Introducing PIP.IO - What Google Wave Should Have Been?

The latest start up to gain my attention during the social media user rush is pip.io.

Based in Silicon Valley they are looking to be your ‘Social Operating System’, this isn’t just like aggregators out there that let you publish to Twitter or view your twitter stream within them.  pip.io provides full functionality for Twitter with it’s inbuilt Twitter client allowing you to follow/unfollow, view your lists, send DMs, view your stream, your mentions etc.

The problem with sites like this is that it’s difficult to explain fully exactly how cool the site is and I’d be here for ages explaining all of the features.  Graphically the site is beautifully designed, one feature that I like, but may be superfluous to a lot of people, is the app background which changes according to the time of day, gradually getting darker as the sun goes down and the stars come out.

You can initially add 15 friends to join you and each day you get 10 new invites, straight away this gets over the situation that a lot of us found ourselves in with Google Wave when you signed up and there was nobody to chat to.  It was like getting invited to a party where you were the only guest, the person who invited you may also be there but chances are you don’t know each other and an awkward silence ensued.

Another issue with Google Wave, which is probably a bug and may just be my account, is that it never shows anybody else online.  I have a green dot by my name to signify I’m online but rarely does it show others being online, even though we are chatting.  This has a massive effect on using the service as who wants to constantly ping their friends asking ‘Are you there?…..’?  Pip.io displays a nice green glow around your avatar if you’re online or red if you’re away or offline, even offering the ability to set custom away messages.

The homepage, or ‘ecosystem’ as pip.io like to call it, is where the main bulk of real time conversation occurs between you and your friends, these can be public or directed to individual or multiple users and enable you to share files, photos or links by clicking the relevant icon under the text box.  You also have channels to split your contacts up, useful for work contacts and your friends, as well as rooms for private chat by invitation.

One feature that has the potential for some interesting development is the ‘Global Updates’ option. Clicking on this will open up a Google Maps window and a floating window (all floating windows can be moved around and you can carry on chatting with windows open), as you move around the map the content in the floating window refreshes with user posts from that area.  As I said, this has a lot of potential, especially when pip.io goes mobile (as mentioned in the video below)

Just signed up and not sure what the hell is happening?  Fear not for there are lots of mini video tutorials explaining all the functions using Vimeo embeded movies, alternatively click here to check them out before you sign up.

You can see founders Leo Shimizu & David Chen discussing pip.io in a video interview with Robert Scoble below.

Personally this is what I wanted Google Wave to be, I’ve no doubt that Google may eventually get their act together but by then hopefully pip.io will have picked up steam and will have a thriving community using the site and building applications for the pip.io ecosystem.

Let us know what you think in the comments below