Don’t Step in the Hot Mag.ma!

By Jimmy Rogers (@me)
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

When social media first emerged, it was more or less a chaotic system where the most popular content floated around through many, many blogs and websites.  Nowadays, though, a majority of that content is hosted on the “big names” of video storage: YouTube, Vimeo, and others.  This makes finding cool new videos more predictable, but you still have to jump from one site to another to get everything.

Magma is trying something new. Instead of trying to convince content producers to host everything on their site (a battle most everyone loses to YouTube), they simply use the pre-existing embeddable players from each big site and put everything together in one place.  This has been tried before, but what makes Magma special is ability for users to create their own accounts, share a feed of favorite videos, and follow what other users are watching.  If you’ve ever used YouTube’s profile and “friending” features you’ll understand why there’s some space for improvement.

Personally I’m interested in Magma, not only because of all the potentially great community tools available, but also because of who’s responsible for it: Rocketboom.  I’ve been watching Rocketboom’s video podcast for YEARS and, in my opinion, they really “get” the web as a social space.  Watching the following video, they really convinced me that there is a hole in the heart of the web into which Magma fits perfectly.

Already I’ve found myself using the easy bookmarklet almost daily.  I like how it can even recognize videos embedded in regular blogs! If you’d like to follow me on there, check out my page on Magma.

What do YOU think of this new social network?  Will it soar or flop?  Leave a comment!!!