These days, taking a look at a Facebook news feed, Twitter timeline, or Instagram feed provides a sometimes overwhelming, disjointed, and out of context stream of consciousness from friends and follows. The era of microblogging, a term applied to these social media platforms that encourage sharing sporadic bursts of brief content, has provided a surge in our daily media intake.
UCLA grads Sasank Reddy and Jeff Mascia have attempted to change this current state of blogging with their young social media app, Kullect. Recently walking away with Best Startup honors at the Where 2012 Conference in an effort to organize the stream that is our lives.
A Kullect post can be a location (a la Foursquare), a photo, a 10 second video clip, or a 250 word message, which is the categorized into a collection that can be anything the user desires -- be it concerts, favorite restaurants, etc. This allows for not only friends who follow you to see patterns and trends, but also allows you to keep tabs on things you share.
Reddy, for example, explains his "Everyday SF" collection, which gives you a peek into his everyday life in San Francisco. “Every time I find something where I think ‘this really represents San Francisco,’ I put it in there,” he told Xconomy writer Wade Roush. "This collection may be a long, unfinished story, but it’s still a story."
Kullect was originally intended to be a collaboration tool, crowd-sourcing media from users into shared collections so that the app could satisfy queries such as "Where is all the graffiti art in my city?" However, the alpha testers deviated from that, feeling that their contributions were being lost in the sea of info. The creators went on the overhaul the app to instead focus on personal collections, though retained a collaborative option if users decide they wish to share their collections.
Kullect becomes yet another participant in the red-hot social media race, though perhaps the fact that there are now so many ways to share thoughts and photos is the reason for Kullect's existence. The app does show promise, and should be interesting to follow. You can find out more about the app by visiting their website, and iPhone and Android readers can download the app for free to try it out for themselves.