Profilactic mashups are now "lifestreams"
We've been working on Profilactic for approximately two years now. When we first got started, there was no such thing as "lifestreaming" or "social media aggregation." In fact, the first term/buzzword I remember getting thrown around was Marc Canter's use of "digital lifestyle aggregator."
We chose to call our aggregation feature a "mashup" because we were taking all of these various feeds and mashing them together. Clever, huh?
Anyway, fast forward two years. "Lifestreaming" has become the accepted term for what we called "mashups." In order to avoid confusion in what we're offering, we have changed our "mashups" to "lifestreams." Obviously not Earth-shattering news; however, I wanted to give a little background on where the original name came from and why we changed it.
Right now, we are still using "mashup" in our URLs. Over time, we will be changing those to "lifestream." Of course, when we make that change, we will make sure we set up redirects so that all of the old "mashup" links will still work.
So what do you think? Are we total sellouts for adopting the latest buzzword? Or does it clarify what we're offering? Leave a comment and let us know.
We chose to call our aggregation feature a "mashup" because we were taking all of these various feeds and mashing them together. Clever, huh?
Anyway, fast forward two years. "Lifestreaming" has become the accepted term for what we called "mashups." In order to avoid confusion in what we're offering, we have changed our "mashups" to "lifestreams." Obviously not Earth-shattering news; however, I wanted to give a little background on where the original name came from and why we changed it.
Right now, we are still using "mashup" in our URLs. Over time, we will be changing those to "lifestream." Of course, when we make that change, we will make sure we set up redirects so that all of the old "mashup" links will still work.
So what do you think? Are we total sellouts for adopting the latest buzzword? Or does it clarify what we're offering? Leave a comment and let us know.
profilactic
lifestreaming
aggregator
Comments:
I like mashup as I'm using Profilactic to mashup different types of content.
I'm not sure everything could be as easily and accurately classed as a 'stream of my life' i.e. my del.icio.us bookmarks.
Anyway, I don't think the naming is such a big deal. It will probably help to increase understanding of Profilactic services and that will be good for us heavy users.
I'm not sure everything could be as easily and accurately classed as a 'stream of my life' i.e. my del.icio.us bookmarks.
Anyway, I don't think the naming is such a big deal. It will probably help to increase understanding of Profilactic services and that will be good for us heavy users.
I certainly wouldn't call it selling out for adopting a term that aptly applies to what you are doing. Sure, you could call it anything you want (as you were with "mashup"), but the term "lifestreaming" seems to be taking hold just as "blogging" and "podcasting" did before it.
Nothing wrong with going, "Hey, that's the word that defines our service! That's what we do! Yeah, that's us!" and perhaps eventually becoming the de facto lifestreaming site in this crazy Web 2.0 world. Here's hoping!
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Nothing wrong with going, "Hey, that's the word that defines our service! That's what we do! Yeah, that's us!" and perhaps eventually becoming the de facto lifestreaming site in this crazy Web 2.0 world. Here's hoping!
