Scopetech

Wallop is a social networking site, formerly by Microsoft, allowing users to share pictures, comments, blogs and music with friends: it’s nothing new, but what sets Wallop apart from other sites is the User Interface. Wallop is all in flash, meaning a unique user experience which just might be enough to get people to use it. (*cough*Mac Users*cough*) Kidding aside, there seems to be enough to get people using Mac or Windows to give it a try. Since this is a former Microsoft product and me being a Windows user, I felt pretty comfortable with the service.

Because it’s flash, you’ll find you can drag and drop items on the screen which will come in handy since sometimes, moving from one feature to the other leaves the previous feature’s box open if it hasn’t been dealt with.

This feature isn’t a bad thing, it lends itself to the Microsoft Windows user(and Mac too I guess), after all, imagine how annoying it would be if every time you opened a new window the other one would close.

To the left of your own profile page you’ll see your friends in little circles, at the top will be your profile picture meaning it’s easy to go back to your own profile at any point in time. To the right of that is the menu (left) which applies to the profile you’re looking at. For instance, if I’m looking at my profile and I click “friends” I’ll see all my friends as well as other people in the network, click on pictures I’ll see my pictures. If you’re watching someone else’s profile these functions will apply to them and to the top of the menu you’ll see whose profile it will apply to with their picture, name and online status there so you won’t get confused.

Along with the drag and drop features of the site, expanding menus are also a part of the site meaning lots of features can be implemented using minimal space, not to mention it just looks cool. Also, the gallery to view photos is slick though I can’t help but wonder if might just be too much, making less technical users prefer the simplicity of Facebook’s galleries.

Wallop doesn’t feature any advertising but makes money through purchases of “mods” which are little add-ons people can implement into their profile after purchase. Technically, users purchase “Wollars”, an in-service currency that will allow you to get Mods. This revenue model could work, micro transactions generate massive revenue as is evident with Habbo Hotel and Facebook, but the issue here is if people will want to pay for something like this. With Facebook, users are more than happy to pay $1 to send “gifts” which are essentially clip-art but they aren’t totally necessary and Facebook does have advertising to fall back on. If Wallop can make this successful is yet to be seen.

It’s a pity Wallop is a social network on its own, instead it would be interesting if something like this would be offered by sites like Facebook as an alternative way to use the site. Instead, Wallop will encounter the same problems that any social networking site will have: getting getting people to actually use it. As good as it is, I won’t use any site unless all 4 of my friends are on it, after all, that’s the reason for these sites in any case: to interact with friends.

We have a few invites to Wallop, leave a comment with your email if you want one and we will hook you up so fast, it’ll pack a Wallop(sorry, we had to).

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Social Networks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.