Is YouAre Poised To Become The New Twitter?

While everyone has their favorite services and networks on the web, there is always room for improvement. This is why we at MakeUseOf are sure to check out every new piece of software and beta webapp in case it becomes the next big thing. A current trend among these services is the combination of popular functions in an easy to use package. If you use Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Delicious, or post content to networks like YouTube or Flickr, this most recent site might be right up your alley.

YouAre is a new microblogging service that aims to utilize the current model of Twitter, but integrate a lot of new features right from the beginning. This is similar to what Pownce tried to do, but it never caught on. YouAre is trying to be decidedly less “hip” than Pownce and more professional instead. It has features like those on a Facebook profile that allow you to list current and former jobs, as well as your formal education.

I was initially drawn to YouAre because I saw that Ping.fm and HelloTXT had just begun supporting it. I use Ping.fm to broadcast my status updates to all the microblogs out there and I figured just one more wouldn’t hurt. After a little time with it, it was gratifying to see how YouAre is striving to be more than “just another Twitter clone.” Here are a few of their better features:

Text , image, and video all have their own tabs in YouAre’s central interface. Instead of weird syntax for media inclusion, each type of message has its own form. Text-only notes use a simple text box that shortens longer URLs with YouAre’s in-house micURL. Images have room for either a permanent link or an upload directly to the site. Video cannot be uploaded, but you can insert either the location page or embed code and the system will parse it. Overall, their options are very satisfactory for me and work the way I expect them to.

YouAre is playing with a new technology for tagging their items. They have teamed up with the 2D Sense Platform (aka iMatrix) and made all of their posts generate a unique image-based tag. With this tag you can scan with a cameraphone and immediately receive some kind of information. In the case of YouAre, the posts simply pop up in their entirety for quick access. I’m not sure how one might use this, but down the road when this kind of technology is more popular, posters or billboards might link to extra info about a product. It might also be good for sending coded messages, who knows!

Another nice touch is the adoption of the “@reply” format for all their posts. Just like with Twitter, if you post the term “@username” in your message, that user will receive a notification of some kind. Also, it is not required to post the @reply in the beginning of your message, so finally mentioning multiple users and speaking more naturally have won out over the old, more limited system that Twitter employs.

If you’re a big fan of YouTube, Delicious, or Flickr, you’ll be glad to see the part of the site that lets you add accounts to your feed. Hopefully in the future they will open the importation system to even more media networks, maybe even the smaller guys first, since they are already experimenting with image-based labeling, which is a bit off the beaten path.

Also in the future they are planning to release an API so that other sites can use their content. Similarly, they are working on SMS messaging agreements in the US and Europe so that users can update directly from their phones. I say “update” because they have yet to come up with a cute little name like “tweet.” I’m still undecided whether this is a good thing or not.

The only problems I’ve had thus far are with the spartan interface. It can be hard to find required buttons sometimes because they aren’t necessarily on the page that you’re currently viewing. Also, their options in the “curriculum vitae” section don’t include many fields and omit major categories (such as “scientist” for me). Hopefully these will get kinked out in the near future.

Right now the site is a bit disorganized because they are trying to do a lot of different things at the same time. That being said, it is still in private beta, so they’re probably working much harder on the back-end and core functions before polishing the user interface.

Also, only registered users can view user pages, so outsiders can’t use or see ANYTHING you put on your profile. That warning in place, it’s still a pretty neat service and my private invite came in about a day. In fact, they sent an email to bug me when I got lazy and didn’t activate for about a week.

When everything is all said and done, I suggest you try it out and see what works for you. The things they’ve put in work well so the user experience is pleasant and intuitive. The best kind of beta tester is a vocal one, so make sure you post your thoughts here and let the developers know too!