Ethofy’s Eye On: Free Content Curation Products (Part I) January 26, 2012

Content curation is a big topic these days among social media enthusiasts, but there are so many to choose from. To save you some of the leg work I have made a few observations of sites that were suggested to me. I decided to sign up for Storify, PearlTrees, and Scoop.it and share my early impressions. I didn’t do a deep dive on any of the services, but I find that first impressions are usually enough to go on given the current state of the content curation scene. Free tools pop up all the time and there is a mad dash by the creators to sign up critical mass. The meaningful features that differentiate one tool from another are showcased front and center. Just like content, attracting eyeballs is the name of the game. Hiding innovative features too far below the surface of a low entry product isn’t doing anyone any favors.

Storify

Storify was my favorite of the three products I signed up for. They present you with all of the major areas where your desired content (pictures, videos, tweets, etc.) may live and then allow you to add it to your own content page. You even have the ability to add your own text. I was so interested in trying it out that I actually used the tool to get down some of my thoughts about this very post. If you are familiar with Flipboard then you can think of this as your page to collect the social content that you want to save and share with others. It wasn’t surprising to see that my finished page looked more like a blog post, but the ease  and flexibility of adding or removing sections makes this ideal for the bulk of my content curation needs.

Pros:

• Easy to get started
• Conveniently search multiple content networks (including Google).
• Simple drag and drop interface

Cons:

• Layout options are limited to a single column.
• Would be ideal if content could be more easily consumed from the search area. I found it tough sometimes to find exactly what I was looking (especially videos).
• Small UX bugs/issues including formatting text and scroll bars are distracting

Overall: This is definitely worth a look. As I was creating my first page I was already salivating at the prospect of having some of the Storify funtionality in my WordPress admin dashboard. A quick note about the overview video below. It is a bit weak as far as web videos go, but don’t let that discourage you.

Stay tuned for the next post of Ethofy’s Eye On when I will review PearlTrees.