What I Would Like In a New .Mac Service

One of the rumors for next week is a re-launch of .Mac, Apple’s ISP-like service. While there isn’t much fuel behind this rumor, it does make sense as .Mac is ripe for change.
So, basically, here is what .Mac currently does:

  • Email: Use a @mac.com email account.
  • Web Hosting: Set up your own Web site, blog, podcast, or whatever.
  • Photos: Create photo galleries
  • Remote Sync: Store copies of your contacts, calendar, etc. online
  • Storage: Upload files to share with others. Maybe use as a remote backup solution.
  • The problem is that most of these can be done on other services for free. Sometimes better. But each of these services has the potential to be a best-in-class with a little improvement.
    What I would really like to see is all of these tied into each other in a social network-like interface. One reason to not post photos to .Mac in favor of Flickr is that people use Flickr like a social network — checking in on their friends’ photos. On .Mac, it is like posting to your own isolated site. No one will know you posted new photos without getting a reminder from you.
    But what if .Mac worked like FaceBook, but with a Apple interface. You could post photos, blog entries, status updates, audio and video etc. And people in your social network would see it. Maybe people in other social networks would too — for instance if you could link your FaceBook account to your .Mac account. Or have an automatic Twitter message sent out.
    So that is my wish for .Mac. Improve everything slightly. Then tie it all together and connect everyone.

    Comments: One Response to “What I Would Like In a New .Mac Service”

      Daniel
      16 years ago

      I Agee. I like .Mac in syncing my iPhone and Mac's but for sharing with friends and family its a pain. I would like to see it support twitter, MySpace, flickr and so on. Sites others know and already go too.

      I would also like to see video e-cards added. Most macs have cams and gramma might like the video over an e-card anyway.

    Comments Closed.