Let’s face it, there are entirely too many social networks out there. In fact, there is a whole cottage industry of companies who try and help keep your online presence in check by organizing all your networks and presenting information in an easily-digestible manner. A leader in this arena on the iPhone is HootSuite, and as of today the service is now available on the iPad.
HootSuite allows users to keep track of Twitter updates, Facebook and Foursquare check-ins without having to constantly jump between apps or visit multiple websites. The service fully integrates almost all of the features of each network without the extra hassle of using their “official” apps. Also, the extra real estate afforded by the iPad creates room for more columns, so prepare for absolute information overload.
HootSuite has been available on the iPhone for over a year so it’s great to see the app finally available for Apple’s tablet. Nearly all those who have tried out HootSuite have loved it, as it does a great deal to help sort out and categorize what could otherwise be an overwhelming amount of Tweets, status updates and check-ins. If you can’t keep things straight now then maybe it would be wise to unfollow a few people and trim down your Facebook friends list. Come on, you never talk to half those people anymore anyway, are they really still your friends?
The larger question raised by the need for services such as HootSuite is have we taken the social networking phenomenon too far? HootSuite only currently supports three social media sites, but there are plenty more where that came from. We’re nearing the point where we all spend so much time cultivating our online image that we have to wonder what sort of hit our actual social skills are taking. Are we just creating a new way to communicate, or have we forgotten how to actually talk to one another? I don’t have time to answer that right now, I just got an @reply and need to follow-up.
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