Ping.fm: update everything

June 12, 2008 2:23 AM

Ping.fm lets you update your social network statuses, blogs and microblogs simultaneously from one place. The current sign-up beta code is "tastyping".

Plus you can configure it to update only certain sites, so you can get it to update only Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook if you want to change your status; or only Twitter, Jaiku and Pwnce if you want to microblog; or only Blogger, Tumblr and LiveJournal if you want to update blogs. Services currently supported:

Bebo
Blogger
brightkite
Facebook
hi5
Jaiku
LinkedIn
LiveJournal
Mashable
MySpace
Plaxo Pulse
Plurk
Pownce
Tumblr
Twitter
Xanga

posted by nthdegx (28 comments total)

Rock on. This bypasses the broken-for-weeks-now twitter IM service on which many other twitter-related services depended.
posted by datacenter refugee at 2:41 AM on June 12

Related: Pingomatic has done this for years, but for yer grandads webloggy stuff, rather than this newfangled social network human-collection MMOLOLPG that all the kids are into these days.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:45 AM on June 12

No, pingomatic tells directories that your blog has been updated. In some cases this may aggregate the content from your blog on a public page over which you have no control, I grant you. Ping.fm is different in that it is pushing content to and publishing it to your pages on the services listed above.
posted by nthdegx at 2:52 AM on June 12

This is awesome. But I don't know: using this thing I'm basically giving to these guys all my usernames and passwords. I don't know them: what if they are the worst coders in the world and they left all kinds of backdoors? That seems risky to me, but probably I'm just being paranoid.

(oh, and someone should point out the fact that MMORPGURSLOL were invented before blogs)
posted by darkripper at 3:14 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]

When this becomes a Firefox add-on, my balls will explode with awesomeness.
posted by Jofus at 3:18 AM on June 12

That seems risky to me, but probably I'm just being paranoid.

Being paranoid is the new sanity. And I ain't kidding.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:24 AM on June 12 [3 favorites]

Since Twitter's jabber server has been down on and off for, oh, since I started using it, I think this might be the way to go.
posted by bertrandom at 3:33 AM on June 12

It's safe for Facebook at least, because it works as a facebook application, which means it has only the same access to your profile as other apps, not access to your login credentials (you have to log in to facebook separately).
posted by jacalata at 3:57 AM on June 12

Ping.fm is different in that it is pushing content to and publishing it to your pages on the services listed above.

I done told you kids I don't know what the hell yer up to these days with all this twitbooking and friendfacing and yer attentionwhore deficit disorders.

Also, if it doesn't ping, why the fuck did they call it ping.fm?

MMORPGURSLOL were invented before blogs

Well, duh. Did I do that right? MMOLOLPG stands for Massively Masturbatory Online LOLplaying Game, by the way. I guess that was a bit obscure.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:19 AM on June 12

Sorry. Mutually Masturbatory Online LOLplaying Game. My brain, she fart.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:24 AM on June 12

So let me get this straight. This site manages other sites that are so important they need to know exactly what you are doing every moment of your life, but not so important you can be bothered to log in yourself?
posted by DU at 5:30 AM on June 12

[ethereal voice]
Go outsiiiiide! Go outsiiiiiiide!
posted by i_cola at 5:31 AM on June 12

This site manages other sites that are so important they need to know exactly what you are doing every moment of your life, but not so important you can be bothered to log in yourself?

"Manage" isn't really accurate--it's more like it provides a shortcut. Let me guess. You also don't use RSS feeds and a feed reader. Wait, no, you still set your VCR to manually record your shows instead of using a Tivo (and heaven forbid, an online interface to it). Don't forget to note on the cassette the tape counter number. You might not be able to find your episode of The Wonder Years later.

In my day we visited all of our websites one by one and paid people money to do it, goshdarnit!
posted by artifarce at 6:09 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]

Ping.fm took off last week because of one thing: Plurk becoming a Twitter substitute. Plurk still doesn't have an API that allows you to update it the way Twitter does. Thus, you can't update both at the same time.

Go outsiiiiide! Go outsiiiiiiide!

Most of the people I know who use this stuff ARE outside. They're updating from their phones.

Meanwhile, all you snarkpuppies are posting comments inside, from your computer. GOOD JOB!

I done told you kids I don't know what the hell yer up to these days with all this twitbooking and friendfacing and yer attentionwhore deficit disorders.

They're spawncamping on yer lawn. Oh, wait, let me Twitter that:

OMG I AM SPAWMCAMPING ON @STAVROS LAWN I R SPECIAL PYRO!
posted by dw at 6:24 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]

Blogs have statuses???
posted by smackfu at 6:48 AM on June 12

I'm all up in the RSS and torrents (you still watch broadcast TV?). I'm just not clear how having a central clearinghouse for telling everyone "IMA GO POOP NOW BRB" is really all that earthshattering.
posted by DU at 6:50 AM on June 12

Also:

MetaFilter: a central clearinghouse for telling everyone "IMA GO POOP NOW BRB"
posted by DU at 6:53 AM on June 12

Ping.fm took off last week because of one thing: Plurk becoming a Twitter substitute

People using Plurk? (Go Toronto! Go!) It seems much messier than Twitter, but since it is up all the time and not slow as sin, it's certainly got something going for it.
posted by chunking express at 7:03 AM on June 12

chunking, while the "horizontal timeline" display is unique, I mostly use Plurk in mobile mode, where it displays as a faster, neater, more conventional linear stream.
posted by brownpau at 7:32 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]

One advantage plurk has over twitter is that each update becomes a thread that people can respond to without spamming the main timeline, so it encourages more social interaction.
posted by nthdegx at 8:02 AM on June 12

> a central clearinghouse for telling everyone "IMA GO POOP NOW BRB" is really all that earthshattering.

Find better friends.

This is a complaint not unlike early critiques of blogs. Just because they're in public doesn't mean they're directed publicly -- something that can have bad consequences if your friends are fond of announcing their poops or posting compromising photos of themselves on Myspace. People who use it to keep in touch with people they already know, exchanging snarks over current events, asking for help, offering help, making dinner arrangements, and other things that are mundane but don't actively involve bodily functions.
posted by ardgedee at 8:37 AM on June 12 [1 favorite]

Unless you mean it's not important because it's not technically significant. In which case you're confusing geekery with usefulness.
posted by ardgedee at 8:40 AM on June 12

Hey, I haven't heard from DU since he went to go poop. Can someone check on him?
posted by cortex at 9:19 AM on June 12 [2 favorites]

People using Plurk? (Go Toronto! Go!)

Ping.fm is out of Tulsa. That was a shocker.
posted by dw at 9:36 AM on June 12

I'm just waiting for the Ning interface.

because then I could...oh, never mind. I think I need more coffee.
posted by catlet at 11:12 AM on June 12

I'm watching Twitter fill up now with things that aren't really Tweets. Formerly quiescent, thoughtful Tumblr feeds are now carbon copies of their owner's other feeds. Great.
posted by sidereal at 12:37 PM on June 12

COOL. Cheers.
posted by chuckdarwin at 2:17 AM on June 13

People who use it to keep in touch with people they already know, exchanging snarks over current events, asking for help, offering help, making dinner arrangements, and other things that are mundane but don't actively involve bodily functions.

You know you're describing non-blue metafilter right?
posted by darkripper at 2:11 PM on June 13