Thing Labs

Thing Labs was an early consumer social-software startup founded in 2008 by Jason Shellen (previously a product lead on Blogger and a co-creator of Google Reader at Google). The company built browser-based social tools including Plinky (daily writing prompts), Brizzly and the Brizzly Guide (a web-based Twitter/social client), and Let's Be Trends. Backed by SoftTech VC (now Uncork Capital) alongside angel investors, Thing Labs was acquired by AOL in September 2010, after which Shellen became VP of Product for AOL's AIM & Messaging group. Thing Labs no longer exists as an independent entity and publishes no public developer portal, documentation, OpenAPI/AsyncAPI, or machine-readable API surface; this profile is retained as a portfolio-lead record for the API Evangelist network.

Thing Labs is profiled on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Company, Social Software, Consumer, Web Applications, and Acquired.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

5.0/100 minimal ▬ flat Agent 0/100 human only Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-08-21 · rubric v0.12.0

0 APIs

Company Social Software Consumer Web Applications Acquired Defunct

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-08-21 · rubric v0.12.0

Composite quality — 5.0/100 · minimal

Contract Quality 0.0 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 0.0 / 20

Access Clarity 0.0 / 20

Operational Transparency 0.0 / 13

Contract Governance 0.0 / 12

Discoverability 5.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 0/100 · human only

Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/thing-labs: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

Source (apis.yml)

aid: thing-labs
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source: []
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/thing-labs.png
name: Thing Labs
description: Thing Labs was an early consumer social-software startup founded in 2008 by Jason Shellen (previously a product
  lead on Blogger and a co-creator of Google Reader at Google). The company built browser-based social tools including Plinky
  (daily writing prompts), Brizzly and the Brizzly Guide (a web-based Twitter/social client), and Let's Be Trends. Backed
  by SoftTech VC (now Uncork Capital) alongside angel investors, Thing Labs was acquired by AOL in September 2010, after which
  Shellen became VP of Product for AOL's AIM & Messaging group. Thing Labs no longer exists as an independent entity and publishes
  no public developer portal, documentation, OpenAPI/AsyncAPI, or machine-readable API surface; this profile is retained as
  a portfolio-lead record for the API Evangelist network.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/thing-labs/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- uncork-capital
x-tier: stub
x-tier-reason: portfolio-lead
x-status: defunct
x-acquired-by: AOL
x-acquired: 2010-09
specificationVersion: '0.23'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-21'
tags:
- Company
- Social Software
- Consumer
- Web Applications
- Acquired
- Defunct
apis: []
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-07-21'
  status: minimal
  artifacts_added: 0
  pass: local-v1

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