and thus, the separation from society deepens...

The good people over at me.dium are doing something that I am now absolutely fascinated with, and that is:

1.fluidly incorporating the awesomeness of social networking into your internet browser, rather than tying you down to a specific site.

2.furthering the concept of social networking as we know it by showing us new ways of pooling information between our friends.

and

3.giving me even less of a reason to go and "hit the bars"...and here's how.

I discovered me.dium tonight when I upgraded to the Firefox 3 RC 1 and began to look for which add-ons would still be functional. I had never heard of this specific service, but I had read recently that the concept of browser based social networking would be coming soon. As excited as I was...I really had no idea what it meant. Once I installed it and saw what it is capable of doing, I couldn't help but run over here to blab all about it.

The basic idea is that me.dium is an online social networking service, just like myspace or facebook, except this one runs in a fairly compact sidebar in your browser window. Rather than focusing on sharing personal media, me.dium plots you as a user on a figurative map of the internet. As your friends join up you will see them in an instant message style buddy list, as well as on your internet map. At this point people can see where you are at and vice versa. Don't worry...I know what you're thinking...maybe sometimes you don't WANT everyone to know what you're up to, and the folks at me.dium want you to know that's ok. A simple click can make you invisible or even log you out for those private internet browsing moments...you know...like...ordering an engagement ring? Yeah, we'll go with that.

Just those elements alone are incredible to me, but I haven't even revealed the ace in the hole. me.dium integrates your facebook friends list into that buddy list section, and links are provided for each one that allow you to directly message, suggest a link, or visit any of your friends. Your friends are not required to be a part of me.dium for you to be able to send them anything either, which makes this idea a slam dunk. Your facebook profile still contains pictures, videos, biographies with atrocious grammar and spelling, your wall isn't demolished...it's a beautiful thing. You will have to convince your friends to give the service a shot if you want to see where they're at on the internet and take advantage of me.dium's entire potential, but I think the popularity of social networking is strong enough to make plenty of people curious about this new concept.

So let me give you a brief rundown of pros and cons as I see them.

Pros - For one, the concept of sharing where you are at on the internet with your friends in real time just seems like a winner to me. The facebook integration is great, and the ability to quickly search through your facebook friends is wonderful.

Cons - I have a feeling most of my "cons" are things that will redeem themselves in the near future, as this tool is nowhere near completion, but I could stand a few changes. For one, the facebook buddy list is a bit big for my taste as there seems to be some wasted space if someone doesn't have a status set. The sidebar comes with 6 skins to choose from, and while they are decent, I would love to see customization as an option here. Oh, and one thing they try to sell as a feature is a "find similar pages" button which as of right now doesn't seem to offer the strongest suggestions. I don't know if this is compiled through the gathering of browsing history among users or what, but obviously the database needs to grow a bit.

Overall, I think this concept has some really awesome potential...imagine meeting a new friend because you were both on wikipedia at the same time, rather than bumping into someone new at the grocery store. As silly as it might sound, it's a true possibility.

So the real question is, how many nerds will find love on thottbot thanks to this? Only time will tell....only time will tell.