Does Streamy Fit Your Needs?

If you’re anything like me, the holidays have probably managed to throw you way off schedule but, hopefully, not completely out of the loop. I’ve sung my praises for Bubbletop and Spokeo, both of which I rely on to keep up with the latest online happenings, and both of which have encouraged me to continue giving the several multi-featured, web-based RSS readers out there a chance. Streamy is the latest one I’ve come across.

Despite being clean, simply designed, and definitely functional, Streamy does not appeal to me. But the things I dislike about it are the same things that the right person would probably love. Streamy is community based; members are greeted with the most popular stories of the day rather than their own home stream and are provided with a list of sites to subscribe to, in order of popularity. Users can add their own sources, but it only seems to work with Firefox. If I’m entrusting all my subscriptions to a site I expect full functionality on any major browser.

Streamy is not just a plain old RSS reader and claims not to be trying to “kill Digg,” but it’s goal–”to bring you personally relevant news in an engaging, collaborative environment”–is pretty darn similar. I’ve seen it described as “Digg for friends” and “Google Reader for friends, ” and it’s meant to aggregate relevant content and do away with the boring RSS reader. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I would stick with Digg if that’s what I was looking for. Maybe I’m just self-centered, but I don’t want to directly deal with other people while using something that functions as my friend and feed tracker, so obviously Streamy is not my first choice simply due to it’s multitude of functions.

Since it is so community-based, however, Streamy is a great tool for those still trying to boost interest in their own blog, especially while the user base is growing and, therefore, more likely to be exposed. It’s also likely to appeal to those who are trying to build up a list of subscriptions or find new content. Despite not being one that I’ll use regularly, Streamy is definitely a great service and tool. It’s still in private beta, but you can learn more about it at www.streamy.com.