... can readily get their heads around the basic how-and-why. FriendFeed is just too obscure for the average user to grok, and I am not sure that is surmountable. - Anthony Citrano

and there's more than a little techno-elitism in the idea that the problem is not enough gadgetry... au contraire.. gaze at those navels a little bit more, boys. ;) - Anthony Citrano

I don't understand why friendfeed is somehow harder to "get" than Twitter. You can do the same stuff here that you can do there. This should be readily apparent. It's a piece of paper...it is what you put on it that matters. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

@Alex: whether you understand why or not, it is. If you have access to an *average* computer user, sit them down in front of each and don't say anything. See what happens. Report back. ;) - Anthony Citrano

I don't think it has anything to do with ease of use. For those that I introduce to both services, they seem more confused by Twitter than FriendFeed. The real reason is far more basic. Twitter is still about ego and vanity while FriendFeed is about sharing and discovery. People don't come to FriendFeed (and the value prop is not such) that you come and tell what you had for lunch. THAT is what makes Twitter far more popular. It's about me, Me, ME. The feedback mechanisms are all set up to hit that "I want to be heard" and "i want to be liked" in spades. FriendFeed has a limited amount of that and I think we've all seen those Twitter users who actually post on FriendFeed essentially bemoaning that no one likes their stuff. Twitter, followers make you feel liked. Facebook, friends do that and all the silly games essentially make you part of the community. Flickr - well, how much more egocentric can you get? No, people GET both services, they just like places that provide that much needed emotional reward more frequently. - AJ Kohn

AJ, that's a very interesting take. - Nick in Manila

@Bill - URL shortening and twitpic are not basic how-and-why of Twitter. Do you really think grokking URL shortening and Twitpic are Twitter 101? They aren't, and if you think they are, I respectfully submit that you too may be suffering from technobubbleitis. @AJ: it sounds like you're talking about the utility - not accessibility - of each service. And if you think FF is not about "me, me, me" then consider yourself blessed for missing out on most of its "recommended users." - Anthony Citrano

@Anthony: I think the utility creates a perception of accessibility. FriendFeed is just as easy, if not easier, to newbies I've introduced. But the value prop of Twitter is very clear - "what are you doing?". "Oooooh, someone wants to know what I'm doing? I'm eating a mango!" Even without feedback the act of doing this is self-reinforcing. And those little number on the right hand side is the drip-bottle of the Twitter cage. "7 followers now!" Facebook has "What's on your mind?" at the top. The status messages are super-vain, and the friend/follower counts are big-time reinforcement. Now, FriendFeed asks you first to aggregate your stuff - but ... maybe I don't contribute much eh? No blog. No Last.fm account. I feel like a loser. Then there's the fact that it's NOT a status update service - so not as much ego-preening goes on. Lastly - the numbers are not on the page at all. I'm not saying 'me, me, me' doesn't exist on FriendFeed but I don't think it flourishes and I don't think those folks are rewarded nearly as much as they are on other platforms - so they walk away kicking the HTML dirt claiming FriendFeed is too hard. - AJ Kohn

If Twitter is supposed ti let people know what you are doing FF tells people "Who you are". So much gets lost in context that it is hard to tell who someone really is. When you read someone's FF you get a better feel for what they are about. And pictures help ;-) - Tony from fftogo

speaking of context, Tony, how does that relate to the subject at hand? ;-p - Anthony Citrano

It's not the UI per se. IMHO, the perception of an existing active tight-knit community of users who share and discuss things all day long is a significant psychological barrier for new users to overcome. Similar behavior can be seen on traditional message boards, where it often takes lurkers months or years before they finally register an account and start a Hello I'm new here thread. The intimidation factor is bigger than the one of Twitter (because at first glance tweets don't really seem connected to each other), Flickr (needing to start an album somewhere), and Facebook (is all likelihood your friends are already there and it feels safe). That's why I think it's not necessarily a good idea to present new users the list of recommended power users right off the bat. I can see how some would get anxious just thinking that such level of interaction with FF is expected or even necessary. Plus there's the whole need (or lack thereof) to aggregate your online life when everything is already on Facebook. - Aviv

I just saw this comment(tweet) on AJ's twitter stream. "how come I've got 573 "subscriptions" on Friendfeed when I've never signed up to follow anyone? Has to be worst Internet product in history. #" I did get defensive and protective but AJ was so cool in his answer that I just let it go. People are intimidated when something is new and unfamiliar. In most cases someone joins and starts on twitter with other friends whereas on FF one doesn't have a pack to join with. People come to FF and have to reach out if they want any success. I asked Karoli why she doesn't spend more time on FF(she was the one who introduced me to it) and her answer was that she would rather spend more time on FF but most of her political friends are on twitter. She tried to bring them over but...no luck. You have to work harder on FF to connect. - Myrna

To me FriendFeed is a cross between Twitter and an forum. I think I spend more time trying to figure out what someone is trying to say in 140 characters than thinking about what they are trying to communicate. Some people would rather be in front of the crowd shouting than in the crowd discussing. - Keith James Designs

Had another thought recently. Suggested user lists on FF and Twitter are two different animals. People already know celebs use Twitter and expect to see inflated update/follow counts. However, I'd guess this is a far more delicate issue on FF and encouraging new users to subscribe to power-users right away and having them see 5-digit comment/like count stats may be contributing to slower adoption. The more FF pushes the service as the new place to have discussions on the web, the closer it is to message board territory. And that's not an ideal place to be at, in the sense that the potential for user base growth at traditional forums is very limited, and for good reasons - new users never quite feel like they belong, and are constantly reminded by way of member stats on each page that most users, many of whom are fast approaching 10,000+ posts, have been there far longer than they have, and over time developed particular posting and reply styles that come only with being a community member at the same site for years. - Aviv

Keith: "Some people would rather be in front of the crowd shouting than in the crowd discussing." Bingo! - Myrna

Aviv, yes, it definitely feels more intimidating at first for all the reasons you sited. - Myrna

Many times on forums, knowledge of older threads or events is required to understand the context of new posts made by the regular members. Again, similar behavior seems to have developed on FF, which is only natural the more users interact with others over time. IMHO it may decrease the likelihood that new users will stick around. Quickly scanning my feed I detect many posts such as: "so guys, I got the job!", "thanks for your help, my new number is ***", "Dana is 6lbs and pix coming soon", "this is what I ate for dinner.. yummy", "left for the trip!!! see you all soon". One would argue that these types of messages are what made Twitter so successful, but the point is that today users who are new to Twitter expect exactly this type of interaction from others. It's okay for them to see such messages left by people they follow because at worse, each is just a one-time piece of irrelevant information. However, this is not the case on FF, where by default you get to see an entire conversation develop around some random "this cake was so good" message, filled with even shorter replies by all these users who seem to really be up to date with what's going on in this little community you fell into based on your subscription choices early on - and wow they all get along so nicely - and of course, that thread keeps bubbling to the top of your feed, enhancing the new user's perception that everybody knows everybody and what can they possibly add to discussions about what random folks eat or do they say congrats when a random dude gets a job? - Aviv

The average user? Are we talking about the folks who wonder why their shortcuts to Word and Excel aren't on their desktops when they logon to someone else's PC? Or are we meaning people who are a little more technologically savvy? - a runcible MiniMage

I remember feeling that like, like I had no IRL friends on here and thus intimated to join in with the community (for Facebook this is definitely true, I only joined because of my friends). And as I'm a *very* shy person, to get me to join in with anything anyway is a push at best. I wish I could answer the question, what changed for me but I honestly cannot remember (perhaps one day we will be able to search by date and time and I could go back to read my early posts and the comments to find out what encouraged me to join in as much as I do now :-)). - Kol Tregaskes

Aviv, so perhaps if new users were suggested users to subscribe to that were fairly new themselves then that would help? It sounds good but I can't think of how or who to suggest to the new user apart from a random list of new-ish users? - Kol Tregaskes

It's like starting a new job at the same time as another person, you find you generally bond with them more than other people who have worked at the company for a long time. - Kol Tregaskes

Kol, yes. It's all 'organic growth'. Sometimes its difficult to know how things evolved. I was intimidated to come here because all my friends were on fb or twitter. Karoli showed me something one day here and now she spends more time on twitter bec her friends are comfortable there. She's there and now I'm here. - Myrna

thats y i like FF. I left twitter when all the lame celebs put it on cnn and daytime tv 24hours. FF is still tech. Twitter is now as cool and cutting edge as VHS and rabbit ears - echostreamer