Gravity, still in private beta at the moment, is a website that connects you with other people who have similar interests.  Basically, it’s a lot like a collection of forums, with the main difference being that you  can join conversations about a variety of different topics from the same website.

The Gravity website is divided up into general topics, called worlds. For example, there’s a world for foodies, a world for music, a world for gadgets, and much more. Even Jersey Shore has it’s own world, if you want in on that train wreck.

More worlds will be added in time, and it looks like users will eventually be able to create new worlds themselves, too. Right now, you can create a new conversation about any topic, plus you can follow (“orbit” in Gravity terminology)  as many individual people, worlds or conversations as your heart desires.

What makes Gravity stand out from a conventional forum? While the design on the site is nice,  more attractive and easier on the eyes than many forums, the main difference is that enabling you to connect to all of your interests through one site allows Gravity to build a picture of what you are interested in and how your interests change over time. TechCrunch has an excellent writeup of  Gravity’s analytics.

This data will be valuable to advertisers, of course, but Gravity could (and hopefully will) also use it to recommend new worlds and conversations that you might be interested in. If you have a website of your own, you will also be able to add Gravity widgets and such to provide your visitors with a place to converse and socialize.

Oh, and like Foursquare, you earn “Badges” for signing in and participating in conversations.  I’ve never been especially excited or motivated by the desire to earn badges. Perhaps that’s why I never joined Girl Scouts, instead joining Indian Princesses to make a mockery of Native American culture on a weekly basis with my dad and my little sister. But your mileage may vary- a lot of people seem to really enjoy earning virtual badges, so maybe I’m just weird.

For me, though, it’s not about the badges, it’s about the quality of the conversation and the information that’s shared. As long as Gravity is able to keep that up as they exit private beta and allow more users in, I’ll probably keep coming back.

What do you think of Gravity?

Our Rating of Gravity

Tags: Communication

Categories:social