Sun Microsystems is not known for its social media offerings, at least not yet. Sometime ago Sun quietly launched Zembly! is a web-based mashup development environment that promotes itself as a web app and widget engine. One of our clients asked us to evaluate the service as a prospective mashup builder (similar to Yahoo interactive feed aggregator and manipulator - PIPES, ie)

Zembly supports a very decent list of API including offerings from Facebook, MySpace, Meebo, Orkut, Del.icio.us, Amazon AWS, Clearspring, Flickr, Google, Twitter, Yahoo (YahooTrip), YouTube, Weather Bug, Zillow, and Zvents.

System is still in beta so rest assured, much of this will improve (I hope). Here is my initial take on the overall web-based application (we haven't started development yet so expect more info in the future):

• Somewhat Confusing Process: The development process is NOT intuitive. After you sign up for the service you are left with no where to go (a tutorial would be a good idea).
• Poor Navigation: Use of language is a bit ackward. The primary navigation for example reads "you | docs | samples | search.." which is not intuitive, nor consistent. Secondary navigation is not great either! (Things | What's Happening | People | Inbox). This is usually symptomtic of software written outside the U.S., but I sure problem can be easily fixed.
• Bipolarism: Zembly tries to be BOTH a social network AND development studio. I would suggest they pick one..the latter. The application explains that the 'What's happening' tab lets you know what your contacts or friends are doing at zembly..do you really honestly think your friends are on zembly?
• Bad Wizard: The wizard was very confusing. Again a non-standard user interface and poor use of language (mixing general/confusing terms like tabs, widgets, services..) are to blame.
• Lacks Intuitiveness: Overall the UI needs to be more intuitive. Non-standard UI controls (such as the yellow bar at the bottom of the wizard that closes the app?!) and non-standard layout leave the user in an unfamiliar place, not knowing what to do.
• Over Socialized: The application appears "over socialized". It is simply packed with too many social media features that MAY make sense in a social media app but probably DON'T make sense in social media app builder! Your avatar, your rating, your thumbs up/thumbs, your news feed, tags, services, comments, actions, feedback, friends, ex-friends, wife, kids, employees..okay, I joking but social media feature creap can be overwhelming (and distracting)
• Good Concept: Concept, however, is great! Web-based mashup studio slash workbench! Next week will try to build some apps on the platform and we'll let you know how it goes.