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What is Ello?
Ello (ello.co) is the new kid on the block. Initially created to be a private network between programmers and artists, ello is now in beta mode and ready for public consumption. Is Ello the new social media network for you? Read on to find out.
Invitation only
To receive an invitation you request one directly from Ello on their homepage, or receive an invitation from existing users (a la Gmail). Each existing user has five invites to giveaway.
Interface
True to it’s mantra being ‘a simple, beautiful, and ad-free social network’, Ello is truly simple, clean and quite elegant. There aren’t multi-columns of links and ads demanding your attention. Instead, on our homepage you will see the ello icon, which is to go back to your homepage and four other icons: to discover, invite, settings and the three parallel lines icon which is to hide the left column, leaving you with more space to view the current feed.
Friends vs Noise
Following individuals on Ello is broken down into two distinct groups: ‘friends’ and ‘noise’. While both serve your social feed, posts from your friends section show more detailed information, whereas posts from your noise group is more compact and summarized.
Limitations
Since Ello is currently in Beta stage there are many missing parts. With no mobile application, Ello can be only accessed via web browser. Also, there is currently no video support, so posting YouTube, Vine and Vimeo links is currently limited to just that – links.
While I haven’t had any issues with using Ello, there isn’t enough content and people for me to use Ello as one of my main social media accounts. There is also no way to use your email to see if other individuals in your contact list have already joined Ello.
Geeking out
Multi Grammy Award winner George Kahumoku Jr. is following me on Ello. Just saying.
Ello Manifesto
This is what makes Ello truly unique among social media networks.
Ello has the basis to be great. However, similar to Google+ in the early days, the lack of users will lead to many people getting bored and many inactive accounts. On the other hand, sharing and browsing on Ello without advertisements is a relief. The lack of content begging to be followed, clicked and liked is quite refreshing.
This is one person wishing that all of his social media friends would head to Ello.
Do you have any questions about Ello? Or any tech related questions? Tweet away @hawaiiinsomniac or ask via my YouTube channel.
