Yoono, a Feature-Packed Firefox Plugin

Yoono is a plugin for your blog that can drastically help improve the experience that you have connecting with people that are friends with you on various social networking sites. Beyond the fact that a large part of blogging is connecting through multiple networks, you can also take into account that this tool makes it easy to share links, images, and videos, as well as update all of your “statuses” at once.

Quite similar to the set of features included in Flock, the social browser built upon Firefox, Yoono is still different as it gives you a wider set of features with an interface and makes it easier to perform common tasks with your social networking.

In a brief overview before we get into a more in-depth discussion:

• Stay connected with your Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, AIM, and other networks/utilities all in one place.
• Update your status across all your services at once.
• Share links, images, and videos across all your networks.
• Real-time updates to ensure that you stay updated.

The process of installing the plugin is like every other. Simply click the link on the page to download it and then you’re ready to begin using the extension.

Although the plugin does reside in the sidebar, you shouldn’t have many problems with screen space, as you can collapse it fairly quickly, taking up only slightly more space than the usual browser.

Greater than the fact that you can instantly chat with others is the fact that it can help you discover new “stuff” such as videos, photos, and more throughout the web, helping suggest sites when you do web searches that others also enjoyed. Highlight words on the page, or simply bring up a website that you would like to find related sites and searches for. Click the magnifying glass in the sidebar, and web links, images, products, the Wikipedia page(s), and more will be displayed, great for people who want to explore more.

What’s more is that when you do find something you like, you can simply drag-and-drop images, video, and other forms of media into the area, connecting with others. It is important that you first sign into each of the services, to make them available when you to go share them with others. Otherwise, you will be limited in what you can do with the service/add-on.

Most reviews of the plugin state that it is the best social plugin available for the browser, which is a good thing, as there are quite a few available. The one thing that I didn’t notice for some time is a small text link in the bottom, which functions as an advertisement, but again, it took me some time before I even noticed it.

The plugin is compatible with most versions of Firefox, although the Internet Explorer version is still in “beta” at this point.