by Brian Solis
In case you missed it, Louis Gray recently renewed the fervor over FriendFeed by publishing a list of “elite” bloggers that were using FriendFeed. Very clever Mr. Gray. Very clever. *golf clap*
I have to say, I really enjoy his posts. And this one, well, he knew it would regenerate the discussion and draw attention from everyone on the list (see below). Indeed he was correct on both fronts. In fact, it’s made Techmeme a couple of different times.
Duncan Riley of TechCrunch calls it, “This Year’s Twitter,” but isn’t sure why, but explored it well. Michael Arrington observed that, “FriendFeed is going through a Twitter moment…It’s an inflection point.”
Riley concludes, “FriendFeed seems to be nothing more than a fancy RSS service with commenting thrown in for good measure.”
Robert Scoble gushes over FriendFeed, “I love my FriendFeed. I subscribe to a ton of people on FriendFeed and notice that often the conversations after a Twitter message will be 1000x longer (and generally more interesting) than the Twitter itself.”
Loic Le Meur simply observed that he’s getting a new friend added every minute or so.
At the same time, it’s generating an interesting debate that I’m not convinced needs to come into play here.
Mark Evans calls “A Listers” beta junkies and wonders if this is just another fad in where new tools are hyped then abandoned in favor of the next shiny new object. “As Louis has highlighted, FriendFeed is interesting enough that many bloggers have tried it out. The question is how many of them stick around, how often they use it and, more important, whether it becomes an integral part of their daily online lives.”
Others share Evan’ sentiment wondering “WHY” we need yet another tool to aggregate what many do already.
NEWSFLASH: It’s not about you per se. It’s about those who enjoy following your activity online. And yes, there are many tools that do this, but at the end of the day, why not make it easier for people to connect with you using the tools that they’re most comfortable with.
The consensus is that FriendFeed is fun and definitely makes it easier and by far, more elegant, as a way of keeping a “pulse” on your network. The one thing that I need though is the ability to link directly to a “reply” option.
For example, I can’t reply to someone in Twitter based on something I read in FriendFeed without jumping through two-clicks. I know they want the conversation to take place in FriendFeed, but as of now, there’s unequivocally greater value in a hosted conversation within my Twitter community than FriendFeed – for now anyway. As another example, if someone DIGGs something, I want a link to that DIGG page, not the user profile. What I’m saying is that I’d like to see this across the board.
Then, and only then, will FriendFeed migrate from just another channel I use to aggregate my lifestream and perhaps become my dashboard for connecting me to the grid of connections and activity.
Lifestreams are not going anywhere but the mainstream.
Here’s the list of Louis Gray’s “Elite” bloggers:
Adam Ostrow / Mashable
http://friendfeed.com/adamostrow
Andrew Chen / Futuristic Play
http://friendfeed.com/andrewc
Andy Beard / Niche Marketing
http://friendfeed.com/andybeard
Ben MetCalfe / Dot Ben
http://friendfeed.com/dotben
Brian Solis / Bub.blicio.us, PR 2.0
http://friendfeed.com/briansolis
Chris Brogan / ChrisBrogan.com
http://friendfeed.com/chrisbrogan
Corvida / SheGeeks
http://friendfeed.com/corvida
Dan Farber / ZDNet Between The Lines
http://friendfeed.com/dbfarber
Dave Winer / Scripting.com
http://friendfeed.com/davew
David Sifry / Sifry’s Alerts
http://friendfeed.com/dsifry
EngTech / Internet Duct Tape
http://friendfeed.com/engtech
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat
http://friendfeed.com/eldon
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch
http://friendfeed.com/erick
Fred Wilson / A VC
http://friendfeed.com/fredwilson
Frederic Lardinois / The Last Podcast
http://friendfeed.com/frederic
Gabe Rivera / TechMeme
http://friendfeed.com/gaberivera
Ian Kennedy / MyBlogLog
http://friendfeed.com/iankennedy
Ionut / Google Operating System
http://friendfeed.com/onu
Jason Kaneshiro / Webomatica
http://friendfeed.com/webomatica
Jeremiah Owyang / Web Strategist
http://friendfeed.com/jowyang
Jeremy Toeman / Live Digitally
http://friendfeed.com/bigtoe
Jeremy Zawodny / JeremyZawodny.com
http://friendfeed.com/jzawodn
Josh Quittner / Fortune Magazine
http://friendfeed.com/jquit
Kent Newsome / Newsome.org
http://friendfeed.com/kent
Kevin Rose / Digg
http://friendfeed.com/kevinrose
Liz Gannes / GigaOm
http://friendfeed.com/lizgannes
Loic LeMeur / LoicLemeur.com
http://friendfeed.com/loic
Louis Gray / Louisgray.com
http://www.friendfeed.com/louisgray
Mark Hopkins / Mashable
http://friendfeed.com/rizzn
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb
http://friendfeed.com/marshallk
Mathew Ingram / Mathew Ingram.com
http://friendfeed.com/mathewingram
MG Siegler / ParisLemon
http://friendfeed.com/parislemon
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch
http://friendfeed.com/techcrunch
Muhammad Saleem / muhammadsaleem.com
http://friendfeed.com/msaleem
Pete Cashmore / Mashable
http://friendfeed.com/petecashmore
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped
http://friendfeed.com/philipp
Rafe Needleman / WebWare
http://friendfeed.com/rafe
Rex Hammock / RexBlog.com
http://friendfeed.com/rexhammock
Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb
http://friendfeed.com/ricmac
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer.com
http://friendfeed.com/scobleizer
Scott Beale / The Laughing Squid
http://friendfeed.com/laughingsquid
Steve Rubel / MicroPersuasion
http://friendfeed.com/steverubel
Steven Hodson / WinExtra
http://friendfeed.com/stevenhodson
Susan Mernit / Susan Mernit’s Blog
http://friendfeed.com/smernit
Tom Foremski / Silicon Valley Watcher
http://friendfeed.com/tomforemski
Tony Hung / Deep Jive Interests
http://friendfeed.com/tonyhung
For more on lifestreams please read:
FriendFeed launch
Lifestream Backgrounder at PR 2.0
Connect with me on Twitter, Jaiku, LinkedIn, Pownce, Plaxo, FriendFeed, or Facebook.
techcrunch loic+le+meur robert+scoble louis+gray bub.blciio.us friendfeed twitter lifestream beta digg a-list
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{ 4 comments }
Hey Brian – i think one of the sexiest things about Friendfeed which this current swell of review-love is not pointing to… is their *seamlesss* facebook integration. I’ve been using FF in FB for a couple of months now – I let friendfeed “rule” my minifeeds etc – and it’s essentially turned Facebook into my super-aggregating “one place on the web” (i.e. everything I do online – from twitter to upcoming to flickr to native-facebook) is captured in my minifeed thanks to Friendfeed. While this may seem all a bit too “meta” for avaerage joe consumer, when packaegd well it’s incredibly powerful for that consumer – who is unlikely to appreciate the “raw” interface of ff.com and will stay inside facebook instead.
Brian, I agree with you about seeing something on FriendFeed but then having to pop over to another application to join in the conversation. But I definitely think the site has great potential. We set up our FriendFeed when I saw Steve Rubel tweet about it. Loved how easy it was to set up and integrate the social networking sites we use.
Yeah… I would like to be able to reply to all my stuff in friendfeed FROM FRIENDFEED… Please, friendfeed… PLEASE. (?)
Read: http://webpoet.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/i-just-started-my-friendfeed/
I dived into the FriendFeed features and here is the deeper look into FriendFeed API.
http://www.hurricanesoftwares.com/2008/03/26/deeper-look-into-friendfeed-api/
I hope this will help.
Ash
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