Do we need a social media 'operating system'?

Start-up Pip.io creates new site for browsing Facebook, Twitter

Social media is rapidly changing the way we use the Internet – but will its growing popularity necessitate a fundamental change in how we browse the Web?

Keeping track of Facebook and Twitter probably isn't that difficult for most people, but one start-up is arguing that a whole new operating system is needed to handle these social sites and all the applications developers are likely to build on top of them.

Facebook, Twitter becoming business tools, but CIOs remain wary

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Social media is rapidly changing the way we use the Internet – but will its growing popularity necessitate a fundamental change in how we browse the Web?

Keeping track of Facebook and Twitter probably isn't that difficult for most people, but one start-up is arguing that a whole new operating system is needed to handle these social sites and all the applications developers are likely to build on top of them.

Facebook, Twitter becoming business tools, but CIOs remain wary

The start-up's name is Pip.io, and it has just moved from a private beta to a public beta, boasting that 10,000 people signed up for the private beta. Pip.io is led by CEO Leo Shimizu, a 24-year-old entrepreneur who has founded seven small start-ups.

In a phone interview, Shimizu explains his "social operating system" concept by noting that a traditional operating system is basically a software layer that connects third-party applications with hardware resources. In a similar way, Pip.io connects developers to social resources, with a platform letting them create apps that build upon or improve social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Pip.io also gives individual users a single screen in which to view and interact with the applications, and tools to "selectively communicate" with friends without broadcasting messages to all of cyberspace.

Pip.io's system, which is accessed within a Web browser, isn't exactly an attempt to replace Windows (though even Microsoft is building links to Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn into Outlook). But Shimizu hopes Pip.io will become the first destination for people who use multiple social networks.

Pip.io's public beta announcement claims the service is "better than Facebook [and] better than Twitter," but in reality the company is trying to improve the way people use Facebook and Twitter, not replace them.

"Any Web application can become a third-party app within the Pip.io ecosystem," Shimizu says. "99.9% of the time we can enhance it."

Shimizu says one of Pip.io's main concerns is privacy. With social networks you often have a choice of sharing information with everyone (through a Facebook or Twitter status update) or just one person (through IM or Twitter direct messages). Shimizu says Pip.io makes it easier to selectively share content with some people but not others. For example, you might be able to leave private replies to public comments on Facebook.

Pip.io also lets users create either public or private "rooms" in which to share content. Users can subscribe to rooms to get updates, similar to following a Twitter list.

The usefulness of Pip.io will depend on at least two factors: how many developers build applications for Pip.io and how many people use it. Facebook itself doesn't work natively in Pip.io – a developer has to build a Pip.io version. And the private reply scenario Shimizu mentioned only works if both the sender and receiver are using Facebook within Pip.io.

Pip.io's development team built video chat into Pip.io, as well as five mashups based on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Netflix and an RSS feed. The Netflix application, for example, takes Netflix's live streaming capability and allows friends to watch a movie simultaneously on different computers, Shimizu says.