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Brad › Likes
K2 disaster news came from on-location blogger - http://www.thestandard.com/news...
Sid, Peter Svensk, Brad and 7 other people liked this
Man this was a crazy story! And to see the blog....seems surreal.
- Corvida
from twhirl
In some ways, reminds me of: http://www.mattlogelin.com/ Normal blogging interrupted by a disaster. To have the prescience to keep blogging and capture the story is impressive.
- Mark Trapp
I think to an extent, Mark. If you followed the whole Everest thing back in 1996, everything was very skewed because the majority of the story came after the fact, when people had time to think about it. Krakauer's own account that first appeared as an article was still published 54 days after he summitted. A lot can end up glossed over, forgotten, or spun in that amount of time.
- Cyndy
Regular updates were provided at http://www.humanedgetech.com/expedit... and a good friend of mine was communicating with the outside world. He does expedition management at www.incipit.nl
- Marcel Ekkel
Thanks Marcel. I hadn't found the mirror site. I added it as an update, as well as the blog for Marco Confortola for those of you who can read Italian.
- Cyndy
Cuil - A first look - http://www.lockergnome.com/techyda...
Benedikt Koehler, Brad and Toby Graham liked this
Seems to me that everyone's missing the original value proposition of Cuil. Their original claim was that they were going to build a search index at 1/10th the cost of what Google has produced. Has anyone asked Tom or Anna at Cuil what their actual index/search costs are? I'm not surprised that Cuil's search results are poor. It doesn't appear that they have anything special in terms of...
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- Jim McCusker
Right, but why not wait and make the service a little better and then announce themselves rather than do so prematurely and get a rather negative publicity?
- Hayk
They had to launch something, even if it returned poor results. My point is that their value proposition is in the reduction of the size requirements for the index. If Cuil has achieved anything close to 1/10th of Google's TeraGoogle index then they have a very valuable asset.
- Jim McCusker
It is a nifty layout, but there are a few things I do not like. I have a difficult time finding my own domain even when I search it by name, The results seem random and unrelated, and finally why show a image by the results if you are not pulling those images from the sites themselves? It's cool, and Web 2.0 looking, but I can not find what I am looking for on it. Strangely it is sending me traffic... I wish I could figure out what those people are searching to find me because I can not! -Brad
- Brad
Jim, I understand the value proposition Cuil intended to bring forth. However, I still disagree as to why launch smth that gets so much negative feedback. No one expected Cuil to be equivalent or comparable to Google from the beginning - except perhaps media - but it could have been lacking certain feats but still returning truthful if somewhat lesser results. What it returns now has been called almost a random mixture of links, photos and other content. I like the design and idea, but that is all there is.
- Hayk
I suspect that Cuil had a lot of pressure to launch. But also, my point is that I don't think their goal was to be a better Google. Look back on the original articles in TechCrunch and elsewhere where the founders of Cuil were promoting their small index. My point is simple, if they did create a Google-compatible index/search at 1/10th the cost then they have something to sell to Google/Yahoo/MSN/etc... I'm waiting for someone in Silicon Valley to ask that question.
- Jim McCusker
If it's really about cost, lets just use the phone book.
- Darian Rawson
Early adopters and Silicon Valley are the easy way to faillure - http://vanelsas.wordpress.com/2008...
Alexander Oelling, Mike Reynolds, Anne Bouey and 45 other people liked this
Microsoft and Apple. Does anyone remember how they got started?
- Paul Buchheit
@Paul there are always good examples of companies that succeeded that way. There are way more companies that make it on their own without this tech community. One needs to choose carefully imo. FF seems to have take the "Scoble" route it seems. Which can be fine and a very smart thing to do. But that doesn't mean it's always the best path. There are many alternative paths which can be very successful too. Just think about Easyjet, Gary Vaynerchuk Wine TV? Google Ads (you would know better than I could ;-) )
- Alexander van Elsas
Alexander, I'm not suggesting that there is any one right way. I think _who_ the early users are is less important than the fact that you have them. Also, Google is not really a counter-example -- early usage was very much among the tech crowd.
- Paul Buchheit
Aha, I wasn't sure what you meant by that, thank you. I tend to disagree with you on the who part. In my own experience, both startup and corporate, if your development cycle is driven by the early adopter crowd, then it is really important to get this right. Technologically driven early adopters for example are often (not always) feature driven. But if you have a service driven early adopter, he will be looking at integrating the entire experience into his life/work. Very different views.
- Alexander van Elsas
The Google ads example was a guess, I never followed that closely at the time (hence the remark you would know much better ;-) ) But Easyjet is a good example I think. A small revolution in consumer/business process thinking complemented by smart web based software. They never needed the tech early adopter to be successful. They addressed a consumer need form the start and did it with excellent execution.
- Alexander van Elsas
Alexander - I love this post! Our startup is looking to squarely take on mainstream users, so although getting the tech crowd to buy-in early is important early, it is just a part of the overall long-term business plan. We did quite well to be picked up by most of the top blogs when we launched our private beta (alpha) over a month ago. But we are well aware that this is a long term race/business. We are going for a simple and easy way for "normal " people to get acquainted with the best blogs.
- Scott Lockhart
@Scott thank you, appreciate it. And good luck with your startup ;-)
- Alexander van Elsas
"The startup fails because it went to build a cool tech solution for a problem that didn’t really exist" - the crux of this problem I think. Finding a real problem, solving some or all of the problem and thus providing value is tough. But that is the only way to success.
- Brian Sullivan
(cont..) Regator is based in Atlanta and maybe that lends itself to looking at things differently. We are working local media and the thousands of blogs we have on the site that our editors have hand-picked to help get the word out. We definitely love the A-list tech blog coverage don't get me wrong, as we do have features that appeal to more advanced users and we are doing some unique...
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- Scott Lockhart
BTW, it's not the tech crowd vs. the rest. There are many shades in between. In Germany, a recent study found out, that 3/4 of German tech savvy youth did not know what "blog" or "weblog" means. So I absolutely agree with Alexanders focus on the point of "integrating the entire experience into his life/work". That's what we should aim for.
- Benedikt Koehler
@benedikt, exactly. Although I do suspect that the average tech early adopter in Silicon Valley might be a bit different from other early adopters. They use: Twitter, Pownce, Friendfeed, Dopplr, Seesmic, Yelp, del.icio.us, Digg, Google Reader, StumbleUpon, Disqus etc. (I could go on for a while). These people live and breath (social media) technology, and that makes this crowd a bit more unique than the rest ;-)
- Alexander van Elsas
Great piece. I'm always surprised at how many people in SV can't understand the difference between here and the rest of the country/world. Thanks for sharing this!
- Jeremy Toeman
Jeremy thank you ;-)
- Alexander van Elsas
Threading different comment threads together as they both have some interesting remarks ;-) http://friendfeed.com/search...
- Alexander van Elsas
I'll definitely agree with Louis that the feedback from our private beta users and bloggers who covered us you really couldn't pay for. That said, we have incorporated pretty much all of it into the site, the exceptions being where it just was a gratuitous feature. We have had many a discussion on how to balance our site and not skew it completely tech. There are already so many good sites like that and that's not really where we want to be. Happy/relieved to see others thinking the way we do...
- Scott Lockhart
As a mainstream Friendfeed user, not a "tech" insider, I have to say that Elsas' points ring true. Community is being created, but is it just for the technorati, or is is truly an invitation to join an ever expanding circle?
- Michael Muller
Good points. As much as I enjoy peering in on the valley from afar, I did well in LA, and now, here in Texas, there are companies that startup and have success all the time, and they don't mind being off the SV radar. It's just a different radar, but it's the same currency.
- Dean Terry
I love this part -> "True enough, I believe that too, but my point is that the early adopter you really need just isn’t located in Silicon Valley."
- andy brudtkuhl
Alexander: I disagree with the Google example. Google succeeded BECAUSE it got the early adopters hot and bothered. It took me two years to convince my dad that Google was better. In the early days ONLY early adopters thought it was cool. In fact, this is why Microsoft missed Google and why Alta Vista didn't care about it.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, that was a bad example, as I already said to Paul (I wasn't thinking about Google search btw, but about Google adwords). But take my Easyjet example as a much better case where a different path lead to success too.
- Alexander van Elsas
@Andy, I didn't say that literally did I (well I did ;-) )? My main point is that there are many breeds of early adopters, not just the "Silicon Valley" type. It's important to consider that when you launch a new startup.
- Alexander van Elsas
BTW Robert, it was you that pointed me once to the example of Gary Vaynerchuk. A good example of someone that used a community to build a business ;-)
- Alexander van Elsas
@Alexander it may not be literal but when I release something I could care less about Silicon Valley and more about the community for which the product was developed..
- andy brudtkuhl
Alexander: yup, agreed. another example might be why Orkut (designed in SIlicon Valley) took off in Brasil, but not in the US.
- Robert Scoble
Another example would be Meebo. But instead of getting +me+ as an early adopter, they did get a lot of other people. The CEO told me they specifically put features into that product to serve them. Now they have more than 20 million users, even though I haven't seen Louis or me or Arrington get excited about them.
- Robert Scoble
Threading in another comment from Robert: I’m not really a good early adopter anymore, either. I look at all of you to tell me what is surviving on your machines. This is why I missed Evernote. I’m not going to be first to try things. There are simply WAY TOO MANY things to try (I have a folder of more than 1,000 things I haven’t tried yet). One of the reasons I use so many social...
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- Alexander van Elsas
And my response to him: @Robert, that may be so, but you still have a very powerful brand to get the word out. You prove that every time when you point people towards new services, blogs, or whatever. And that is very important too!
- Alexander van Elsas
Alexander: I'm only powerful if I listen.
- Robert Scoble
Apple and MS originally catered just to techies, but back then normal people didn't own computers.
- Gabe
Gabe, that's even worse -- they targeted weird users on a tiny platform. For the first couple of years, the only people who used Gmail were Google employees, not a very diverse userbase :)
- Paul Buchheit
I think it is inaccurate to say Apple/Microsoft catered to techies - I don't think the equivalent of that category existed then. Hobbyists I think is more accurate.
- Brian Sullivan
@Brian, you have a point. However, what is common between the two eras is the importance of social networks or groups (like the Homebrew club or the Boston Computer Society then or online groups today) as well as the influential writers/materials (like the TTL Cookbook then or some blogs today). Passionate infliuentials and early adopters mattered then and matter now.
- Loren Heiny
@Paul diverse enough as Gmail solved a problem for Google employees. It addressed a need. A need that could easily be translated mainstream. And for that reason it has become an excellent product.
- Alexander van Elsas
I think we have a harder time noticing the non-SV success stories because SV is where the megaphone is. I think if you look at any barometer that matters you'd find there are plenty non-SV startups that do quite well.
- Steve Spalding
I wonder if anybody has done analysis -- is it possible that non SV startups actually do better statistically in the medium/long run?
- Brian Sullivan
Alexander, if GMail worked for that reason, are SV early adopters the easy way to failure, or is it lack of mainstream need? Maybe you need to revise your title.
- Bruce Lewis
Bruce. the post was about the way new startups tend to copy each other's roll out strategy. Write code, get into contact with A-list bloggers, ensure the same early adopters get on board, and then mostly fail to leave this Silicon Valley community. I'm not saying this can't work. I'm saying that if you want to become main stream you need much more than that. One thing is to consider not using the path just describe, but find early adopters nearer to the mainstream crowd you were aiming for.
- Alexander van Elsas
In the case of GMail I suspect the developers were addressing a consumer need from the start (write a much improved web-based e-mail client). It may have been tested by Googlers at first (which is fine obviously), but the path to mainstream was there because they were addressing a consumer need. And obviously Google had already the distribution power to move beyond the Silicon Valley community. But if you are a new startup and your first 50K users are from this community it's much harder to break out.
- Alexander van Elsas
Thinking I'm going to slap the next person who asks me to vote for or Digg their blog.
Jeff (Team マクダジ ), Mark Whiting, Dan Rockwell and 6 other people liked this
I only asked people to vote for the TIS 100! Not me. Or my blog. I promise. :D
- Cyndy
dugg. i mean, liked...
- Chris Harris
OK, can you Dig mine? Just kidding! ;-)
- Ricardo Rabago
Okay, can you Digg my comment instead? <gd&r>
- Robert Couture
I gave up doing that on my blog - too disracting for me as the writer.
- Roberto Bonini
How to Get 2500 New ‘Subscribers’ to Your Blog Overnight (and Why I Don’t Really Care) - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r...
Brad liked this
What’s the Optimal Way To Export Your Video? - http://www.tubemogul.com/blog...
Brad liked this
There's more to it than that. YouTube, for example, will still manage to kill the quality of a video even if its submitted via the best practices guidelines
- Peter Lacis
from twhirl
Optimal for what is the question?
- Brian Sullivan
Optimal is to change video as little possible - i.e. author it in a format as close to what you need in the end as possible. Every time you convert to another format you lose fidelity
- Peter Lacis
from twhirl
If that is the definition of optimal then I think capturing, editiing and managing in as close to raw format as possible and rendering finished video at the end to optimal export would be the way to fly. The reason I asked is that I optimise rendered video for all sorts of reasons -- but mostly around managing bandwidth delivery and consumption requirements.
- Brian Sullivan
Twelve Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss - http://www.chrisbrogan.com/twelve-...
Mike Fruchter, Brad, Kishore Balakrishnan and 2 other people liked this
One factor you missed is trust, according to the Corporate Social Responsibility Survey 07 http://www.csrresults.com people are more likely to trust other customers than employees and employees more than corporate websites. So if you can get your clients and employees communicating through social media, other people who see the communication are likely to trust you more. Trying to write a similar series of blog posts myself http://gov2.info/why-gov...
- Nick Cowie
Great comments & emails regarding how I paid a waitress $100 to quit! Don't miss it: http://www.erica.biz/ PLEASE Stumble it if you like it!
Brad liked this
Great post Erica. I Stumbled and Dugg.
- Brad
where is plurk in the twitter vs. friendfeed debate?
Brad, Wayne Sutton, Howard Saavedra and 2 other people liked this
Plurk still is way behind, I think. And the Twitter vs FF debate is more a discussion of different paradigms rather than tools
- João Almeida
from twhirl
Plurk is in a class by itself....A class that a lot of people sleep through, or skip entirely.
- Rahsheen?
I am in the skip entirely class
- delbo
Skip
- Steve Isaacs
plurk is like Myspace. Way too noisy :\
- Mona Nomura
from fftogo
Plurk is out of sight & nowhere to be found......
- ChaCha Fance
from Alert Thingy
Plurk is fun and informative, being able to bookmark individual plurk conversations is very helpful. twitter makes a 'i just farted' comments very annoying because you have to keep refreshing to get to the useful tweets, on Plurk you get the exact same info by scrolling down the time line.
- Darren Daz Cox
I think Plurk appeals to a different form of user than Twitter or FF. Those whom like Plurk seem to have always been dissatisfied with Twitter/FF. It's a 'where are you comfortable' question.
- Lucretia Pruitt
Twitter groups = Solution, also option to silence certain ppl you're subscribed to.
- Joseph Rodgers
also, identi.ca could be the death blow to twitter. Open source is pretty genious.
- Joseph Rodgers
Plurk is my new hangout. Conversations there have been a lot better than Twitter lately
- Jason Peck
Plurk will end up just being a micro-blogging experiment in UI - but it won't last. It doesn't present anything new that is valueable. And just because it is getting a lot of responses to comments doesn't mean the comments are any good. It will probably stick around like Pownce has, but it will never have enough people to get to main stream.
- Tony
I agree that Plurk has gone it's own way. It's a super interactive Twitter with lite Pownce features. It's a nichenetwork®
- Mike Lewis
Agree with @MikeLewis. I see lots of groups forming in there that love it's *chat* and *forum* like features.
- Barbara K. Baker
Plurk = Twitter+myspace (young, girly and ugly interface). There is a way to remove karma points now which helps. The timeline/bubbled conversations are interesting but difficult to track. I have noticed that there is a great deal more commenting as @MikeLewis has said.
- chantelle
its not.
- Tony
plurk has it's own community, I don't see it as a threat but just another micro-blogging social network to cut out some of the noise on twitter
- Wayne Sutton
For me, plurk was too similar and yet not simple enough- I like Tw and FF b/c of their simplicity and functionality. Plurk is like Tw plus some mandatory Tw apps that I don't really like. And honestly, I didn't try it a whole lot because Tw already occupied that function for me.
- Brian Carter
Like Tony said, it's not. I don't think they're the same kind of beast. Hell, if you really wanted me to, I could write a Friendfeed vs. Twitter vs. Plurk post. But that would be repeating a lot of what I already blogged about in Twitter vs. Plurk here: http://www.techipedia.com/2008.... The difference is that Friendfeed is a LOT more about sharing sites above all, I think.
- Tamar Weinberg
Plurk and Pownce are the same type of service as Friendfeed not twitter. But Friendfeed easily beats them both. This is simply because instead of having to build people's connections and posting habits all over again friendfeed just plugs into all the places they already are - and to the places where they already have connection. Then they can have one place to comment and share it all. SunTzu level strategy there...
- Tony
Plurk shouldn't be compared to Twitter or FriendFeed. In fact, none of them should be compared to one another. They are all very different things. Plurk is like a message board. Twitter is status messages + direct messaging. FriendFeed is a tool to keep track of all of your various social networking sites & friends.
- Louie
It's interesting to me how the "a-list" are freaking out about losing control. Why? Because friendfeed and everything else is loosening in their hold and leveling the playing field. This is why you see so many clammoring for followers. It reminds me of why sites...
Dane morgan, Jeremy Toeman, gregory and 6 other people liked this
like Revenews failed as a meta blog years ago because people no longer needed a meta blog to blog. Anyone could do it. The same is true with what were seeing now. Anyone can be an "a-lister" and be part of the conversation and get tons of followers and get known. The lines of fame are fading fast for the elite. I think that's a good thing. No offense to those at the top, I'm just saying.
- Jim Kukral
Hmmm. I think the opposite is going on. There is great concentration of influence in a relatively small group of A-listers. The current crop of social media tools is widening the attention/influence wealth gap.
- John McCrea
Aaron, you know who I'm talking about. Nothing against them, but before things like Twitter and Friendfeed, it was easy for them to remain "on top". But tools like these have really leveled the playing field. If you put in the effort to work these channels you can rise quickly and get "known". That's all I'm saying.
- Jim Kukral
And by the way, I'm not a-list. I'm z-list, according to Feldman anyway :), and yes, I do clamor for followers on my blog and other places. Well, I promote my signups at least. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion.
- Jim Kukral
Ya I'm not saying it's not happening but I haven't seen it- maybe because I'm not paying attention to these A-listers, in which case, I have humorously underlined part of your comment :-)
- Brian Carter
I see FriendFeed, twitter and other social networking tools putting those of us who aren't on the a-list on the same footing as the so called a-listers. A tool on the Internet is doing just what the Internet did for small business, solos and for people who work at home, narrowing the gap to large business.
- Grant Griffiths
from twhirl
Social networking tools narrow the gap between a-listers and the non-a-listers. But you still have to be willing to take advantage of the tools available. You can't just stand by and hope the tools available will just work because they are there.
- Grant Griffiths
from twhirl
Isn't that what I said Grant? :)
- Jim Kukral
Comments Can Be Blog Posts - http://www.avc.com/a_vc...
Ryan Svoboda, Peter Renshaw, Andrew Smith and 29 other people liked this
This brings up the whole issue of comment ownership again... wonder what Steven Hodson will think of this?
- Mark Dykeman
I want to link to specific comments here on FriendFeed for the same reasons.
- Robert Scoble
<sarcasem>I can't wait to repost this comment as a full blog post! </sarcasem>
- Stefan Hayden
@Stefan that brings me to the point that a lot of blog posts are only comments ;)
- Sebastian Küpers
@Stefan: Love the <sarcasm> bit. I think a universal sarcasm font would be most appropriate.
- AJ Kohn
Isn't the sarcasm tag going to be part of HTML 5?
- Rich
I want to be able to link to comments, comment on comments, like comments, bookmark comments, email comments, etc. Comments are sometimes more valuable than the items that inspire them. Comments are standalone documents. There should be a dedicated central search engine to index all comments across all sites on the Internet.
- Sean McBride
Any blog that isn't 100% original content is a comment to something that is 100% original. Somehow comments need to become as decentralised as blogs. Perhaps a Disqus-type system will take off... I hope so!
- Rich
Must have sarcasm font! My whole schtick is sarcasm and some people just don't get it!
- Aura Mae
ending with /sarcasm works well for me when it /must/ be ephasized as such
- Michael W. May
from twhirl
Great point! I suggest to folks that if one of their comments on a blog post is getting to be more than two paragraphs, build on that comment (or simply copy&paste) into a blog post of your own. It extends the conversation outwards.
- Mike Sansone
sarcasm !important;
- Rich
@Mike S. - I pretty much go by your rule. If I start writing a comment and it gets too long I just turn it into a blog post.
- Lindsay
After a very successful trial on TWiT Live this evening I'm seriously considering dropping Skype for Oovoo on TWiT. http://www.oovoo.com
kosmar, steveo, Bryan Landers and 11 other people liked this
Very keen on trying it myself, but really I'm so tired of yet another client for yet another communications medium
- Aleksandras Skrynikovas
from twhirl
What is it you liked about oovoo, compared to Skype? (said the editor of Skype Journal)
- Phil Wolff
from Alert Thingy
Leo, what is it that you think Oovoo can bring more in value than skype?
- Aleksandras Skrynikovas
from twhirl
Wondering if the T1 might skew anything here
- Michael W. May
from twhirl
i gave oovoo a try for at least 4 times over the past year and everytime deinstalled it again - main reason? quality is worse then in skype "bad times"
- Dieter Schwarz
from Alert Thingy
I need something that can do video with multiple panelists, and the quality I was getting, even with six people in a conference, was very good. I'm definitely going to use it for listener calls. Skype keeps popping up windows and stutters every time it does whenever I use it for listener cals. We'll see if it's good enough for host audio, though.
- Leo Laporte
I was about to say Windows only then noticed they're finally offering a Mac version. checking it out now
- Duncan Riley
and then I did check it out only to find the Mac version doesn't offer recording. Oh well.
- Duncan Riley
For some reason or another, they are only offering the pay "options" for windows? Thought you mac users might want to know that. May just be limited for the time being?
- Anthony C.
what's wrong with skype ? why are you contemplating dropping it ?
- Murali
Shame the Mac version is so much behind...
- Gerard van Schip
This is great. I was just looking for another incomptiable video phone app. Will this work with Skype or VoIP?
- John Cooper
While we're at it, I love TWiT, but it is soooooo looongg. You should keep it moving with an outline like McLaughlin.
- Dino
Can't wait to see the TWiT panel this sunday all using ooVoo. That would be the ideal setup IMO.
- Danny M
I agree on length. I have trouble fitting podcasts into my listening schedule if they are over 45 min.
- Kreg Steppe
from twhirl
I think the audio quality is a little better on Skype, but oovoo has a better featureset and the Skype client keeps getting worse every version. Skype definitely needs some competition.
- Neil
@duncanriley First thing I noticed about ooVoo was the ability to record video, but then it's Windows-only. Deal killer.
- Daniel Shaw
@Neil Agreed, competition, and therefore innovation, in this space is good.
- Daniel Shaw
@mark_d If you're making buying decisions based on Leo's flavor of the month, you're going to go crazy and/or broke soon. As a tech industry insider/reporter/whatever, it's Leo's job to try these things. Plus, what did it cost you to join Skype anyway? 5 minutes of your time?
- Daniel Shaw
I think for $50 a year you can not beat Skype Pro. It also had great plug-in support. I'm not ready to move on yet...
- Brad
Love Ooovoo. And BTW, I've used it on Mac.
- Cartfly
Could You Stay Away From FriendFeed For An Entire Week? - http://julianbaldwin.com/blog...
anna sauce, Parth Awasthi, Igor Poltavskiy and 12 other people liked this
no
- DAVE ID
I'm about to, so I certainly hope so.
- Brandon Titus
I could but why would I want to... I do like what the author said about getting off the social media sidelines and actually visiting sites though. Commenting is how you know a blog is getting read... If it has 100 comments on friendfeed but none on the site how do you know anyone is reading it? I still make a effort to make most of my comments on the blog itself.
- Brad
Only if I'm forced to, like a vacation to a remote country.
- Mike Reynolds
I'd miss it, but yes, I think I could.
- Tom Landini
no freakin' way !!!!!!!!! ha, ha! I know Loius can't either!! hhehehehe!!
- Susan Beebe
Of course, I spent 40 years without it. But I do think the people on here are interesting and will continue to read, participate, and learn.
- Eric Thompson
Hi Stephen... yep, you've drank the FF Koolaid too, huh?!
- Susan Beebe
of course you can, anyone can, that's completely off the point. nobody who USES friendfeed would choose not to, because it fills a purpose for them. granted i'm sure a number of users are still working on figuring out if/how FF is useful for them. for me, it's useful, so why would I debate *not* using it? i could choose not to use google reader, techmeme, or other services as well - except they are all in some way work-relevant for me.
- Jeremy Toeman
Not sure but willing to try
- Eric
why will you do that?
- Cesar Sanchez
I was on vacation the last week of May and with limited internet connectivity really decided to avoid the computer as much as I could. FF was the thing I really missed and the first thing I checked upon my return.
- Kevin Shannon
I just did without even planning it. I've been sort of busy giving notice at my job, trying to find a new job, trying to move to a whole different town, etc. so it wasn't too hard. Plus, I'm leaving on vacation in 2 days so I'll do it again. And I called myself an addict less than 2 weeks ago. *rolls eyes* It is nice to know that you are all still here and I can set aside some time to catch up as much as possible in a little while. :-)
- Lisa | #TeamMonique
I think it is totally possible by finding something to do in your real life.
- Shawn Farner
from twhirl
I'm kind of on a forced FF fast... too much work and sidework for this week and probably the next 2-3. I miss FF though :(.
- Lindsay
http://xkcd.com/77/ says it all. By all means it classifies as an addiction; too hard to resist.
- Parth Awasthi
Gone for 10 minutes and already miss FF.
- Mike Fruchter
I spent almost two weeks without the net recently and loved it. I really, really thought I'd miss all this stuff, but I didn't. At all.
- Nathan Howell
good job- i have 2 weeks planned coming up.
- anna sauce
FF on the road: http://www.flickr.com/photos...
- TranceMist
New Blog Post: The Five Stages Of Early Adopter Behavior http://www.louisgray.com/live...
Thomas Frütel, Joseph Ferris, Crusty Geek and 29 other people liked this
oh boy, is this a mirror of me again?
- Anthony Farrior
This is uncomfortably close to the bone.
- Leo Laporte
Very accurate and insightful - I resemble many of these behaviors.
- Dan Nimtz
You can see this happening with twitter right now. The BIG early adopters are now using twitter to market Plurk and FriendFeed. most of the traffic on Plurk and FriendFeed seems to be about that service... Very interesting thought provoking post!
- Brad
I agree with this post. What happens after #5? I find I just fall into being a user if something survives that long.
- Robert Scoble
Robert... You ARE this post. ;-)
- Louis Gray
LOL @ Louis & Scoble! =)
- Susan Beebe
Not sure about the model in general, but LOVE the entitlement stage
- leigh himel
Is there a support group one can join? early-adopter anonymous? Hello, my name is Christian and i'm an early-adopter...
- Christian Anderson
I'm a medium early adoptor.
- Laurent Courtines
from twhirl
Excellent post, left my video message @the blog.
- Leif Hansen
@Christian: LOOOL
- Dieter Schwarz
IMO Twitter is in the "Migration" phase
- TranceMist
Enough with Twitter vs. FriendFeed vs. Plurk Already - http://blogsessive.com/bloggin...
Laurentiu, Brad, Paul Stamatiou and 2 other people liked this
Yes, that’s right! Enough with it! Why do we have to make all these comparisons between these services, when sometimes it just isn’t the case?
- Alex Cristache
Michael, I'm not saying "no chance" for either of them. I'm just saying that if you plan to take down the king, you need more than a few start-up blog sharing basically the same article "Plurk, the new Twitter" or "Is Plurk better than Twitter?". Twitter has been around for quite some time and a serious competitor will have to be around for a while too, and to prove himself first.
- Alex Cristache
Indeed Michael, I too prefer the "less complicated" interface of Twitter.
- Alex Cristache
If social media services want me as a user.. http://ephealy.livejournal.com/57938...
- Ed Healy
People will always compare but there is no point. We'll each just use the service we like.
- Heidi Cool
You're right Heidi Cool. Since these are conversational tools, it all comes down to how we like to communicate and not how others tell us to.
- Alex Cristache
People make comparisons with everything, we love a good old format war!
- Joe Dawson
Different services for different needs. I like the speed of twitter and the detail of friendfeed. Plurk I just don't think I need. I think it is just early adopters all wanting to be first. The user base on twitter is too big now it's like saying YouTube is going down.
- Brad
@Brad, you've got it. I find no use for Twitter, and trying to follow a gazillion tweets is just annoying to me. It's just not for me. Other services are much more my speed.
- Joseph Z.
I'm Done With Private Beta - http://www.feld.com/blog...
Joseph Ferris, Atul Arora, Leah and 22 other people liked this
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; thou art thyself, though not a private beta. What's "private beta?" it is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face, nor any other part belonging to a web 2.0 app. O, be some other name! What's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; So Alpha would, were it not Alpha call'd, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title. Alpha, doff thy name, and for that name which is no part of thee take all myself.
- Mark Trapp
omg, Mark - hilarious!
- Sarah Perez
I like Mark's comment lol
- Corvida
quote tumbled
- Michael W. May
Mark - you win today.
- Yolanda
Thank you, thank you: if you catch the 5:00pm show, I'll be spinning off sonnets and quoting MacBeth!
- Mark Trapp
This is nothing new and definitely a source of confusion. My take (and links to posts saying the same thing from 2004!) and an idea on how bloggers can help here: http://www.emaildashboard.com/2008...
- Deva Hazarika
A-list blogger told me off about FriendFeed last night. Said that FF isn't a good business strategy for bloggers who want to get paid for their work. I told him that attitude is exactly why I am spending so much time there.
siavash, Phillip Miller, Chris Bonney and 70 other people liked this
gets to why bloggers are whining about commenting behaviors moving off of their blogs and onto FF.
- Robert Scoble
"Adapt or become irrelevant" should be the mantra of everyone in technology-based fields. Progress waits for no man.
- Mark Trapp
Pinned to Jack Kerouac's wall to inspire his writing: "Art is the highest task and the proper metaphysical activity of this life."-Nietzsche
- Thomas Hawk
Who cares where comments are made as long as they are made.
- Steve Hall
from twhirl
What was the A-lister's favorite community site? Twitter or Facebook?
- Phil Glockner
I'm being a little spammy here, but I posted some thoughts about that before: Ten FriendFeed Visitors Beats 1,000 StumbleUpons Any Day http://tinyurl.com/455lol
- Hutch Carpenter
I find myself as A FF user visting more links and seeing more blog pages than I ever did before. What about it isn't a "good business strategy" according to this nameless A-lister? Sounds like he/she isn't all that perceptive.
- Brian Sullivan
Steve: if you are being paid for page views it matters a lot.
- Robert Scoble
Do we get to play guess the A-lister?
- Cyndy
Sorry but I have to disagree. If I posted some content on my blog, I'd like the discussion about it to be focused on that website. FF commentary feels like a hidden backchannel sometimes
- Daniel Spisak
from twhirl
I realized this on day 0. Removing conversation from my blog = Less adsense. We went through the same thing when RSS hit.. .now we have ads in RSS.
- Bwana ☠
@Brian - I agree on reading more blogs via FriendFeed than I would have normally.
- Hutch Carpenter
Scott, Wordpress has a plugin that does that, and there is development of a similar plugin/module for Drupal and Blogger.
- Mark Trapp
Fantastic Robert!
- Parth Awasthi
from twhirl
Pageviews shouldn't be a concern if you're producing good content -- especially if you're an A-list blogger. If you're NOT producing good content as an A-list then you're just trying to live off your "fame". It's like crappy music artists who keep putting out crappy music and people still love it.
- Shey
hmmm... ads on FF next?
- Ron Emrick
from Alert Thingy
Scott brings up a good point. If they have RSS, they already lost "pageviews" but subscriber counts are supposedly important. Why is it that the conversation on FriendFeed would not add to the quality of their blog? They would never turn off their RSS feed, so I think this seems a little hypocritical.
- Rob Diana
Didn't Dave Winer say that he thought "professional blogger" was an oxymoron (or words to that effect). Maybe that reality is just coming home to roost?
- Brian Sullivan
I have always found it interesting when people rail against progress because it hurts their business model, why not simply adapt your model?
- Karen Swim
from Alert Thingy
@scoble: Its tottaly bugging me that my comments are on friendfeed! Its my ego at play for sure. Actually did blog post today about it: http://britneymason.com/?p=139 But that being said, im getting more feedback then ever..so its a give and take I guess
- Dave Peck
Couldn't care less - not making money off my blog, and I'm sure I have more people reading my blog DUE to FF than in spite of it...
- Jeremy Toeman
FriendFeed is surely much better for bloggers that feed readers are. It makes users more likely to click links (partially because full feed content isn't included) and discover new blogs. And seeing an interesting discussion on FF makes me even more likely to click through to the article. How is that bad?
- Tony Ruscoe
from fftogo
So many A-list bloggers are long overdue for an adjustment - the hubris is astonishing. Ballmer-esque, really.
- Noah Carter
"Hubris Ballmer-esque" -- great phrase -- can I use it?
- Brian Sullivan
When I read a blog, I don't waste any brain cells worrying how the author is getting compensated for the article posted. He (or she) should've figured that strategy out before I got there. If the content isn't compelling me to view the page, then there's another topic for the author to contemplate.
- William Beem
I would say it is exactly the reverse of his statement. Shall we extract him (her) from the A-list ? :)
- Charlie Anzman
It will always be about the conversation. Have an informed opinion; be different; work hard; contribute. If I find someone out there I like, I will seek to grab as much information about him/her as possible. Blogging will never die because (if done well) it is the most introspective and personal medium: two areas that will become increasingly important as we get deeper into Web 2.0, 3.0 and beyond.
- Blake N. Cooper
That said, check out my blog :) http://www.stagekid.com (a joke, people... well not really)
- Blake N. Cooper
While bloggers get less pageviews due to comments moving away to aggregators, they gain much wider exposure which leads to more pageviews. Bottom line, the total number of pageviews stays the same or even increases with the added value of having more unique views, which has more value.
- Amit Morson
@Brian please do.
- Noah Carter
I was wondering, does anyone know if there's a way to make the comments from FriendFeed automatically also show up in the relevant blog? Similar to how we can check a box to duplicate a post on Twitter? Would that maybe solve the problem? If it's possible to do, that is.
- Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)
My opinions here have been well documented. Over time, this will get easier and, eventually, solved.
- Louis Gray
Kamilah, I expect to see that happening eventually with Disqus. I know they are working on it - implement disqus on your blog and it will come.
- Jesse Stay
from twhirl
being pragmatic, but page views is a dying business model within blogging. The blog is about personal branding and then you sell yourself as a service thereafter. Words and thoughts are commodities.
- morten saxnaes
there's revenue associated with blogging??? :)
- anna sauce
Tad, I'm really active on Tipjoy, and it doesn't cost too much. You can tune it to $0.05, which is really cheap. You can tip 100 times daily for less than a big Starbucks coffee. For just $1 per day, you too can support this starving internet :D
- Ivan Kirigin
FF is more for combining the work of others into a feed for yourself -- and combining all of your work into a single feed for others to consume. Has nothing to do with blogging imo.
- xero
@Ivan - You better be active on TipJoy! @Tad I tuned TipJoy to $0.05 and use it when I come across someone with the buttons that writes something I like. I probably should use the bookmarklet to help spread the word, but I'm getting too many of those things. Hopefully now that TipJoy is on friendfeed we'll see a increase in usage
- David Knight
@Steven the cashing out issue is one that would be faced by any startup in our position - thanks to the regulatory framework around money transfer agents. It will be solved really soon, and we're trying to be very open about it. Also, we do let non-profits & platforms cash out.
- Ivan Kirigin
If I had to document all the ways Friendfeed has be AWESOME for me, I'd have to write a book ... and it's barely out of the gate. Spoke with 3 people on the phone today that said they couldn't get enough
- Charlie Anzman
Since I started using FF I actually see more comments on my blog and absolutely no impact on my (meager) advertising take.
- Frederic
Amen, keep hittin' em hard out there.
- Aaron Myers
I like FF, too. It's a great way to meet people, and it is driving traffic back to my blog.
- Bill Sodeman
Many readers like FF. Blogger vs. Reader = Readers win. Always. (If not, they go somewhere else)
- Pat Hawks
@Jesse Thanks, I'll have to look into Disqus. I've seen the name around but I know nothing about it.
- Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)
BBC NEWS | Health | Ovulation moment caught on camera - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2...
 |
LiquidLag, wuson, Robin Barooah and 19 other people liked this
"Human eggs are produced by follicles, fluid-filled sacs on the side of the ovary, which, around the time of ovulation, produce a reddish protrusion seen in the pictures. The egg comes from the end of this, surrounded by a jelly-like substance containing cells."
- bob
Wow! That's amazing!
- April Buchheit
I wonder if they delayed completing the surgery in order to take these pictures?
- Paul Buchheit
WOW!!! That is really cool!
- Brad
Scientists were reported as saying that the equivalent moment for the human male had already been captured on film "numerous times."
- Karim
A foodie's life in Seattle - http://qik.com/video/100038
Mark Trapp, Brad and Eric Thompson liked this
This simple video is what citysearch and yelp are missing. Only video captures the atmosphere of a place.
- Eric Thompson
Another FriendFeed Fix-it Day - http://blog.friendfeed.com/2008...
accexine, Mohamed J, Torsten Eckert and 80 other people liked this
Among other things, we added support for five more services. You can now add Intense Debate, brightkite.com, Diigo, Mister Wong, and tipjoy to your feed.
- Bret Taylor
Diigo added - nice.
- Hutch Carpenter
These are nice additions. Keep up the good work, FF folks!
- Mikko Alasaarela
from twhirl
bah. Still max 300 entries (i.e. 11th page bug) - good fixes, nonetheless, thanks! :)
- Tim Hoeck
Excellent enhancements.
- Mike Fruchter
Tim: If you use "num=100", you can see entries #300-399. Also, "search by service" will allow you to go deeper...
- Mitchell Tsai
i likes the new features
- Tyler Gillies
from twhirl
very good job. i love you guys!
- Tyler Gillies
Yay for Diigo!
- Michael C. Harris
Baard, what is the url of your Mister Wong page?
- Paul Buchheit
Yep, suppressing the twitter entry for a comment tweet is an excellent move
- Colin Walker
from fftogo
Excellent work, and great additions as well!
- Joe Dawson
I'm looking forward to working with the newly formatted RSS. It was a pain before.
- Duncan Riley
Nice, might give FF some more traction in Germany, as Mister Wong is rather popular here.
- Thomas Frütel
if you guys did this all in one day, then I am supremely impressed. :)
- Lou Paglia
Thanks for adding Intense Debate..you guys made my month. Also, the feeds are so much better now!!
- Bwana ☠
"The given URL does not appear to be a Intense Debate profile page" nooo
- Shey
Thanks for adding brightkite, now if Duncan can add a new script to have brightkite show up in my friendfeed window.
- Jon Erickson
from twhirl
I really like that FF can spend time fixing bugs and adding small features instead of spending continuous effort trying to keep the service running for more than 5 minutes (and mostly failing it seems)
- Brian Sullivan
Hmmm, your profile is coming up fine for me Shey.. weird
- Bwana ☠
sphinn.com has about 20,000 members who'd like to be supported, Bret. last I asked FF, you all said you weren't adding more services. Now you are. C'mon, show us some love over there.
- dannysullivan
@Bwana yes my page is working but it was FF that gave me that error
- Shey
@Shey Oh..well...darn....that sucks. Maybe it's the initial rush and ID is crapping out somehow on their end.. I added mine yesterday when hardly anyone knew.. :(
- Bwana ☠
I'm with Danny, I would love to see Sphinn on FF! If I could get them added, I would be able to be more active in the sphinn community.
- Mark Frost
from twhirl
@Danny, you can add your Sphinn activity to FF by importing it as your "blog." Importing a Sphinn feed like http://sphinn.com/rss... will show everything on FF that the Sphinn feed shows. As Sphinn's feed capabilities grow, so will the Sphinn presence on FF. (Not exactly addressing your point of being ignored, but it is a partial workaround.)
- Erik Dafforn
Danny, what are all the relevant Sphinn feeds? I can take a look at adding the service. Also, if the content is right (no "16 Vote(s)", comments should include the comment, etc), then they can be imported as comments here, just as with Mixx, Reddit, etc.
- Paul Buchheit
Amazing.
- Aaron Myers
Can we add Toluu? I would like to keep track of interesting new feeds peeps are adding
- Dom
Baard, try again -- Mister Wong should now be fixed.
- Paul Buchheit
congrats, but as i've been blogging and otherwise messaging, you really need to focus on the features over the new sites... commenting = broken. liking = meh. etc.
- Jeremy Toeman
Thanks for all the hard work FF team!! neat improvements, fixes and tweaks! =)
- Susan Beebe
Thanks. The Diigo add is mucho appreciated.
- Bill Bittner
2D Driving Simulator on Google Maps - http://geoquake.jp/en...
Jeremiah Palmer, Zulu, Srikar and 9 other people liked this
So fun for some reason
- Bret Taylor
i like driving over pools in vegas
- Kevin Gough
I have to agree with the flight simulator idea. I also learned I should not be a truck driver!
- Brad
Ya... there is something about driving a semi through downtown NY at 160 that is very appealing... and addicting!
- Ross Miller
Ahh... but it's in km/h not mph... no wonder it feels so slow ;-)
- Ross Miller
I'm waiting for the 3D version through streetview photos
- Richard Chen
Twitter/FriendFeed client Twhirl updated - http://news.cnet.com/8301-17...
Paul Buchheit, Cristi, Ben Metcalfe and 3 other people liked this
Nice update for Twhirl
- Charlie Hope
from twhirl
Great updates! I'll have to download this when I get home. Thanks for sharing!
- Brad
a great update.. thanks for the info
- Alexander Schek
from twhirl
Twitter/FriendFeed client Twhirl updated | Webware - http://www.webware.com/8301-1_...
Cristi, robertocastro and Brad liked this
nice:-)
- robertocastro
Conn. police find pipe bomb stuffed inside chicken - Yahoo! News - http://news.yahoo.com/s...
Karim, Brad, Marco(aureliusmaximus) and Paul Buchheit liked this
"The road was closed while the Hartford Police Department's bomb squad came and blew up the chicken."
- bob
This is just CRAZY! Why did the chicken cross the road? To get the bomb away from the people!
- Brad
LOL!
- Niranjan Tulpule
I wonder if it was performance art.
- Clare Dibble
In other news, reports from Iraq indicate Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents increasing use of IECs, or Improvised Explosive Comestibles. "This rotisserie chicken is the bomb," reported Colonel Sanders....
- Karim
haha, a piece designed to generate amusing and ridiculous headlines/stories?
- bob
Google Reader's Easter Egg - http://blogoscoped.com/archive...
Brad liked this
That was funny... Not to many people are going to remember that code!
- Brad
Are You Having a Summer Sales Siesta? - http://salesblogcast.com/2008...
Brad liked this
I love summer! It is a wonderful time to get outside, hang out with friends and give yourself a well-earned "breather." However, you may be surprised by the other reason I love summer!
- Doyle Slayton
My Blogging Burnout Experience - http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r...
Mark Nassal, Giancarlo Angulo, Brad and 4 other people liked this
Using Crowds to Predict Outcomes at Predictify - http://www.fastcompany.tv/video...
Zulu, Mary Anne Davis, phil beisel and 20 other people liked this
Will crowd-sourced predictions become a hot business? Well, this was pretty interesting to me.
- Robert Scoble
Cool. There was an article about the concept a few months ago in SciAm: http://www.sciam.com/article...
- Anthony Citrano
I have been a member at Predicify for a wee while now. Must say I am crap at predicting things. If I was a betting man I would have lost a fortune.
- Michael McGimpsey
Playing with crowds is sure fun (sometimes even if you're in the crowd ), but I'd hate to see how commercial interest will mess up with collective intelligence - imho - to the point where direction is given by profit and not interestingness or accurateness
- Dani Radu
Seems to me that as the masses increasingly share the same communications platform, the collective intelligence potential of that platform increases exponentially. That said, I think the "prediction markets" model is a particularly strong one. Next challenge, improving the signal to noise ratio.
- Brooklyn Art Project
There's at least one other service like this out there somewhere -- very interesting. The 'madness of crowds' and their ability to get things hopelessly wrong cannot be underestimated. It would be interesting to see how this would play out with Nasdaq predictions (assuming a techy/early adopter crowd, initially).
- john conroy
What might be interesting here: identifying those individuals in the crowd whose predictions are exceptionally good -- those individuals could be monetized.
- Sean McBride
@Sean - I'm told by an old colleague that 95%+ of people do not have discernible taste (in a given vertical area; say music, fashion, whatever) and less than 5% do - "tastemakers" (e.g. innately 'predicting' what catches on with the others.) Wonder if the same applies here? Or perhaps they're not predicting, but being followed/emulated by the others...
- Anthony Citrano
Interesting site. Reminds me of the longbets site that Buzz pointed me towards a while back. Then theres blubet. Hmmm, more hivemind examples.
- Leif Hansen
uesses, is it any good?
- Kingsley Joseph
from twhirl
needs to include a confidence score & an api. if a prediction is based on 3 peoples' guesses, is it any good?
- Kingsley Joseph
from twhirl
* Crowd Noise *
- Susan Beebe
Anthony: you raise a fascinating point which reminds me of an old saw: if you want to be able to predict the future, create the future. :) No doubt Bill Gates was able to predict the future of personal computing with above average accuracy because he in no small degree created that future. I haven't taken a close look at the site yet, but I assume they will be data mining all their numbers to identify the best predictors.
- Sean McBride
I have made $50 on predictify.com in last 3 months. It is very slow of making money, but if it is coming with little efforts, who cares. But your putting the link here will for sure increase the audience, which in turn increase the amount I am getting. So, I am happy
- Varun Mahajan
@Sean: absolutely. Now, <Doc Brown voice>if we could somehow harness this lightning.. channel it... into the flux capacitor...</Doc Brown voice>
- Anthony Citrano
Great post Robert. It sounds like they are doing a lot more that just following the crowd... I think this is going to be a lot of fun to do. What I find really interesting is how they will be paying people for accurate participation. I'll have to play with this.
- Brad
Web Ad Revenue To Double In Five Years? Doesn’t Seem Too Crazy - http://mashable.com/2008...
Riaz Kanani and Brad liked this
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