Medium Makes Web 2.0 Large

Have you ever wanted to share an experience in surfing with a friend? We used to do this a long time ago by messaging a URL to a friend, and boy were we impressed with the feeling of “sharing”, or looking at the same page together. Surfing the web has been an exclusively individual experience in the past. We do it every day, and because of our conditioning towards it, seldom even think about the millions of other people out there doing the same thing.

Intrinsically, this does not seem to be a negative thing, but in a world torn apart by so many variables, it would be nice to experience surfing as a community or mutual experience. Well, because of a company called Me.dium out of Colorado, this is now wholly possible!

Me.dium is an innovative startup company that is determined to change the way we browse the Internet. Me.dium is essentially a Firefox extension that allows the user to visualize a little more of the world outside (or around) their individual browser. Users can see friends browsing, watch the browsing activities of others and chat with people anywhere in their path. Me.deium will be available as an IE 7 add on soon, and I asked Dean Steadman - Director of Community Management, why IE was not supported now. Dean replied that: “Our startup came about before IE 7 was out, so we had to go ahead, but IE 7 will be supported in late February.” Dean led me though some of the bumps and turns (which were not frequent) in my first Beta visit to Me.dium today.

Several blogs and the DEMO 07 convention have reported on the testing. Many people have had concerns about security and recording click-streams, but Me.dium is extremely concerned with security. I actually had not considered the issue myself until I was surfing with Dean and noticed that the icons on the map (what I called counterstrike radar) changed each time a user went to another web site. I noted that the icons changed to a default mode where you could not follow a selected user to that page and I asked Dean about the security. He told me that the privacy settings reverted to “auto” when a user enters a secure site, which I found to be true in every case I tried.

Me.dium is powered by a XMPP people matching engine that relates the community's activity to an actionable data base, according to Jabber. XMPP is the obvious choice because it is the only real time technology able to allow Me.dium to scale, extend and maintain an interactive platform.

About Me.dium - Medium was funded by Spark Capital and Appian Ventures. Current competitors (though not direct) are StumbleUpon, OthersOnline and Yoono. Me.dium operates out of Boulder, CO and the CEO is Kimbal Musk.

My Take

I just used the term “poster child for Web 2.0″ yesterday for another fine example of innovation, so I am at a loss as to a definitive cliche for Me.dium. Medium goes large? Whatever term is used, this is a state of the art tool with great potential. Everyone who has tested this Beta has described it as a little freaky! What they are referring to is the sensation of watching other people surf around, follow you, and each other on the map (or radar). Talking with Dean, I had this weird sensation too as I watched him and others navigate to the sites I was at. As we navigated and discussed things about Me.dium, the little “freaky” feeling came over me too. It is difficult to describe, but the feeling is sort of like dejavu. 

The design and function of this site are so well thought out, and the seamless transformation from normal web browser to Me.dium is so cool, it is downright awe inspiring. Everyone should test this new browsing tool, it is simply too ethereal to describe in words. Dean also told me that they are unveiling a new 40 blade server that should help support the traffic this site is going to generate. I really can't say too much about Me.dium or the people I met there, Dean was extremely helpful, and I got the impression that these guys are in this as much for the satisfaction as anything else. This is where true innovation comes from. You gotta take your friends here!

Below is a screen shot of me working inside Nexo (which I reviewed yesterday), with the Medium bar and map to the left. Theoretically, my group could be working inside one community chatting and watching each other work at the same time! I gotta test that.