

'Private' social network Everyme (YC S11) takes on Facebook - olivercameron
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2012/05/private-social-network-everyme-takes-on-facebook/1

======
fabiandesimone
Oh man this brings back a lot of memories. Let me explain:

A few years back, we made a bet private sharing was going to be a very big
thing. I'm talking maybe 4.5 years back.

So we went and designed a product called Sharekoo.com which basically allowed
users to create private contexts where they could share any type of media.
These contexts were by invitation only.

Developing it took a lot of time because this baby was/is very complex and it
scales beyond belief. In the process we made an abstraction of the concept and
created a sharing engine so that we could use it for any product we could
develop in the future.

Sharekoo as product never saw the light of day (so many reasons that don't
matter for this post) but we had our engine so we hooked it up to an existing
PIM product and applied to Techcrunch50. We were invited to present in SF but
for personal reasons we couldn't make it.

Here's the demo:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0hx6L3ldWs&feature=youtu...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0hx6L3ldWs&feature=youtube_gdata_player)

After this, using the same engine we created Twitalbums.com which was private
sharing via Twitter. I actually did a review our startup here in HN:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1051311>

Here's a review RWW did for us:
[http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitalbums_private_coll...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/twitalbums_private_collaborative_content_sharing_v.php)

If you read the HN thread you can see how the conversation and the arguments
for Twitalbums (and previousy Sharekoo) private sharing and the selling
arguments of Everyme are basically the same.

We ended up putting the projects in stby, taking another direction but we kept
the technology and made it better over time.

This is a lesson in having idea and being way ahead of time (I have learned a
few more lessons and recognize lots of error along the way to) and being
patient.

Maybe now is time to dust off the old projects, paint a pretty face on them
and see what happens now :)

Exciting times ahead indeed!

------
hsshah
I like the value proposition of being private by default.

With a kid on the way, I expect to share lot of pics and videos to close
family members and I am in search of a proper (and private) solution to this.

However, before I commit to any service these days, I always verify what is
the company's policy and offering for user's private data. Do they allow you
to easily export/download your personal data?

Unfortunately, with Everyme, they have not mentioned anything about this on
their site.

~~~
jasonss
Disclaimer: I work at Facebook. I share photos and videos of my kid in a
secret FB group where I have to approve membership. It has worked pretty well,
I'd encourage you to try it!

<https://www.facebook.com/addgroup>

Alternatively you could create a list of all the people you want to see this
content and restrict visibility to that list when you post.

~~~
vnorby
Everyme is an app that works REALLY well on all platforms for your purposes,
not just pretty well. I would encourage you to give it a try. You might like
it better.

~~~
pork
I've used the Facebook secret groups feature and found it sufficient. Could
you elaborate on what non-trivial benefits you offer over those? As far as
privacy from the provider, it seems like I would have to trust you instead of
Facebook, which from my point of view isn't a huge net gain.

~~~
vnorby
Where to begin - first, our apps perform at least 30x better. Facebook mobile
apps sometimes lag for 30 seconds or more loading new content, ours is
instantaneous. Our app was natively built for all platforms. Second, we are
backwards compatible with email and text. I think FB might handle email
replies as well but text is huge on mobile and is a big deal for our users.
Third, we can build your groups automatically for you with Magic Circles.
Fourth, we are hooked into all major social networks and are constantly
scanning for interesting events occurring in your life. When we find those
events, we post them to your Circles for you (if you have the setting turned
on) - this takes the effort out of sharing. There's more but I encourage you
to try the app and see for yourself how much better it is.

~~~
subhro
Do you actually use the Push service? If you do, I would err with the side of
caution since it shakes up the battery pretty bad.

~~~
vnorby
We use APNS and C2DM, but you can turn them off if you're concerned.

------
gfodor
Google+ has the grand hypothesis that the simplistic and transparent approach
Facebook takes to sharing is not what the market wants. Instead, they say,
human nature is to have different personas when you interact with different
social groups. That you have different identities depending on who you are
interacting with.

This certainly is how it feels to me and those older than me. But to the next
generation, growing up with Facebook has forced them to have more singular
identities. Their Facebook identity and their person are one-to-one.

Google+ is doing the hard and expensive work of disproving this hypothesis for
you. Take advantage.

~~~
aufreak3
I believe there are a considerable number of these "older people" who'd
appreciate support for multiple identities. I think Posterous's "spaces" idea
is better aligned with the "multiple identities" concept than Google+
"circles" anyway. "Spaces" or "Facets" let me participate in the tech life of
a colleague without having to encounter the "I had X for lunch/dinner" posts.

------
barbazfoo12
Interesting how "private" is in quotes.

Maybe tech journalists, perhaps even their readers, are getting smarter.

So with this app you are letting one company, Everyme, collect and archive all
of your private data (to be shared with whom, and used for what purpose?)
instead of another, Facebook?

Well, getting away from Facebook is a start. Maybe your data won't be scraped
by non-advertisers. But it's still going to shared with third parties who will
try to profit from it. Why is this necessary?

We still have a long way to go.

Peer to peer.

No third party.

Cut out the middleman.

That is the easiest, most efficient and most sensible way to exchange photos
and have privacy. It's old, reliable technology that underlies the internet
itself. And it's ready and waiting until people's privacy gets abused enough
that they start demanding direct links to their friends, instead of always
involving third parties, whose motives and deceptive tactics are becoming
increasingly better known.

------
Terretta
This seems to hit a sweet spot between Path (share alike to a small group),
and Pair (share with significant other).

If I could import from Path (which must be possible, since there's a third
party Path "app" for Mac desktops), I'd switch.

~~~
waterlesscloud
I wonder how Path is doing overall.

I have intentionally not invited anyone to Path because the value in it for me
is a tiny tiny circle, and I don't really want to add anyone to it.

But I also check my Facebook and contact lists to see who has joined Path, and
beyond the usual list of very early adopters, there's been no one new in
months and months.

------
jwdunne
The web app looks great and I love how smooth the interface is (yet to try the
iPhone app).

I found, however, that it wasn't immediately obvious how to add friends to a
circle _after_ creating one. On the other hand, it didn't take long to
discover I had to click through to Manage Circles and then click on the circle
I'd like to add people too. The process took a maximum of 30 seconds but this
could be a lot quicker.

I have an idea though. What about having a button to edit the circle I'm
currently in? I think that'd make it much, much easier. Another idea would be
a small edit button when you hover over a circle when switching between them?
This seems like it would be a little easier to fit in with the interface but
would make it less obvious and could make that portion of the interface less
usable.

I've put together a quick 'n dirty example of the first idea for you:

<http://www.jameswdunne.com/example.jpg>

I'm not really a designer though so I reckon something better could be done
with more thought and skill (and source files rather than photochopping PNGs!)

~~~
vnorby
You're right, that is annoying. Thanks for the suggestion. Here's what we're
going to do. On hover on the Circles list, we'll swap out the member count for
an Edit link:

[https://img.skitch.com/20120517-gg1dd9n3ecy5882gd8335tap44.j...](https://img.skitch.com/20120517-gg1dd9n3ecy5882gd8335tap44.jpg)

~~~
jwdunne
Oh wow, that's great! I'm currently trying to get some of my friends on board
so we can use this. I think they'd appreciate the interface and the privacy -
which they all find quite jarring about Google+ and Facebook respectively!

------
pfraze
I feel like privacy regarding other users is a solved problem; it's privacy
with service providers that bothers me.

------
debacle
The app looks very good right now, but there are also no ads. Are you planning
for premium features or to introduce ads at some point in the future?

~~~
olivercameron
Thanks! No plans right now, we're just working on making Everyme a comfortable
place for people to share privately.

~~~
debacle
At some point, though, you'll have to monetize. If that's with ads, it's going
to make the usability of your app go down across the board.

~~~
olivercameron
We agree, completely! Traditional ads are not a good solution on mobile.

------
joejohnson
I would love to switch from Facebook to something like this. However, I would
probably be my only acquaintance on this new network :(

I already lost a ton of credibility when I convinced many of my friends and
family to try Google+.

~~~
olivercameron
That's the great thing about Everyme! Not everyone needs to be using the app
for them to receive your stories, because it's integrated with the address
book.

For example, most of my family don't use any social networks, but they all use
email. So I created a Circle with everyone's emails inside, and when I share a
story, they get a beautiful email with my photo inside. They can reply to the
email directly to comment on the story, and all keep in touch. We've made
email a first class citizen.

~~~
sunkan
If I remember correctly, you were going to reinvent the Address book on
iPhone. If I may ask, what was the reason behind pivoting from that idea to a
private social network.? Curios to know the reasons behind abandoning the idea
of building a better address book.

~~~
olivercameron
Check out this article, does a good job explaining our evolution:
[http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/04/12/the-story-of-
everym...](http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/04/12/the-story-of-everyme-the-
app-that-has-magically-packed-200k-people-into-17k-circles/)

------
barbazfoo12
You would be well-advised to read this company's Privacy Policy, especially
sections 6-9. It is a wonder they can use the term "Complete privacy" in their
website copy without any fear of liability.

------
thomaslangston
Why would I pick this over Google plus, or in addition to Google plus?

~~~
olivercameron
Everyme Circles are completely private, and everyone knows exactly who they're
sharing with, whereas Google+ Circles are a confusing concept.

Everyme also uses your address book to do some amazing things, like magically
create Circles such as family, co-workers, college friends, sweetheart etc.,
and then keep in touch with them using the address book (this means not
everyone needs the app!).

~~~
alexwolfe
What if I want some of my circles to be public and some to be private?

~~~
olivercameron
We don't offer public circles, since we're focusing on nailing private
sharing. We want people to feel comfortable, so having a public option adds
complexity.

------
sauerbraten
Is there a way to directly message a person I have in a circle without
creating a circle with only 1 person in it? This would be a very useful
feature I guess.

~~~
olivercameron
Not right now, we're focused on nailing the circle experience.

------
horsehead
I'm not sure if i'm social networked out or not. I'm desperately ready to
leave facebook because of the privacy dangers it poses (I got burned by that
once pretty bad). I also thought G+ would be a good alternative.

I might try something like this, as it's a novel method of social networking
-- JUST on your phone (where facebook has failed to come up with anything
worth using).

I'd say it has potential, but I'm also a little reluctant to try any new
social networks. All in all though, i'd say it looks promising.

edit: aw i just tried DLing it and it's only iOS 5. That's a shame. Any plans
to expand it to older generation OSes?

~~~
olivercameron
Thanks! Great to hear.

We understand the frustration of trying new social networks, but we hope
you'll give Everyme a try. We added "Export Your Data" today, which means you
can request an archive of everything you've shared on Everyme whenever you
like.

