Flux Adds Content Sharing And Embedding; Quietly Building Excellent Platform
Flux, the new distributed social network that was created via a partnership between Viacom and Social Project (formerly Tagworld), has been busy since their September launch.
Flux is a “distributed” social network in the sense that publishers can plug it in around their existing site, effectively bolting a social network onto their existing communities. Viacom continues to add its hundreds of website properties to Flux. But dozens of unaffiliated third parties have joined, too (such as Winelibrary). See a list of many of the participating sites here.
Today Flux launched the first key part of their platform called fshare. In general its a way for sites with video content to allow users to share that content by placing it on other sites. See the 50Cent site for an example, and click on any of the latest videos on the bottom left of the page. Then click on the fshare button. You can then add the video to various social networks, or just add it to your list of favorite content. Friends from any Flux network will then be able to see that content in your “news stream” and add/share it themselves.
Ok, so sharing content in this way isn’t exactly rocket science. But seeing it in action shows the value of a decentralized network where each community has a stand alone community and culture but where members cross pollinate content around the various sites.
The key point in Flux’s growth with come when they turn on the self service mechanism and let sites join the network at will. That’s promised for sometime this year, so we won’t have long to wait.