May 29, 2008
Peter Weinberg is the CEO and co-founder of Slingpage, Inc. The company has created a social browsing application that gives users the ability to instantly share content on the Web. By integrating with your browser, Slingpage lets you "sling" Web pages to your friends and allows you to view the same page simultaneously. It also provides integrated chat functionality directly in the browser. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Weinberg about some of the aspects of Slingpage as well as the company's future plans for the application.
With today's social-centric Web atmosphere, Slingpage definitely seems like it will fit right in. What separates Slingpage from the bevy of content sharing tools that are already out there?
Sharing content with Slingpage is rich, active and instant - it's Instant Web Sharing. With Slingpage, people can instantly sling (share) any Web page directly to friends with a single click, without ever leaving the browser. It's much easier than cut and paste link sharing, which requires several steps and toggling between the browser and email or IM. In addition, we foster conversation around shared content, through in-browser chat (in the Slingpage sidebar) and an innovative feature for annotating pages with personalized notes. Because the ability to comment and share is integrated into the browser - the application we all use all the time to experience the Web - Slingpage turns the entire Web into an opportunity for social sharing.
Is Slingpage free to use? If so, will it always be free?
Slingpage is free and we expect it will remain free.
What is a Slingcast and how can a user promote their own in an effort to meet new people with similar interests?
Similar to the email metaphor, Slings between friends are treated as private communication. Slingcasts provide Slingers with their own micro-blog, where the author creates a topical sling feed of their favorite Web pages, and instantly distributes these with concise text commentary to a subscribed audience. Currently, any Slingpage user may create and/or subscribe to any Slingcast. We also make it easy for Slingcast authors to promote their Slingcast. Aside from inviting friends to follow their Slingcast via email and Facebook notifications, we also provide a promo tag. Slingcast authors can place these tags anywhere on the Web. So for instance, if you have a blog - you place the tag on your blog. Your blog audience then has the ability to join your Slingcast. Slingcasts are great for bloggers - with a single click - you can send your latest post to all of your subscribers instantly.
As the inventory of Slingcasts build - we will provide mechanisms to match specific Slingcasts against likeminded Slingpage users.
How will the Slingcast browser chat work?
Our chat supports multi-user sessions. We also provide the convenience of a single click that results in a Sling to every user in the chat. We are currently working on a feedback mechanism - this will allow Slingcast subscribers to comment on the Sling - and those comments will be reflected on our Website dynamically.
