Like MySpace, and Friendster before it, I don’t know what to use it for. I already have a blog (several in fact – you’re reading one now). I’m already comfortable with the weblog tools I use.

Why would someone with an existing blog start another one at PeopleAggregator?

They don’t want people to know who they actually are. That’s why someone would set up multiple accounts on multiple weblog, er ‘social networking’ sites with multiple ‘collections’ of ‘friends’. So they can maintain separate identities. Defeating the need to easily migrate between sites that Mike Arrington cites and a benefit to PA.

It’s true because, I couldn’t point any of my existing blogs at PA, or point it to existing URLs of photos of me – it wanted me to upload the photo (though ‘enter a url’ exists for Images). I had to got through the entire, annoying sign-up process, describing who I “am”…again. Why can’t I just point it to a URL that describes me (like I talk about on another blog). This is actually an incentive to to lie about your identity – it’s sure a lot more fun than re-entered that same damn info.

Once inside, the interface as a whole is as clumbsy and heavy-handed as MySpace. People that grok that will probably have no problem with PA. Me, I’m baffled. Why can’t it look like WordPress?

In fact – the current PA interface looks like a made-for-TV version of Slashdot.org or MyYahoo circa 1997. Lots of collapsable sections all with very strong header bars and very techie-looking color scheme. Every single form field has a border around it – and there are piles of them on every screen. A setting for this, for that – and nothing with a smart default. Argh.

Oh, look – place holders for Google AdSense and other ad banners and no RSS feeds. Hasn’t anyone at PeopleAggregator gotten the memo that the pageview model is dead?

Perhaps it could be useful as a download-able rather than hosted ‘social network’?
That’s one of the great things about weblog tools, there’s one that’ll work on almost any server environment – PHP, Perl, Ruby, ASP, Java. If you’d rather not muck around with your own install – there’s hosted systems like Blogger, TypePad, and WordPress.com. If PA was written in something other than PHP – say with Marc Canter’s Macromedia history – ColdFusion. Then I could see a market for a downloadable PA. But, there’s Drupal – so um.

After poking around for a while, I found 2 big things PeopleAggregator left out:

1. A reason to use it.
2. A ‘Delete Account’ button.