Many moons ago I heard about visual.ly which promised to be the upcoming place to explore, share, and create stellar infographics. They stated that they were developing a place that would allow a person to create stunning visual data without having a creative bone in the body. So, like any visually challenged fool I signed up and awaited the launch. Yesterday (after completely forgetting about it) I got the email saying that the site was up and running.
I headed over and signed up and for the first time in my entire life, I was able to secure the username MikeRamsey (thanks for the generic name mom) and once I logged in, other than a few minor flaws with the signup process, I found the site very interesting. So far they have 2042 infographics uploaded on their site, and a very solid social sharing system which is sure to bring a lot of social love.
But, the thing that stood out to me was the promise of creating infographics, and while they only have one current tool in their lab section it sure doesn’t disappoint. Twitterize Yourself is a way to either see twinfo about yourself… or twinfo vs. others. I couldn’t think of a better person to compare myself to than Google’s own Matt Cutts after he sharked his way through a pool game with me at SMX advanced…
(Photo by Thomas as Bulwark Pest Control )
So I decided to take him on in a data visualization match…
A few takeaways….
- I am way better looking as a cartoon character
- If given the choice between a record and a fork…. I’ll take the record 😉
- His gold shoes rock my socks right off.
- Matt Cutts is officially more interesting than me, and has a plethora of followers to prove it.
- Our favorite combined phrase is “sure happy..more awesome google :-)”
Well, in the “Me vs. Matt Cutts” smoker it looks like he has taken round 1 and round 2. Maybe next time…
@shanesnow did a fantastic design job on creating this scalable infographic solution. I am really looking forward to seeing what tools they come out with next. The only question that I have for visul.ly is this…If everyone can make infographics with the ease of a few keystrokes, then doesn’t that take away the true “awe” factor that makes these visualizations such great linkbait?