In terms of user interface and pure intuitiveness Socialthing! is the winner, it has a classically web two-dot-oh interface; very clean, very ajaxy - a UI that really puts Ping.fm to shame, not that Ping.fm is bad to look at, but it is painfully unintuitive even for a beta release. FriendFeed on the other hand I would describe as basic, yet intuitive although perhaps slightly behind and would be saved if it were announced to be a beta release.

FriendFeed really compensates for its basic interface with its functionality, which in comparison to the competition is excellent. There are 33 different services that can be subscribed to, these include ones as basic as subscribing to an RSS feed - something that is very useful. When compared to Socialthing! with its 6 services and Ping.fm with a mere 5 - FriendFeed comes out on top, having said that, FriendFeed is the only one without beta status.

One thing that Socialthing! turned into for me was basically just another way to update my Pownce status, and there are much better ways to do that, namely, their Adobe AIR application. Socialthing! is the only member of our trio to allow you to actually post to all your social streams at once, although this feature is inherently flawed, posting your status to Pownce isn’t the same as posting it to Facebook and updating your status to both services at a time requires some inventiveness like, dropping a capital letter at the beginning of your post - thus making your Facebook status look ‘right’, but making you look partially illiterate on Pownce.

FriendFeed has some unique features, such as imaginary friends - this enables you to name one of your friends, and link up their social networks etc to their imaginary profile, which is updated whenever they make new updates even though they don’t have a FriendFeed account. Also, being able to have your FriendFeed updates all compiled into one RSS feed or emailed to you at the end of the day really sets FriendFeed apart.

So to summarize, if it is a nice UI you want, choose Sociathing!, if it is lack of intuitiveness in the UI whereby you don’t quite ‘get’ it, choose Ping.fm. However, if you will compromise on the eye candy and want something highly functional, I think FriendFeed really is excellent.