A new solution called “Molly” wants to gather information from various social media platforms and aggregate it under a unified profile meant to power a personalized bot capable of answering questions about someone. Founded by Chris Messina who created the now-ubiquitous hashtag symbol that groups posts on Twitter, Instagram and other platforms, Molly aims to make it easier for people to learn more about one another. Currently, if someone wants to know more about a person they just met, for instance, they would likely check that person’s various social media accounts, scavenging for bits of information that would help them get a better idea of one’s life, friends, habits, achievements, views, and other such data.
With Molly, however, the process would be more automated. Users can sign up for a profile with Molly, link their other social media accounts to the service, and answer various questions about them or ask questions about others. When someone asks a question about a user, Molly will check that user’s profile on online platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, or Medium, so it can learn enough to answer the question. Molly answers questions about someone based on what they told the service, and the social media profiles shared with the platform. If it can’t come up with a good answer about a user, the Molly app will ask the user to answer. The app has a list of the most popular questions people are asking or answering, but users can also ask other questions.
Answering more questions allows Molly to get a more comprehensive profile so it can offer more details to those who want to know them. At the same time, users also learn more about others who have answered the same or similar questions. Simply put, Molly aims to be a new type of platform that doesn’t impose the limitations of Twitter, Instagram, or others. According to Messina, current social media platforms may seem “antagonistic” at times, and Molly aims to focus more on people, what they’re looking for, and what type of information they need. Users who are interested in joining Molly and sharing their social media information with the platform can request a profile and start asking and answering questions. Molly already has some notable early adopters, including technology reporters, startup investors, and co-founders of Imgur, Product Hunt, and other companies.
