Lifeblob's World

Today, we turned on a very exciting feature, something we ourselves have been really eager to use.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you would remember from our previous post how timelines for tags and places allow you to slice and dice your life on various axes. In addition, place and tag timelines are also a very powerful means of discovering new people and new pieces of information – read on to learn more.

When you add a tag or place to your post, your post also becomes a part of these tag/place timelines and implicitly establishes a connection between you, the tag and the place. If you look at tags as the representation of your interests ( like trekking, gardening ) and places as the locations you are associated with, you will notice that tags and place timelines are natural and powerful reserves of information centered around certain interests or certain places. So next time you are seeking trekking enthusiasts in Bangalore, you know what timelines to look at.

Coming back to the feature we launched, you will now see a list of top places and tags in the sidebar on your right. How does it help ?

• On your timeline, this makes it really easy to access tag/place timelines that interest you the most.
• On someone else’s timeline, this becomes a way to discover their interests and explore more about them.

Here is a screenshot of the new sidebar:

Note: Only tags and places from public posts are shown in the sidebar. This is done in order to protect the privacy of our users.

This is the question that I get asked most frequently these days. So this is my first attempt to explain the essence of the service and more importantly, why we exist.

LifeBlob’s mission is to help people connect their lives with the world around them.

We started lifeblob because we were not happy with what existing services provide us ( yes, including facebook ). We believed that there had to be a much better way for people to network and we started out with zeal to discover that. Three months and a couple of prototypes later, we had something interesting in our hands, something that we call lifeblob today.

What is lifeblob ?

Simply put, lifeblob is your personal diary, with a social angle to it. We also call it your timeline. Just like you would write in your personal diary about your experiences, the events that happened in your life and stick pictures to make it memorable, we allow you to make posts on your timeline to capture those precious memories.

What differentiates lifeblob is that your timeline has a social angle to it. When you make a post, you can include a list of people who are related to the post or who were participants if the post is about a real event. And in a flash, the post not only becomes a part of your timeline, but also becomes a part of the timelines of all the participants. So imagine, if you and all your friends start posting on lifeblob and add each other as participants for relevant posts, you would get all the information relevant to you delivered right on your timeline. Now that is “effortless networking” – the information finds you rather than you finding it.

But that is not all, lifeblob also lets you add tags and places to a post and believe it or not, tags and places also have timelines. So whenever you add a tag or place to your post, it also becomes a part of these timelines. But whats the point ? It presents very interesting ways to slice and dice your life on various axes and also discover like-minded people. More about this in another post.

Why should I use lifeblob ?

Simply because:

• Its easy
• Its fun
• Its addictive
• Its valuable

To the last point, everything that you talk about with your friends and family through lifeblob becomes a part of your personal diary automatically. And anyday you wish, you can go back and replay your life just like a movie. And if you choose, you can also pass on access to this information to your future generations, so they know you better.

How do I get started ?

We currently allow users to signup on an invitation basis only. If someone you know is already a member of lifeblob, you can ask them for an invite. Otherwise, you can register your name for an invite on our home page and we will send it to you when we have the capacity.

This is what a timeline looks like ( click to enlarge ):