January 02, 2011

Facto.me: Oversharing of Mild Secrets Made Simple

In the spirit and vein of Formspring and Three Words comes a new service, built practically overnight, that begs for you to share with your social graph something they might not know about you. Designed in less than 24 hours by Kyle Bragger @kylebragger, Facto prompts users to share facts about themselves and get a reaction from friends. Share what you like, big or small, and fill out the small corners of your social profile people didn't already know from your online activity.

With Facebook practically cornering the social graph with your past connections, and Twitter and others vying for your day to day real time updates, Formspring has become a platform to take anonymous questions, while Facto! turns the process on its head, as you supply the answers to questions unasked.

Some Early Facto Entries on Me

What you share is up to you, of course. Kyle, for example, explains that he often dreams in German. AJ Vaynerchuk admits he can't ride a bike, while Spencer Schoeben says he has seen Zoolander at least 15 times. I've only added a few items thus far, but have attempted to keep the same level of triviality.

By sharing a random fact about you, your connections are requested to say what they thought, by clicking one of 7 potential button choices, including "I knew that!", "Didn't know that", "Me too!", "Awesome", "Whoa", "Weird!" and "Boring". Theoretically, you want to stay off the boring list, but thus far, no stats are being kept to prove how truly boring you are, so far as I can tell. And if you do click any of those buttons, the avatar you've selected to use on the site is displayed, so your answers are not exactly anonymous.

Social feedback on Facto.Me

If the rapid rise and viral nature of Formspring and Three Words is any indication, Facto.me could see thousands or hundreds of thousands of people quickly signing up to tell you things about themselves you probably didn't know. The simpler an app and lower the barrier to entry to participate, the better it seems these days.

Want to get facts about yourself out there so you can control the rumors? Start off at http://facto.me. My light profile is here: http://facto.me/louisgray/.