MegaBuzz and Sodahead.com: Social Polling for the Masses

Ever wonder if anyone else is thinking what you're thinking? Wonder no more with two recent launches that bring polling and community together.

MegaBuzz, which beta launched 20 March, creates a game framework around its polls to create more buzz. Users can create their own polls or picks, gaining points for others taking polls or making choices in your picks, with any buzz item created that gets 500 or more players earning an automatic prize. Other ways to win prizes are entering the Daily Challenge and winning the weekly drawing. Prizes range from $20 gift certificates to $1.00 per MegaBuzz point. Users can comment on polls whether they cast a vote or not, and also see what other MegaBuzz community members voted the same way, showing you members who think similarly. You can also add friends to your profile, allowing you to follow polls of those on your friends list.

Sodahead.com also provides a social polling experience without the game framework. With many of the same features, Sodahead.com also promotes social polling. Sodahead.com allows a little more freedom in the creation of polls, allowing their “SodaHeads” to add graphics to the polls, have a blog on the site, and rate other Sodaheads' polls, blogs, and votes.

While both sites can suck you right in with the ease of voting and the lure of certain topics like “Will Al Gore Run for President in 2008?” it's more difficult feeling like a part of the community. Both sites have a competitive aspect, with popular polls and members having prominent placement on the site, but the features that make it quick and easy to plow through numerous polls in one sitting are the same features that keep it from having a true community feel.

MegaBuzz, which was founded by several former members of the Expedia team, plans to add future functionality to provide gathering places on the site for like-minded members. Sodahead.com seems to be attempting that with the blogs, but with the prevalence of blogs just about everywhere else, it seems like a tough sell. Both sites might benefit more from a widget approach to allow members to add their current polls to existing blogs, linking back to the sites to encourage more discussion.

Sources: BusinessWire, StartupSquad