Google Plus, Foursquare, Pinterest and the reboot of Myspace have all been lauded as the new real deals and yet most have fallen vastly by the wayside when compared to their big rivals in actual real deals Facebook and Twitter. So imagine how disbelieving I was when I heard the words 'This site is the next big thing in social media' said about the shiny new thing that is Pheed.
Pheed.com started off on dodgy grounds for me. I, like most other people with souls, tend not to believe anything that is said by someone who works in marketing, so the fact that a self proclaimed marketing expert was the man who sent this site my way made me instantly cautious. This is a similar problem Google Plus encountered during its much trumpeted launch last year; it wasn't friends selling the idea, it was people who were being paid to do it.
However, despite that, I remember where I was in 2005. It wasn't on Facebook or Twitter, it was on Myspace (here I am: http://www.myspace.com/r_andom) and before that I was on Bebo (I did well enough to remember my Myspace login, Bebo was a step too far.) While on Bebo I was told about Myspace and thought, 'Nah, this will never catch on.' and a similar thought entered my mind when I was told about Facebook. I'd been proved wrong both times so I thought I would give Pheed a go. After all, why the hell would a marketing expert tell me a lie?
So I signed up. The first thing that troubled me was the name. Pheed, one can only assume, it taken from the idea of a news feed, something Facebook is now synonymous with. Changing the spelling and claiming it as something new seemed a bit lazy and I'm not overly keen on the way it sounds. This could be due to the bad memories I have of owning goldfish, or it could just be bad branding. Either or. The second thing that troubled me (and this is the start of a decent list, buckle up) was that it very quickly brought up the subject of money. The best things about Facebook and Twitter and the reasons why they have become so hugely popular is that they are free unless you absolutely want to spend money on them. I don't know any individual who has ever wanted to 'sponsor a story' or 'promote a tweet' and for the most part even brands can get away without splashing the cash, so for Pheed to give me this option straight away caught me a little off guard. It even mentions cash subscriptions when you search for it on Google. Very eager.
From what I have learned it seems you can, if you want to, charge people to view your content. For example if I wanted to see what infamous woman beater/ singer Chris Brown was talking about I would have to pay $2.99 for the privilege. I passed. I can see how the rich and famous might get away with this idea, but for people like you and I who just like to have a platform to put our opinions on I doubt this will ever take off. Would you pay to see what I say? Of course you wouldn't, that's why only 12 people brought my book. (Here, if you're keen http://www.amazon.co.uk/Those-Who-Remain-Ash-Billinghay/dp/1471635996/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1 )
Money worries aside, the actual design of Pheed is quite nice. It's got easily recognisable symbols for all the stuff you can do and you can import your existing background and profile images from either Facebook or Twitter, giving you that warm feeling of being somewhere you already know. The layout is very similar to Tumblr. It allows you to post more than just a short, character limited update and instead promotes the idea of sharing bigger content such as pictures or music. Of course there are all the usual options on how to offer feedback (or, annoyingly, Pheedback) too. You can 'love' something, you can 'not love' something and you can 'keep' something, Pheed's alternative to the Favourite button. It's all very familiar, which while easy to understand also gives the impression that perhaps Pheed didn't put an awful lot of effort into making themselves stand out.
The main problem, and what ultimately proved to be the main problem for sites like Google Plus, is that none of my friends are on Pheed for me to talk to. The reason I go on sites like Facebook and Twitter is to talk to people I know or read the words of people I'm interested in. Having spent a week on Pheed and despite following a number of famous people the only noise I seem to be picking up is that of the Pheed marketing team which, after a while, becomes tedious. They're trying hard, bless, and they keep trying to get me engaged by asking me questions or telling me to 'love' something if I feel a certain way, but so far it's not really done the trick.
VERDICT
It's basically Tumblr but with more annoying features that have tried to cram the 'Ph' branding in.