It can be a difficult task trying to manage all of your online identities that you use on the internet. Chances are you already own at least one email address, you are registered on a social networking service and interact with likeminded internet users via instant messaging and services such as forums.

Whilst there are quite a few tools that allow you to consolidate your online usernames and identities, one service that distances itself from the rest is Chi.mp, a service that does just that and also gives your own domain and website in the process.

I was lucky enough to gain a beta invite for this service a few months ago and have been actively using it so I could take advantage of it’s features but also review it for WillINeedIt. Chi.mp is now out of beta and available for all to use, this article aims to explain it’s multitude of features and how you can use it with maximum efficiency.

What Does Chi.mp Do?

Although I explained some of the features of Chi.mp above, there are a lot more features and services that they provide for it’s users.

As a member of a social network, you are part of a network of millions, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. The Chi.mp team like think of their service as being a portal to “own” your content, not just be a member. By registering with Chi.mp, you pull in all of your external interests, memberships and activities giving them a “home” on the web.

Registering with Chi.mp allows you to register your own .mp domain, for life, for free. This domain name is your website address, the portal that will bring in all of your social profiles and external content and give you the power to mash up and mix the content before publishing it to the world as you intended it.

Because your Chi.mp profile is your complete online portal, the team encourage you to import your online and offline contacts and merge them into an online black book. Adding these friends allows you to take advantage of “Personas” a system designed to create different versions of the “digital you” and control who sees what accordingly. If you wish to display more of a personal look to friends, corporate image to work colleagues, this is the tool for you.

OK, I’ve registered. Now What?

OpenID

By registering you will now have your own .mp domain. This is your identity, perhaps more than you might have realised. Did you know that with your domain, you now own and are able to register and log into sites that support the OpenID protocol? Well, now you do.

What’s OpenID?

OpenID is an initiative that aims to remove the need for lots of different usernames and passwords on different websites by using one generic username. An OpenID username can also automatically fill in personal information about yourself on new websites, aswell as protecting your password from ever being discovered by a third party website.

In short, you can use it whenever you see a site that supports the protocol. If you feel my explanation wasn’t clear enough, you can find a lot more information by visiting OpenID.net.

Once you have started using your Chi.mp domain as an OpenID login, you will be able to view and control which sites you have authenticated with and cancel any links you have with them at any time.

Dashboard

Your dashboard is the visual aid to getting the most of your Chi.mp experience. People who use services like Tumblr or Posterous will be familiar with the layout and will be able to share their media in much the same way. By having this feature, the Chi.mp team are hoping that you are able to immediately share your media and thoughts aswell as importing your other content from social networking websites.

Your dashboard will also give you the ability to see at a glance how you are using your account and display information on the services you have imported into it, as well as updating statuses also:

Services

We’ve talked about the fact you can import external services into your Chi.mp account, how about we show you what’s services you can import and how to do it?!

Clicking the “Content” tab will display a page similar to the screenshot above, giving you the opportunity to import a number of different services into your Chi.mp activity stream and contact lists. The services currently supported are:

• Facebook
• External Blogs/RSS Feeds
• Twitter
• Yahoo
• Flickr
• Hotmail
• Gmail

Once added, any activity on these services will automatically be imported into your activity stream for you to decide who gets to see what.

Personas

Personas are your tool for determining who sees what about you on your site. Each Persona can have its own theme, profile information, profile photo/avatar, and content. You can create as many Personas as you like. You can also assign and invite contacts to each Persona.

The level of detail is quite staggering, you can add as much or as little as you wish, allowing you to decide just who gets to see what.

Themes

Everybody likes to be able to skin their websites, Chi.mp recognises this and allows you to be able to do just that. Because your profile is your public page you display to the world, Chi.mp provide over twenty ways to theme your page, aswell as the ability to create your own:

Finishing Up

There’s quite a lot to take in when you first register but playing with the different settings will soon give you a sense of familiarity and comfort using the service. Once you have tweaked and tuned your profile to the smallest detail, you will want to share it with the world, you’ll be pleased to know that this is the easy part.

Sending friends, family and colleagues to your personal .mp domain is all you need to do. When they arrive at your site, depending on how you set it out, they will be able to see all of the websites you belong to, aswell as the best ways to contact you, even downloading a vCard so they don’t have to waste time copy and pasting your information.

It really is an easy way to share the information you want shared with friends online, you have complete control at all times so if you decide you are sharing too much of your online life, just remove the offending social service. You have the added bonus of using your domain as an OpenID username so even if you’re not one for sharing too much information online, you can still use it as your Swiss-Army Knife to login and register on other websites.

If you decide the service is something you wish to sign up for, why not connect with me? My personal Chi.mp domain is m4tt.mp, I look forward to connecting with you!