Branded Site Aggregator Nombray to Shut Down April 5th

Nombray, the project which looked to showcase all your individual or brand's destinations at a single URL, navigable by tabs, looks like it is going to find itself extinct as soon as April 5th, after the CEO was unable to complete the site's sale to a potential buyer at the end of 2009. Despite coverage from CNET, Lifehacker, Killer Startups and others upon its launch, the product apparently never gained the traction necessary to keep it going, although emphasis was on paid accounts with monthly subscriptions.

CEO Chris Lunt sent an e-mail today to users notifying them of the impending closure, saying the site was to shut down on Monday, April 5th, adding he wished "there was a different ending".

Nombray Will Be Gone for All Soon...

As I mentioned in my April 2009 coverage of Nombray, the site was very flexible, importing content from my various social media outposts along the Web and presenting them in one place - a site, which at least for the next two weeks, can be found here: http://www.nombray.com/users/305.

Lunt's note to customers spoke quickly of a potential buy that simply didn't pan out:

"I had arranged a buyer for Nombray in November, but after a long delay, they were unable to complete the deal. They could not marshal the necessary resources to run the business, and I find myself in the same position."

In the wake of Nombray's closing, Lunt pointed to alternatives, including Chi.mp and GizaPage.com. (Of note, I wasn't that big a fan of Chi.mp upon first glance at the end of 2008)

Sites come and go. Nombray no doubt had a hard time selling people on the benefits of a single site managed by their engine. The site is still up here: http://www.nombray.com/

Nombray Aims to Be Your Personal Brand's Central Web Presence

Many aggregation services take your personal content from the wide variety of social services where you are active, and put them all on their Web site - such as Socialmedian, FriendFeed and most recently, Facebook. Nombray, taking a different approach, looks to take all your data from those sites, and aggregate them on yours, essentially combining your blog, your resume, your LinkedIn, Twitter and other services in one location. And if you don't already have a Web site, they let you buy a new domain and get started. The result is a one-stop destination that features your content in tabs.

Upon signing up for Nombray, you are asked to import data from the major social Web sites. The service comes pre-loaded with Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter, for starters. And should you want to highlight a different site, just enter the URL, such as that to your blog, your Delicious bookmarks, your FriendFeed profile, etc. and it too can be added.


Adding different services through Nombray
The service is very flexible. Though I am not sure I want to replace my louisgray.com brand with something "Powered by Nombray", I liked the fact I could point these new tabs to the RSS feed from the service, or to the public page itself, offering visitors a clean look. And yes, you can of course select one of the many themes that are provided, to give your Nombray page a personal spin.


My Nombray Page - In the Blog Tab

My Nombray Page - In the FriendFeed Tab

My Nombray Page - In the Flickr Tab
Upon visiting the new Nombray site, you can navigate the different profile pages by clicking each tab, and Nombray promises the new site is extremely tailored for strong search engine optimization (SEO), helping you raise your presence in Google and other engines with the details you would like to show.

You can find my personal Nombray here: http://www.nombray.com/users/305