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arik › Likes
Receiving Email - Google App Engine - Google Code - http://code.google.com/appengi...
Seth, Alex Kapranoff, Chris Myles and 3 other people liked this
"Email messages sent to your app are implemented as HTTP requests. To process incoming email messages, you associate email addresses with script handlers in your app configuration, then include the handlers in your app's code. Incoming email generates HTTP requests, which are passed to the appropriate scripts."
- Benjamin Golub
from Bookmarklet
500+ free Topify invites - http://www.topify.com/invite...
Brandon Titus, Brian Moore, Ouriel Ohayon and 4 other people liked this
You might not need it but I think it's still the best way to manage followers by email. See http://crave.cnet.co.uk/softwar... and http://www.louisgray.com/live....
- LouCypher
from Bookmarklet
thanks Lou, trying it out
- anna sauce
thanks!
- topo
Seems like a great service BUT I don't want to change my e-mail address to anything because then the company /could/ change my password and hi-jack my account.
- Aaron Myers
@Aaron: You're right about this, though.
- LouCypher
I'm really enjoying this, takes about 3 clicks away from managing my followers
- anna sauce
awesome - looking forward to trying it out - thanks!
- Marco(aureliusmaximus)
Looks good, I'll give it a try. Thank you!
- Frank Kammerdiener
To those who afraid to change email address - we understand you and wish we had a workaround for this. Meanwhile, if you have a Gmail account you can setup a filter to forward the Twitter notifications to us. Please note that this only works with Gmail.
- arik
Great idea, I'll set that up now!
- Aaron Myers
I adore it
- anna sauce
Someone out there listening, please follow me at @amyers so I can make sure this works. :)
- Aaron Myers
谢谢您，我拿到了invite code
- 黑莓极至
My new diet -- a beer every night -- but only goooooood beer - http://www.flickr.com/photos...
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Private Sanjeev, Tudor Bosman, Lester Greenberg and arik liked this
Watch the birdy! - http://community.thetimes-tribune.com/blogs...
localr, Adrian Scicluna, bnoise and 22 other people liked this
LOL, priceless. Re: #iranelection - "Watch the birdy!" (Cartoon Image)
- Alex Schleber
Facebook Vanity URLs: Rolling Out on Saturday! Let the Countdown Begin - http://thenextweb.com/2009...
Seth Greenblatt, Eric Geller, giuseppe ferrante and 43 other people liked this
Sadly its a minimum of 5 letters :(
- Zee.
from Bookmarklet
5 letters?
- Leandro Ardissone ⍨
zeeee!
- Hiro Asari
ah, gotcha.. :P
- Leandro Ardissone ⍨
from IM
The planned elimination of regional networks makes a LOT more sense now. With unique usernames it should be very easy to find people without knowing what networks they're in (a task that is currently very difficult)
- LANjackal
gotta be honest...i am GUTTED.
- Zee.
sorry Zee
- Amber, Random Time Lord
zeeme?
- Alfredo
think i'm going to go with /zee.me (you can have dots which is cool)
- Zee.
I agree. Zee.me is cool
- Jorge Escobar
Thanks Jorge (....still gutted :P)
- Zee.
FINALLY! :D
- Andrea (Notorious)
Not something I'd be interested in.
- Rustic Thoughts
surely a neat facebook.com/rusticthoughts url would cool no?
- Zee.
Not really bothered. But if i can get it i will, just because i can. :)
- Simon Wicks
Usually us geeks have first dibs on the handles because we are first to the party with all these social networks. In this case with facebook holding out for so long, we now have to compete with the "flock" for the handles - not cool facebook :) haha
- Mike Bracco
@Mike - if you want a better chance at getting your handle and you have Twitter account, you might want to follow @fbname to get a 1 hour reminder before they launch the vanity urls. :)
- arik
arik: thanks for heads up :) Also, I see you co-founded topify. I signed up for invite a couple of days ago with twitter handle @bracco - anyway I can get accelerated on getting an account...thought I would try :)
- Mike Bracco
@Mike - I sent all the waiting invites few hours ago.. you should've received it by now. If you haven't - just email me - arik@topify.com and I will send you one :)
- arik
Arik: Cool thanks. Haven't received yet. If I don't by tomorrow I'll certainly reach out - appreciate it. thanks :)
- Mike Bracco
I think the minimum 5 letters kindof sucks though.
- Nicholas James
you're telling me!
- Zee.
leech.length = 5, phew..
- Leandro Ardissone ⍨
from IM
It's about time...
- Mark Harai
@Mark: Zuckerberg has already taken your name :p
- LouCypher
@Lou, no, it has to be 5 characters or more... Mark = 4
- Jorge Escobar
is that for fan pages to?
- Randy Ksar
from twhirl
@Randy, yes. But tha pages which have more than 1.000 fans as of May 31
- Ozkan Altuner
On Twitter I'm getting TONS of DM spam from playspymaster.com. I don't play games. This is yet another thing broken with Twitter.
Darren Scott Monroe, Paul Papadimitriou, Luis Enrique León and 36 other people liked this
yeah that sucks. the provide the opt-out though. http://playspymaster.com/optout
- Aldiantoro Nugroho
You are not the only one - who is this person Sent on the Now Network� from my Sprint® BlackBerry
- Lionel Spearman
from email
This is different from Facebook how?
- Zach Flauaus
A rather shady opt-out procedure, they should set up something like TweetLater's @optmeout
- 321
It's not the game, it's the people playing it. Hard for Twitter to filter when the tweets are actually coming from the various players and they have to intentionally send you the DM's, they are not automatic. Hate the players, not the game.
- Shultzman
@aldi - but this kind of thing should be opt-IN. Anything else is spam. Spymaster is sliding further and further up my crappy-app scale. It's very close to knocking "Facebook Top-5 App" and Mafia Wars off the number one spot.
- Andy Bold
The DM's are Twitter users sending invites. It's hard to opt-in to something before you have been invited. I do agree that they should add some logic that if you have received a recent DM invite, that it should not send you any more when other users also DM the same person with an invite.
- Shultzman
QUOTE: Shultzman "It's not the game, it's the people playing it. Hard for Twitter to filter when the tweets are actually coming from the various players and they have to intentionally send you the DM's, they are not automatic. Hate the players, not the game." It's not far off from FB games, but still, don't hat the playa's - if it brings a measure of joy.
- Laurel Phelps LaFlamme
Zach: I haven't gotten an email from Facebook for years. And that's in email where i can filter them out. I can't filter these suckers out in Twitter's DM. It's VERY VERY VERY lame. But DM was already lame. Sigh.
- Robert Scoble
Maybe it's time to split Twitter? Already discussed elsewhere about how Twitter might become more of a feed protocol for other apps an places - perhaps we now need "Twitter for Apps" - something that is specifically for this kind of app-based communication?
- Andy Bold
I'm getting stacks of those spymaster dm's too.
- Jim Connolly
Even better- Spymaster overlords - set up a Spymaster group at Friendfeed and throw the messages into /that/ instead of Twitter...
- Andy Bold
I agree completely I have gotten almost 25 DMs of people joining my spymaster group. So, I just turned them off. It was cool for a day, but just got boring and Annoying.
- TheHenry
I thought you didn't use DMs Robert? I thought you told everybody to email you instead.
- Zach Flauaus
Zach: I tried that for a long time but gave up on it. Everyone uses DMs and the DM feature sucks so much I really can't stand it.
- Robert Scoble
wait a little more :)
- Ouriel Ohayon
Ouriel: I opted out, that should solve this one. But if this becomes like Facebook app spam just watch out! Twitter users aren't used to being spammed like that.
- Robert Scoble
Yeah, Twitter sux! But what do I care... I'm still locked out of Twitter... my account was hacked a few weeks ago (lists me as Jose Perez!!!)... and despite MANY, MANY emails to Twitter... they are asleep at the wheel... no reply, no access... I'm just waiting in fear that my Twitter account wasn't hacked so it could be used by a spammer :-(
- Fred Davis
Fred: Twitter are notoriously poor at tech support. I had same experience with my account.
- Jim Connolly
Yeah, I knew their Quality of Service was abysmal... shoulda guessed tech support was, too...
- Fred Davis
They've had millions of dollars in funding - how hard would it be to hire some motivated tech support people?
- Jim Connolly
Isn't "motivated tech support" usually an oxymoron? ;-) But, yeah, they need some customer service...
- Andy Bold
Well, the funding wasn't given to them to build a quality product, it was provided to get a fat ROI by selling it for zillions, and letting the buyer worry about fixing it... caveat emptor!
- Fred Davis
Unfollow me if you don't like it. I'm a gamer. Won't hurt my feelings. Oh and I also ask users if they want an invite, I don't blast them out. That's just me. But if your "friends" do, why are you following them again?
- Bwana ☠
Don't play games on Twitter or ever?
- Louis Gray
Bwana: I follow tons of people. Many of whom play games and many of whom don't realize the consequences of sending out invites.
- Robert Scoble
Louis: I very rarely play games, actually. I usually give them to my son to play and I watch. I do play some casual games once in a while, but get bored very quickly.
- Robert Scoble
...I think it's actually an interesting social game. on one hand, you get points the more you broadcast your exploits in the game -- theoretically, you could shut down every announcement and message -- while competing against other game players. otoh, you risk spamming and annoying your followers who could care less about it. it calls into question what you value more about social media: your own entertainment, or your online relationships.
- .LAG liked that
Twitter's response to this has been one of the most promising things I've seen in awhile: http://groups.google.com/group...
- Jesse Stay
I like how I got 0 invites in my DM Box when Spymaster came out. It means I'm doing a decent job managing my followers.
- Bwana ☠
Sometimes it's good to be the little guy :)
- Bwana ☠
Jesse: It says a lot about the poor way users are treated by Twitter, that you were so impressed with their response to your suggestion. In fairness, most of us don't even get a reply - so you did well just getting them to acknowledge you exist. I appreciate your relationship with them is deeper than the 'regular' users, but they REALLY suck at customer care.
- Jim Connolly
If Twitter adds filters, there goes the simplicity
- Bwana ☠
Not necessarily a bad thing, just sayin
- Bwana ☠
Tech News Blog, they're actually quite responsive on the developer mailing list. Some times faster than others, but if your question merits an answer from them they usually, eventually, answer. Also, @twitterapi answers questions all the time (Doug Williams). I have to give them credit for that. That said, you know my frustrations.
- Jesse Stay
Spam? What spam? Surely, whatever else you think about Twitter, Twitter has done something different: it provides asymmetric relationships. How can there be "spam", whether direct (private) or public, when each of us decides whether or not to follow? Surely unfollowing removes unwanted messages? In any case, when following tens of thousands, the volume of messages is such that you are more likely using some kind of "search" anyway.
- John W Lewis
John, the problem here is that there are actually legitimate users that I want to follow and just happen to be playing this game as well. Twitter needs to allow me a way to block just the app and not the user. Facebook and FriendFeed both provide this. Twitter doesn't.
- Jesse Stay
Spymaster posts via web
- Bwana ☠
Bwana they're not using the API to post? That will get them kicked off Twitter pretty quick.
- Jesse Stay
Thanks Jesse. For some time, the case has been emerging for services which allow separate control of segments of other people's streams. I am not familiar with this app; but others are reporting that the user (rather than the app) is initiating the message; so are they not damaging their own reputation by emitting this stuff. In the absence of (future) segmentation, could they not choose to create extra accounts for these purposes?
- John W Lewis
I'm just looking at the Twitter posts, they say "via web"
- Bwana ☠
See http://twitter.com/Bwana... Maybe I'm misunderstanding the app filtering you're describing
- Bwana ☠
While we're at it, can we filter out #followfriday, #unfollowdiddy, #stupid3lettermemes, etc..... slippery slope
- Bwana ☠
Bwana, every app on Twitter is saying "via web" right now. Check out Louis Gray's post on it (and my latest).
- Jesse Stay
from email
Oh, that's.... broken
- Bwana ☠
Bwana that's different - users are generating those. In this case SpyMaster is generating the message. Users should have a right to block it. And yes, regardless, more filters to block stuff like that would also be appropriate. Let the users decide what they want to see. I don't see the slippery slope here.
- Jesse Stay
from email
Users have total control over Spymaster's tweets, I don't see a difference
- Bwana ☠
The difference is spymaster is the one generating the tweets for those users. There's an obvious filter here Twitter could provide.
- Jesse Stay
But the decision is still the user's whether to post or not... I'm not talking about a technical issue here, I'm talking about a management issue
- Bwana ☠
The technical issue I agree with, Twitter *could* filter apps, they *could* filter users, they *could* filter by terms, they *could* filter by date
- Bwana ☠
Bwana I don't care - I still want to follow many of the users posting those, but I don't want to see the spymaster tweets. I'd like a filter to turn those off, and it's a pretty easy one on Twitter's end.
- Jesse Stay
The thing is, will they?
- Bwana ☠
Bwana see the link I posted - they're going to talk about it tomorrow - it looks promising
- Jesse Stay
Promising? I'll believe it when it's working for 6 months
- Bwana ☠
Filtering brings back memories of Track.
- Bwana ☠
Even if it's at the app level
- Bwana ☠
Social responsibility is in the eye of the receiver, not the presenter. I could care less what people post as long as I have a way to receive only the tweets I want to receive. That's what I do with Facebook, and it's what I do with FriendFeed. IMO it's not the fault of the users to be sending this stuff - it's the fault of the technology for not allowing us to turn it off.
- Jesse Stay
It's Twitter - and you want to change it
- Bwana ☠
Bwana I don't see how that changes Twitter.
- Jesse Stay
Easy - Before you couldn't block apps, now you can
- Bwana ☠
Not implying it's a bad change
- Bwana ☠
But a change nonetheless
- Bwana ☠
It brings Facebook/FriendFeed functionality to Twitter
- Bwana ☠
robert, promised you heads up. check your DM or contact me for more details ouriel.ohayon@gmail.com
- Ouriel Ohayon
I think Twiiter somehow needs to go through users and get rid of spammers, or give users a spam filter similar to what you have with mail
- Asgeir
Twitter needs better filters
- Steve Lynch
from twhirl
yeh, twitter also needs a better search, a better native web app, and a better backend
- Kirill Bolgarov
Robert this might help with a lot of the DM spam - http://bit.ly/23VREp
- Sean Malarkey
Sean, or you can just sign up for SocialToo, set up some filters, and not even have to give those sites traffic to opt out. We'll block them for you if you set up the filters.
- Jesse Stay
Does Twitter need a new game? Twitter investor Fred Wilson told me Tumblr's Tumblarity influence measure is getting more engagement. More:
Crackle, Daniel Rowley, Brad Kligerman and 26 other people liked this
Be right back with more details and discussion.
- Robert Scoble
how is this influence measured?
- Carlos Ayala
From what I read it doesn't just take"followership" into account, which is nice :)
- AJ Leon
Measuring a Twitter user's influence isn't exactly a "new game", Rob. Seems that people have been doing that for some time now, through Web apps like twinfluence.com.
- Thomas Ward
He says that number of followers was a fun game on Twitter but a new game is needed for Twitter: one that focuses more on engagement and real influence. He said that I have more influence on Twitter than Oprah and they need a new way to point that out while encouraging more people to post better tweets.
- Robert Scoble
He pointed to Tumblr's new "Tumblarity" score and said that the engagement has gone up because of it. More people are posting more content there now which gets more people to visit, etc.
- Robert Scoble
The fundamental problem I have with all of the influence calculations is that they take everyone regardless of problem domain. My list of influential folks would be different if i'm looking at the list of people I follow because of XMPP or Python or Ruby.
- bear (aka Mike Taylor)
must say that a way to measure engagement and effectiveness of twitter would be a good way to put it forward to colleagues who are doubters. are there any? checking out twinfluence now - thanks Thomas
- Matthew Llewellin
Mike: great point! What if a system could recommend people based on not only overall votes, but by weighting votes from your friends/networks higher.
- Larry Roth
Larry: right - it would need to weight the votes by either tag-cloud or keyword values (or both)
- bear (aka Mike Taylor)
Rob, I think he's absolutely right about everything he says in your first quote (that there's no proper measure of engagement or influence on Twitter yet), but I disagree with his presumption that Tumblr has increased engagement because of better metrics. I know about two folks who use Tumblr regularly (and yes, this is anecdotal, but so is the presumption of Twitter influence we're...
more...
- Adam Lipkin
I doubt the effectiveness of tag clouds. I look at tag-clouds based on 'category' of tweeps and there's quite little evidence that someone is, say, a journalist. I think some measure of influence can be measured by looking at how his followers react to a tweet. If someone gets many replies, retweets, it's clear that at least his followers think he's influential. Followers * tweets * replies * retweets. Or something like that.
- Michiel Berger
A "sneak peek" at the bfast chat ;), Robert couldn't hold this back till the 11th. I've seen pages with retweet stats- twinfluence? Not in front of my PC but I can check later.
- Mark Essel
retweets are a strong measure of influence, imo. obviously the more followers, the more RT, but that's part of it's strengths. other than that there's using a 'Like' type system or how about this... ranks for posting about trending topics, replying to people and recommending people. would have to make it so it wouldn't be abused tho.
- SolidSmack
Maybe the answer lies in groups.The amount of followers or gross conversation turnover generated by each user would not be weighted at all. New groups can be setup and joined by others without restriction but "Influence Groups" would need to be setup only by votes through the entire community. Once an Influence group is set up, the amount of previous followers, gross conversation turn over...would be fire walled off pertaining to that group. Influence would grow vertically not horizontally by niche.
- Chad Harris
Why on earth is Fred Wilson thinking about influence and engagement but not participating on FriendFeed? Somebody needs to tell him in a nice way that he's being stupid. The best thinking he could have about influence and engagement would come from exploring what's right here.
- Bruce Lewis
Bruce: Fred is very knowledgeable about friendfeed. I think he's just very busy. Engagement is tough when you're really busy. Plus he's an investor in Twitter so I can imagine that if he engaged only here that might cause him problems in board meetings and such.
- Robert Scoble
SolidSmack: actually that's not true (that having more followers gets you more RT's). Fred and I both know that Guy Kawasaki gets more engagement than people who have 5x to 10x more followers. That's why we know that Twitter needs a new game. It's not about how many followers you have it's about how many followers care about what you have to say and are willing to take action based on that.
- Robert Scoble
Scott: like I said, you need a new game! :-)
- Robert Scoble
I'm not saying he should permanently ditch twitter for FF, but if you want to really understand it, you have to participate at least for a while. Then again, maybe he's not the one to dive deep into the engagement/influence world and come up with feature ideas. That could lead to micro-managing the companies he advises.
- Bruce Lewis
If you need gimmicks for community involvement, you FAIL as a Soc Net site.
- Mona Nomura
This just appeared on my feed. So is this how ads on Friendfeed are going to look like? ;-)
Roberto Bonini, Kol Tregaskes, Lu Tao and 11 other people liked this
Me too.
- Richard ¿digame? Walker
I would have no objection as long as they are not too hosed!
- Kevin J Hatton
The power of a thank you: a United Airlines employee personally thanked me and another guy I was sitting next to for being loyal customers. We both looked at each other in amazement. Gives me some ideas for my own career. I don't say thank you enough.
Al Stevens, Andy Werner, Isha (Marysia) and 51 other people liked this
Saying thank you and being polite should be a universal behaviour, not just a Canadian behaviour. ;)
- Chris Luckhardt
Thank you.
- Michael McKean
Thank me very much. ;)
- Craig Eddy
I agree. A simple thank you or expression of appreciation goes a long way.
- Trish R
Thank you!!
- Roberto Bonini
Robert, thank you for that free consulting the other day. I've already implemented some of it.
- Bruce Lewis
from fftogo
Sincere thanks shows empathy and respect. Even thanks by protocol (less sincere) _can_ be good, and potentially leads to the real thing - even better. Great thought to share, Robert.
- Micah Wittman
Did the United Airlines employee thank you for your friendfeeds?
- Charbax
Starting at home, too. Maryam does a lot for me and I don't say thank you enough to her.
- Robert Scoble
Apology accepted
- Dave Hodson
It's too easy to take things for granted.
- Michael McKean
Robert, thank you for improving yourself by thanking others more often. ;)
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
Saying "please" and "thank you" is always welcome, thanks, Robert. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
A great reminder. Another thing I'm learning is to be more gracious when others say 'thank you' and to say 'you're welcome.' Often, I say 'no problem,' which is kind of self-diminishing and also doesn't convey that they are worth doing a favor for. I don't know if this makes any sense, but I'm trying to train myself.
- joey
One airline used to say "Welcome Mr. xyz as soon as you were on your first class seat and asked what you wanted for a drink ... they have the list of passengers with the frequent flier level. Basic customer service.
- Julio F ~ @SocialJulio
I worked for some folks as a horseback trail guide when I was a kid. Everyday, no matter what, they thanks me for coming in and doing my job. Taught me the power of a thank you from a group that normally takes you for granted (your employer) - the same holds true for thanking customers.
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Julio: I have flown 300,000+ miles and hearing thank you is a rare enough occurence that it is notable when it happens.
- Robert Scoble
Wouldn't it be great if @ev said thanks to some of the early adopters who tirelessly promoted Twitter? It struck me when he tweeted from the Time awards dinner thanking his employees. He doesn't get how hard we work, for free, to make him successful.
- Dave Winer
@Dave - do you want some stock or something? If you feel like you need to be recognized and aren't, use another service
- Dave Hodson
"Thank you" is something you don't notice unless it's missing. My previous job I got very few "thank yous" from the management, it was a little upsetting. I still did the work of course but it would have been very nice if people simply replied to mails, for example, with a thank you. It seemed there that that was wasting an email. No it's not! :-(
- Kol Tregaskes
What does being a "loyal customer" mean? I have loyalty to ideals, to my country, to my family ... not so much to companies. There are exceptions, but I don't think any airline would apply ...
- John Koetsier
John: I did 120,000 miles with United last year. That is loyalty.
- Robert Scoble
I had a patient carry business type cards with a lovely verse about how little the world recognizes good service, kind nature and such. I truly was taken for a pause when she gave me one.
- Janet
Janet, that is a fantastic idea.
- joey
Just give thanks that you actually have a career as many do not right now in this country.
- Steve
One of my friends trains dentists and their staffs how to boom their new patient numbers through word-of-mouth referrals without ever saying the "r-word". It's basically done through very well-worded thank you messages. Extremely powerful and the staff absolutely love doing it.
- Hans Eisenman
I agree and the power simple gestures have always amazes me.
- Craig Mische
You are welcome Robert, LMAO
- John (ColderICE)
Funny. My boss's birthday was today. We have to give words of wisdom on our birthday's at work. He told us a story about the importance of thanking and acknowledging.
- amarquart
I think it is easy to forget the times we get good service, because the bad service sticks out so much more. But it is a worthy note to take, pay it forward.
- Patrick Boegel
Steve: I'm always thankful for that. Not to mention that about half the world's people live on $2 a day. I thank my dad for being the first to go to college in our family, get a PHD, and moving me to Silicon Valley. Of course if we had stayed in Jersey maybe I would be working with Gary Vaynerchuk now. That would be fun too!
- Robert Scoble
Awesome! Amazing how something so small can be so big
- Andy A.
Amazing how a simple "Thank You" goes a very long way..
- Ricardo Bueno
Look at all of the positive press UA is getting from this and it didn't cost them a cent! Just good policy and good employees.
- Jeff P. Henderson
When said honestly and properly, thank you can be very powerful. We all should use it more.
- arik
Thank you.
- Jack Humphrey
I like to ask speak to the manager of anyone who has been very helpful to me so that I can request that it be noted how great he or she was.
- metalerik
metalerik, that's great.
- Bruce Lewis
I had a very positive experience the other day after being delayed for five hours and being stranded overnight in Denver (United put me up for the night). About 20 minutes after landing at SFO, I got an apology email with a $250 credit for future travel. http://bit.ly/AMEH4
- Rocky
Robert, thank you.
- Michael Forian
I don't know I understand why blocking on twitter is a big deal. I mean, they are following. So what? Why keep them from my content? Even if they are spammers, I just don't follow them and they can't touch me. Only thing I can think of is they could RT my stuff to bait to their profile to then spam? What's your thought on twitter blocking?
arik liked this
Good question. I guess that blocking is good for few reasons: a. is signlas Twitter that there's something wrong about that user - I believe that if many people block the same person, they notice that. b. keeping him from sending @replies at you - most people look at public @replies, even from people they don't follow. That's my $0.02. Would love to hear more opinions.
- arik
blocking stops @replies? I know dm is blocked if you don't follow, but didn't know about blocking @replies. If Twitter did look at blocks then I'd block, but that could be dangerous (could create false positives of spammers).
- Rob Williams
actually I'm not really sure how they handle blocks. but I guess that if someone gets blocks from high percentage of the people he follows he probably doesn't belong to be a twitter user. and afaik, blocking stops @replies from that person.
- arik
have you seen the #unfollowfriday tag? curious of your thoughts on that too.
- Rob Williams
looked at it now - not sure I like the idea, but whatever works for people :)
- arik
Manolith Salutes: Richard Branson - http://www.manolith.com/2009...
Tony Adam, arik, Charles Bihis and 13 other people liked this
"its a living..."
- sean percival
from Bookmarklet
That picture is GREATNESS
- Brad Williamson
Richard. Branson. Is. The. Man.
- Kenneth
Richard Branson... I salute you!
- Vieko Franetovic
Google chrome video shorts, (almost) cooler than the Apple Ad’s. - http://thenextweb.com/2009...
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hellonm, Kol Tregaskes, arik and 3 other people liked this
In the end, it's still "just a browser".
- Kittyburgers
lol, yeah it is...but a phone is just a phone no?
- Zee.
so we found these videos before any other tech blog...unfortunately, we didn't know they were going to be used as TV ads :(
- Zee.
They are really cool. Wonderful how a very high tech browser is being 'sold' by old skool (looking) techniques. They are probably too good to be only youtube filler ;)
- Ruud van Wijngaarden
Every day more in control with Topify personal dashboard - http://blog.topify.com/post...
Ouriel Ohayon, arik and Voyagerfan5761 liked this
MYBLOG by Ouriel: Great news! Twitter takes the Topify direction - http://ouriel.typepad.com/myblog...
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Ouriel Ohayon, arik, Bryan Vartabedian and 4 other people liked this
"This is where Topify brings value, because not only it helps spotting better worthy users but also improves your interaction with Twitter. Topify saves time and clicks."
- Phil G
from Bookmarklet
Topify this! - http://vimeo.com/4042417
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arik and Ouriel Ohayon liked this
I'm still waiting for my invites. But it looks like an interesting service.
- Diego Espinoza V.
just get your invite on http://bit.ly/topifyinvite and enjoy
- Ouriel Ohayon
Thanks, I'm trying it now.
- Diego Espinoza V.
from email
If I deleted my Twitter account would a kitten die? I'm wondering cause more and more of my early adopter friends are moving to other services (I am watching).
Calvin Ayre, tmas68, AKs and 109 other people liked this
Delete it. I showed the way and I have no regrets :-). I think it's the way forward.
- Richard A.
Depends on if you can force them onto FriendFeed. Twitter has become a cesspool of spammers and celebrities, which is usually a sign that it's time for people to move on.
- Mike Nayyar
other services like ?
- Marco
What services are they using.
- Sweyn Venderbush
What are the other services that they are switching to?
- Jason
what are the other services? FF? other?
- nrlaskey
Force them? It's not about forcing anyone to do anything, It's about whether you're still getting anything out of the network you're investing your time into.
- Richard A.
No Kittens die. Most people will follow where you lead.
- Russellreno
I'm not there yet, Richard. But I do note that Facebook is getting more interesting to the early adopter types I usually hang out with.
- Robert Scoble
I'll use my mom's argument: "If all your early adopter friends jumped off a cliff, would _you_ jump off a cliff?"
- Nick
Yes, I'd like to know what services too? And don't say FriendFeed :)
- Michael Pilla
Why would you kill off that audience? At least keep it up with a pointer saying you can now be found at X. You know that if you delete the account, in 6 months, some blogger will write a story about how Robert Scoble doesn't get social media because he's not on Twitter and then it'll be the top story on TechMeme for at least a week.
- Mark Trapp
which other other services are attracting the early-adopter crowd, Robert? Anything cool you can share with us?
- Andrew Terry
Sure, no kittens would die. But I continue to find Twitter invaluable and more useful than FriendFeed. However, FaceBook is becoming more useful as a communications and stay-in-touch tool, especially for those with whom I share a relationship of some type.
- Michael Krigsman
Nah, not friendfeed, although it's interesting that this comment is getting more engagement here than on Twitter. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Facebook for the win. It is more interesting to me also. Amazing how they did that.
- Russellreno
What are the other services???
- Jennifer Windrum
Michael: Facebook is the one I'm thinking of. It's coming on very strong with the types of people who made Twitter popular.
- Robert Scoble
@Mike, I was thinking the same thing. We are early adopters (ok, some are earlier than me) and we enjoy the close nit friendships created and nurtured through small groups.
- Damond Nollan
I think you should keep your Twitter account to follow the evolution of Twitter into FriendFeed, through all kind of bolt-on services like Twitpic and Twerbose ( http://twerbose.com/ ).
- Meryn Stol
Trapp, because that audience is only interesting if you get it onto a more conversational platform where anyone can make sense of the conversation a month after it happened. Twitter makes that impossible.
- Richard A.
this is the classic age old early adopter twitch, if you were a real early adopter you wouldnt be asking and you'd be gone already.. fear not however, where ever you go, the masses will follow
- Dan Rockwell
Why delete it? To make a statement? Just abandoning it quietly is a better choice.
- Brian Sullivan
Robert; If twitter was alive and well people would be chatting, not retweeting, they would be conversing with more than one tweet per day per person.
- Richard A.
I'm liking Facebook much more since it's a direct FriendFeed copy, but it'll need to go asymmetrical to kill Twitter.
- Steve Isaacs
I agree that Facebook is becoming more interesting. What I'd like though, is a version of Facebook that doesn't allow any of the really stupid applications. I'm sick of getting poked, hit with a pillow, being served fake beers, etc.
- Internet's Tad
Dan: I was a big Facebook user right around when the Platform came out. Then I moved to Twitter cause more of the people I liked to talk with were there. Now I notice the flow is headed back to Facebook and I'm not the only one to make that observation.
- Robert Scoble
the day Facebook will share outward their status update, then it may kill everything else around.... i don't think it can yet.
- Yann Ropars
@Robert: I suspect you've inadvertently validated why projects like Yammer and ESME should do well - 'your early adopter friends' says it all - it's about YOUR community, not everyone's.
- Dennis Howlett
No, seriously...what other services?
- Adam Gonnerman
I use multiple social networking tools.
- Dan Krivolavek
from twhirl
Robert: All my real life friends, and all those I trust are on FB, those I don't trust yet are spread to other networks for the moment.
- Richard A.
Robert: I get why you want to make the personal statement, but given your new role at Rackspace I'd say you really have to be everywhere.
- Ken Sheppardson
and, what's motivating your friends to move? Are other services offering features that Twitter lacks, or is it because they consider Twitter to be too mainstream/overcrowded now?
- Andrew Terry
Yann: not yet, but Facebook is moving in that direction.
- Robert Scoble
so long as you tell us where you're moving, LOL.
- Kayce Maisel
Someone's discovered the Real-time View :)
- Richard ¿digame? Walker
Kayce, he wouldn't be moving ;-). He would simply be re-focusing on another service ;-)
- Richard A.
Andrew: everyone has a different answer. Most of them say they must be on Facebook because their normal friends are there, but aren't on Twitter. Facebook is growing far faster (in terms of people) than Twitter is. Just passed 200 million users, while Twitter is at about 10 million.
- Robert Scoble
i think facebook would be more interesting if they made all profiles public, ala twitter. The openness of twitter is really the win. If facebook can do that then I will consider seriously using it.
- akeem adeniji
Richard W, I've been using the realtime view for weeks by now, or for a while anyway, I live in i. When I'm here.
- Richard A.
I think that any process of "flow" between platforms isn't necessarily final, So I say : keep it. You may need to go back.
- Iain Baker
Still a strong believer in Facebook for personal friends/family, Twitter for public engagement/networking. They work together.
- Ian Mikutel
I think microblogging transcends the specific service you happen to be using. The interesting thing about Twitter is that it's a sort of lowest-common-denominator microblogging platform that makes for a good place for all of the various streams to dump into and/or a good starting point to feed into your other services. But focus will gradually shift from the specific service to the microblog stream as a whole.
- Grey Drane
Twitter is mainstream now; usually indicates the demise is forthcoming
- Tom Allinder
Akeem, there's no way I want my FB profile public.
- Richard A.
What specific functions is Facebook enabling/offering now that are you seeing that is attracting the early adopters back & causing you to consider this? Is it much more than the feed & grouping?
- Lyn Graft
Ian: that was Facebook of yesterday. Zuckerberg told me Facebook will have a public engagement piece too. This is very important for brands, celebrities, news organizations (which is where Twitter is getting its hype). But Facebook is far more engaging, especially now that they copied friendfeed's features (albeit not as well) and Twitter's river of noise.
- Robert Scoble
Judy you're one person I would never follow on twitter in that case.
- Richard A.
Scoble, just delete the thing and be done with it! Who cares if you have a place to land... you yourself recently jumped without a net and it turned out okay. Kill it. You'll sleep better at night. And I agree with Tad, fake beers are teh suk!
- Jim Hearts FF
I am not so sure. Twitter is exactly good because it produces some noise. Noise good, since it allows one to be creative in filtering the information out. It gives much more room for chance than e.g. Facebook. If one bunkers into their peer groups, inspiration becomes a very hard thing to get by.
- Mark Jacobs
@Richard how am I supposed to find you on facebook and to discuss similar things if we have never met and aren't in the same groups?
- akeem adeniji
Jim: I had to check if a kitten would die first. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Robert, the difference is facebook is more like a village in outlook, there's a good chance many of your friends know many of your other friends. It's a much nicer and social community. We have a lot more freedom in what we post there.
- Richard A.
@Mark - Exactly!
- Grey Drane
I foresee Twitter usage reverting back to status updates, and the micro-blog moving to services with better conversation and filtering/grouping capabilities (like FriendFeed).
- Daniel Sims
Sounds like a great example of jumping on and off bandwagons as they go by. You can post to Twitter from Facebook and vice versa. With Ping.fm. you can post to all the social networks you belong to and spend as much time in whatever platform you want.
- Paul
I don't know if this matters to you or not, but I found Robert and others through Twitter. I "thought" I was connected and well read in the technology/web industry, but with Twitter (and now FriendFeed) I was introduced to a whole new world with new players. If you go back to Facebook alone, I'm afraid people like me would miss out on good people like you. Fortunately, I've subscribed to a great many of industry leaders' blogs, so I guess you can go anywhere and I would be fine, but there are others who.
- Damond Nollan
I told you twitter managment would kill twitter ;-) :-) happy to see it's turning into a reality slowly. Of course this is only a problem for early adopters.
- Richard A.
Paul: I watch engagement, not posting behavior. If you post a Tweet and no one is on Twitter to listen to it, did it really matter?
- Robert Scoble
...haven't been fortunate enough to meet you. I say, do what you feel is best, but know you take a lot of folks with you.
- Damond Nollan
Richard: I've been doing online communities since 1984. The normal people ALWAYS follow the early adopters. I can't think of an example where that was not the case. Early adopters used to be on Prodigy. We aren't anymore. Neither is anyone else. Same for CompuServe. Usenet. AOL. Etc. Etc.
- Robert Scoble
This is how active twitter conversations would have been at one time, Hundreds of tweets on the topic, and you would have followed back many of these people as a result. It would have helped with meeting new people :-)
- Richard A.
Next service to fall... Friendfeed?
- Jordi Soler
Robert: What's your view on the current best replacement for Twitter?
- Michael Krigsman
LOL at Robert. Did you land on a LOLcat?
- Jim Hearts FF
Michael: there isn't yet a good replacement, although Facebook is definitely moving in that direction.
- Robert Scoble
ability to tweak friend lists in FB allows de facto asymmetry - just create a "follow" list to see more of, dump all those you wouldn't follow onto a "view less list," drag and drop the more list to the top so FB defaults to it...
- Todd Randolph
Curiously, there are 5 million comments here on FF, and I saw only 2 @ reply on Twitter...from @JMaultasch and @SashaKane...so far, FF wins as a forum where people participate (as opposed to sell).
- Eric Matas
Todd, advantage of lists on Facebook is you can sort your friends according to geography and how you know them. Makes seeing the most relevant news easier as a result, doesn't mean you pay any less attention.
- Richard A.
Eric: Why do you think I jumped from twitter to here? I came for the community.
- Richard A.
Do you have a list of your early adopter friends?
- Paul Sanchez
Twitter is morphing into many different business models (at an alarming pace) and the twitter feeds will continue to be the lifeblood in these new startups.
- Whip
Why do we need to move on like this was a clubbing scene? I think Twitter has its place in the ecology, so has FriendFeed. I would feel most uncomfortable in relating to people I have not met in person on Facebook mostly. Once we go back there, we may as well call LinkedIn or Xing as the next big thing.
- Mark Jacobs
Robert: Keep one thing in mind, all your twitter friends were imported onto Friendfeed the day you did that sync, as a result everyone is still followed, but on a different platform :-)
- Richard A.
I just retweeted and searched...was the 3rd to retweet. Thought the cat part would grab more attention...
- Eric Matas
Heavens no Scoble.
- Roberto Bonini
Robert: Facebook just doesn't have Twitter's ability to easily sift and find interesting new folks in one's particular area of personal interest. That's what I *NEED* and Twitter does it excellently.
- Michael Krigsman
No kittens would die if @scobleizer swam away from the fail whale.
- Bernie Goldbach
I think your kitten would simply ask for a cheezeburger. While Facebook status is becoming more Twitter like, I've found myself using Twitter much more since the demise of Pownce (deep sigh). In my world though Facebook and Twitter are tools I use to connect with different audiences. FB I use primarily for connecting with real world friends, while Twitter is more about sharing info with Webdev/mktg peers. And I like that Twitter is less cluttered even though we're seeing more new spammy users.
- Heidi Cool
Robert, are you sure about that? Do you really know how many times you have mentioned a service on Twitter or Friendfeed or your blg that didn't result in I or others going to that service to find out what it is all about? Adopting an app that you pointed to (e.g. Twhirl). If your measuring engagement by the number of people that respond directly to a post then you and other early adopters are sorely underestimating your reach.
- Paul
I think Twitter still has quite a bit of use. FriendFeed never seemed to have pick up that kind of attention (though I wish it did - its great for conversations!)
- Colin Charles
from twhirl
I think the problem with friendfeed is with its interface... it's a pita
- Marco
Paul: I know there's quite a bit of engagement on Twitter, but other services are going up while Twitter isn't growing so quickly. I track these things.
- Robert Scoble
You mind sharing a few of the early adopters names :)
- Paul Sanchez
Is this comment bait? :) I don't see any benefit to deleating your Twitter. Would you have chosen to delete your radio blog because you were moving on to wordpress?
- Christian Burns
Robert, Would you please give some examples of services that might be better?
- Andrew Pass
Marc: online communities are a LOT like the clubbing scene and that's exactly why some get more popular and others get less.
- Robert Scoble
If early adopters did start jumping off a cliff, I'd be very interested in the cliff.
- Eolaí gan Fhéile
Marco, only thing missing from Friendfeed is to see when people have commented to something you've said, then it would be much more useful.
- Richard A.
Robert, just wondering: What kind of response do you get on Facebook on questions like these?
- Meryn Stol
Meryn: not as strong because I haven't participated in Facebook for more than a year. I should try.
- Robert Scoble
Twitter is much more like an index, without much real / meaningful conversation. Not to say that individual posts aren't meaningful, but they usually lead to real value somewhere else. Friendfeed has much more in-depth conversations. For me, the question is still out there on facebook - it still is mostly a light hearted socializing tool, without much serious value. At least, not yet with the people I know who use it.
- Chris Rogers
Robert, if you move to Facebook I would die, because I'm not in your 5,000. :-(
- Jesse Stay
I agree with Steve, FB would have to go asymmetrical. Only the very tiniest percentage of contacts I have on FB are people I have not interacted with in person face-to-face at some point in my life.
- Andy Kruger
Some of my twitter followers who used to Lifestream in public seem to have moved that function to Facebook... starting in the immediate days following the redesign and the ensuing hubbub.
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
I don't think FB is as interesting as Friendfeed. I really do think Friendfeed is the most interesting community to be part of at the moment. It has the potential to build new onlines communities without the hassle of knowing those people in person.
- Richard A.
Like many of the others, I use FB for friends/family. Twitter is where I am getting/sometimes sharing info on tech things that interest me.
- Sherri
Hmm I think it would be quite exciting if the "FriendFeed ethos" would get transferred to Facebook.
- Meryn Stol
Meryn: keep in mind that up to today Facebook is only for discussing stuff with your friends. For me Facebook is capped at 5,000 friends. Facebook's more public entity, though, AKA "Pages," are being expanded and will get more of an equal billing on the social graph. On friendfeed I have 31,000 followers, and this message went to Twitter where I have 76,000 followers. So, that's a LOT more people than I touch on Facebook.
- Robert Scoble
@Chris - Yep! Use Twitter to find the interesting stuff, then follow the tidbit to wherever else it leads in order to discuss it and find the real value in it.
- Grey Drane
why not use identi.ca? - very calm there
- Wittkewitz News
Meryn: actually that's EXACTLY why Twitter is getting more hype, but why people who aren't celebrities (IE, don't have more than 5,000 followers, which includes most of my "early adopter" friends) are not feeling the Twitter love so much anymore.
- Robert Scoble
I'm amused at this conversation because none of you are aknowledging friendfeed as a platform. That's where I came when I deleted my twitter account. I was among the 200 most active users of twitter at the time.
- Richard A.
I second what Richard Azia said: "Marco, only thing missing from Friendfeed is to see when people have commented to something you've said, then it would be much more useful."
- Rick Bucich
It's kind of funny -- when you said "early adopter friends" I thought you meant a "new" service. You're just going back to Facebbok because they've added some better features and have gotten a bump of mindshare. Then some other service will evolve their features, etc. and people will go back.... What I think is really important is the recognition that Twitter, FF, etc. aren't really...
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- Steve Lynch
from twhirl
Steve "bump in mindshare?" Hah! 200 million users is more than a "bump in mindshare." Twitter actually has gotten a bump in mindshare lately. Everytime I turn on the radio or TV I hear about Twitter, it seems.
- Robert Scoble
Great debate
- Dave
Hmm I think it would be a shame if you left FriendFeed. For me it's all about the loose-ties. :) And Twitter, in it's current incarnation (e.g. without a very advanced client, turning it into something similar to FF) just doesn't work if you want to discuss anything but the simplest things.
- Meryn Stol
I hear about twitter a lot more but I don't see anyone using it anymore? Are there any signs that people are still reading tweets, rather than just posting?
- Richard A.
for an early adopter, a site /technology become's stale within 6-9 months.. the hype and fun is finito.. as such I was active from feb/07 .. I think I was the 300th odd person on twitter and by OCt/08.. I hardly use twitter.. yes early adopters keep moving on.. thats why they are called "early adopters" :)-
- Peter Dawson
Mohamed: Heheh. Even if you have thousands of friends you can't publish to the public (ie, Google can't index your facebook stuff). That's one reason why Twitter and friendfeed are more interesting.
- Robert Scoble
If a person uses Twitter because they want people to follow and pay them attention, I could care less. Twitter continues to be a useful micro-blogging tool, as long as it is free. If Twitter is fun, I'll use it. If it is just a new way to market shit, and if they start charging for it, I'll be gone. It seems that people are now getting more attention just for leaving Twitter. Good riddance.
- John Johnson
Facebook is trying to be everything. The path from Yearbook to Aggregator-cum-microblogger is long and hard.
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
So there is no equivalent to this on FaceBook? http://twitter.com/search... Because that is one of the most interesting things about Twitter. Following subjects is often more interesting than following people.
- Matt Griffith
Let me ask a question back to you. What value would you derive from deleting your Twitter account?
- Thomas Hawk
Thomas: well, I would get a lot less auto DM spam. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Didn't Leo delete his Twitter account at one point?
- Thomas Hawk
Thomas: yeah, he did, then he came back. Hasn't seemed to hurt him, other than he isn't on Twitter's recommended follower list.
- Robert Scoble
But why would less DM spam matter? How would deleting the account provide more value than simply leaving it intact and ignoring it?
- Thomas Hawk
I triple dog dare ya.
- timedalkat
from twhirl
another thing that friendfeed has not: a decent client
- Marco
Thomas, You can't ignore a twitter account, that's why :-), There's no way you can walk away from a functioning account. Many of us have tried and not quite succeeded more than 8 days.
- Richard A.
Thomas, I think he just "left" for awhile and returned when it was clear Jaiku didn't have enough people on it
- Richard ¿digame? Walker
I guess my point is why delete the account? Simply ignore it. That way if you decide later on that you want to come back it's still there. You might find that you want it back at some point. At a minimum though you can still direct your FF content there which includes a link back to your conversation here with every tweet. I'd think this would be a good encouragement for people not on FF yet who are on Twitter to find you here.
- Thomas Hawk
that and maybe change your bio I'm mostly participating on FF or Facebook or whatever.
- Thomas Hawk
personally I find FF far, far, more engaging than Facebook. But maybe that's just me.
- Thomas Hawk
Thomas I agree wih you, I like FF for that.
- Richard A.
This is one of those threads that's just too big/fast to try to catch up at this point, but instead of being the jerk who comes in and says something that was said early in the thread because they're too lazy/busy to catch up, I'll just demonstrate what you're supposed to do in this situation. *shuts up*
- Matthew DeVries
Twitter is becoming mainstream, even in such backwards countries as Ukraine. For a true geek, it is a sure sign to get out of here! However, for me it is still interesting for the dynamics of signal/noise ratio within system.
- Pavlo Zahozhenko
Yeah, but to your point, you can't talk to the public and a lot more people will follow you on Twitter that will never friend you on Facebook. I'm speaking generally, here.
- Steve Lynch
from twhirl
This really is just an intellectual exercise, right? How can you be talking about all this Building43 stuff and promoting "social media" then turn around and talk about disappearing from the "social media" service with more MSM press/attention than any other right now?
- Ken Sheppardson
What would YOU gain from deleting it? is it more than you would gain from keeping it? You use Twitter in your own way which is most likely vastly different than anyone else who uses it, but that doesn't matter, it's up to you to decide how to use it and how to gain value out of it. It is a tool. Whether or not you want to delete it should be based on what YOU think in terms of value, not others.
- Ivan Lukianchuk
Ken: It's April 1, take that in mind. Yes, it's just an intellectual exercise, although I was dreaming about it last night so at least part of me wants to do it. Building43 is for people fanatical about the Internet, not going to be about any one thing or even just about social media.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: April 1 is Wednesday. You going to keep this up for three days? :-O
- Ken Sheppardson
Within two months your account will be deleted. There's a chance. If you think about it then it's not just a thought, there's a reason there, somewhere.
- Richard A.
Ivan: overall I would probably lose more than I'd gain, but I've learned in life that you must destroy before you can build. When Vegas builds a new casino they tear down the old one first. The trick is to know when the right time is to tear down the old one. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Azia, you are using the "royal we" or you are talking about an undefined group... and I personally wouldn't make such over-generalizations even with a :-)
- Richard ¿digame? Walker
in this atmosphere of many super-user account, a simple account is useless.
- abdellah
Steve: unlimited friends are coming to Facebook "soon." (We already have them on Pages).
- Robert Scoble
Besides, Twitter is a lot easier to use and more open... and there's no application spam. I hate app spam.
- Steve Lynch
from twhirl
Yeah, but there's still a signal-to-noise problem. FB wants to be your social presence on the Web. People don't want an unsuable presence on the Web. They want to see what parties their friends are having and what their high school ex-girlfriend is up to. As a richer social medium, Facebook is much more vulnerable to Dunbar-number-type limitations for the average user. When someone...
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- Steve Lynch
from twhirl
Does anyone know the mean or median number of friends for FB users?
- Steve Lynch
from twhirl
ccheath just said 120. makes sense.
- Steve Lynch
from twhirl
It's interesting, but as a non-blogging, earlier-than-early-adopter-burnout, FB feels like AOL to me in an uncomfortable way. In spite of that creepy feeling, it seems to be where I get the most engagement for the least amount of effort. Of course, my FB circle is a tight one of 99% friends from over the past 30 yrs. Seems I only glance at Twitter & interact more deliberately on FF. FB is pointing out I seem to have less in common with my friends & I'm less friendly with common-interest acquaintances.
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
Twitter is "mainstream" with 10 million users, but Facebook with 200 million isn't? FB is a mess and whenever I log on I start getting real-time chat requests from people I haven't talked to in 10 years. I find Twitter to be a superior experience so far.
- Pete Smith
It's been interesting to watch the evolution of Twitter. Sadly now there is a tremendously large amount of noise covering up the best signal. Even worse, the changes that have occurred to Twitter as a result of the flood of people from the masses has been painful. I much prefer the Twitter of circa June 2008 and just prior when there was more functionality (a la track) and better discussion. In fact I much prefer seeing the fail whale than seeing Britney Spears occupying such a large mind-share there.
- Chris Aldrich
+1000 to chris kim a. FB feels like AOL to me - tons of spam, tons of intimate minutia, very little engaging content. I DON'T WANT YOUR PLANTS. It feels like work and doesn't relate to anything outside of itself. FF offers engaging, substantive conversations sprinkled with LOLCats. Twitter offers bite-sized entertainment, and (some) real-time interaction that doesn't have to involve a chat client. I prefer the latter two and consume most of my content there.
- Jennifer Dittrich
Facebook is a student community where the students have graduated as a result of which more options are now offered. When are people going to remember that fact?
- Richard A.
Where are your friends going instead?
- Rae Gross
via PETA autobot: STOP MURDERING SEA-KITTENS, ROBERT SCOBLE! :)
- Richard ¿digame? Walker
@Richard_Azia: I've always been clear on that point, which is part of what makes it so disturbing. Finally, my RL friends (now the parents of the original target FB audience) -- but to my horror, they have regressed into Super-Poking, Green-Patching Hippie-Gifters. Look, if you can SuperPoke me, then you can post a "hey how are you?" to my In box or wall. Frankly, I don't find the games of FB particularly engaging as a 21st-Century version of pigtails in inkwells, either.
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
@Steve +1 to app spam on FB. Hate it!
- Grey Drane
from BuddyFeed
Chris Kim, that's why I ignore all requests. Much easier to ignore them than to reject them. Luckily those I know hardly spend any time doing all those things.
- Richard A.
If you deleted your account what would happen to the scobleizer name. Could someone else claim it? Or is once a name used on Twitter it is forever off the table? If you changed your mind later could you get the scobleizer handle back?
- Thomas Hawk
Thomas: I don't know. I won't delete it, though. It was mostly a fantasy I was having last night. See, normal people dream of supermodels or getting a cool car. Me? I dream of deleting my Twitter account. :-)
- Robert Scoble
@Scobleizer "But I do note that Facebook is getting more interesting to the early adopter types I usually hang out with" I would say "for Internet newbies" LOL Green Houses (Walled Gardens) are usually better for a start - no scary wolfs like in Green Forrest ROFL :D
- Lora Lufark
I refuse to believe true early adopters are all-of-a-sudden enamored with Facebook because they copied a few things from Twitter and Friendfeed...then again...
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
And here we are, the very reason I continue to hold that FF is my favorite engagement tool. These comment-baiting discussions naturally epitomize the value of eating one's own dog food while also pointing out that there are more dishes at this potluck than the one you bring yourself.
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
Offer your account on eBay and see who bids. Then sell them something else.
- Louis Gray
Never delete a well-known account. If you were to delete the Twitter account, then some offshore porn gambling site would grab the @scobleizer name. That having been said, Twitter is seeming to become a "must have" thing, so even if you don't use it, you need to establish a presence there.
- John E. Bredehoft
I just don't see the what Twitter gives you when you have FriendFeed.
- TranceMist
TranceMist - With all of the recent news coverage of Twitter, a lot of people are on Twitter who haven't yet learned about FriendFeed and they will ask the opposite question that you just asked.
- Aaron Hood
If Scoble deleted his twitter account it must be the results of Global Warming
- rob friedman
from twhirl
Rename it then auction it off.
- Ryan Stanley
No, might not die, but but Kitty would be sad: http://tinyurl.com/c8fcc3
- Sarah Garnsey
I don't see why you'd delete it rather than just not tweet, other than a very visible snub to the Twitter guys, right?
- jjprojects
I doubt that Twitter would miss you, though your ego obviously tells you otherwise.
- Stan Scott
Seriously? You guys just realized that Facebook is interesting? I've looked up to you... I had no idea I was already ahead.
- Jaica Kinsman
Robert - I've made the same conclusion as you re: Facebook gaining popularity fast with early adopters like myself, who by the way are not able to connect with you on facebook due to 5K cap. Don't delete twitter, just move to where you prefer to engage your communities.
- Susan Beebe
Maybe early adopters are spending time on Facebook to try to figure out its appeal. I think they'll conclude it's just network effects and empty virality, then leave again.
- Bruce Lewis
You actually still use both? I thought you'd moved exclusively to FriendFeed... Who cares about Twitter anymore? IT SUCKS!
- LarchOye
Experiment: If I say "SEO" or "peanut butter" in this FriendFeed post, let's see how long it takes Jiffy peanut butter company or their "SEO Expert" to subscribe to my FriendFeed to try and sell me something. Ready, set, go! (I like twitter, but it's becoming a drag because the marketing spam is now so damn predictable.)
- TheMacMommy
Is there a Mac solution yet for porting our twitter buds (the ones we actually want to follow) into FriendFeed? I was looking but gave up on it for a little while. Anyone know the scoop on that? I'll admit, I'm lazy. I want a script to do it for me. on the Mac.
- TheMacMommy
I really hope you don't start to use Facebook instead of Twitter. I don't like Facebook at all..
- Peter
Facebook first movers are migrating to twitter. So there is nothing unnatural in this. People move back and forth all the time. The grass is always greener on the other side etc etc...
- Dennis Bjørn Petersen
from twhirl
I entered twitter late and realize friendfeed is mindcastier than twitter...
- Arunn
Mindcastier?
- Richard A.
Only the Calico ones?
- rob friedman
Robert, Why don't you just increase your activity on Facebook and decrease it on Twitter and then if Facebook is alot better then Twitter then fully convert and if not, you've still got 19k updates and 77k followers ;)
- Nicholas James
You can install (or ask a coder to develop) a Facebook App that sends your status updates (and shared links, etc.) to Twitter. You have a history with getting your data out of Facebook, but I guess Zuckerberg now knows you better. This is what most brands do: they make the effort to be everywhere, to suit they many followers. Or you can re-use Jaiku recently opened source (+ App Engine) to make the micro-blogging platform or your dreams.
- Bertil Hatt
I hardly use Twitter these days.
- Jim Connolly
Interesting thread. I can see why Robert is saying Facebook. It has been the place that I gave received the most interaction these past few months. True that, I am just a wee one and most of my FB friends are real world friends. :-)
- Mathew A. Koeneker
information overload.... my nose is bleeding,...shutdown imminent 3....2........1....... (no kitten would die, btw)
- ilter
Twitter is useful, though FriendFeed appears to be more so.
- Calvin Ayre
Topify - How to answer Twitter Direct messages right from your inbox - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
 |
Topify absolutely rocks my world. Once they allow for blocking followers from with the follow-notification email, i'll be hooked for life.
- embee
it's coming :)
- Ouriel Ohayon
@embee - it sure makes our heart warm reading such feedback :)
- arik
thanks a lot guys.. waiting on tip-toes :)
- embee
Why are people on FF subscribing to people they have absolutly no interest in communicating with?
Derrick Burns, Steven Perez, Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah and 4 other people liked this
I subscribe to smart people who say smart things. I'm starting to wonder why I subscribed to you. ;-)
- Robert Scoble
I subscribe to interesting people, who post/comment w/ something interesting, but I have seen a lot of people subscribe to me randomly. which makes me believe I'm on some list someplace
- clarke thomas
Good point Mr Scoble..thanks for your support.
- Scot Duke
I subscribe to interesting people who share interesting content and comments.
- David Finch
clarke: you'll get random subscribers because of friend-of-a-friend. Scot, just having some fun. Some people here do subscribe to tons just to listen in, I'm sure there are even a few who want to spam. But I don't worry about who is following me. I can't control that. I can only control who I follow.
- Robert Scoble
Because they think FF is twitter
- Dayngr
I'm there with the Scobe...subscribing/following/friending the interesting really increases the utility of these tools.
- Justin Whitaker
How can you say that someone subscribes to another with no interest in communicating with them? Sometimes I subscribe to someone because I found them interesting, or they liked something I had to say
- Les Zaldor
I can't even control who I follow. We are, at heart, Borg.
- XDpaul
It is also about learning (as well as taking part) - for this aspect you cannot subscribe to too many people (information overload) but you can learn a lot quickly if you subscribe to the right people.
- Riaz Kanani
/agree with @XDpaul. I had no choice.
- Carolyn Chan
Maybe we also need a three-tier ranking for FF subscriptions
- Anna Star
Seconding (or is it thirding) the friend-of-a-friend notion. Also, maybe a little of the Borg thing, too. Not that that's a bad thing. I don't think FriendFeed is really about communicating with any one person in particular; I see it rather as an exercise in creating an ever-expanding cloud of connected information.
- Derrick Burns
Probably because they follow too many people to be able to interact with all the folks they follow in any way. Unless their fulltime job is reading FF like Scoble's is
- Daniel Spisak
from twhirl
Every click of the 'Follow' button adds another node to the system. Just as we have hypertext--text documents deeply interlinked across a wide network of computers, we now have (at least the beginnings of) hyperthought: ideas mutually interlinked and cross-referenced across a mesh of social contacts.
- Derrick Burns
People get hung up trying to put services into boxes. But you can't squash FriendFeed into any one box. Is it a social network service? Yes, for some. Is it a place to discuss things? Yep, for some. Can it be a great information/learning source for someone who has no desire at all to participate? Yes. And it can be and is everything in-between. Why isn't it OK for people to use the service how *they* want to, instead of how you think they should?
- Robert Seidman
+1 Derrick
- Hao Chen
+1 Scoble
- Dave Martin
I have no idea who you are, but since I follow someone who follows you i get to read everything you post. how do turn this off? I odn't want to see friends of friends, i just want to read what my friends are syaing
- Jonathan Jesse
*sigh* @ scot - no need to comment though since robert seidman already left the perfect comment :)
- mike "glemak" dunn
To learn things I wouldn't know from people I already talk to.
- Steven Perez
Ditto Scoble. I follow people who I think I can learn from or find interesting ... and we're ALL always learning ... especially in this dynamic place (the Internet).
- Charlie Anzman
not always an issue about interest just about time in the day to comment
- Arne-Per
Outstanding stuff here..I like Mr Seidman's point as well as all of he others. Live and learn and ask a lot of questions along the way is my motto..thanks all.
- Scot Duke
Subscribing to people who bring interesting content means more ways to discuss what's going on out there. I especially appreciate people who bring in conversation starters to the feed. We all remember more about what we teach and conversation has always been one of the best ways to get a point across.
- Derick Valadao
FF told me to: everyone I've subscribed to was a FF suggestion when I signed up so I thought I'd start there and see how it goes. Some suggestions were good, others were not. Wish FF had the option of matching ppl by interest ala checklist or tags: makes it easier to find new people rather than following the same old same old.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Has/How/Why tech blogging has failed you - http://scobleizer.com/2008...
Yaroslav Nikolaev, Adam, Dimitar Vesselinov and 174 other people liked this
Long rant, sorry, had to clear the air so I can start blogging again. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Wow...I'm very interested and excited to see/hear/read what is to come from Scobleizer land next.
- Justin Korn
I hope I make your list and if not, please let me know why so I can potentially improve.
- Allen Stern
Glad to see that you are starting to realize, despite Techmeme that the world doesn't revolve around just the bay area.
- Harold Gilchrist
from twhirl
Gotta say you're bang on the mark there. Tech blogging should be about the tech, not the biz.
- Luke Robinson
Allen: I like your blog. It's just that I love hanging out with all of you and talking geeky stuff a lot more than talking about this deal and that deal and all that.
- Robert Scoble
Harold: I've always realized that. I feel I got unfairly tagged with believing the world only was about the Bay Area. I guess I deserved that to some extent, but this area is quite dominant in the world of tech (including the tool you're typing on right now) so some of my boosterism is to be expected. Funny that the top Israeli company has offices here too.
- Robert Scoble
Kudos to you Mr. Scoble, what a very bright post you delivered today! Thank you for bringing some fresh perspective, that's always refreshing and welcome. I'm also happy you cite Lifehacker as an example. They focus on the smartest digital experience possible and help us improve ourselves. That's the biggest deal of all. Techbloggers should never forget it.
- c0wb0yz
I love the tech first and foremost but the business is important too, especially in respect to the sustainability of said tech.
- Jamie
Jamie: I agree. But the business needs to serve the customers and the customers/participants/users or whatever you want to call you and me aren't coming first in this industry anymore and that's worrying.
- Robert Scoble
Wow funny enough thats the way i have been feeling for a while now I am looking forward to seeing what is next from the Scobelizer...
- John Spencer
from twhirl
I agree overall - CN has only a small percentage of biz - most is trends, analysis, and reviews. I had an interesting discussion about this with someone last week - if i had a computer that could handle video, i'd make a quick video to explain - there's an important part you are missing
- Allen Stern
Next is to get some sleep. Gotta be up at 7:30 to be at Fortune Conference at 8 a.m. for breakfast. It's an incredible conference, hope to see some of you at the Tweetup at 5:45 p.m.
- Robert Scoble
Allen: will be watching in the morning for what I was missing. I'm sure I'm missing a lot. I had to stop ranting at some point, it was getting too long! :-)
- Robert Scoble
This is often relevant from major blogs/ celeb bloggers. The smaller and more personal blogs are still focusing just on tech ;) Perhaps you need to update your feeds :-)
- Dennis Bjørn Petersen
from twhirl
Dennis: I know. It's why I spend a lot more time here lately than on blogging. The smaller stuff shows up here a lot more regularly and I see a lot less "Yahoo business news."
- Robert Scoble
Excellent post Robert. It's why I don't read Techmeme as much as I used to. The life and joy in exploring, playing with and dissecting tech, the geeky exuberance in 'new stuff' has been lessened across almost all tech sites in general, leaving a bland veneer that is just business talk. Things a geek like me doesn't care about, as I'm not an investor.
- Mo Kargas
Techmeme has suffered because most of the tech blogs they follow have become nothing more then PR outlets like you said.
- Harold Gilchrist
from twhirl
As I posted in your comments, that's a really good post. It's great to see the old Scoble back - the one who I started reading back when your "latest thing" was Tablet PC! Welcome back, mate.
- Ian Betteridge
Robert, blogging is becoming commercialized, as it becomes popular. I do not see it as a problem. It just might mean that you and a bunch of other likely minded people have to move on to a greener, more fascinating and less populated pastures. Like friendfeed, etc. Luckily, there are lots of them around and tons in the pipeline. Enjoy!
- Павел Романовский
I don't know, Robert. On the one hand I agree 100%. And can I say that as editor of WebWorkerDaily I am the one who gets those 15 press releases a day and I *constantly* have the "is this useful?" filter on. I hope that's clear in our postings. Anyway...Your post is kind of like the person who is used to picking their own corn complaining about the supermarket because it's not the same garden. It's not. The grocer has to pay its bills, as does the paid tech blogger.
- Judi Sohn
I know I am a newie to all this but I have been reading blogs for a while. I've bee thinking up a response and I'll post later. Long comments on the iPhone make for one queasy bus ride.
- Derick Valadao
Finally. Thank you. I follow 357 feeds. Everyday. Granted I have many pop-sites (lifehacker, engadget, etc) on the list. But not one is of these "new breed" of tech bloggers out there. Even though I am in the industry, they do not speak to me. They are just another form of CNN to me. Linking to each other and regurgitating the same gibberish, no matter how relevant or important, it does not speak to me. Anyway, welcome back! This is very refreshing news to me. I will be following it with much interest. TY!
- Carlos Ayala
We should all just organize a "Tech Blog Strike", unsubscribing to those blogs that only push press releases. Let's see how they sweat when they see their subscriber count falling...
- Jorge Escobar
Obviously my previous comment was "tldr". I just wanted to say how great it is that a person in your position is able to repurpose his content to better fit the goal you are trying to reach with your content. It's a great direction to take in a time where most blogs are just trying to echo up to the top.
- Derick Valadao
Excellent post on the state of the blogging nation.
- Sheila Thomson
My only real problem with tech bloggins is how easily ideas take hold and spread to get page hits. This is very easily seen in the Vista hatred - there was never any objective reasonf or it... but it was so useful for traffic generation and looking cool that it was rampant.
- Soulhuntre
from twhirl
It's probably less about the business/tech divide, and more about me-too echo blogging
- Dave Pelland
I think so... tech bloggers are jsut as easily victims of peer pressure and memes as anyone. Once an Idea ("love google") defines someone as "getting it" then few will look at it objectively.
- Soulhuntre
from twhirl
This is a welcome breath of fresh air. Fantastic.
- Pete Gilbert
Scoble. Great post. Agree completely.
- Tom Quinn
Super excellent post and, ironically, exactly what blogging is all about. One good thing about an economic downturn, it will weed a lot of fluff out of the infosphere -- with less incentive to act as promotional platforms for startups, blogs may get more informative about using established tech.
- Sprague D
Great article Robert. It is your authenticity even more than your tech blogging that has made you the great writer that you are. Anyone can report Apple's earnings yesterday. You have always had an honest voice though that makes your writing stand out.
- Thomas Hawk
The take away is 'sensational headlines'. Add to the "Rumor:" and we don't need this stuff unless it's coming from a tabloid format site
- Charlie Anzman
Blogging is about saying what I want to say, and sharing things that I like with anybody who cares to listen. I'm not interested in driving traffic (thank goodness) or repeating what others have said, but contributing to a discussion.
- Chris Nixon
Great post Robert. Very good read and right on the mark. I religiously read feeds in Reader, but only a few that help me. I love Lifehacker. Almost everyday I find something new and useful to my job.
- Gary Schmidt
The Techie audience thirsty for knowledge is much smaller then the Get-rich-quick audience, but the largest demographic are the Free-lunch boys. The blogs with the most revenue have tricked their advertisers into believing teenage boys are business decision makers.
- paul mooney
I love tech bloggers and the things they write about. The good ones will always come at a common topic from a different angle and I just LOVE that because it makes me think outside the box and start connecting dots all over the place. Robert you are definitely one of those bloggers that I love to read and I don't think any of the ones I read have failed me.
- Devlin Dunsmore
from twhirl
Awesome reading! THX a bunch!!
- Ronald
I have to agree about the comments system though. One thing that we started to see a while ago was data portability and being able to communicate accross services. I think Disqus does that quite well and it's a great first step to making sure that the comments system becomes a little more useful on blogs.
- Derick Valadao
Well said Robert, left a comment, said my piece, cheers!
- Steve Spalding
Wow, an impressive and honest assessment of some major issues in the techblogosphere.
- Richard Akerman
Robert - I'm not in the tech industry. But I love what lots of tech stuff has done for learning stuff in my life and for others. And I want to keep on learning. You've certainly helped me here - I wouldn't know a fraction as much about using Friendfeed productively, for example. Glad we're going to see more of this kind of stuff. Welcome back.
- Tom Landini
Knocked it out of the park. If we can just get back to being geeks again, a lot of this drama will calm itself...
- Jared Smith
Great read, but kind of depressing the way things have gone. I just like being a bit geeky and all things will work out in the end.
- Alan Ashley
from twhirl
Shripriay, you hit it on the head. It is a shame that all the tech bloggers just wants to be Engadet or Gizmodo these days.
- Harold Gilchrist
from twhirl
Nice writeup Robert. I enjoyed your detailed analysis & history of the situation. Perhaps you can lead us in a new direction?
- Mitchell Tsai
i read the tech bloggers then try to actually use the gadget. would like to hear more results from the usage angle.
- Lee Kent
Shripriya, I agree with you wholeheartedly. My original comment was much longer but got cut due to length. I wish more blogs were like Louis Gray and Lifehacker which take a step back and then hit us with posts that are useful/interesting almost 100% of the time. Zero Punctuation is a great example for the gaming crowd--one post a week, internet fame.
- Derick Valadao
Hmm... A Scoble article I like.... Is this the Seventh Seal? Seriously, you're right on in that the echo chamber of groupthink has made tech blogging boring and predictable. I think there's a few people out there fighting it, and FF makes it easier to find them. I think you're off on the business side, though... I think it SHOULD be about the technology, but the entrepreneurs coming out of the Valley have made it necessary for us to discuss the business side by not having solid business plans.
- Jason Carreira
Anyway, hope this is a sign of things to come from you.
- Jason Carreira
Thanks Robert. Great read, and perspectives. Love to see more on productivity, like Lifehacker. Just became a GTD convert BTW and loved the David Allen piece.
- Jericho
Thanks for that Robert -- perspective is key.
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
I'm sorry but those that don't scale are toast, from a commericial and traffic standpoint. I know that is part of the point (varying aims and objectives of blogging etc.)
- Alex Hammer
Slap your self and get back on that horse Robert. You have NOT failed us. Human nature makes us want what we do not have. For some it's page views/revenue, for trolls it's attention, and others it's n-list status. The rest of us are looking to quench our thirst for knowledge. And please give our group a little credit. We have become ever-so-skillful at weeding out those sources that do not provide this knowledge. I repeat...You have NOT failed us.
- Andrew Smith
I appreciate what you are saying, and am glad that others share the same opinion as myself. What happened to being the guys who always had some tech trick that seemed like magic to the uninitiated? The joy of tech for me is showing that magic to others and getting them interested in what's out there too, and lately we have all become business whores a little bit. I look forward to the future content coming from you, and getting back to what made tech cool in the first place, the tech itself.
- Aaron Krug
One of the things I value most about Robert is his inner homing mechanism. He's very prone to get lost, but something always shakes him loose and he re-calibrates. Or is that re-boots? (Kind of like iPhone 2.0 now that I think about it.)
- Michael Markman
I agree w/ your article, Robert. The wonder that makes so many of us interested in tech does get lost at times- I never saw tech blogs as the place for that stuff, but appreciated it when I found it there.
- anna sauce
Alex: While scaling is necessary if you want more people to view your content, why should that come at the cost of the content itself? Too many startups are trying to replace a solid marketing plan with social media and end up trying to use big blogs as a means to advertise their product and ride the traffic tail to customers. From what I gather, this tends to make jaded bloggers who...
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- Derick Valadao
I kinda find this funny.. the comments are so distributed between FF channel and Scobles blog channel ? which one am I too follow ? I mean yesterday we had this big huge augments about cluster and fragmentation of conversations. So Robert, here's a suggestion. Turn off comments on your blog and let your readers comment on FF only. Else dont post your blog entry to FF and break your own...
more...
- Peter Dawson
I just approved a bunch of comments that were held in moderation. Now there's 88 comments over there. Whew.
- Robert Scoble
melmcbride: good point. It's easy to just stay on FriendFeed all day. It's hard to come up with something new to say that takes more than a short paragraph. Damn, I'm sounding so old school. The neat thing is when I do a longer blog is comes in here and improves everything.
- Robert Scoble
i think this is part of the echo chamber that is the silicon valley. people who live there use the "new" thing for so long they soon get sick of doing it. they are same people who think everyone elses use technology the same way they do and feels the same way they do.
- Jonathan Jesse
Scoble steps out of the bubble and takes a breath of fresh air... hopefully more follow or we're going nowhere fast.
- Harish V
I thought this was great! Robert, I think what I hear is your desire to just do whatever the hell you want to without regard to "The Man". Go for it. You of all people can do that!
- Elliott Ng
Robert the real issues is that everything really only needs to exist once. Conversations don't neeed to exist in many different places. Your blog comments and the conversation here are all the same conversation. I'd love to explain the solution as i see it but it'd take too long.
- Anton Mannering
Robert I am still lost- How can you profess to be be a convo aggregator , yet approve 88 comments on your blog ? @Anton, no Blog comments and these comments on FF, are two different sets of conversation happening on the same topic. Lets not confuse this fact !! There is a fork in the convosphere.
- Peter Dawson
@ Anton: I sort of agree with you, but i don't think comment fragmentation is all bad. Sometimes well-written comments appearing somewhere else can draw attention to good ideas. If I don't subscribe to a particular blog but see the feed posted here on FF, I'll pick it up and then maybe I'll go straight to the blog. There's value in fragmentation along with the frustration.
- phil baumann
I think a service like disqus should be used so that friendfeed comments on links to blog posts (with comments therein) will all show up no matter which medium you use to discuss them. Does this exist yet? I thought disqus would have this covered by now.
- Derick Valadao
Great points as always Robert. We're with you on this.
- Missionary Broadcasting
Peter: I approved about 40 that were being held in a moderation queue. I don't let newbies post a comment on my blog because then it'd be overrun with spam. FriendFeed has a much better system to protect against spam than my blog's comments. I think that it'd very cool if I could replace my blog's comments with FriendFeed, but that'd require an API that would make a URL, return it to my blog, and get it linked in, all really quickly.
- Robert Scoble
I haven't read the comments here, but feel I can comment. Robert, as someone who as known you for five years now - just before the mania began - I am pleased to hear this. What got me into your blog in the first place was your ENTHUSIASM for technology, particularly GTD. Never let that go. You be you. I will be me. And everyone else will be everyone else. In the end, you gotta follow what you love. It works for everyone from Steve Jobs to the Pope. Your friend online and off - SR
- Steve Rubel
@ phil bauman Ok 2 things. First of all I didn't say it shouldn't appear in many places. I'm saying that if you're in Roberts comments and I'm on Friendfeed then we should be able to see ALL the conversation from both. But it need not exist in a whole bunch of places only be visible from there. Second I think the argument that there is value in fragmentation is similar to saying there is value in using a ploughshare pulled by an ox. Ther is but not to most people.
- Anton Mannering
@ Robert Scoble: Interesting you should mention your blog comments being friendfeed. I know a startup or two working on those problems. In reality though the issues become way bigger when such a service is subject to really large numbers (non-tech crowd). Solving those problems is where the fun and games are and I only know one startup with a real solution for that.
- Anton Mannering
Ironic, isn't it--the influences (PR, marketing, big media) the original bloggers were trying to break away from are--surprise-- still here and the game hasn't changed as much as we thought. PR people still push their stories, tech and news blogs focus on a few big name co's and start looking like traditional media, etc. What's needed is more of the energy, enthusiasm and original thought that Scoble and others brought to the game earlier on--otherwise, we've only duplicated the old media on a new platform.
- mark ivey
I send you a tweet also but I believe that I must also write here how spot-on was your post... I can't wait to see more real Tech news coming from you and I hope that this will force other bloggers to remember how they started back then...
- Manos Matsakis
This is clearly your best post ever. Thank you for all of your hard work. I read your blog because it entertains me. I would love more posts "sharing geeky things." On the other hand, if you blog about news, technology, and a few pro-company biases, that's nothing to be ashamed of. Just because you (or any other blogger) do not provide a perfect balanced news experience does not mean that you have failed. People are responsible for finding their own news this day in age.
- Brian Wilson
Great post and I totally agree. "What's needed is more of the energy, enthusiasm..."
- Eric_T
Great stuff Robert. As blogging and social media continues to spread outside of tech and into other niche industries and verticals, those of us facilitating and evangelizing that spread should continue to look back at this post so history isn't repeated. See you at the Ritz tonight.
- J.J. Toothman
"I think that it'd very cool if I could replace my blog's comments with FriendFeed, but that'd require an API that would make a URL" - yeah I second that motion. If I had a widget that could do that but with bi- directional flow , that would really be a convo aggregator. This will certainly be an interesting challenge to some of the geeks out here !
- Peter Dawson
You can, if you're willing to give up the content. Glenn developed a great plugin that allows for bi-directional flow. It works for Wordpress and (I think) Blogger http://blog.slaven.net.au/wordpre...
- Steve Spalding
Great timing :) I got strange looks this weekend when I said that I don't review anything that has been 'pitched' to me - but rather things I discover that I think are cool. I discovered something this weekend at BlogHer that I will review. But no one sent me a press release. :) It's just a really neat gadget!
- Lucretia Pruitt
I think you should watch the movie 'Resurrecting the Champ' - its about a Writer. Drew the analogy to your post and the movie (that I just happened to see yesterday) http://mrinal.vox.com/library...
- Mrinal Desai
Enjoyed that rant, Robert. I'm not a tech geek, I don't read techmeme or techcrunch as the gist and trends can be followed here on FF, but I do read blogs like yours, Louis, Jeremiah and Hutch's, mainly to learn new things. Before FF I had never heard of Rescue Time, Jott, Evernote or TSheets for example, but hearing about new ideas and then experimenting with them myself, well that gets me interested and excited. The corporate enterprise stuff leaves me cold, it isn't nifty or flexible enough for users.
- Sally Church
Nice post. The PR influence bit reminded me of this article by Paul Graham: http://www.paulgraham.com/submari.... Agree to the fact that Tech blogging has been less 'tech' than it was a couple of years ago.
- Nikhil Dandekar
I loved the rant earlier yesterday, and even more impressed by the ff reaction. My take on your blogging, having followed you since MS days. Stay on what you think, not what others think. Avoid the whole Gillmor Gang bs, and associated groupthink.
- Bankwatch
I think that every new medium matures as it becomes possible to make real money at it - this is inevitable. I don;t think it will be the death of blogging certainly but we are in a new phase. Older blogs will mature and still keep that flavor or they will stagnate and die. The personalities will decide that. One of the things I like about your work Robert is the enthusiasm. Sometimes it makes you a bit naive, others it makes you a little to fast to declare something game changing but it is always good input
- Soulhuntre
Robert, just read your wonderful post now, and I'm still fascinated by it. I'm commenting here because I know you'll read here first. You know, this competition that you were taking about, almost cause me to stop blogging, but then I realized that I'm writing because I like it, so as far as I'm concern, I'm not trying to compete anyone, this is why I'm taking things easy and on my own...
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- Orli Yakuel
Orli: you know me too well! :-) Yup, agreed. Just do it because it's fun. The problem is that posts that make us all smarter don't stick around very long because of the flow.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, maybe it's because 'blogs' are not so unique anymore. Lets take Friednfeed for example: everyone can get noticed here just because they favorite picture on Flickr or dugg story on digg (regardless if they writing a blog, or giving any other opinion in the subject) this and other massive content mixed up together on a daily basis is flowing so fast, it almost seem that if you'll...
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- Orli Yakuel
Tweettering from a very early test Twhirl XMPP release you should hear my Mac getting crazy following 7000 people but working fine!!!
Kamath (नमः), Chris Heuer, Ray Grieselhuber and 12 other people liked this
Where's the salivate button?
- Bwana ☠
I hope this didn't break Twitter today :) :) http://blog.twitter.com/2008...
- Bwana ☠
Wow, XMPP client for Twhirl sounds great!! yippee!! go for it Loic!
- Susan Beebe
LOL@Bwana!
- Brad McCrorey
@Bwana LOL
- Loic Le Meur
Always willing to beta test...
- Tris Hussey
hey Loic let us beta test the XMPP twhirl client! :) I'd love to
- John Blanton
from Alert Thingy
@JohnBfromMemphis only if you switch to Twhirl for Friendfeed too :)
- Loic Le Meur
ooh, let me test, let me test!
- lisa church
I would luv to be a tester & twirl for FF sounds even cooler! You could call it ffwhirl!
- Juliet Easton
I take it Twitter's disabling Jabber and lowering the API limit is going to require rethinking Twhirl a bit... Or did they turn XMPP back on?
- Voyagerfan5761
I want in!!!
- Kamath (नमः)
Twhirl XMPP is only internal for now, and XMPP is down at Twitter anyway (not because of us I checked!), stay tuned.
- Loic Le Meur
I need mobile friendfeed. m.friendfeed.com Bret and Paul when do we get it?
Mitchell Tsai, Tim FitzGerald, James and 35 other people liked this
friendfeed works pretty darned good on the iPhone/iPod Touch
- Internet's Tad
I've found that Friendfeed only half works on my mobile browser
- Mel Francis
It works ok on an iPhone, but a more mobile-friendly version (like Google Reader or Twitter clients like Hahlo) would be easier and more fun to use.
- Bryan Landers
I can use it with my BlackBerry browser, but limited functionality. For instance, I can't "like" anything. I also can't add friends.
- ha3rvey (chee-la-key-les)
Loic, instead why not build a web/ mobile version of Twhirl? Or even better, make it a download for mobiles
- Duncan Riley
from twhirl
I agree there should be a m.friendfeed.com. But with MojiPage (http://sb.mojipage.com/u/wil1/) you can get about 3/4 of FF on your phone... mobile rendering, Like and Comment links. But still no Share Something or threaded conversations... unles I just can't figure it out. Why did FF not think to have m.FF?
- Mark Arend
from Alert Thingy
I use FF all the time on my iPhone.
- Francine Hardaway
Duncan, we should talk about that!
- Loic Le Meur
I would love to see a mobile optimized version of FF. Although FF does mostly work on an iPhone, it's not the most compelling experience. Methinks it would be a lot more user friendly if there was an actual mobile and/or iPhone version of FF available for use.
- Scott Jarkoff
@BretTaylor @Paul Buchheit - Hey Loic is asking a terrific question, which echos my previous request! I've been asking about a mobile version "m.friendfeed.com" site too. When can we get this?? ;-)
- Susan Beebe
While we're on the topic of FF "feature requests," FF definitely needs some kind of @user reply support for comments which mention folks in the manner @susan just mentioned @bret and @paul. Otherwise, unless I'm mistaken, those people will never see the comment and have no idea something is being said "to" them.
- Scott Jarkoff
I think FriendFeed looks good on an iPod Touch.
- Mike Reynolds
There is no reason someone couldn't make their own m.friendfeed.com. The API exposes everything you'd need (comments/likes/etc). I've considered doing it myself....
- Benjamin Golub
I think the @ feature is the biggest feature missing from ff. Its how I find new people on twitter. It really doesn't work as well on ff.
- Nelson de Witt
I know everyone love teh iPhone but what about those of us that don't have it and won't be getting one? :T
- Jennie Lin
Opera browser on the blackberry renders it pretty well
- Tim Connors
try this: m.hellotxt.com
- Mauro Del Rio
from twhirl
Yes I've already suggested that. We need a mobile friendly friendfeed.
- Svartling
I would have to agree the m.friendfeed.com for my Treo would make me a happy camper.
- Mathew A. Koeneker
Come on guys. Make a mobile/iPhone optimized version of FF already.
- James
We do need an optimized mobile/iPhone page for friendeed. The regular site is ok but it's not quite good enough....unless you want eye strain headaches..
- Mike Lewis
Happy to know it works well on the iphone but I only use a blackberry these days. This reminds me I want the new one!
- Loic Le Meur
from twhirl
If I had this mobile, I'd never get anything done!!
- Charlie Anzman
I use a new BlackBerry Curve 8830 and FriendFeed does NOT work on it. twitter does... come'on FriendFeed we want MORE free features! ;-)~
- Susan Beebe
The FF login page breaks on Opera Mini 4.1. Don't know about the rest of FF yet.
- Morton Fox
Does FF work in browsers that don't support AJAX? Progressive enhancement is a frontend engineering best practice that makes it possible for any website to work in a mobile browser without a separate subdomain. AJAX should be a "bonus" for browsers that support it, not a requirement for the site's basic functionality.
- Jason Wehmhoener
I've been talking about this for a while, we definitely need some way to get functionality on all mobile devices. Great it works on an iPhone but we haven't all got iPhones. If we're not going to have m.ff then we need a mobile client that covers ALL bases.
- Colin Walker
No, seriously, not "m." - doing it properly is so much better. The mobile web needs to die. There is just 'the web'.
- Tom Morris
second that. both that we need it, and that we dont need m. we just need a version that knows where its shown on. or some app like twibble for FF.
- kosmar
Wow it sure be hard to read the volume of content on any mobile device
- Tim FitzGerald
83 Beautiful Wordpress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen | Design Showcase | Smashing Magazine - http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007...
83 free Wordpress Themes you probably haven’t seen yet. All themes offer quality, elegance and a user-friendly interface. … and please take a look at Dr. Web’s free Wordpress Themes.
- tal galili
My brain just exploded - http://blog.pmarca.com/2008...
arik, Dmitry Skavish and Brandon Titus liked this
So you're bookmarking this because you at least entertain the idea that it's not fake?
- j1m
I don't think it was fake as such. The system they demoed has a perplexity of 150 or so, and it clearly took the speaker many seconds to get those 7 bits across. We'll see if it will ever be anything but a parlor trick or a possible replacement for sip/puff tubes for the extremely disabled.
- ⓞnor
New Scientist: http://technology.newscientist.com/article... . Product: http://www.theaudeo.com/
- ⓞnor
the idea of asking the net questions and getting verbal responses is the coolest reason ever to have a bluetooth headset always in your ear.
- paulm
iiuc from the new scientist they claim to be reading out the neurons that innervate the vocal tract. I can't see how a long dramatic pause fits into that story. Don't get me wrong, such a read-out ought to be possible. I just think their demo looks (quite literally) like a magic act and not like a demonstration of some real technological story.
- j1m
There may be some signal processing + computation involved. Early speech and handwriting recognition also had a delay.
- Paul Buchheit
Yeah, that's the only explanation I can think of. Four years ago, the fastest prosthetic system (choose 1 of 8 arm movements using signals from 100 parietal-lobe electrodes) was real time. These guys have faster computers, but they have 150 outputs instead of 8, and of course mankind's ability to write slow software knows no bounds.
- j1m
It's exciting to see the first tests of technology like this. I can tell you where I was the first time I ever heard a computer do text to speech, the first time I ever saw IM, and the first time I ever saw Webcams. Sometimes, seeing the next level, even if not yet perfect, is eye-opening. This is still raw, but very intriguing.
- Louis Gray
The real reason Google's clicks are flat (Skrentablog) - http://www.skrenta.com/2008...
Trisha Okubo, arik, David Vasileff and Adam Kazwell liked this
can any googlers confirm this?
- Adam Kazwell
they sent out emails to adsense people with this information a couple months back. warning, explanations, and descriptions.
- paulm
clearly the answer would have been to dollar-cost-average the clickable space over time until it became just the link
- Huy Zing
This is true
- Tomas Remotigue
GMail Art - Google - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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ǝuǝƃnǝ, ideali, arik and 29 other people liked this
Oh my god I want to kiss this video.
- Kevin Fox
So funny
- terababy
Wow. That was awesome. The pointer/hand stick was particularly cool. I wish they showed more of the details (the star blocks they flipped over).
- Dan Hsiao
via http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008..., which has an english translation in the comments.
- Paul Buchheit
I am in awe! Unbe-freaking-lievable!! Paul Buchheit, what have you done?!
- April Buchheit
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