ShareThis, a social media one-stop shop for sharing content and ideas with other users, has just launched in public beta the ShareThis Live Stream, a new real-time updated stream that marries content from across the Web with conversations taking place on Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites.
Drawing from activity taking place on any of its 130,000+ publisher sites, the ShareThis Stream aggregates content and user reactions being shared across the Web. ShareThis seeks to not only create a stream which will help users find the latest interesting content being discovered on the Web, but also to foster conversation between friends with similar interests.
In the same way that they can currently embed ShareThis widgets on their sites, publishers will soon be able to embed the actual stream in a similar way, offering developers more advertising opportunities.
"People share content, interact with friends, and get their information about the world through several disconnected places online, which often leads to fragmented discovery of quality content and limited conversations," said Tim Schigel, CEO of ShareThis. "We live in an era of content overload but sharing has the power to cut through that overload by surfacing the stuff we really care about. The ShareThis Stream takes sharing to the next level; sharers and receivers can now connect around content and conversations in one place, either on our site or, soon, publishers' sites."
Eventually, ShareThis hopes to be completely integrated with Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Microsoft Live.
The Mountain View, CA-based startup says it reaches over 400 million users across over 130,000 Web sites that use the sharing widgets created by ShareThis.
The most prominent competitor for ShareThis is AddThis, a very similar company with a slightly larger reach.
ShareThis has raised $21 million to date with the help of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Blue Chip Venture Company, DFJ Mercury, Reservoir Partners, Illinois Ventures, Queen City Angels and RPM Ventures.
