Zetify Launches ‘What Up’ Conversation Stream
Zetify, whom we’ve written previously about, has been doing some late night development and has announced their release of the “What Up” conversation stream (screenshot above).
Read more about their official blurb and my thoughts after the jump…
Here’s what they’ve got to say officially:
Zetify is happy to announce the launch of its newest Web app What Up, the first real‐time Christian Web app of its kind. What Up brings together conversations from major websites, blogs and more than 11,000 churches into one stream of updates. In less than five minutes anyone can get a feel for the pulse of Christianity in America.
The What Up app combines posts from the top social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as posts from popular Christian bloggers, announcements from churches, and prayer requests, in a continuous, easy‐to‐read text view.
Further, the What Up stream may be displayed in a map view to give visitors a visual understanding of where real‐time Christian updates are occurring in America.
Anyone can contribute to What Up by adding their own post and help increase the number of voices contributing to the Christian conversation. In less than thirty seconds, a church can post its Twitter account, a small group can post its Facebook page, or an individual can post a prayer request.
What Up has a powerful processing engine behind the scenes, constantly searching and selecting a wide range of data to organize into meaningful information. Several times a day it generates statistics on the top words used, Bible books referenced, and most vocal cities.
While tested and ready for public launch, What Up remains in beta mode, with Zetify expecting to add new features making What Up easier to use, more portable, and more integrated into the Christian lifestyle.
Honestly, I’m not really too impressed. I think, for example, that although it may show “conversations,” this isn’t really an opportunity for real conversations. I don’t expect much actual dialogue to occur (and I can’t find a way to do that anyway through the app).
In addition, there’s almost no context for the links and information pulsing through the stream and they have some graphical issues with browser sizes too.
I personally don’t have time to wait and see if something catches my interest so I won’t be using this application. As they’ve said on their website, “… it’s a fun way to spend 5 minutes.” … I, personally, didn’t even give it 5 seconds (although I was there along enough to capture a screenshot or two).
But, at least they’re pulling in some good content:
*smile*!
What do you think? Thoughts? Just another “neat” app that has little value otherwise? Am I missing something?
(Now, I know it’s in BETA, so I hope for some significant changes and updates!)
Buzz it!
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8 Responses to “Zetify Launches ‘What Up’ Conversation Stream”
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I checked it out, and I think the biggest thing that I do not like about it is all the twitter updates that are coming in are from churches. mainly these are not conversational tweets, they all consist of advertising their church or website. Lame
yeah, that's one thing I didn't enjoy much.
Agreed. Are there any Church twitter accounts that function a little bit like the CatalystLeader account? With more interactive material…I'd be interested in following them to see what they do.
Hey guys, thanks for checking out the app.
Sounds like the word conversation is causing some confusion. For the What Up app we consider a conversation an exchange of ideas, which in this instance is the posts from different Christians and churches. While the stream starts as a one way conversation, it allows the viewer to contribute by adding their voice via Twitter, Facebook or a blog.
Using the search box you can filter the stream many different ways including searching by keyword or location. I agree the tweets can become overwhelming but you can turn those off by clicking the twitter check box in the filter stream panel on the left hand side.
If you have any suggestions for improvement please let me know. I recommend spending more than five seconds on What Up to get a better feel of how you might want to use it.
Your brother in Christ,
Jeff
PS – Zetify is optimized to give the most people the best experience possible. This app in particular is built for people with monitors greater than 800×600. What Up also discriminates against IE 6 to ensure people with real browsers get a great experience.
Jeff,
Thanks! This is a good group and we'll probably be able to provide some good feedback. We know it's in stage 1 of many stages… so keep it up!
john
IMHO this is another attempt to "Christianize" something that already exists. I can use hastags and keyword searches in Twitter or twitter apps to find pretty much the same information.
I am of the camp that says, don't reinvent the wheel, use the wheels that someone else invented to do something awesome!
I have yet to find anything on Twitter (or the Internet) giving you the same mix of Christian content as What Up. I agree if all What Up did was show tweets it's no big deal, the last thing we need is another Christian copy cat.
The average person doesn't know what Christians around the country are talking about. The very fact you know sites like ChurchCrunch or ChurchMarketingSucks exist puts you into small demographic of Christians.
The What Up app enables the average person to see what Christians and church leaders are talking about without having an understanding of hashtags. Plus doing a search for "jesus" on Twitter usually returns junky results.
Personally I think it's neat to see what the body of Christ is doing around the country. Hence why I built the app : )
I do appreciate the comments, it enables me make the app more helpful to everyone.