be a way to improve this for every app. I want to talk smack to Raiders fans when it comes to Football season! It would be nice to see which team, friends and overall check-ins, are rooting for (example: Broncos +23 vs Raiders +2).
In the perfect world I think it would be REAL beneficial to get all three apps to use the same hashtags for the activities. For example if I check-in to all three apps that I’m watching Inception, they should use the movie’s title as a hashtag #Inception. This will help twitter on searching, filtering and trending. If these apps can help trend a new movie wouldn’t the movie companies want to work with these startups? Answer: Probably!
Good luck to all three startups Miso, GetGlue and Hot Potato. I really think inventing a way to share activities is awesome for smartphone users. I think all three apps are always looking to improve so only time will tell the new features.
I think all three should have APIs so developers can build such things as facebook tab apps with their friends.
If you use one of the apps, please post your feedback in the comments, would like to hear. I might have missed some things!
