Facebook + Twitter + Flickr + LinkedIn + Blog + RSS + Email + IM = Interesting, but a messy user experience

I use a whole set of services these days: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, blog, email, instant messaging. I have multiple blogs, I also have multiple email accounts and multiple instant messaging accounts and I make extensive use of an RSS reader to gather information together. I really enjoy them all, that’s my personality.

There are multiple integration points between some of them, there are multiple ways that I express myself (Flickr, Facebook, blog, Twitter). There are also multiple ways that I can make and receive comment (Facebook, blog, Twitter) without including direct communications on email and IM. There are multiple ways of me being notified about these communications (email, IM, RSS).

As a technologist this is all very exciting, but as a usable system of tools for anyone else, it’s a bit of a messy user experience.

Let me give you some examples:

• If I want to write a message to someone I can use my email, IM or Facebook.
• I get comments on my twitterings in Twitter and on Facebook.
• I get comments on my pictures in Flickr and on my blog and also in Facebook.
• I get comments on my blog posts on my blog and via email and IM.
• I can post a picture to Flickr or to Facebook, or even both. I’ll then receive comments in both.
• If I get a comment I will be informed by email or by my RSS reader, or both depending on the system.
• My LinkedIn contact list is different to my Facebook contact list, and my email or IM ones. I actually want the lists to have different people in them, but I don’t want to have to maintain the same information for some people in three or four different places.
• I know a lot about which of my blog posts get read, I know a little about which of my pictures are popular on Flickr, but I  know nothing about the number of profile reads that my Facebook has receive.

I regularly want to say “don’t comment there, comment here instead”.

I have developed a way of working that allows me to push out a whole set of information and to receive a whole load more back in return. Others have developed a their own way of working, differently. Many people only see a small subset of my working, others see a more holistic view. People react in the way that is massively influenced by their viewpoint and context. If they see a picture in my blog, why shouldn’t they comment in my blog, it seems like a perfectly sensible thing to do from that viewpoint. They have no idea that I would rather they comment on my pictures in Flickr. They may well have no idea that the picture is hosted in Flickr anyway.

Having these different systems gives me lots of flexibility. This flexibility means that I will put up with the niggles. But I do think that I am getting to the point where I can’t actually add anything else in, unless I take something out.

I can’t imagine proposing this working practice to a corporate customer. I think that over time we will start to consolidate some of these different capabilities into more generic services.