Allen Fuller › Likes

I think lots of "features" will shut-down. However, I disagree with you strongly on something. Evernote is not merely a "cloud app" -- it's a desktop application that synchs to a cloud version that is accessible and usable via the web. I pay $45 a year to use it and one day feel I'll have an 'enterprise' license for 20+ employees. I think you're missing some of the magical things it can do. It's going to be huge. - Rex Hammock

Rex, I love Evernote too. Since switching to the Mac, it's been my replacement for OneNote and then some. But I think Steve's making the case that the future is dicey, and those apps without an adequate, sustainable funding stream could get in trouble in a hurry. - Allen Fuller

Allen is right. Besides, Evernote will get acquired. - Steve Rubel from IM

I agree w/ what Steve is saying about the great mass of free features w/out sustainable funding streams. I think, however, Evernote has a sustainable funding stream. (FriendFeed?) And I also agree that Evernot is going to get acquired. So we all agree - Rex Hammock

Rex, sure Friendfeed. But if they go up I don't lose anything mission critical. It would create a void though. - Steve Rubel

I am going over to Edelman on Tuesday to bring Steve a "cloud-preparedness" pack. - Allen Stern

Allen bring bagels. - Steve Rubel from IM

Evernote is great and certainly not a stand alone business, but who acquires them? GYM? Salesforce? Comcast? - coldbrew

what is the differentiation from tweetdeck ? I only see less features... - SnakeDoc

Interesting! - Charlie Anzman

This looks real interesting. Going to check it out more later. - Spencer

Guess that's because he chose the public funding route - Shey

what planet are you from? On our planet, Every email from a politician asks for monty - Michael Markman

all the emails from politicians are asks. 'guilt'? drama. - Anika

but hey he raised over $8M since last night by late afternoon and expected the total to near $10 by the time McCain took the stage. - R. Ferguson

We got hit with two cellphone calls within a couple hrs of each other from Obama-bama-bama-bama-bama-cha-me-le-on wanting money. We don't give money over the phone, sorry... Nor do we give money to politicians ever, as a rule, but hey. - abacab

abacab, interesting I have called on behalf of Obama to several states and we never asked for money. we asked you to volunteer. - R. Ferguson

I don't get sales calls on the phone at all, which is good, and don't have a landline so don't get them there either. The telespammers don't seem to have got to skype yet - not skypeIn numbers anyway. Anyway, it's guaranteed that if you call me trying to sell something over the phone it's a no sale. - Ian May

ruth, i agree...i have a lot of friends who not only work for the obama campaign, but many who also volunteered. they never ask for money over the phone. i think that's like a rule of the campaign. well, unless you're in the 'i can dump $50K around' crowd. - Anika

The problem is, we'll never look for better long term solutions so long as we remain dependent on short term solutions. If we drill in ANWAR, and off the coast, people will not have a need to look elsewhere. They've been saying for years and years that oil will run out, but no one has really taken them seriously and no one will until it's too late OR there is a good economic incentive to. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

no drilling in ANWAR. quit bandaid-ing the situation and dedicate full momentum towards real solutions. It's taxation without representation on future generations. - sedgewick

drilling will not decrease the rising demand for oil world wide which is how the price of oil is set. - Erik Weese

Hybrids are a step, not a perfect step but a step none the less. Hybrids are expensive. If a Hybrid is within your reach, lease one. When the lease is up, or maybe the lease on your second Hybrid is up, the next step (plugin Hybrid?) may be in reach for you so lease it (repeat as required). Meanwhile you are helping drive up demand for alternatives which will send a message to the fatcats that there is coin to be made away from oil. And making coin is the only message they will ever listen to. - Capn' One Eye - adrift

are you serious? It is going to take 10 years to get the oil from offshore. And then who says that the oil companies will use it to lower the cost of oil to US citizens? This plan is idiocy and an extremely obvious handout to the most profitable industry in America. It isn't a lack of oil that is the problem. It is a lack of will from the American people to change our lifestyles one iota or to hold this president and his palls in the oil industry responsible for their continued extortion of America. - Kevin Goldsmith

When will more people face the fact that we have to change our lifestyles NOW rather than a year from now, a decade from now, or a week from now? I managed to live and conduct business for many years without owning a car, and now I have one (a 1999 VW Beetle), but I don't use it very much. I take public transit most of the time or carpool when necessary. If you must drive a lot, get a hybrid or electric. Ride a bike or walk to do simple errands in your own neighborhood. Offshore drilling is not the answer. - Cathryn Hrudicka

at what point do we stop putting band aids on huge gaping wounds?? - Jeremy Toeman

We can't ignore our short term needs because "we need to have our backs against the wall to force change." While you're trying to force change by doing that, the economy could collapse and that reverberating effect could very well sink the world into recession. Scoble's absolutely 100% correct - we need to drill now. We need to POWER our search for alternatives, you know. It takes energy to make energy. - Ben Parr

@Ben (and others) perhaps the voters at large should just get more educated on energy issues in the short term? do you *know* how much oil we actually need? what alternatives have you considered, for example purchasing oil from other nations that we tend to ignore while throwing money at massively unstable places like Saudi Arabia? how about the government create incentives (and penalties) to huge companies that consume massive amounts of energy instead of stiffing individuals even further? - Jeremy Toeman

Jeremy: Why are you punishing huge companies with huge energy needs? They need it for their operations and to run their companies. Do you really believe they're wasting tons of energy? NO! They're corporations, which means they MUST be efficient in order to improve the bottom line. Government is what is inefficient and needs to be kept in check, not corporations. - Ben Parr

@Ben normally i'd agree, and tell the gov to stay out. However, their hands are already stirring the pot with the fundamental structure of energy distribution, so the free market is not in proper control. IF there really were numerous power brokers and they were in charge of buying/selling power, that'd be one thing. But it aint, and the only entity who can effect change is the gov. This is one of my big beefs, that the system is NOT regulating itself, nor is it truly capable anymore. - Jeremy Toeman

@Scobleizer I have been following your entire energy discussion, which has been fascinating. I have a video for you on this very topic: http://talktech.tv/2008... Kevin Surace, CEO of startup Serious Materials, shares an analysis of his energy projections in 30 years (i.e. no more oil), and, interestingly, how addressing energy wasted in heating/cooling with improved insulation could contribute more energy savings than nuclear, solar, and biofuel combined. Thoughts? - Kristin White

Rental really has the lowest barrier for entry and with everyone pushing portability, you should have no problem getting your content back in case you decide to buy. - Andrew Smith

Annotated via Feedly here: http://friendfeed.com/e... Great article Steve. I agree with your points. - Bwana ☠

Nice point your colleague made about you building up Twitter's equity by participating there. But that makes it sound too one way, like Twitter is getting everything in the deal. You're getting a much higher social participation out of it, with ideas, conversations and reputation as your benefit. - Hutch Carpenter

I have web hosting, but these web services already have the tech infrastructure to make cool things happen that I won't spend time learning how to code. I'm currently looking into ways to leverage the tools that are out there but host it on my own space, and have a homepage that sort of collects all the content I've scattered around the web and make my website out of it, like the Sergiooo Nexus. Another issue is that with all the fun of 'discovering content' I'm not making any new personal artwork. - sergiooo

The equity metaphor is quite fitting when you look at the investment and return you can get from your own blog vs. microblogs or related services. I'm not familiar with co-ops, so the FriendFeed/co-op comparison doesn't work as well for me. Maybe FriendFeed is more like a hotel or a long term rental? - Mark Dykeman

I get much higher notability and audiance on FF vs my blog. Even Google is ranking my FF feed and room higher than my blog. So guess I am a renter. - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

Now I understand what's cool about Friendfeed. They are the first company in history renting mirrors. - Simone

Just commented at your blog ... but it's held for moderation. :( - Gerrit Eicker

Is it really an either/or question? What's wrong with having your own blog and posting on Twitter/Friendfeed/etc.? - Brent Newhall

@ Brent: Nothing's wrong with that. People like to make claims about things being dead, things being replaced, shiny new things being the best things since the last shiny new thing... - Mike Keliher from twhirl

@Gerrit your comment is now live. - Steve Rubel

It is amazing like such a simple concept like Friendfeed could turn into something so complex, so complete. What is even more amazing is seeing how Twitter had it all and was able to go down in such an idiotic way. - Rodrigo Leme

Let me know how you like it! (Gridjit) - Ray Grieselhuber

Refugees unite - tear down the walls of single vendor-ness - break though the barriers of 140 characters - unite in your FriendFeed-liness! - Marc Canter

I tried Alert Thingy most of the day today. I've come back to twhirl... like it... keepin' it! - BlueMoonMultimedia from twhirl

I'm sure it will keep evolving. The Web in a few years will look very different. - Cathryn Hrudicka

it takes a real smart brain to attain such a simple, yet true, conclusion. Hats off, sincerly! - directeur from NoiseRiver

We're crossing the swamp, hopping from platform to platform as they're built one hop ahead of us. - Ken Sheppardson

I said "look very different"...the Web will sound and be experienced as very different in the future, involving all the senses and lots of interactivity. - Cathryn Hrudicka

BTW, I'd add TechCrunch and TechMeme to that list as well. - Dave Winer

Something needs to be the destination. That destination may change. Today it's FF for me. Tomorrow it could be something else. - Steve Rubel

Are these Web 2.0 services instead pointing to the need for some future database, searchable, filterable, where we'll all go for info? - Mark Dykeman

Well put. I'm wondering if FriendFeed will one day crawl the sites we share and flip a twist on search. - Dan Kaplan

I think where our ideas live and co-mingle will get much richer. The shared space will wander in and out of different worlds much more easily. We've got Level 1 integration, made possible by first generation APIs. It's nice the way FF and Pownce handle Flickr for example. Nice the way FF understands YouTube. Just knowing that you can do more if you know more about the data is a big step. Twitter is unwilling to take that step. These other guys are willing to tiptoe up to and over the line. Lots more to do. - Dave Winer

Ok I like Rubel's comment here a lot!!! Something needs to be the destination. How do we stop continuing to be dissatified with one app.. and at the same time continue to attack innovation??? Thats a bitch but damn I cant keep up with which kickass social app I am suppossed to using. - Cody Heitschmidt

FF et al + us == awakening the internet. - iTad

BTW, I doubt seriously whether Rex Hammock is even aware of this discussion. This is not a minor flaw. - Dave Winer

Are these the beginnings of the Semantic Web? - Prolific Programmer

Flaw with Rex Hammock or FriendFeed? - iTad

I don't think there will ever be "THE" desitnation site. As social sites evolve, users are constantly giving feedback on what they like and don't like and as a result, new site(s) will arise to address current limitations and offer new featurs and the cycle continues. - Bob Ngu from twhirl

@Cody, I'm just an everyday joeuser, but it's all good to me. I'm continually amazed at all of this. This from a guy who remembers B&W TV! - Larry Huffman

Im sticking with the decentralization argument. I want to host my own Twitter/friend-feed, just like I do with Wordpress, MoveType. I want my own MYSQL database to control my own data, my own security, just like everything. This is where its all evolving, I think. Currently, the transmission is backwards. And no one gets any linkcred for anything. - Andrew Baron

@Andrew, agreed. I want enterprise Twitter in lieu of pagers. On a team of 15 production engineers, that would be a big help towards endless reply-all emails. - Larry Huffman

@Andrew you're on to something here. Web 2.0 2001-2006 we all built equity exclusively on our personal sites (mostly blogs). However around 06 something switched - we built equity on YouTube, Facebook, then Twitter and now Friendfeed. It might go full circle as people get fed up doing so. - Steve Rubel

We're redefining (1) communities (2) friends-acquaintances (3) in-group out-group. In the wake of all the loneliness in the US nuclear-family-model, this is probably something people are crying out for... In the early days of public Internet 1991-1995, one very active group I followed was parents raising gifted kids. It was so hard for them to find a support-community. - Mitchell Tsai

That's probably quite true, but then again, half the fun is the journey, right? :) - Sawyer

Is there a destination? I hope not. Our tools change us even as we change them. - Craig Thomler

Not a flaw with either Rex or FF. - Dave Winer

Decentralization fixes #1: who owns the data (we own our own data), #2 scale issues Twitter is having - balanced load - P2P, #3 it protects the web from not being neutral - e.g. makes it more difficult for Verizon to allow ltd. access - #4 distributes server costs so its cheaper, #5 give developers and services more control over all. - Andrew Baron

Verner Vinge's Rainbow's End provided a good description of where things might be heading. http://tinyurl.com/67nzgm - Brad Collins

My feeling is it's not (just) the content, the real value is in your social graph - plus obviously the possibility to expand it; we're getting to a point where the specific service you're publishing on is becoming of secondary importance, while the real benefits lie in this cross-pollination of services. Facebook tried that by being - in a sense - a social OS with its apps, but in fact a 2.0 app can never be the OS. Internet can. - dario

totally with Andrew. Someone talked about "information siloses" referring to 2.0 services - open APIs are taps to those siloses, but you don't own them, you can't control them, yet you host your lifestream on them. What if you *were* the owner of the silo? - dario

@andrewbaron Personal portable version of what Tom Watson has done with http://tincorporated.com would be great, its an integrated lifestream with control over his assets, but still open to the web through those services APIs - Roger Penguino from fftogo

Andrew and Steve have good points. The initial Web 2.0 enabled self-publishing/ user generated content, but community was largely manual (via RSS readers, cross-linking, etc). The soc net revolution enabled mainstream community, but does not give us ownership. If we do go full circle -- and WordPress would be awesome for this btw -- we can self-publish, with community... and I think that's where Google Connect is going. - Allen Fuller

Feedalizr may change things for me, but the two channels do very different things. I don't think it is zero zum....via feedalizr - Kevin Makice

I don't understand all the fuss between FF and Twitter - isn't the only issue the interface? I've been 100% FF bc its easier - JMaultasch

do it!! I live in FriendFeed now. Only visit twitter occasionally. TweetBeep notifies me @replies with @smbeebe - Susan Beebe

Susan: TweetBeep looks very useful so I guess that you've been happy with it? - Thomas Ho from fftogo

Susan, thanks for mentioning TweetBeep. It's exactly what I didn't know I really wanted! - Akiva

I'm doing the same thing - and I'm really liking FF. It's just easy to use. I need to refollow all my twitter friends with FF - Scott Cate

Does FriendFeed have an API like Twitter's, so we might seen applications like twhirl for FF? - Allen Fuller

@Allen twhirl already supports FF. just add ur account and start rocking! - Gilbert Corrales from twhirl

I'm using twhirl FF support as my Twitter client. Only way I can get through. - Daniel Shaw from twhirl

The things that bother me about Twhirl FF are: comment font size is just too small (I've already bumped it up a bit and still have a hard time reading them) and I can't post back to Twitter on tweets. - Daniel Shaw from twhirl

And here we are - twhirl and FF? Sorry Twitter, we may be taking out the middle man... - Allen Fuller from twhirl

I was thinking i might try that too, really see what's what - Maddie Grant

Steve, when you say you're taking a week off from Twitter, does that mean that you'll also ignore FriendFeed content from Twitter, and/or that you won't check the item to send replies via Twitter? Or are you simply saying that you'll use FriendFeed as your Twitter client? - Ontario Emperor

I read and reply to Twitter in Friendfeed, so I'm incurable. :) - Morton Fox