Since the PiPress put @jojeda's story on the release of the social media app Clove I am helping to launch with partners Craig Condon & Tim Erickson, here is the text of the story:
Clove looks to spice up the Web
Social-networking app will be 'open'
By Julio Ojeda-Zapata
Social-networking services like Twitter and Facebook have spawned a dizzying array of software tools to make these services easier and more powerful to use. And with apps such as TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop starting to dominate, prospects for upstarts are increasingly uncertain.
Clove, a social-networking app being developed in Minnesota, aims to stand out with a novel approach: It will be "open" in the sense that any outsider will be able to augment its social-networking capabilities.
Clove, due to be officially offered in test form next week, will initially give users access to their Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as multiple RSS feeds. Support for more services, like Flickr, is coming.
But things will get much more interesting, developers Craig Condon and Tim Erickson say, when Clove developers begin to combine or "remix" information from two or more social networks or other sources.
In one example they've been concocting, product specifications from the gdgt.com social-networking site for gadget lovers would be blended with pricing information about those products via BestBuy.com.
Condon and Erickson have built a company dubbed Spice Apps upon Clove and other apps, all named after spices. There's Basil, a Web-based audio player in development, and Ginger, a Web video player.
Condon and Erickson are getting marketing help from a third partner, Kim Garretson, who intends to release themed versions of Clove in partnerships with other companies. One themed app in development is dubbed "Living Home" (named after a CD-ROM-based publication from more than a decade ago).
This variation of Clove would pull in decorating, design, remodeling and gardening information from a variety of Internet-based sources and display them within the application.
Clove is not the first Minnesota-born social-networking desktop app trying to make a splash this year.
Skimmer, developed by Minneapolis-based Sierra Bravo for Minneapolis-based Fallon, has integrated access to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Blogger. Skimmer, like Clove, is built atop Adobe AIR software that permits the apps to work on almost any computer, such as a Windows PC or a Macintosh.
Julio Ojeda-Zapata can be reached at jojeda@pioneerpress.com and 651-228-5467. Follow twitter.com/jojeda.
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