Ever wondered what the top 5 restaurant’s in your area are? Maybe the top 5 movies to see this year? How about the top 5 places to take a vacation?
Let’s face it, we all love top 5 lists. They help us decide what we want to purchase, where we want to go, who we want to support, what we want to watch, and just about everything else you can think of. They are part of our framework. We all love to know what other peoples favourite things, and interests are. That’s where MakeFive comes in.
What is MakeFive?
MakeFive is a social networking website based around the things we like. It enables you to make top 5 lists on any topic, and then share them with the world.
MakeFive is built by the team at smashLAB in Canada, and has been around since 2007. It has drawn a small crowd, with some very active members. I signed up to the site myself and after playing around a little I really like the ideas behind the site. There is a lot of merit in the creation of a site which actually serves a purpose.
However things are about to change a little.
The New MakeFive
MakeFive is about to get a facelift, along with some great new features.
Firstly the addition of a user notification system. This has been a much needed feature of the site. Currently users have had no way of being notified if people responded to their top 5 lists. Therefore a user would need to log into the site to look at the lists they had created. If your anything like me finding the time to log into a site can be really difficult, especially if there has not been any updates to your posts. The feature should add great benefit to the site and will help keep users interacting with the site on a more regular basis.
Secondly people will now be able to post videos in their top 5 lists. I think this is a great feature. Sometimes a photo doesn’t really cut it. What if I want to rate something which just can’t be described by an image and text. e.g the top 5 film clips, top 5 dance moves. How can you do these things effectively without video?
There is no doubt that the changes will improve the site. There is also a new design to go along with the changes. The design appears to be a move towards making the user experience less confusing and easier to use.
The team is also working on improving other features of the site including the points system.
Users can accrue points for adding top 5 lists and responding to other peoples lists. The top 5 points holders for the month are then sent a t-shirt, and can win other prizes. However the system has not been perfect. People have been able to score points by submitting lists which hold little value or purpose in the community. Those users then go on to receive prizes which other users may deserve more.
I have however been told by the team that the issues are being addressed in the future and with the possibility of a community voting system to let users decide which people are being more relevant to the community.
Personally I am not sure if this is the best solution to the problem, however it will be great to see how it unfolds. Either way it’s good to see the team addressing this issue.
What about the technology?
Now for all those tech users. MakeFive is built with PHP using the Qcodo framework. Qcodo is an object orientated open-source framework which allows for ‘rapid application development’. It looks very flexible and a great framework for developing Web 2.0 style sites in shorter timeframes. The team at smashLAB have done a great job of integrating it into the MakeFive site.
What’s the future hold for MakeFive?
I had the chance to ask Eric Karjaluoto from smashLAB about MakeFive and it’s future, and this is what he had to say about the features to come.
“We’re eager to get some mobile functions working on this so that people can have good access to localized data. (For example, finding the top-rated pizzerias in an area on their iPhone.) We’ll also be introducing browser-based chat functions, which should fit nicely here, as it will allow people to mingle with others easily. Additionally, there are a lot of tools in the works to allow users to find people who share their interests and better connect with them.”
Personally these features sound great. I can see a lot of potential use for mobile features especially. Sometimes you just want to know where to go in the area where you currently are. If the guys at smashLAB get these mobile features happening I think the might be onto a huge winner.
Imagine being out and about, searching the top 5 restaurants, and then being able to select one of the top 5 restaurants which would plot to your map on your iPhone. You could quickly and easily find the best place to eat in your area. This could be a huge and exciting feature!
Final words
When social networking is gaining massive traction with sites like Facebook it is hard to see how a relative newcomer will make an impact. However the great thing about MakeFive is it serves a specific purpose which many of the other sites do not. If the new design works like I think it should, MakeFive might gain enough popularity to sustain it for the long haul. It has many possible uses, and the future mobile features are especially exciting.
If you want to check out MakeFive visit makefive.com and remember to watch out for the new layout in the next few days.
Also If you loved the post please Stumble It, and don’t forget to stay up to date with Enspri by signing up to our RSS feed, you can also follow me on Twitter.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 0 comments… add one now }