Do you really need more than 10 lines to tell people everything about you?
I recently signed up for a new service called MeeID. It launched Sept. 4 and already has 1,000 users (I was somewhere in the 900s). The minimalist MeeID gives you one page to add a photo and write 10 lines about yourself (you can also add 10 favorite MeeIDs). I couldn’t even think of 10 things to say. Ya, I’m that boring.
Then I heard from its creator, Bronson Taylor, who must be sitting around waiting for new users to join. He said MeeID loves OC – to get me to blog about it probably. He also offered to answer any questions.
Bronson says MeeID is what would happen if Twitter, Facebook and StumbleUpon had a child. I’d say it’s more LinkedIn mixed with a bit of delicious and smidgen of friendfeed thrown in. I immediately thought of it as an online business card — just enough information to figure out how to reach someone.
Bronson told me that MeeID started because he had bronsontaylor.com for several years but hadn’t done a thing with it. One day, he created a simple page with his name, photo and 10 lines/links about himself. His brother helped him turn it into a tool that anyone can share. So far, 1,070 IDs have been created. It even has sponsors (Animoto is an affiliate link) who are mostly limited to 13 characters per ad (”…We are in discussions with other companies about monthly ads based on CPM [cost per thousand] We are expecting over 200,000 page views for our first month,” he said).
I like MeeID’s minimalist design and overall simplicity. My life is cluttered enough. My only gripes so far is that I have to continuously log back in to change anything. And after I do change something, there’s no easy button to see the results. I’ve either got to go back a page and refresh, or type in my MeeID again.
Right now, it’s a pet project for Bronson, a full-time youth minister in Florida.
“Hopefully it will be a pet project that makes real money so that I can invest my time in the things that matter most to me. I’m planting a new church in 2009 and my share of the profit will go toward funding my ministry,” he wrote in an e-mail.
And it looks like other Orange County users are also checking out MeeID. Bronson sent me a map of recent California visitors to the site. Click map for a larger view.
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