Cliqset, a realtime online social identity platform is launching a new version of its applications: Cliqset 2.0.
The goal of the new release is to better organize the social web and make Cliqset the go-to “distributed social ecosystem,” says CEO Darren Bounds. One part of this is a full integration with Twitter, to allow users to message Twitter users who haven’t joined
Cliqset yet. Previously the platform only allowed you to interact with Twitter users who were also Cliqset members.
Cliqset has also made it easy to search for and follow users not only on Cliqset, but also on Twitter and Google Buzz. So when someone you follow on Twitter Tweets, you’ll see it in your stream on Cliqset.
Bounds says that sharing content is a key part of Cliqset’s feature set and because of this, the startup has added a real-time curation feature that allows you to create streams of content centered around a particular topic or interest that other users can subscribe to. The streams are updated in realtime and support realtime protocolPubSubhubbub so you can receive the content inside and outside of Cliqset.
As a whole, Cliqset is trying to move away from the comparisons to a FriendFeed clone and towards being a centralized place for your social networking. Bounds says that with the vast amount of online sites where consumers are socializing, there is a need for a decentralized social ecosystem and destination. Currently Cliqset has 55,000 users, which is up from 6,000 in November, says Bounds.
But while Cliqset has worthy ambitions, there are a number of other startups who have the same goals. Threadsy, Seesmic, TweetDeck, Brizzly and many others are also playing in this space.