MeeHive

A few weeks ago I got an email from MeeHive asking me to check out their site. “I would totally love to,” I replied, “but I’m really busy playing tennis and not putting out any quality content.”

“OhMyGoodness,” they responded, “you can subscribe to tennis news on MeeHive, and we would love to talk to you about navel gazing.” Well, actually that’s not at all what happened, but it’s my fantasy, so leave me alone.

MeeHive is a site where you can take all your blog feeds, all your newspaper feeds and your general interests to combine them into one page, but ordered into tidy columns and categories. It’s a lot like having a newspaper that only has the columns you want, and the news isn’t a day old. The layout is clean and clear, the headlines will catch your eye.

When you sign up for MeeHive it asks you a series of questions. They start with business and finance (I entered Twitter, Facebook and Consumer Reports), then they ask you what politics you are interested in. I left that mostly blank. There are cities to fill in, sports, celebrities, performing arts, science, authors and more. MeeHive then takes all your interests and rolls them into a landing page.

Here’s one thing you should know about MeeHive. Unlike other online sites, it takes time. I kept adding topics and businesses until I found a manageable amount of information. It took approximately a day for my “hive” to really flow. I’m slowly adding topics and really enjoying that the MeeHive grabs AP content as well as MSM (Mainstream Media) content and slaps it all up on a page for me.

For instance, on Memorial Day I took a look at MeeHive and saw that a mother in the Midwest had fled Minnesota with her son who has cancer, and subsequently returned. Apparently an arrest warrant was issued when she took her child to New Mexico in search of alternative healing for her 13 year old sons’ Lymphoma. This is not a story I would have found in the LA Times. This is not a story I’d find with a google alert for “Cancer”. It’s a really cool, interesting story about a mother who was feeling desperate and a child who she wanted to care for. Did she do the right thing? Yes, she returned to Minnesota where he can receive chemotherapy, and have a chance at a full and healthy life.

I digress.

MeeHive also has a social media component with a Facebook plugin. If you’re my facebook friend you should find me right away on MeeHive and we can share stories? MeeHive is so new that I’m a little lonely there, I’m waiting to see what it’s like when you have friends to share stories with.

MeeHive will pick up where the Google Reader leaves off. I can read my favorite blogs, news stories and find a few surprise stories. If you’re a niche blogger it’s important to be up on the latest stories and reading the AP wire endlessly just isn’t practical.

The folks at MeeHive set up a page for y’all to get in on their beta, click through here to give it a try. Like any of the social media sites, it’s only as good as you make it, and I’d encourage you to try it out, because I want to see who and what you’re reading.

*MeeHive is a blog sponsor, and I decided to enter into a relationship with them after trying and loving the service*