Comments on: How FriendFeed could dwarf Facebook and Twitter

By: Sam Hamilton

Sam Hamilton — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:13:04 +0000

I like facebook for social networking and keeping track of my friends but its no bueno when it comes to discovering bands. I find the layout of myspace to be nauseating so I’ve been using http://www.putiton.com to find and follow new music acts.

By: Social Media Plex

Social Media Plex — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 08:59:43 +0000

FriendFeed is really a great service and this is the reason of its popularity and success. Twitter is good but it is not as specialized and stable as FriendFeed. I believe that people will quickly move from Twitter to FriendFeed because through FriendFeed they can better communicate with their friends as compared to Twitter.

By: engtech

engtech — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:38:58 +0000

If you like Friend Feed, you’ll probably be interested in my enhancements that add more features to it:

http://internetducttape.com/tools/#friendfeed

By: Chris R

Chris R — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:19:08 +0000

You have pretty much captured my thoughts.. I’m starting to become bored with Facebook and am looking back to twitter .. but I still can’t really see what Twitter is about .. follow takeabreak!

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:45:22 +0000

The problem I’ve found with facebook is that its core demographic is that of the late high-school to early-college student. That’s why all of the less necessary apps, like vampires, gardens, etc. became so overblown when the API came out, and it’s becoming more and more like a myspace-esque environment. I like twitter because of it’s simpleness – it does one function, and it does it well, and there isn’t much need for it to do much else. It’s meant to serve just the purpose of simple communication, and for that role, it fits well.

As for companion software, I have to say, netvibes has been my savior in keeping everything managed – facebook, twitter, rss feeds, searches, remember the milk, … all on one page, and easy to navigate.

By: pancho villa

pancho villa — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:49:30 +0000

Grok? Facebook? Twitter?

Who are you, Micheal J Fox? You sound like a teen from the 60s.

Grow up and get a proper job.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:34:13 +0000

FriendFeed is a great companion to Twitter, as is Quotably, but I like the FriendFeed format, where I can leave comments and have them posted to Twitter. It just needs to be able to directly post to Twitter.

By: Roger

Roger — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:21:49 +0000

Sure, Grok is a word from Robert Heinlein’s classic SF novel, Stranger in a Strange Land. It’s more or less synonymous with “understand” or less formally, “get” but most people are less concerned with the formalisms of English than with clear communication, which is much more important, of course!

For more, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok

Back to Twitter… I enjoyed this account of how use of social networking tools evolved. Documenting such experiences is crucial to understanding how this space will itself evolve and consolidate. I haven’t looked at FriendFeed, but will give it a try, given this write up.

In terms of Twitter, I have found it to be an amazing experience. To me, it’s absolutely key to choose carefully who you follow. It’s impossible to keep track of hundreds of Twitterers, so picking and choosing is crucial. I’d like the app to evolve to the point where we can choose to follow the dozen or so that are Twittering about our topic de jour. For example, one day we might want to see what people are thinking about Google Adsense, on another day the Iraq war, or social media. This would take search to a different place altogether.

Related to Sol Young’s idea, my concept of Twitter is that we are experiencing the “collective conscious”; similar to the Jungian concept of collective unconscious. This ability to tap into the raw conscious thoughts and feelings of people so immediately is unprecedented and as yet unequaled by any other social networking experience. That’s the power of Twitter. Follow me! http://twitter.com/Jungleman

By: Sol Young

Sol Young — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:50:39 +0000

I’ve been trying a new approach on Twitter and have begun thinking of Twitter as a stream instead of a conversational element.

FriendFeed is somewhat the same, as it is a flow of information as well. I think it could become the “River” you speak of (assuming they integrate email in to their stream – highly likely).

Facebook isn’t a stream. It’s a combination of applications which one interacts with… They’ll each have their place.

By: Owen

Owen — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:37:47 +0000

Hmm .. I’m currently at Stage 3. Interesting to see my pattern of “Try Twitter -> Drop it for Facebook -> Decline in Facebook/Return to Twitter” pattern isn’t as uncommon as I thought.

Gave FriendFeed a blast, but didn’t find it sticky enough, probably because I felt that my recent “loyalty” to Twitter gave me more benefit that a “new” mechanism. Maybe I should give FriendFeed another try