(Updated 9/18/15)
Being a blabber-mouth has never really had a positive connotation. I believe many of my elementary school teachers might have considered me a blabber, which wasn’t something to be proud of! Now I’m happy to be a blabber.
New things in technology are shiny for many of us. Those of us who are keen on the latest tech typically want to check something out right away to see if it has value. I thought Meercat was genius. And then Periscope came right on the heels—also great. But now? Now there’s another new kid on the block & I think this kid has staying power!
Blab’s a new live-streaming platform that’s still in beta, but so far, so really good. Mashable said it’s like Periscope for a group of friends, which is a good analogy. The first one I got on was a group of friends trying to figure out how it works. It felt odd to have people watching us without anything compelling to say, but we had 6-7 viewers at one point.
It’s a Little Buggy Still
– I found it impossible to click the link to our “scheduled event” (from Facebook) to the app on mobile. Two of us on our call had the same issue with it asking us to download the app when we already had. I was then stuck in an infinite loop, unable to get back to Facebook until I closed it and re-opened it (so I bailed and went to the desktop). >>(FIXED)
– I was able to get on it on my desktop after some stumbling (again, clicking the link to the event from Facebook), but it didn’t give me the choice of what Twitter account to link from. Many people have more than one Twitter account they manage, so that’s a link that will be crucial to clean up (does it use the one you were on most recently?). >>(WORKAROUND – Make sure you were in Twitter on the account you want connected before logging in to Blab, as it seems to pick up the latest cookie)
– One of our attendees really struggled, and initially also looked to be joining us as her employer’s Twitter avatar, but eventually got it worked out as herself (unlike myself)… And another was able to chat and listen, but was unable to “take a seat.” >>(Still issues w/connectivity sometimes, but they’re working through them, and sometimes they’re user-connection problems)
– On the mobile app the chat window displays at the bottom (on desktop it’s on the side), and when I made a comment I couldn’t figure out how to get the video squares back? I could still hear the presenters, but I couldn’t see them, so I bailed out of the blab. >>(FIXED! Click “Hide”)
Some of the Awesome 
– Four people can have a video conversation where they get visual cues for whether they can step in and
speak. I enjoy this much more than many experiences with GHO where whomever is speaking (or making noise enough for the mic to hear it), takes over screen ownership. Caveat: I’ve never done a GHO on-air, so it might work similarly, but I’m told this is *much* easier to use.
– You can use tags to narrow down a search of blabs you might like to get into.
– Listeners and blabbers alike can ask questions and partake in a side IM/chat while the blab is going on—there are many great comments & side-convos taking place there.
– You can record the blab and make the archive available if you want (the person running it is in control of that).
– The person running the blab is also in control of who can “take the seats,” and that can be switched around throughout the blab to enable different people to hop on and off.
– Blabs can be scheduled, and the topic is displayed on their site where others will see it and can subscribe to it, in addition to being able to share the link with people who you’d like to attend (and on social, of course). >>(UPDATE: The original link is the replay link, and if you subscribed you will get emailed the link, which is awesome if you couldn’t make it!)
– It’s still so new that plenty of great features and fixes are on the way—but making any blabs private is NOT in the plans. The purpose of Blab is to be able to blab with the world, gathering people in on conversations who might not connect otherwise.
I sat in on four different Blabs on Friday, and I’m SO intrigued for what this could mean. I’m pumped to attend an #EventProfs blab on Tuesday morning (9am PST)—I learned about it because someone saw me on the blab as my client & tweeted at me about the blab. My head is spinning regarding the possibilities this could have for my clients in our marketing efforts. >>(UPDATE: Just ran my first EventCollab blab, and it was awesome!)
Just when we think we’ve seen it all something unique comes along. I love technology! And I’m pumped to be a blabber-mouth again in an environment where it’s encouraged.
Check it out: Blab.im
P.S. You click those little hands to give what they call “Feels”… Props when you like what someone is saying. >>(UPDATE: They’re now called props.)