The word on Toluu - A Positive Experience with Feeds, Lifestreaming and Microblogging

After reading a post on ‘dOgBOi‘ blog about Toluu, I thought I would just back-up what he says about it, and sort of just re-iterate what I said in my initial comment. Worth reading that post first as I will not repeat everything he says. But in short, I give my own summary of Toluu and how it can be incorporated into your LifeStream, Microblogging, Blog Feed frenzy way of living.

As mentioned it IS different from many aggregators, in that it just doesn’t aggregate. It does, but it also does something more substantially useful. It’s a LifeStream (although I use the term ‘LifeStreaming’ quite loosely) service with a difference and any new service nowadays must have something unique to allow it to stand above the many other similar (or not similar) services out there.

I have been using it off and on for a few weeks now, and with all the other myriad of services, feed and microblogging aggregators, I am BETA testing, finding time to concentrate on one service can be somewhat frustrating. But as time has gone on, I am finding myself using Toluu much more.

I have been using FriendFeed and SocialThing for sometime (as well as a myriad of similar services all at the same time), but I am finding myself getting more useful mileage out of Toluu, in that it offers these great ideas and twists on the usual services… that are actually useful and not gimmickry. It is easy to say all these services are similar, but I think that they all tackle unique aspects whilst sharing similar qualities, so it’s practically impossible to compare the ‘top’ services, more comes down to personal preference.

It comes into it’s own the more Friends and Contacts you have. We are not just talking SocialThing, FriendFeed, Ping.fm, Hi5, Bebo, MySpace, MyBlog Log style here, far far from it. It’s not a way to talk or communicate directly, hence it’s not a social network as such.

You import your existing RSS feeds into Toluu as you can any other aggregator. The bonus is that this information is then correlated and used to determine your ’style’ of sites, blogs, feeds etc. Then you activate the ‘Matches’ tab and here is generated the most useful aspect I have seen in any aggregator. Based on your existing feeds, it analyzes other Toluu members profiles and feeds and churns out results based on percentage match. For example, ‘User A” might share your passion for certain subjects, then the results will come higher, from this ‘User A’ will also have feeds that you are not aware of, and this is where it really shines. From this you are introduced to sites, blogs and feeds you might otherwise have missed.

Toluu is much more than this, but for the above reason alone, I have come across many new and interesting Feeds that I simply did not know about, that are matched to my own tastes.

Also, Toluu will notify you when a “friend” has added further feeds and contacts, so you can check out their profiles and see what they are interested in. If something rocks your boat, you can then add their feeds to your own profile.

Toluu is a service that is fast growing on me. And the important thing is that it will really shine the more people come on board, as there will be a richer store of feeds to measure and match from, thus you will benefit from discovering further feeds based on your own likes.

Well recommend signing up and giving it a go. If you use Profilactic, you can also then add your Toluu feed to Profilactic, making it available for some many more people to see and benefit from.