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When I first heard about Seesmic relaunch last week, I was really excited about  the possibilities.  For those of you not familiar with the service, Seesmic promises to be a platform for platforms.  In other words, they want to be the place you go to for all your social media programs like FaceBook, Twitter, Google Reader, Groupon, Zappos, and a ton of others.  This was very exciting to me because I hate a cluttered browser and I have to have about 5 tabs running along the top of my Chrome just for these sites plus what ever other browsing I’m doing.  So in theory, this program is for me and right up my alley.

Too good to be true

Unfortunately, it didn’t quite turn out the way I expected for a couple reasons.

#1  Facebook

 – I have about 2k people “friended”on my FaceBook but only about 20 I want to actually hear from.  (The rest are all Mafia Wars adds.)  These people are on their own list in my Facebook but there doesn’t seem to be a way for Seesmic to only stream the people on that list.  Instead I get hundreds of updates a day from people I don’t really know and I lose the updates I do care about in the static.  So what do I do?  I go to Facebook directly to read those updates defeating the purpose for Seesmic to begin with.

#2 Twitter 

– Same thing here, lots of people but only a few I want to hear from.  This may be my fault as I haven’t taken the time to organize my Twitter feeds but I’m not seeing an option for it regardless.  Also, there’s not an easy way to direct message or retweet someone from their tweets.  I had been using HootSuite before and loved this functionality.

#3 Google Reader 

– This one is probably on me.  I downloaded the plugin for Reader for the API, installed it, and…nothing.  I can’t figure out where to go to see my Reader stream.  I know it’s installed because this morning it told me there was an update for the plugin and I needed to download it and restart the app but it’s still nowhere to be found.  Even if this is my fault, the interface should be a heckuva lot easier to use and more intuitive.

It’s not all bad

There are a few things I really liked.  I loved the fact that new tweets and Facebook updates popup on my screen.  This means I can follow Twitter and FaceBook with a quick glance instead of having to go somewhere else to check it.  Once they add a way to tailor what feeds actually cause the popup to happen and a way to move that popup box anywhere I want on the screen, it will be perfect.  (Right now it pops up right where my curser always seems to be.)

This is an ambitious project and in theory is exactly what I want.  As soon as theory meets reality I will probably be back for another look but until then I guess I’ll stick with HootSuite and all those open tabs.

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