Amber and Leo
May 30, 2006
One of my favorite podcasts is Inside the Net with Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte. They have a special chemistry that comes from working with each other for an extended period and the topics they cover are mostly cool.
Note that I say ‘mostly’. In a recent show, the pair interviewed the creators of ClaimID and I think someone should be vetting the subjects if this is the best they’re coming up with.
While ClaimID is a good concept, its strengths can be accomplished without more online, Web 2.0 garbage.
In a nutshell, ClaimID is a service site the puts up a page for you. You use this page as a clearinghouse for ‘approved’ comments, work, links, other pages, myspace accounts, portfolios and more. But when I say clearinghouse, all this ClaimID page is, is a collection of links to pages that you have approved as being accurate.
You can also put a listing of links to pages you DON’T authorize.
While this is cool for a celebrity who wants to maintain control of his or her identity, it’s not so important for Joe and Josephine six-pack.
Amber stretched a little and appeared enthusiastic about how the service/site could be used to help you put a good image out there for companies, HR pros and potential dates. But google already does this.
Sure, ClaimID collects all your ‘good’ links in one place, but you can do that with a blog or with your own page. In fact, there are so many services out there now that give you space and a starter page that you can just use that as your personal ‘approved’ link location.
The only benefit would come from being able to send people to a site that is purely references to materials on the Web about you. But again, google does that.
So, until you can prove to me that I need yet another site on top of the approved ones below, then I’m all set and won’t be claiming ClaimID anytime soon.
Jeff Cutler
Novel Ideas
Laura and Tony Investigate
Wompatuck
Blogger Blog
A Life of Play podcast
Things to Worry About – coming soon
Bowl of Cheese – of course
More to come…
