LittleFishBigRiver Review

Over the weekend I took a look at a new social networking site. Called LittleFishBigRiver, the idea is pretty simple: do a good deed or see another doing one, post it on the site. Their mission is to get 50 million good deeds posted by 10 million people in 2007. It is a nice concept.

As co-founder Scott Kurttila states in the news release, “We’ve tried to create something special that no one else is doing by translating the power of social networking into a greater good through the collection of inspiring, random acts of kindness that often get completely overlooked on the daily news. It’s time to balance out what we read on a daily basis and we hope to be the destination for those wanting to see that good does happen — because it happens a lot.”

Other notes from the release:

They brought the idea to life for the first ever social networking site focused on recording kindness. LittleFishBigRiver.com is a worldwide collective effort to restore faith in humanity. The site’s users can post acts of kindness they have done or received then see how they add up worldwide. The founders were looking for a way to contribute something to society and allow others to easily do the same. True to the idea of giving back, 10% or more of advertising revenues are donated to charities such as Mercy Ships and ONE.org.

Issues

I really only have one major issue with the site. That is the design and the usability. The home page is absolutely overwhelming. Check my screenshot and video below. Loads of navigation, tag overload, way too many buttons on the left, just too many choices and colors and text. The advertisements appear to be added after the design was complete because they look out of place.

I noticed another small issue. It appears they “lifted” or “borrowed” parts of the Terms from MySpace. From what I can tell, most of the terms page is unique. Click the link in Part 8, Privacy Policy. It takes you to the Privacy Policy for MySpace. Oopsie.

Conclusion

The LittleFishBigRiver concept is good in that we focus so much on the negative in press and in the media. This site offers a way to focus on all the positive things we do (big and small) everyday to help our fellow man or woman. I think the site has a bright future if they would increase the usability of the site.

Screenshot