Do we need a social media 'operating system'?

Social media is rapidly changing the way we use the Internet – but will its growing popularity necessitate a fundamental change in how we browse the Web?



 

Keeping track of Facebook and Twitter probably isn't that difficult for most people, but one start-up is arguing that a whole new operating system is needed to handle these social sites and all the applications developers are likely to build on top of them.



 

The start-up's name is Pip.io, and it has just moved from a private beta to a public beta, boasting that 10,000 people signed up for the private beta. Pip.io is led by CEO Leo Shimizu, a 24-year-old entrepreneur who has founded seven small start-ups.



 

In a phone interview, Shimizu explains his "social operating system" concept by noting that a traditional operating system is basically a software layer that connects third-party applications with hardware resources. In a similar way, Pip.io connects developers to social resources, with a platform letting them create apps that build upon or improve social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Pip.io also gives individual users a single screen in which to view and interact with the applications, and tools to "selectively communicate" with friends without broadcasting messages to all of cyberspace.



 

Pip.io's system, which is accessed within a Web browser, isn't exactly an attempt to replace Windows (though even Microsoft is building links to Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn into Outlook). But Shimizu hopes Pip.io will become the first destination for people who use multiple social networks.



 

Pip.io's public beta announcement claims the service is "better than Facebook [and] better than Twitter," but in reality the company is trying to improve the way people use Facebook and Twitter, not replace them.



 

"Any Web application can become a third-party app within the Pip.io ecosystem," Shimizu says. "99.9% of the time we can enhance it."



 

Shimizu says one of Pip.io's main concerns is privacy. With social networks you often have a choice of sharing information with everyone (through a Facebook or Twitter status update) or just one person (through IM or Twitter direct messages). Shimizu says Pip.io makes it easier to selectively share content with some people but not others. For example, you might be able to leave private replies to public comments on Facebook.



 

Pip.io also lets users create either public or private "rooms" in which to share content. Users can subscribe to rooms to get updates, similar to following a Twitter list.



 

The usefulness of Pip.io will depend on at least two factors: how many developers build applications for Pip.io and how many people use it. Facebook itself doesn't work natively in Pip.io – a developer has to build a Pip.io version. And the private reply scenario Shimizu mentioned only works if both the sender and receiver are using Facebook within Pip.io.



 

Pip.io's development team built video chat into Pip.io, as well as five mashups based on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Netflix and an RSS feed. The Netflix application, for example, takes Netflix's live streaming capability and allows friends to watch a movie simultaneously on different computers, Shimizu says.



 

"We basically wanted to see what it would be like to be a third party developer [creating an application for Pip.io] and see what they would want," Shimizu says.



 

Pip.io's "application store" is available only in a conceptual stage right now, and the company hasn't yet made public APIs available to third-party developers. So it's not clear yet how many applications will be built for Pip.io or how useful they will be. However, Shimizu says some beta users are working on a Gmail application and the company promises constant updates in its beta phase.



 

Shimizu compared potential Pip.io applications with TweetDeck, which is essentially an upgraded client version of Twitter. If the project is successful, Pip.io users would be able to access all of their social applications from the same Web site and interact with them through a better user interface than offered by the individual sites themselves.



 

Shimizu founded Pip.io in October 2008 with CTO David Chen. The company is based in San Francisco and has four employees, and says it is close to announcing a significant round of funding.



 

Shimizu has an interesting story. In his blog he writes that "In elementary school I created a virtual currency for me and my classmates that was backed by candy. My locker acted as a bank and had dozens upon dozens of Twix's, Baby Ruths, Warheads, and orange TicTacs. … I wrote a letter to Bill Gates in the 3rd grade asking him if I could have a sitdown to get advice on how to run a great company. His secretary politely declined me. The letter is framed and is one of my most treasured items."



 

Shimizu was in high school when he founded his first start-up, a "dynamic ad network that would serve text-based ads in between search results." That didn't quite work out, he says, because a service now known as Google AdSense beat him to it.



 

Later, Shimizu founded a company that sold online gaming currency, and had several start-ups "in the customer acquisition and Internet advertising sector," he says.



 

"Some [of the start-ups] were financially successful. Most of them were not," he says.



 

Shimizu, obviously, is hoping Pip.io will be the one to really take off. Pip.io is free to users but will try to make money through premium features, search-based advertising, and the app store.



 

And if you were wondering where the name "Pip.io" comes from, Shimizu has an explanation: "Pipio is Latin for the carrier pigeons the Romans used. The bird itself had connotations of reliability and could get to where it needed to go from being launched anywhere. It does also translate directly to 'to tweet' in Latin as well, which is somewhat ironic."