Look Out YouVersion, There’s a New Kid on the Block

Everybody I know uses and loves YouVersion.  It revolutionized online (and offline) Bible reading when it hit the scene.  Up to that point, most online Bibles had the look and feel of an old Geocities site.  [Old geek reference]  YouVersion changed all of that with a slick interface and all sorts of features.  The corresponding mobile phone app, which was equally well done, helped to further push YouVersion into a category all by itself.

A little competition never hurt anyone though and that’s why I was happy to learn about Just1Word.  It’s a new site that will certainly give YouVersion a run for the money.

Just1Word has a great reading interface which lets you view the Bible you’re reading in either a one page or two page format.  It offers plenty of great translations and, just like YouVersion, it is very social media savvy.  It allows all sorts of social sharing via twitter, facebook and digg.  There are also tagging and commenting features for each verse or passage.

I really liked the cool “compare” feature that lets you quickly look at two more translations of the passage you’re reading without leaving your original translation.  This isn’t a full parallel Bible but it’s close.

The site also offers games.  Honestly, they look sort of lame right now but I like the idea and hope that they flesh this out a bit more.

Beyond all that, the site has a ton of widgets to choose from.  There are the standard “search the Bible” types but there are also some more unique ideas represented there.   The devotion widget, for instance, looks very cool and might give those new to the Bible a good starting point.  There are also some cool little marketing campaign style widgets with a “What’s Your Word?” theme that’s interesting.

The site has apps too!  There are apps for both the iPad and the iPhone.  The apps offer an offline mode which is very important and they let you customize a lot of settings.  Just1Word also offers mobile versions for both Andriod and Blackberry.

All in all, I’d say that it’s a very capable site.  It will be fun to see what new ideas, features and innovations come out of the Just1Word camp over time.

You can check it all out here.