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Ari Milner › Likes
AP Interactive Map of Climate Emissions, Indications and Pledges [CleanTechnica from @AP_ClimatePool] - http://cleantechnica.com/2009...
Ari Milner, imabonehead, Jason Wehmhoener and atner liked this
Low Income Women Can't Get Abortions, But RNC Staffers Can | Women's Rights - http://womensrights.change.org/blog...
ThatDBD and Ari Milner liked this
5 Things You Didn't Know About BSG Season 4 - http://io9.com/5392019...
Ari Milner and edythe liked this
From io9: "What's the secret connection between Quentin Tarantino and Felix Gaeta? What relationship between Bear McCreary (in person) and Starbuck did we almost see? We've got the exclusive answers, from Battlestar Galactica: The Official Companion Season Four."
- Mark Trapp
from Bookmarklet
Olmos Talks BSG's Unanswered Questions, And What You Won't See In "The Plan" - http://io9.com/5390351...
Ari Milner, MarkEdmondson, Roberto Bonini and 4 other people liked this
From io9: "If you buy enough copies of Battlestar Galactica: "The Plan," coming out tomorrow, Edward James Olmos is determined to make more BSG direct-to-DVD epics. We asked Olmos what those films would be about, and he explained what happened to Starbuck. Oh, and this one-on-one interview with Olmos contains some spoilers for "The Plan," because we talked specifics with him. So go buy the DVD, watch it and come back to read this, if you're concerned about spoilers."
- Mark Trapp
from Bookmarklet
The story is over. Let it go. Let it go. Remember the Star Wars Prequels? That's what happens when you will not let something die in peace. I loved the series. And I mean L-O-V-E-D it. But c'mon already.
- Fleagle
There's a bit of a difference between trying to extend the story beyond its conclusion and what the BSG movies have been attempting to do, which is to fill in the massive, chasm-wide plot holes. Both Razor and The Plan have served to fill in missing gaps in the continuity that, I think, enrich the story rather than detract from it. With the Plan specifically, the Cylon side of the story is much less disjointed.
- Mark Trapp
MemeTracker: tracking news phrases over the web - http://memetracker.org/
Ari Milner, Daniel Rowley, Sai and 23 other people liked this
"MemeTracker builds maps of the daily news cycle by analyzing around 900,000 news stories and blog posts per day from 1 million online sources, ranging from mass media to personal blogs."
- Atul Arora
from Bookmarklet
Great paper, too, and probably the shrink of the time window between the "rise" and the "fall" of a news item is a pretty accurate metric of the effect of new and social media
- George Tziralis
How to Sync Facebook Events with Google Calendar - http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009...
John Field, Arvind, Brad Kligerman and 18 other people liked this
Can't there just be an automated (i.e. one-time setup for this?)
- Conor Ogle
Wow! was just wanting to do this last night! Sweet! and thanks!
- Melanie Reed
only seems to work with public events. hidden or private events don't show the event title, only "busy". not very helpful.
- flaimo
You can do the same thing with Upcoming.org, by the way.
- Robert Scoble
Josh: yeah, if you want something to be private Facebook is probably best. But there's a lot of social network gatherings on Upcoming.org too.
- Robert Scoble
It's working well for me. Tried it now, need to see if goosync would allow me to sync with the N95 though.
- Richard A.
you can sync to any calendar: Outlook/the Mac one/Sundbird/Blackberry...
- sofarsoShawn
This is a good post on syncing events from Facebook. I've been using this method for a while and find it useful to read all the possible events I need or want to attend. I then use Google Sync on the Blackberry to have my info on the go!
- Nakeva Corothers
By the way, my Upcoming Event Calendar is here so you can see the kinds of geeky events that are on Upcoming.org: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/user... (I have a ton of events on my calendar all over the world).
- Robert Scoble
I guess I was looking for an automated way to link any Event I agree to attend in Facebook directly into Google Calendar.
- Conor Ogle
I've never seen upcoming before i do dopplr; are you scheduled to be n Dubai next week? We can party!
- sofarsoShawn
FriendFeed User Locations - Google Shared Map (4 days & 75 users later) - http://maps.google.com/maps...
Orsan Erksoy, Özgür Emre Öztürk, Mustafa Y. Halici and 122 other people liked this
A smashing success! Thanks to everyone who has participated. This is very cool. If you haven't yet, go ahead and do so. Original post here http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Mark Krynsky
Added. Surely I'm not the only FF'er in Africa?
- Neill Adamson
@Neill, that's great. You just got us to the 6th continent. I highly doubt we can hit 7 as there surely can't be someone from Antarctica that FriendFeeds.
- Mark Krynsky
The Antarctica challenge: OK, here's the plan: we need to contact Eli Duke (http://twitter.com/elisfanclub) he's tweeting from McMurdo Station, Antarctica. We have until February (some background I just found: on his 1st stint in the Antarctic he was a dish washer. In 2006 he wrote a functioning RubyOn Rails site, got burned out and tried to give it away on Craig's List...unsuccessfully--it's back online now http://listyourlist.com/ . McMurdo Photo: http://is.gd/8Ltk)
- Micah Wittman
I reshared to the Translation room to help boost your international participation.
- Shannon Jiménez
nah, friendfeed isn't a niche play. it's got dozens of users! ;)
- Jeremy Toeman
Jeremy: you are such a comedian!
- Robert Scoble
Alrighty then, I just sent Eli a tweet (http://friendfeed.com/e... ) with a plea. I hope I'm not taken for a crazy. Hmm, I know that could be my first reaction.
- Micah Wittman
@Robert: caught up with an old buddy over a cigar, bottle of wine, and a few glasses of quality bourbon. and i have to be up at 6. so i'm having fun. ;) sorry we didn't get to catch up more at the 12seconds/uservoice party!
- Jeremy Toeman
WTF!!! Nobody from India... ??? Am I the only one..:)
- Devakishor
Well I was late to this party. Great idea Mark. I have all of New Zealand to myself!
- Alistair (alpinefolk)
Turkey is on it must be. Anyhow, and Anyway, they'll be more Balloons One Day All Around Our World, BTW Thats a Great Daft Punk Track ain't it ;-D, Shall We Play it, and what Room shall we doeth Such? It Big enough for All. That is All. Time For Work Now, See You Laters, FriendFeed and Have A Nice But Try Not To Be too naughty Day. :))
- Jason
Reshared in my feed!
- Flavio
Ditto.
- Kol Tregaskes
Wow... I am the only person in VA. I expected a lot more people around DC.
- Aram Zucker-Scharff
Ah... Aram, I'm in Virginia Beach, but I don't think it added me properly.
- Ladybug Heather
we have someone in the middle of the Atlantic
- Alejandro
How did I miss this? Off to add my pin!
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
same here! Ok just added mine a while ago (Irondequoit Bay near Rochester, NY)... look for sailboat!
- Susan Beebe
Pin added. Great idea!
- James Ferguson
2nd pin added in Italy!
- Alessandro
Pin and 1m snow added in Helsinki. Great idea!
- udo
pin added at OHSU in Portland, Oregon
- Maureen
+1 pin at Debrecen, Hungary
- Berci Mesko, MD
Why is Erhan Erdogan in the middle of the atlantic ocean on the map? Is he in the Bermuda Triangle or something? lol
- Alan Le
@Micah, great job on recruitment. Eli has added himself and we now have all 7 continents filled.
- Mark Krynsky
No Greenland luv, tho...
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Erhan probably got moved accidentally. When I got to the page, and was moving the map, I accidently grabbed someone and moved them to the middle of the Atlantic. Thankfully, it was someone who used a special icon, so it was easy to search and put them back.
- Admiral Anika
I put my self on the map...
- Aline
Added, in the Norway. :)
- Daniel Bruce
Added me in Texas!
- Phil G
Added myself in the west Chicago suburbs. :)
- Cheryl Jones
@Mark Such Coolness! And thanks Eli (http://friendfeed.com/elisfan...)
- Micah Wittman
Bump for Leather Donut.
- Rochelle
Hmm, apparently I'm just up the road from Haggis.
- Rob Haas
I just added myself. Curious - how do you get different placemarks? I like the Google-looking ones that aren't quite raindrops.
- Tamar Weinberg
Just an addendum to Spidra's explanation: To go back and edit, click the pushpin then click the "Edit" button (look waaay to the left on the page). Then you can click the icon to change, and you'll see Save button next to "Edit"
- Micah Wittman
Oh cool. Nice job reviving this guys. Hopefully we get another good round of users to add themselves.
- Mark Krynsky
Added! :)
- AJ Batac
Neat! I was the product manager for My Maps when it launched. It's really cool to see it being used this way : )
- Jess Lee
Wow Jess. That must be so great to see your work utilized by others. It's definitely been a smashing success here. Thanks for sharing.
- Mark Krynsky
+Jess!
- Micah Wittman
Kind of frustrating to see how much time I spent on this map and then to find out someone had probably saved their changes over mine - hence mine was gone this entire time. Others should also check for this. In any event, thanks, Spidra, for the tip :) My other pet peeve is Google Maps scrolling incessantly out of nowhere. (Hi Jess.)
- Tamar Weinberg
Added myself yesterday. I notice, thought, that you have to flip to page 2 ... Can't we show all the FFers on one map, regardless of the page ?
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
How do I get myself added to the map?
- Alex Scoble
done
- Eric Reboisson
@Alex Scoble click the link in the main post, search your location, and add a placemark (the blue mark on left top of the map)
- Eric Reboisson
done
- Orsan Erksoy
Krugman says Obama should nationalize banks - do you agree? - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps...
pastas9, polymath22, Jordi Soler and 26 other people liked this
"“If taxpayers are footing the bill for rescuing the banks, why shouldn’t they get ownership, at least until private buyers can be found?” Krugman wrote in a column in the New York Times published today. “But the Obama administration appears to be tying itself in knots to avoid this outcome.”"
- R. Ferguson
from Bookmarklet
Sure. And then the auto makers, and then the oil ompanies, and then your business...
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Rubbish Mark.. if we are already giving them huge chunks of money shouldn't the tax payers get something out of it? Or should it just be funneled into some manager's "bonus"?
- Jeff Jones
Mark, I work for an "official" nonprofit so I'm guessing we are not high on the list. Also we do not accept govt money in general.
- R. Ferguson
Nationalizing entire industries is not the answer. And Mr. Kaneshiro, the industrialized earth has never had an unregulated market. Especially not the US. There are massive problems in accountability, for sure. Broom out the management of any company receiving funds is a good start. But nationaliziing an entire industry seems very 1950's Cuba to me.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
That big black hole is called a pocket. :(
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
Jason: Welfare and Disability were very temporary programs as well.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Wouldn't be permanent? Right. Nothing is harder to eliminate than a government entity.
- Craig Eddy
I have been saying all along: let the businesses fail. Business without the possibility of failure is like religion without hell; there is no accountability. Hardship for a short term but stronger companies that are left for the longterm. Rewarding poor business is the same as giving a medal for stupidity.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Bush gave them money for acquisitions and bonuses so they won't be hurt, even if they fail. Who will be hurt is the workers whose companies can't secure a line of credit or bankroll supply purchases or payroll. Credit comes from banks. No banks, no credit, no business. Stupid is as stupid does.
- Phil Boiarski
Ask your good friend Chavez how well nationalizing oil is going.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
I never said there wouldn't be, Jason. But a 'swing away from free markets' (which the US has never had) and 'nationalization' aretwo different beasts...
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Socialism is a scare word thrown around by people who want to paste labels on their opponents rather than address the issues. The so-called free market, was manipulated by oil speculators for years. Cheney was Halliburton's CEO for God's sakes. His stock doubled while he encouraged war. He profited directly from those adventures, which were totally off the books. Now we are paying for...
more...
- Phil Boiarski
enjoying the dialogue, good points made by each of you. Mark would you prefer that we have no safety net for the poor & disabled? Phil you are so on the mark ab the profits of war. But even Ike must have realized it was WW2 that brought America back on it's feet financially and emotionally. I agree with Jason, I do not want to wake up surrounded by neighbors who can't find work. I already have 2 young college grads who are looking hard for jobs. What about those who feel even more hopeless than my friends?
- R. Ferguson
Mark, you do realize that there are plenty of religions (Judaism for instance) that have no concept of hell. You might want to rethink using that as a tool for arguments.
- Alex Scoble
Oh and WWII caused as many problems economically as it solved. Once the war was over there was a sharp increase in unemployment, for instance when all those GIs came back and there weren't enough jobs to keep them and the women, who had been working for the war effort, employed.
- Alex Scoble
So how was the unemployment situation resolved? Is this when we begin to move from a nation that builds to one that spends?
- R. Ferguson
Well Obama should at least Nationalize the Federal Reserve. They are Private and are working against our economy!!!
- Larry Lewis
There's no reason to build if no one spends.
- Todd Hoff
These things have a natural flow to them that is both micro and macro in nature...I doubt you could put your hand on any one thing that gets you out of a recession...it's a lot of little things. Some would argue that government spending lengthens the time of the recession and some would argue that it speeds the recovery, but it probably does both things at once. Government spending smooths out the curve. This is a good thing to all but those on the fringes wishing for calamity.
- Alex Scoble
1) We didn't get nothing when we gave the banks financing. A lot of banks (Goldman Sachs) used the money for bonuses because it was cheap money, but I don't think they know what they took. The Government has a HUGE ownership chunk of the bank. And written into the agreement is wording that allows the Gov to change the terms of the "loan" any time they want, virtually guaranteeing that...
more...
- Andrew
Yeah Todd but you know what I mean :)
- R. Ferguson
The paradigm shift in the mid-forties for the US was the exponential increase in women working outside the home. Perhaps the US economy never recovered from the large influx of new workers in the labor-force?
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
if a company is too big to fail then it should be split up. We allowed too many of these Super Banks to be created. If they require the US to bail them out then they need to be broken up obviously because they made bad decisions. No reason for them to stay open as a large company. Take them over, then break them up and sell off the parts or spin off smaller companies with proper management.
- CW™
2) Nationalizing the banks would be a nightmare. Right now banks are in trouble for taking TARP money and not lending enough, even when the prices on the homes they would be collateralizing are falling a few percentage points a month. They are getting in trouble for advertising. They are getting in trouble for any and all employee retention moves. Government is, without trying to,...
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- Andrew
Mark - Please explain what you mean by that? How was having more labor in the 40s a negative? Are you saying it brought about the rise in the labor movement?
- Andrew
Krugman believes six impossible things before breakfast.
- Morton Fox
It's easy to pick on Krugman, but it's important to remember he is brilliant. Possibly more brilliant than any other economist working today. And we could definitely nationalize the banks. Government prints the money and makes the rules, they can pretty much do what they want.
- Andrew
It increased the unemployment rate when US soldiers returned. Women stayed in the labor pool as unemployed, whereas before the war they traditionally had not worked outside the home.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Partial nationalization of the banks is ok, but if you fully nationalize the banks you steal the bondholder value. Private individuals will never trust the banking system again. No one will invest in the banks again. This will be the FAIL of capitalism.
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Mark - But if they were unemployed before the war and then a similar number were unemployed after the war, regardless of whether or not they are classified as "unemployed" we would be in the same situation, no? Why would that matter?
- Andrew
I think the point there, Andrew, is that it gave women the taste of power of being a worker that they'd been previously deprived of. It set in motion the events that led towards the dual income household, which has had some pretty dramatic effects on our landscape, some good and some bad. Equality is never free and neither is freedom.
- Alex Scoble
Since women only entered the market to fill jobs that had been vacated by men gone to war, previous to WWII most had never been counted in the statistic of 'unemployed.' Once women got a taste of independance and their own paycheque many preferred to stay in the workforce after the men returned. Rightly so, BTW IMHO. Because many women were not content to return to the position of...
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- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Yes. The banks should be run by custodial boards of government reps who represent the taxpayers. When their share price recovers, the shares should be sold on the open market (no closed sweetheart deals please) and the money should be used to fund SS and other programs which have been ruined by recent events.
- Paul Denlinger
Personally, I don't care what we do as long as it has results, imparts accountability on everyone involved and is transparent. Unfortunately, to date the TARP process has been hardly any of the above.
- Alex Scoble
@Spidra The problem is this: Name one thing the government has taken control of and then released control of.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Mark - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... We took the problem assets and released them back into the wilds of the markets.
- Andrew
And the FDIC seizes banks and then sells them back to the private sector all the time. What worries me about this is that we will basically destroy all the value those banks have before selling it at pennies on the dollar. At least some of the other solutions address the root causes of the problem while giving the government a more realistic path towards non-losses or even profits.
- Andrew
@Andrew Buying and selling the assests of one bank at a time is not the same as 'nationalizing banks.'
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Mark - That's what they are talking about though. I still think it's a bad idea. I don't think AIG is going to create a lot of value for the government, but Krugman is talking about seizing individual problem banks and selling them once they mysteriously rise in value. My problem isn't that I think it will be a government power grab, I just think the government doesn't know how to run banks or get value out of them.
- Andrew
@Spidra I wasn't thinking of tangible assests. Most forms of welfare were originally set up to be very temporary and yet we still have them. That's what I mean. Once something becomes a government program it will live in purpetuity.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Howzabout we all agree that: if taxpayer money is used to purchase an asset taxpayers should also benefit from the asset; the federal gov't should be kept to a strict, short amount of time it can hold an asset; the headline is misleading; Krugman wouln't be welcome in my livingroom.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Mark, you can come to my living room any time. You are a beacon for reasonable conservatism.
- Alex Scoble
Oopsies! Forgot one: The entire board and executive management should be terminated and all contracts considered null/void.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
I can agree to your terms, including the amendment. However, lawyers would likely have a hey day and spend all their money on fake media reports telling us this an infringement on the rights of the millionaries and they are being picked on because of their success, etc etc etc.
- R. Ferguson
The depositors are protected by the FDIC, even if a bank fails. Regular ol' folks would need a new chequebook. Nothing more.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Private businesses should NEVER receive any of my (our) money. It establishes a dangerous precedent; don't worry about making sound decisions in your business, we'll bail you out if you fuck up.
- Mattb4rd
@Spidra I don't have a favorite president. Maybe Jefferson.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
What's most interesting to me about these comments is people assume putting banks or any other industry under government ownership means somehow the citizens of this country will be rewarded with better management or anything else for that matter. Read "The Road To Serfdom" by F.A. Hayek and see if you still think it's a good idea.
- Mike Elliott
@Ruth Ferguson's first quotation from the Krugman piece shows just how silly the damned thing actually is. The Government ALREADY receives ownership stakes in the institutions it supports through TARP. Krugman's preference going forward is to simply nationalize an entire industry that is not entirely insolvent. This makes sense why? And penning inanities like "until private buyers can be found" proves just how far off the reservation (called earth) Krugman has wandered...
- Forrest Cox
...Entire swaths of the private economy are prevented from aiding banks in their need for capital. Some $300 bn in unlevered private equity funds alone are severely restricted in their ability to provide capital to depository institutions. It is simply ridiculous to think that such a blunt tool as wholesale nationalization of even troubled institutions is the correct path forward given the fundamental flexibility and natural resiliency of the underlying economy, and even more so...
- Forrest Cox
...given that the three largest and far away most culpable players in this entire financial mess are fundamentally government entities: the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The entire situation, especially the hypocritical populist demonizing that's going on in both the press, the Federal Government and on the web generally, would be laughable were it not so unbelievably tragic.
- Forrest Cox
I do not think the Federal Reserve is actually a part of the govt.
- R. Ferguson
The banking system in Canada is heavily regulated and limited to a very small number of big players. Maybe that is a better model?
- Brian Sullivan
Ruth is correct. The Federal Reserve is a consortium of private banks pretending to be a government agency.
- Morton Fox
I wonder what people trust less: bankers or politicians...
- Jordi Soler
my answer is bankers, b/c politicans @ least occassionally have to actually do 1 or 2 things to my benefit. Bankers are more honest in that they are very clear it's all about them. LOL
- R. Ferguson
Then I prefer bankers: if you have to screw me, at least be honest!
- Jordi Soler
@Ruth - I understand its technical status, but doesn't that strike you as eerily similar to the "quasi-private" status of GSEs? The Fed controls money supply. It's head is appointed by a Federal official. In our collective experience, "quasi-private" really means "private until it takes risks it doesn't understand, blows up, and then asks the general public to pay for its mistakes..."
- Forrest Cox
@Brian Sullivan - and that particular banking system is simply NOT globally competitive. Again, regulation (or a lack thereof) had very little to do with what went wrong here. You can't directly regulate a fair-market-value. You CAN see to it that the Gov't doesn't force the most ruthlessly efficiency-seeking and short-term comp-driven part of our economy to create a way to profitably make loans that cannot by nature be profitable.
- Forrest Cox
Forrest: you can say the system is not globally competitive but no Canadian banks need to be bailed out so I would say that they competed fairly well no?
- Brian Sullivan
@Brian Sullivan - for starters, Canadian banks were hardly innocent in all of this (see class actions against RBC), nor were they fully immune (see CIBC). That they were smart enough not to purchase reams of sham paper written by U.S. and U.K. financial institutions really has nothing to do with competition, nor with regulation.
- Forrest Cox
From a direct lending standpoint, underwriting standards were simply better than Canada - and good on Canadian banks for doing the right thing. But keep in mind why the U.S. became so hyper-competitive - easy money + direct government intervention in the pricing mechanism. The "heavier" regulation (e.g. via stricter underwriting standards) you suggested was actually at odds with the gov't policy of direct market intervention. It is this point that no one seems to grasp.
- Forrest Cox
Forrest: I am having trouble understanding your argument -- earlier you said it was was not an issue of regulation -- are you now saying that lack of regulation is a major contributor?
- Brian Sullivan
@Brian - no, I am saying that lax regulation was not the issue. The issue was direct government intervention in the mortgage market. Without a combination of extremely loose money supply and a mandate from on high to make uneconomic loans (and keep in mind, anything a market does it tries to do profitably), the hypercompetition that propagated loose lending standards wouldn't have been an issue.
- Forrest Cox
Still I don't understand. Regulation by definition is a type of "government intervention" is it not? So you are saying the government intervened by lessening regulation?
- Brian Sullivan
No, the two are definitely not the same. Regulation is an oversight function. Intervention is government creating an economic interest though direct action in the market.
- Forrest Cox
Actually, I should probably write on this somewhere, because I think there's a common misunderstanding that people who argue against more or heavy handed regulation are inherently anti-regulation. I, for one, believe regulation of some sort is a necessary part of any market. Some markets self-regulate with decent effect. Some do not. But intervention is something entirely different, and it is intervention, not a lack of regulation, that got us here.
- Forrest Cox
Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Offline Gmail - http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009...
jojoorc, Nicholas James, Sean Kelly and 104 other people liked this
"Today we're starting to roll out an experimental feature in Gmail Labs that should help fill in those gaps: offline Gmail. So even if you're offline, you can open your web browser, go to gmail.com, and get to your mail just like you're used to."
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
This always irritates me a lot: "We're making offline Gmail available to everyone who uses Gmail in US or UK English over the next couple of days, so if you don't see it under the Labs tab yet, it should be there soon." You guys need to change your push process so things are available when they are announced or at a predictable time so I don't need to keep checking back for 48 hours...
- Bret Taylor
Long time coming! Sweet.
- Shawn Farner
Woo-hoo! Way cool. But yeah, very disappointing to not have it *right now*.
- Richard Chen
@Bret are you suggesting that they roll it out silently, then tell people about it, then switch the feature on for everybody all at once?
- Adewale Oshineye
Let's see if Bret still says that once there are 100 gazillion FriendFeed users each with 100 gazillion gigabytes of data. ; )
- DeWitt Clinton
Yes, more or less. (I think it should be available "imminently" or announced after it is actually available - that is what we did for most consumer products at Google). It is really weird to tell your users a feature has "launched" when it is not available to them, and there is no predictable path or timeline to use it. It seems like one could get the feature-turning-on process down below 30 mins or so.
- Bret Taylor
DeWitt: I am not saying it is easy, just saying it is worthwhile.
- Bret Taylor
I'm going to guess -- with no inside knowledge -- that flipping the bit on the accounts is easy compared with the scaling problem of having those millions of people all downloading all of their email at exactly the same time. But I could be wrong.
- DeWitt Clinton
But more to the point: holy crap, offline gmail launched!
- DeWitt Clinton
Has Google Reader always had offline support as well? Just noticed the little green online/offline toggle in the upper right menu...
- Ken Sheppardson
@Ken: yah, Reader launched with Offline support the day we launched Gears at the fist Google developer conference a year and a half ago.
- Bret Taylor
Bret: Nice. I completely missed that. Just installed Gears earlier today to use RTM offline, next thing you know... heh.
- Ken Sheppardson
Agree with letting users know after it is available... I was frustrated when I couldn't get to the skins feature and everyone was talking about it. I think this it is some sort of a miracle that this feature actually launched. Good for GMail :)
- Bindu Reddy
arf... still waiting for it in my labs.
- Justin Hart
WARNING: Anyone with access to your computer will be able to read your offline emails, due to the lack of encryption in Gears databases
- lautaro
lautaro, true but presumably you should put some kind of protection on your computer in general, lest someone be able to read/delete all the files on your computer. Only use Offline Gmail on computers you can secure or in trusted environments. Treat it like files on your computer.
- Kevin Fox
I has it! Woo!!
- Nick Humphries
Everyone should have it; if you don't, reload Gmail and it should appear. (That's generally true of everything we do for Labs, fwiw. The fact that you have to turn it on manually counts as a 'slow rollout'.)
- Ryan Anderson
@Ryan Anderson Actually not the case. Neither refreshing nor logging out and logging back in again brings the offline feature into my labs choices.
- Ben Greenberg
@Ben, sorry, I appear to have misread some mail earlier today, ignore me.
- Ryan Anderson
@bret -- it's tough to manage a large number of users enabling offline simultaneously, each downloading thousands of messages/attachments on initial sync. We could do as you suggest, and only announce the feature after the rollout was complete, but that's problematic too (it still wouldn't do much to stagger the initial load, plus the press would break the news before we did, which is confusing for users...). Any ideas? :-)
- Todd Jackson
@todd Boarding a long flight at 2pm EST tomorrow and hoping I get the tab to go offline before then. Hint... hint.... :)
- Christopher Sacca
Todd: Re "Any ideas", absolutely... let users know when they can expect to have the functionality enabled on their account. You could either use the Cable Installer Method ("sometime between 8AM and Noon on Tuesday"), or the Rolling Blackout Method ("you're in block 4. We're on block 2 right now"), Alphabetical Order ("you're an M, we're on E")... Time Zones... State... whatever...
- Ken Sheppardson
Also, maybe you could find out how many users actually use the Labs features and how frequently they use Gmail. These users would be the most likely to appreciate the new features. For instance, my roomate has the new feature and didn't even know about it, so he wouldn't have missed it. (I guess it's hard to determine who reads the Google Blog though :P)
- Brandon Titus
What you *could* roll out to everbody is a little button in Gmail Labs so that a user could indicate they've heard about the feature and would like to be added to a queue such that if you explicitly ask to use the feature, it moves you up to the head of the line... or the tail of the list of other people who've specifically requested the feature.
- Ken Sheppardson
I agree with Ken on this. I feel like people who aren't really interested get the feature first and this irritates me.
- Brandon Titus
Anyone have any guesses as to how this will work if you have multiple Gmail accounts being used on a single computer? Or if I have a Gmail account and an App account that I’d like to have both run offline on the same computer?
- Chris Stevenson
Good question Chris. Looks like there is a bug with using it with multiple accounts anyway (not exactly what you were looking for, but interesting. http://groups.google.com/group...
- Brandon Titus
Can't wait for it to work outside of the US & UK...
- Eitan Burcat
Can't wait for it to actually get to my account...another friend of mine just got it. Too bad he uses Mail to manage his Gmail account instead of actually using the web interface. There needs to be a way to opt-in to get priority position on the role out.
- Brandon Titus
Instead of these "offline web apps" I rather use real desktop apps, thank you...
- Jemm
@Brandon Titus - Thanks for the link! Reads like I should avoid this if I have more than one account used on a computer to be safe.
- Chris Stevenson
Options to limit the time for which messages are downloaded, the disk space used, and ESPECIALLY TO NOT DOWNLOAD LARGE ATTACHMENTS would be a plus. 500+ attachments were downloaded from my gmail account. No options to avoid it. http://tinyurl.com/t3hsUk
- iSteeve
what's the difference between gmail off-line with thunderbird/outlook? I prefer thunderbird, which works both offiline and online.
- xiawinter
Take a bow Gmail. You have done a wonderful job. It was delayed but after using I know why it was delayed. :-)
- Sidharth Dassani
Gmail Offline status after 12h of synch: "Finished downloading messages, 1463 attachments still to be downloaded" & 1.53GB less on my HD :(
- Xavier Donat
This is a great addition to Gmail. I've been waiting for this for a while.
- Nicholas James
Obama Al-Arabiya Full Interview - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Ari Milner and Tyson Key liked this
he didn't say anything except partisan stuff to embarrass Bush. and while it is a bit lame to still be putting down a guy who basically is dependent on Obama's success to justify his economic actions to history... he actually didn't say anything about Israel that Bush wouldn't of said. the wording is just slick... but completely meaningless. The irony is that mid-east culture actually appreciates a man with these values... and I'm not talking about my own bigotry here. He is letting the Arabs see his sly side, but isn't actually promising anything. If I may say so it could actually be a very good thing *if* he were a man of values to his own people... that is a big *if*
- Noah David Simon
also saying America was never a colonial power like Europe? wtf? grease... no one is saying America is perfect. we had slavery.... he is just being slicky on these issues. it is such a bullshit comment
- Noah David Simon
when I think about Obama I call him the *wink* *wink* president. it does no good to call him a liar because that is implied. question is who is he winking to and I don't like his sly look when they talk about "America" not having a colonial history. No one thinks our country is perfect. It is completely disingenuous to twinkle his eyes like that. In my opinion our country did a *lot*...
more...
- Noah David Simon
Obama is so certain that we are so zealous in our sense of "right" that we won't correct him... and if we do correct him then he can use it against our population as an argument. It is where a play of logic can backfire because we are not dealing with hard attributes, but rather are involved in a lot of gray area and what Obama is hoping to do is start a dialog with us about the gray...
more...
- Noah David Simon
I'm not concerned so much with Obama's presidency. he is the worst choice for peace in the mideast. it is given that he is a horrible decision. my guess is he won't do anything and all the same problems will happen. then he can Jimmy Carter the rest of his life after being a one term wonder
- Noah David Simon
Obama is a good spinster. While he talks Peace and Love the US military will prepare for Iran.
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
I don't think that a US-lead operation in Iran will be happening any time soon Igor.
- Mattb4rd
Mattb4rd Obama doesn't decide world factors. If there is a nuclear bomb being developed he will not be able to stop Israel from attacking... let's just hope his presidency is short. four years and we get our spines back.
- Noah David Simon
American special forces already in Iran doing their job, as we speak.
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
you make that up Igor?
- Noah David Simon
http://www.wnd.com/index... "JERUSALEM – Following scores of denials he would trumpet the plan, President Obama today hailed a so-called "Saudi Peace Initiative," which offers normalization of ties with the Jewish state in exchange for extreme Israeli concessions. Defenders of Israel warn the plan would leave the Jewish state with truncated,...
more...
- Noah David Simon
I did not make it up. It is common knowledge.
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Offline Gmail (in Gmail Labs) - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Sarah Perez, Andrew Smith, Ari Milner and 3 other people liked this
Offline Gmail - yes! And the In Plain English people ( commoncraft.com ) never cease to amaze me. Plain and simple.
- Micah Wittman
This doesn't look like an official common craft video to me. Looks like a google copy. Definitely not Lee Lefever's voice.
- Brandon Titus
Good catch, Brandon. I guess there weren't any credits to confirm.
- Micah Wittman
Finally!
- Ari Milner
Education: Personal Finance 101 Required For High School Graduation? - http://consumerist.com/5139420...
Alfredo, Nathan Chase, Ari Milner and 20 other people liked this
"Yay, New Jersey! They've got a bill in the works that would require all high school seniors to learn basic personal finance skills, like writing a check, managing credit card debt, and getting a mortgage. Excellent, kids should graduate high school knowing cosine and cosign."
- James Ferguson
from Bookmarklet
About damn time!
- CW™
@Chris, seriously.
- Carlos Ayala
I agree. I graduated having never written a check and having no idea why credit cards were necessary.
- James Ferguson
should be ... ridiculous how many people struggle with this
- andy brudtkuhl
They used to teach this... then some idiots thought it was better to try to compete with other nations in different categories and set "standardized tests" while forgetting that there are basic instructions that they need to live here. Fuck what the other world is doing and make sure the kids can survive this one when they get out. Sex Education, Financial Planning, Basic English & Math and the ability to live on your own under your own steam with a plan either go to college or go get a job.
- CW™
So basically just teach them the boardgame version of Life and they're set. Roll the dice and you get twins!
- James Ferguson
I wish this would have been a requirement for me. My learning came with first hand experience. The hard way.
- Valley
i just recent started teaching myself i wish they did. they never have. those bastards... OR MAYBE people would have made better decisions and that's the last thing the bigheads wants. greedy bastards
- Caroline
They taught this in my high school. I would have students involved in running parts of the school so they would be involved in these issues for real.
- Todd Hoff
James, Sadly that would be more then many schools are teaching right now.
- CW™
In our high school, we had Economics, which taught a bunch of random things involving money, including basic personal finance. They didn't mention anything about buying a mortgage, though. But honestly, my parents taught me about writing a check and managing credit card debt: why does the state have to do everything?
- Mark Trapp
Mark, Unfortunately many parents don't understand the process either and could/should get a training on it. Plus they tend to not teach their children anything past 12 when teenage hits and they just make sure they have a house and food.
- CW™
Mark, the only thing I remember from that Economics class is "D for Demand. D for Down." and "Supply goes...'Sup" Lot of good that does me now.
- James Ferguson
Good! Teach kids on saving, having no debt, and being responsible for their financial actions
- Shevonne
In my elementary school, the sixth graders every year turned the gym into a mini town, complete with a bank, grocery store etc. We were all given checking accounts and checks and had to come up with an idea for a store. Part of the day was spent either learning how to spend our money wisely or running one of the shops. It was great. Taught me a lot. But still, that definitely could be expanded on.
- ♥patricia♥
I never took it until college but I really enjoyed the class although it felt like one of those easy classes you take just so you don't have anything where thinking is required at 8am.
- pcnerd37
i wish i could like this 100 times... I could teach this class in one day - "DON'T SPEND MONEY YOU DON'T HAVE!" - class dismissed
- Nathan Chase
Kevin Rose: 10 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Followers - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009...
Gökmen Karasu, Kol Tregaskes, Jose Villar and 33 other people liked this
"This emphasis on followers will leave you unsatisfied. Why? You can’t control it. So, worry about what you CAN control: who you follow. Follow better people. Get better inputs! If you do that the followers will come and, guess what? They’ll be better followers too because you put the emphasis on what really matters. Who cares who is following you anyway? It only matters if they think you’re smart. Oh, and Kevin missed a few ways to get followers: 1. Survive a plane crash and Tweet it. 2. Get arrested and tweet from jail. 3. Have sex with someone famous and tweet that. 4. Start a famous company. Profitability not required. 5. Have Leo Laporte mention you on his show (worked for my son). 6. Have Mike Arrington tell you you’re addicted (worked for me). 7. Unfollow all your followers. Follow them back. Block them. Then unfollow them. (Worked for Loren Feldman). 8. Get into a movie. 9. Direct a movie. 10. Take pictures with MC Hammer at a TechCrunch party. Hope that helps."
- Robert Scoble
Robert - weren't you just talking about losing followers a couple of weeks ago? How did you know you lost them if you weren't paying attention to your follower count? ;)
- Andru Edwards
Andru: because Twitter puts them in my face everytime I log in. It's hard to avoid knowing them.
- Robert Scoble
Scoble, somehow I find you more reactive here than on twitter.
- Richard A.
In essence, do something interesting, somewhat notorious, and admit it.
- Robert Miller
I have no clue how many followers I have, or when that number increases or decreases - but I rarely log in to Twitter I guess, since I use Twitter apps mostly.
- Andru Edwards
Richard: being two-way is a TON easier and nicer here. It pisses people off when you Tweet too much over on Twitter. Oh, and Andru, even if I didn't look at my home page often people remind me every day or two how many followers I have.
- Robert Scoble
cool
- Loic Le Meur
from twhirl
Ah I see...people are reminding you constantly...that makes sense ;)
- Andru Edwards
Andru: that and I'm an egotistical baaaahhhhhhsssstttttaaaaarrrrddddd. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Well, and now the truth comes out. LOL LOL LOL
- Robert Miller
I don't want more followers, I want the right followers - people who will talk to me, argue with me, and fire up my mind. So I try to look for these and follow them. That is a lot harder to crack - twitter search does not have a "find stimulating people" option
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
I agree with Joelle. Sure would be nice to have that search option.
- Robert Miller
that's cool
- Loic Le Meur
from twhirl
Good listing
- Håkan Dahlström
That's why I like people making "lists of people I'm glad to follow" or retweeting smart contributions, because it helps me find people. There's the same issue in FF, although comments really help. PS: I am still chuckling at robert's list though, good fun at the quirky/murky side of human nature
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
If the title of this feed would be renamed into the thought of Joelle nebbe, I would check it as an "like" ;
- ewing2001akaNicomedy2010
can;t help wondering what he's trying to launch...
- Paul Fabretti
from twhirl
Is he trying to kill Digg now? The "Retweet" is a much more successful version of what Digg is trying to do. If anything kills Digg it will be Twitter.
- Jesse Stay
Yep- these "Grow your following fast" schemes resemble the :get reach fast"ones too much for my liking :-)
- Antonio Altamirano
Completely agree, Stay. Something about the PubSub model has allowed them to become more of a social network than Digg (maybe b/c the semi-personal nature of Tweets) and new can travel fast through the Twittersphere. That is just one of its uses, yet it is SO simple. They deserve more respect for the power of their simple service.
- coldbrew
How blogging was born (by Hugh Macleod) - http://www.gapingvoid.com/
Moses Kpetigo, Glen Group, "Joey" and 102 other people liked this
i think this has been shared on here before...but am sharing it again all the same...
- Zee.
from Bookmarklet
true
- Roman Zolotarev
I think Hugh could update this cartoon and use Twitter or FriendFeed instead of blogging -- would work just as well.
- Brian Sullivan
I am so gonna blog this.
- Steven Perez
brilliant!
- MicahBear78
It came from Dave Winer's Sripting News. He posted it yesterday.
- Jordi Soler
Dave Winer posted this yesterday? I didn't realize. I just got it from the above mentioned site. I would have linked from there if I'd seen it there.
- Zee.
Obama to Bush: I Can Release Your Records. Don't Like It? Sue. - http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblo...
Denise Howell, Jaica Kinsman, dK and 110 other people liked this
On his first day in office, President Obama put former president Bush on notice. His administration just released an executive order that will make it difficult for Bush to shield his White House records--and those of former Vice President Dick Cheney--from public scrutiny by invoking the doctrine of executive privilege
- Chris Baskind
from Bookmarklet
Oh now this could get interesting...
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
This is actually a good policy in many ways. However, I wonder if there is a dispute over whether records should be released, if the default action will be to release first then retract if deemed necessary, or withhold until the AG and counsel determine it is proper to release.
- Kevin L
I think this is GREAT news. Kevin: Anything security sensitive would be redacted before they're released anyway.
- Trish R
show and prove. all this press is nice, but i'd like for it to actually happen
- Cee Bee
Let the guy have some time ;p (btw how y'all doin'! hehe)
- ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,
Yee hah! Go get 'em, Mr. President!
- Ciaoenrico
I think it's fantastic. Bush was unusually shielding of his and Cheney's papers. Obama is just rolling it back to the more usual levels of protection. (Now can we reinstate drawing & quartering as punishment for treason??)
- RudĩϐЯaЯïan
Transparency FTW.
- Julian
@Spidra here's your list of GWB's executive actions in order: http://www.shrinkthingy.com/6nyvs2
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
*cough* "http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic... *cough*
- Spencer
I want to love this! :-)
- Mathew A. Koeneker
I actually like this. It's like he's saying "Bam! M*t*** F***ah"
- Mattb4rd
In so doing, he may have just made it impossible for him to keep his Blackberry. http://rizzn.com/blog...
- Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
Wow, Jason. Bush Sr. had 2, one revoked later & Bush Jr had, um, 50+?
- Alix Whitmire
@Alix Bush was addicted those executive orders. :)
- Jason Shultz
from twhirl
President Obama needs to keep in mind, what he does to President Bush's records, future Presidents can do to his. And Obama has a record of keeping records and documents out of the public eye.
- ComicList
Damn! Not wasting any time at all...
- Michael R. Bernstein
If President Obama really comes thru with his Open Government policy, there really won't be much hidden, save for those things that need to be for the sake of others privacy, or for national security.
- Ian May
It's almost like we got a shot of vitamin B. The fog is clearing so quickly. It feels good.
- sean808080
Trust me. This will come back to bite him. I'm looking for the text of the EO now, but I'm pretty sure there's going to be some unintended consequences here.
- Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
awesome
- Kyle Weller
It's the same as Ford giving Nixon a pardon: sometimes letting go is better healing than continuing the fight.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Kicking ass and taking names.
- Mark Krynsky
My updated thoughts on this - http://rizzn.com/socnets...
- Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
Whatever you guys say, this is a good thing. And Mark, apparently you are wrong: http://techdirt.com/article...
- Alejandro
Mark, I posted my response to your post on your blog. But bottomline I cannot imagine the President of the United States being restricted from email in 2009. Particular has he is not planning to use it as a means of conducting business but to stay in touch with friends and family.
- R. Ferguson
As far as the BlackBerry is concerned, it would be great if we could trust that all of his correspondents would honor a request not to email him anything that has even a minor relationship with his new job. However, someone always has to do something wrong, just like my users know they're supposed to call the Help Desk, but they always wait for me to show up in the hallway, call me directly, or email me. What's the solution at that point? I want him to keep his BB, but how can he be protected?
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
To new friendfeeders (there are thousands due to Twitter invites and follows), here's what you need to know:
Laura Norvig, MiaD, FunTimesGuide and 119 other people liked this
http://www.kyte.tv/ch... 20 things about friendfeed video
- Robert Scoble
1. Likes are important. They share items with your followers. Plus, they make a cool database. Mine are at http://www.friendfeed.com/scoblei...
- Robert Scoble
2. If you are seeing too many things, turn off "friend of a friend." Click "hide" on one of the "friend of" items. Then click it again to see the options to hide all items like it.
- Robert Scoble
3. Hide is your friend. #2 already shows you how you can use hide in one way, but I use it to hide all Twitter messages that don't have a comment or a like. This makes friendfeed much more useful. Also, all hidden items are at the bottom of each page.
- Robert Scoble
Anyone else? Please add to the list. Lost is on, so I'll see how many I can bang out during commercial breaks.
- Robert Scoble
There are many, many good intro to FF articles. Zee has written several
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
So is this going to be another 25 things you didn't know about...post ? ;-)
- Jeff P. Henderson
Joining rooms can often cause lots of noise also if you have them showing up in your main feed.
- Jeff P. Henderson
I just discovered "Rooms" today. If there's a particular topic you're interested in for example: TWIT, iPhone, Twitter, Identica, etc. - hop on over to that room - and start up or contribute to existing conversation. It's addictive!
- Cole Orton
Tina: link them in here.
- Robert Scoble
Creating lists and grouping your friends is a good way to cut down on noise or see a focused set of posts.
- Jeff P. Henderson
4. You can "group" your users together into things called "lists." For instance, if you think I'm a noisy asshole, you can remove me from your home feed and put me into a list called "noisy assholes." That way you can see all your family and friends and not me. Of course, please do come over and check out your noisy asshole list, because sometimes we do say something interesting. I hope. :-)
- Robert Scoble
5. You will, most certainly, find your productivity decrease. Though your ability to be entertained and waste on the Internet will surge! :)
- Jeremy Toeman
5. This is a forum but with a couple of differences from forums you've used before. First, moderation is totally decentralized -- you can delete comments under your items, I can delete comments under mine. If you see spam or other stuff that's not good you can delete those by using the "More" menu. Second, everyone's view is different based on who they follow. So, if it's boring here it's your own fault! You aren't following exciting enough people!
- Robert Scoble
6. Items with graphics and photos generally get more likes than items without.
- Robert Scoble
take note of the photos advice - I was posting items without and completely being ignored.
- Nation Hahn
7. Rooms are very cool and it will take you a while to discover why. Hint: you can build your own ego room, and bring in RSS feeds from search engines and news services. I've built a room for Davos/World Economic Forum, for instance, where you can see this in action: http://friendfeed.com/rooms...
- Robert Scoble
8. If you say "bacon" in your posts you will get some likes. People here go crazy for bacon. Oh, and if Tad starts a meme you have two choices: block everyone who participates or join in for the next day or two!
- Robert Scoble
6a. To make photos from your WordPress blog come through to FriendFeed, just install the Media RSS plugin "mrss": http://wordpress.org/extend...
- Daniel J. Pritchett
9: Most of your friends will not get friendfeed. That won't stop me from talking about it, though.
- Robert Scoble
RE: #9 Or the third option, hide memes on an as needed basis. Some are more enjoyable than others.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
10. Make sure you add all your services to friendfeed. Including Twitter. Let your followers hide items or services they don't care about.
- Robert Scoble
11. To see cool stuff, click on "Best of" on the top right, but note that behaves differently depending on where you are (each list will have a different "best of" and each room, too.
- Robert Scoble
10a. Everybody expects everybody to hide services. It's not rude to use the "Hide" feature on your friends' stuff.
- Bruce Lewis
12. You can see everything you've liked or commented on, and so can all your followers (just visit the "Me" page and look in top right for the links -- or visit someone else's friendfeed account and see the same links on THEIR account!)
- Robert Scoble
"Like" means you like that a person shared something, not that you necessarily like the news itself. But for the benefit of other new friendfeed users you might comment to explain your "Like" for a plane crash item.
- Bruce Lewis
13. Looking for more people to follow? Try http://friendfeed.com/setting... but note that the recommended items will change depending on who you've followed. So, if you follow noisy assholes, it will probably suggest other noisy assholes for you to follow. :-)
- Robert Scoble
14. It is OK to ignore trolls who are trying to disrupt the conversation like Chris White is here. But if they get really out of hand block them. You do that by unfollowing them (visit their page and you'll see that link at the top of the page). After unfollowing them you'll see an option to block them. Blocking them keeps them from seeing your items and will remove everything they do from your view.
- Robert Scoble
17. If enough people comment simultaneously, the system acts a little wonky.
- Jeremy Toeman
(Note: Chris is OK, he's just playing along here, but I do block other people who get out of hand).
- Robert Scoble
18. If you hover over someone's name with your mouse you'll see whether or not they are following you (and whether or not you are following them). I can see here that Chris White isn't following me. Which means he is bad boy and should be sent to bed without dinner.
- Robert Scoble
26. Friendfeed commentors are often so eager to add to lists sequentially they barely even notice obvious gaps in list numbering (which, you'll also notice is manual, because nobody taught the google guys about the OL tag)
- Jeremy Toeman
19. Everything on friendfeed builds a feed you can subscribe to in Google Reader or other RSS readers.
- Robert Scoble
Jeremy loves messing with me. I'll get him back. :-)
- Robert Scoble
20. In "Tools" you'll find lots of stuff for your blog, how to email in items and photos, and more: http://friendfeed.com/about...
- Robert Scoble
21. Morton Fox has liked 44,943 things. I have no idea how he does it cause I like a lot of things and I've only done 15,000 or so. http://friendfeed.com/mortonf... is his like feed.
- Robert Scoble
15. (yup, that's where we actually left off) It's okay to "like" something distasteful. "Like" really just means "others should read this too". It's also quite overused, much as the word "like" is overused in conversation by anyone who born after the 70s.
- Jeremy Toeman
22. You can see anyone's real-time feed, which shows you what is actually coming into their account at that time. Here's mine: http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... warning, it'll make you dizzy.
- Robert Scoble
A good first lesson is; there is no chronological Friendfeed. Don't think you can keep up. Ride it out and enjoy.
- Andrew Smith
23. The "Everyone" tab is useful, but only if you figure out that friendfeed has an interesting search engine underneath. For instance, you can go to the Everyone tab and search only YouTube videos. (Click Everyone, then search for say "Daft Punk" and use the "Advanced" feature in search to constrain it to only YouTube).
- Robert Scoble
Andrew is right. Don't worry about missing stuff. I call it "media snacking." If I have time, I'll dip in here to engage. I'll check the "Best of" pages first, though, to catch up on the popular stuff (usually bacon or a photo meme).
- Robert Scoble
16. Comments cannot be nested, nor can you link to a comment, or even like a comment. You can add another comment and write "+1" to indicate you like another comment, or a higher number, such as "+10" if you very much like a comment. "+100" is to be reserved for the ultimate in commenting. Do not be silly with the "+" system, as this is worth a -4 in case you need to make Friendfeed saving throws later on. Instead, be wise and prudent with your +1s, and they will become your ally for years to come.
- Jeremy Toeman
We never talk much about the search feature. Anything outstanding about it worth mentioning?
- xavier vespa
xavier: search is a great way to find friendfeed items that you have put into the system. Click on "Me" and then search. Here's everything in my account that includes the words "how to save journalism:" http://friendfeed.com/search...
- Robert Scoble
re:16.+10++4=+1@Jeremy
- Andrew Smith
Elevnty. Subscribe to Tad
- Tad
xavier: here's another thing search does very well. Go to "Everyone" and search on something. Now click "advanced" search. I want to know about all the BarCamps that everyone has added to their Upcoming.org site. Here's the search for that: http://friendfeed.com/search...
- Robert Scoble
Unfortunately everyone is now trying out search and it goes down. It's the only thing on friendfeed that is not reliable yet. They are working on it, though. When it comes up, another thing I like about search is you can see items just from one data type. Here are all the items from just Upcoming.org: http://friendfeed.com/...
- Robert Scoble
Search should include rooms but it doesn't.
- Andrew Smith
31. If you get swept away into friendfeedland, don't try to bring others with you. They will mock and ridicule, and no matter what you say they just "won't get it." This is perfectly okay, they may change - or not - but it shouldn't impact your friendfeeding. Don't ever ask real world friends if they saw something you "liked". They didn't. Ever.
- Jeremy Toeman
Very helpful
- James Jackson
Jeremy: I solved that. I just got new friends. :-)
- Robert Scoble
You school em Scoble ~ lousy twits
- sofarsoShawn
Chris: you gave bad advice when you said to unsubscribe from someone if they are noisy. That's really stupid. Put them into a list instead and remove them from your main list. That way you'll be able to check on them from time to time and see if anything they did is useful. Also if things are noisy due to me it's probably due to the friend-of-a-friend feature and you can turn that off without unsubscribing (I have turned it off on my account, those hidden items are at the bottom of the page).
- Robert Scoble
Also, that way they won't think you're a jerk for unfollowing them.
- Robert Scoble
Chris is right. You can also edit your comments, or your posts. Which is often useful. But you can only delete other people's posts, you can't edit THEIR comments. And you can only delete comments under items you've started (I could delete Chris's comments, for instance, here, but not on other people's items).
- Robert Scoble
@Robert that's like leaving the Christian Rock station as one of your presets just on the off chance they'll accidentally play Sympathy for the Devil. sure, it *could* happen, but the odds suck.
- Jeremy Toeman
A product made by former Google employees with unreliable search? That's a little ironic. :)
- David Potts
28. Never anger the Mona.
- Jeremy Toeman
David: search on real time items is a pretty tough problem. Even Google hasn't attempted that one yet. Here's a little test for you. Add a weird word to a comment. Say your son's name. Mine is Milan Scoble. Now wait a minute. Search on that name and you'll find that post in the search results. Google can't do anything close to that.
- Robert Scoble
I'm not blaming them, just pointing out the irony. You're right though, I wasn't considering the real time aspect of it.
- David Potts
Jeremy - what did I miss? LOL
- Mona Nomura
29. If you work very, very hard and get more of your own content liked than anyone else's, while at the same time manage to get more followers than anyone else, you will be dubbed the King (or Queen) of FriendFeed. A ceremonial Cape, Gavel, and oddly enough Toothbrush will be sent your way to show off to your peers. You will also receive a 7% discount card good at all participating Chick-Fil-A establishments. All your content on FriendFeed will be permanently bolded. In a nutshell, you be the awesomest!
- Jeremy Toeman
Chris White got blocked by me because he deleted all his comments here. Nasty.
- Robert Scoble
I missed it... were his comments useful?
- Lindsay is in 20-ten
Lindsay: no. Actually he was being a troll the whole way through.
- Robert Scoble
Chris White has done that several times with me, so I ended up blocking him after the fourth or fifth time. :|
- Mona Nomura
@Lindsay: they were like poetry. they were uplifting. they elevated us to a new place. and now, i fear, they are no more. those bits shalt not be seen again, possibly not in our lifetime. another way to say it might be... "I felt a great disturbance in the Friendfeed, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."
- Jeremy Toeman
Mona: yeah, that kind of attitude sucks. But he demonstrated a new thing: if you behave like an asshole you will get removed from our view. (and ours from his so he can't disturb us anymore).
- Robert Scoble
Seriously, I don't care if you disagree with me, just be cordial and amicable. If you type out your thoughts, stand by them - why delete? If you make a mistake, apologize or edit, if need be. That's why I like you, Robert. You are opinionated but when you feel like you're wrong, you're man enough to admit it, without resorting to personal attacks. That said, I should've listened to you from day one: block jerks.
- Mona Nomura
yes, block jerks... easy rule to follow. If jerk = block! Why would someone delete all their comments?...that makes the entire comment thread get all incoherent. That is sooo lame it's making me laugh... reminds me of grade school antics... gees
- Susan Beebe
32. Ask yourself: would you follow you if you were someone else? If the answer is "yes" ask yourself again, just in case :-)
- Cristian Vidmar
If you become overwhelmed by the amount of information in your feed try these tips for cleaning and organizing your feed. http://bit.ly/14y
- Keith - @tsudo
Best list yet Scoble. You should import the recommendations into a single post so new friendfeeders don't get put off by all of us commenting.
- Keith - @tsudo
awesome, tx for the search tips. custom search + rss = booyaka!
- xavier vespa
Thanks from a FF Newb!
- James Cruce
Great list and comments, as always. I don't see anything however, on the use of lolcats?? Can they be used at any time? :)
- Laura Zickus
Other guides to friendfeed are here: http://www.google.com/search...
- Robert Scoble
More Web Design Trends For 2009 - http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009...
Ari Milner and Andrew Smith liked this
The Recession Hits BSG Fans Hard - http://io9.com/5134945...
Ari Milner liked this
From io9: "This weekend was the infamous Battlestar Galactica auction. And while many items were sold for thousands of credits, the main draws — the life size Cylon Raider, Colonial Viper and Colonial Raptor — didn't meet the required $30K reserve to sell. These are desperate times if rich nerds can't afford a 30'' alien warship/creature. I know, I couldn't even scrounge up enough bills to buy Doc Cottle's smokes (which sold for a mere $600). Also many of the cast members showed up, Colonel Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) auctioned off his liquor bottles in person, and the volunteers were dressed as BSG crew members."
- Mark Trapp
What is RT (retweeting)? - http://kevinrose.com/blogg...
Ari Milner, Kahlil Lechelt, Mark Krynsky and 2 other people liked this
Google is shutting down Google Notebook, Video, Dodgeball and Jaiku - http://searchengineland.com/google-...
Nicholas James, Aaron Draczynski, VC Freak and 84 other people liked this
Wow, interesting. Another Twitter competitor bites the dust.
- Andy DeSoto
bummer. i really like Notebook.
- MikeAmundsen
Just in time, as I've just moved all my Google Notebook notes to Evernote.
- Rob Haas
Sad about notebook, although I don't know why. I used it for a few hours, said "this is cool, I'll use it all the time," and never used it again.
- Gregory Cohen
I am honestly surprised about Jaiku. I thought Google was going to try some thing with it. You can probably assume that leashes are much shorter these days on these sort of ventures.
- Rolf Schewe
What?? Notebook is one service that is actually useful.
- Morton Fox
Gregory: That's why. :-)
- Brent Newhall
Google is doing everything right lately IMO. Shuttering areas where it doesn't hold a core skill and focusing on things that it does well.
- AJ Kohn
You always use Evernote instead of Notebook and post to the cloud
- Sally Church
@Sally Evernote won't be around in a year or two either, unless they get acquired
- Steve Rubel
Dang, I understand the reasons, but I like Notebook :/
- Bec Rowe @d0tski
Gmail is ad supported, clearly invested in and a driver of search. It's sacred. Now how about Google Reader? It doesn't make Google a dime! I wonder what its future is.
- Steve Rubel
@Steve, good point
- Sally Church
It'll be interesting to see. I'm thinking maybe little AdSense boxes at the bottom of every few articles? Or perhaps a side bar like Gmail? Or... maybe they'll just shut it down :(
- David Andrzejewski
I liked Google Notebook. :-(
- ursi
It's been a while since I read the gReader privacy policy, but it cold be a *bonanza* of information qualifying its users. You are what you subscribe.
- Chris Baskind
hey what about Grand Central?!
- Susan Beebe
not notebook!
- Yolanda
dammit...I used Notebook as much as I did Reader! What other free alternatives are there?
- JA Castillo
@JA Gmail. Check out my nerve center series.
- Steve Rubel
The way I read the Google Notebook blog, it is not going to vanish. We can still use it. Google just won't allow new users. Is this the correct interpretation?
- Steve Dittmore
@Steve Sounds like it. But why bother living in something that's not loved.
- Steve Rubel
Shutting down video? Not nice, there are videos that people link to.
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
So that will be one less option for Surfulator users that don't feel like paying for an upgrade.
- April Russo (app103)
it's not shutting down Jaiku though, that will stay around...going open source
- Zee.
Steve why do u say that about Evernote? About it not being around in the future?
- Zee.
Zee, do you have a reference for that ? I see secondary sources saying things about Jaiku, but can't find anything official.
- Michael C. Harris
Ah, Zee is correct re Jaiku, http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2009.... It's not closing.
- Michael C. Harris
@Zee, money.
- Steve Rubel
Michael, I'm on my iPhone but click the link in this post through to the official google post about Jaiku
- Zee.
@Steve Rubel, Evernote just got a good round of funding, and has footholds in a lot more platforms than Google Notebook. I will be surprised if they don't keep growing, especially when people have finally realized their name is a misnomer for what they actually do.
- Lindsay is in 20-ten
@Lindsay, Evernote will be acquired. That's my bet
- Steve Rubel
Evernote also has paying customers. I don't know how many, but I know that I happily paid.
- Joey Gibson
I hope they're not, Steve, or if they are, it's not by Google. I would be heartbroken if it languished and died the way almost all the other things I like that they've bought have. @Joey, I paid for my subscription and bought 2 gift subs for people for Christmas gifts... and turned Tad onto getting a paid sub too. They have a pretty loyal following and their services are worth paying for.
- Lindsay is in 20-ten
Shocking news! I really love Notebook; am using it extensively to prevent information-overload..
- Winston Teo
Jaiku was always doomed without the SMS short code. But I really liked notebook.
- Chris Mayer
we haven't got SMS for Twitter here in the UK though Chris...and it's growing ridiculously fast here
- Zee.
SMS to Jaiku was working just fine last time I tried.
- Michael C. Harris
At least they're going to keep Notebook active ... they're just stopping development.
- Brandon
Not Notebook, damnit! What am I supposed to do with my Notebook stuff now? :(
- Tanath
And indeed still does work. Perhaps "SMS short code" means something else ?
- Michael C. Harris
@Tanath Best I could find was to export to Google Docs. You have to do it for each notebook and it creates a single Gdoc with all of the items in that notebook.
- Warren Butler
Notebook was (is?) really good but needed offline access. E.g using Gears.
- Warren Butler
didn't think jaiku would last that long. twitter is far superior
- Alex Carpenter
I wrote off Jaiku months ago. And after Evernote, Google Notebook paled in comparison.
- Phil G
I really like Google Notebook :(
- Jennifer Van Grove
Have you tried Evernote, Jennifer? It's really good.
- Phil G
Phil, yeah I've tried Evernote...even have the iPhone app...but Google Notebook was a great fit for me...more than a little bummed
- Jennifer Van Grove
No big surprises here. Sad to see Jaiku go. It was good having a competitor to Twitter. Keeps the game fun. RIP Jaiku
- Sloan Bowman
Looks like Jaiku is going open-source. In which case it might rise to be even bigger than before. And as for Evernote - hey they have a pretty good revenue model. They're here to stay.
- Leo Laporte
so my theory that Jaiku has been bought as missing ready-made geo-data (BTS coordinates) for Google Mobile Search seems more or less plausible by now.
- A.T.
I wonder if they are going to get rid of video for Google Apps users too? I could see getting rid of the public Google Video since it competes with YouTube, but Google Apps video has a different purpose.
- Rob Boek
google notebook is awesome! why discontinue that?
- Kelly Johns
Notebook seems particularly suited to their mission statement. It ought to be improved, not discontinued.
- Tanath
I'm disappointed by the drop kicking of Notebook. You spend the time tagging entries with meta data, then poof, you have to deal with converting it into another system/workflow. I just did "Export to Google Docs" as an escape hatch move, but it's not the tool to gather new clippings entries.
- Micah Wittman
Ugh, I have quite a lot of stuff in Notebook.
- jjprojects
i was just tryin' to get into it :-)
- mirko
I'll miss Google Video
- Marcos Marado
Times are hard
- Marcus Beagley
Notebook is the big one for me, I use it all the time for particular projects. Anyone suggest an alternative?
- Alistair (alpinefolk)
oh bummer, I love Google Notebook. I use it all the time
- Imabug
Zoho seems like a good alternative. Still wish Google would keep Notebook though.
- Tanath
Interesting blog about what's wrong with friendfeed's interface - http://bokardo.com/archive...
Chirag Chamoli, Kevin, Gökmen Karasu and 185 other people liked this
Joshua Porter does an awesome job here of explaining what's wrong with friendfeed's UI.
- Robert Scoble
from Bookmarklet
I disagree with almost every one of those suggestions. [edit] I'd prefer more, not less on the page. This person doesn't use hide much I guess. Likes allow me to find other people, white space is always appreciated and comments are value added. Again, don't like a title, hide it. It's just not that hard.
- AJ Kohn
AJ: why?
- Robert Scoble
Friends of friends represent huge potential value. I think getting rid of that mechanic would be a big mistake. Placing less emphasis on it than primary relationships makes sense.
- Patrick Pushor
The interface I never knew I wanted - but I totally do. Some really great points in there.
- Shawn Farner
+1 AJ. The first suggestion might be valid but others... no, no and no.
- Tapio Kulmala
@Robert: I'd be okay with the ability to select how many items showed up on the page (default to 5 for newbies), but forcing it at 5. No thanks. I prefer scrolling to clicking by page, particularly with the speed in which things change on FF. White space is necessary to ensure you CAN scan the page. And comments is where the gold is. This interface would essentially reduce it to a one line Title interface, right?
- AJ Kohn
GreaseMonkey does have a script that allows you to filter by content, so I think that is a great idea to already have it in FF. However, the other three opinions, I don't agree with, like the others. You don't care if someone you don't know liked something? The great thing about "Like" is that people that is subscribed to this person can view your content, so you get more exposure. Why wouldn't you want this?
- Shevonne
I'm all for compressing more content into the scarce vertical space. I run FF in Firefox using almost all of the 1200 vertical pixels of my monitor, and it's still not enough. But there is a difference between times when you want discovery and times when you want efficiency, I'd find ways to improve the set up for both MOs.
- LogEx
If they had everything in a single line, the vertical scrolling would be ridiculous. Maybe FF can have an option for people to hide comments, and click a link to show them, if they prefer. Maybe something similar to the WP FriendFeed plugin.
- Shevonne
As somebody in the article comments already posted, you can already turn off friend of friend opinions. Maybe that option needs to be easier to find but I agree with all, keep it on by default.
- Patrick Pushor
It appears he wants to use FF primarily as a news/info feed from select people with no commentary. I thought part of the allure off FF was the social commentary. And it always annoys me when people are so dismissive about seeing stuff from people other than the ones they've personally selected. Seems rather snooty.
- ronin
I do disagree on de-emphasizing the people though, it is FriendFeed after all. I like to be able to easily see who made the post, via what service, the title, and a quick scan of the metadata.
- LogEx
@saeba Bang on. FF is all about the commentary. Any competing service can build an aggregator.
- Patrick Pushor
saeba - snooty? I see it as a headache bypass. There are some people that are a huge pain in the head to read on a regular basis and are out there posting as much as possible. I personally do not want to subject my head to that. Snooty, not at all.
- Renee Hendricks
Most of the things he doesn't like are things that make FF good. For example, showing a few comments can generate interest in the entry even if the title is uninteresting. Finding new people partially comes from being able to see the full list of who liked the entry. I have to agree with the weighting problem though, I complained about that the first week.
- xero
Interesting observations, although I don't feel there's any major problems with the FriendFeed UI. Although that's just my 2p.
- Tyson Key
@TK There are definitely problems with the UI. As a web savvy individual the first time I experienced FF I didn't get it. That shouldn't be. However, I am not versed enough in UI design to suggest much else.
- Patrick Pushor
"Randomness helps us discover. It can create interest. It can lead to intent." http://friendfeed.com/e...
- AJ Kohn
@Susanne Isn't that what hide is for?
- ronin
saeba - I was just commenting on the "snooty" part. I'm very low on the "read me I'm popular" end of things and yet I find it necessary to hide a lot of Friends of stuff. Does it make me snooty? Hardly. Makes me headache free :D But, yes, that's what hide is for.
- Renee Hendricks
This from a guy that seemingly has never commented on any post other than his own and has made no (or few) direct FF posts. I somehow think he is missing something in the credibility department.
- Brian Sullivan
site is down. I didn't do it.
- Josh Haley
Went to read post and got this message "Error establishing a database connection". Worked when pressing Gray's links below.
- B2B Specialist
Sure, FF could (and will) make some improvements, but it's a pretty darn good UI as it is. I was slow to use Twitter and still don't that much. I never used traditional social sites that much, but "got" FF right away. Compared to any other social aggregation and discussion service, the FF UI is an order of magnitude better.
- LogEx
Every suggestion is bunk -- this is clearly not a serious user. Friend names *should* be the top item (this is, ahem, friend-feed). I do care who likes what -- I get to know people that way. A single line entry would be Google Reader -- thanks, I already have that option. Finally, if a title doesn't intrigue me, very often the comments do. +1 saeba, +1 xero
- Christopher Galtenberg
I really like the fact that FF shows you who liked what. If pure scannability is what you are after then just read FF from an RSS reader.
- barce
I have to say that I agree with a lot of what's already been said here about that article sounding like it came from someone that's not spent too much time in FF. I'll be honest and say that I have "friend of friend" off, and that it took me a while to realize how to do that. I think FF is great and a powerhouse of information if you know how to use it. Lets not remove that power to...
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- Matthew J Hendrickse
What barce said +1. Scanability is *not* the point of the main page. Social engagement is.
- Christopher Galtenberg
OK, link works now, and now I can comment on it. Mr. Porter, FriendFeed is not a feed reader. It allows the import of a bunch of feeds and could be used that way, but as you point out, the interface is not designed with that in mind foremost. The killer app of FriendFeed is that it is a centralized, customizable place to have conversations about almost any content. Trying to make FriendFeed like Google Reader (my assumption based on your post) will change the dynamic of what I believe is this killer app.
- Josh Haley
There are two major problems with Implementing his suggestions 1. Cluttered screen. 2. Increased need for mouse clicks to get to content. It should be go through serious testing before knowing which approach will give a better experience.
- Amit Morson
While I don't care for his suggestions personally, when I couple his ideas with Louis Gray's "Lite" idea, I think he's really on to something. If you want to go the "Lite" route, keep the initial interface as simple as possible, then let the user discover all of the features of the FriendFeed we know and love. Oh, you can see who liked this item? And you can see comments? And you can see things from friends of friends? Joshua is NOT using FriendFeed incorrectly; he's using it the way he wants to use it.
- Ontario Emperor
title here should read: "Uninteresting blog about what's right with friendfeed's interface". Sorry, Robert stop pumping links simply because you were mentioned in it. AJ nailed it in the second comment. Up next for this thread, what the author of this blog should learn to do on FF. HIDE.
- Carlos Ayala
This would be a cool little tweak - make links open in a 'new' tab.
- Jim Mitchem
I've solved most of the problems Joshua mentions by processing Friendfeed friend, room, list and search feeds through Google Reader. And I can absolutely guaranteee you that, using the GR interface, I can run circles around anyone using the FF interface in terms of grokking all the new FF activity in the areas of greatest interest to me (or any areas). Lightning-fast scanning and...
more...
- Sean McBride
Carlos, let's say that you put me behind the wheel of a NASCAR race car. Before I can drive the thing, I have to make a number of changes to the car to simplify it - "hide" this control, "hide" that control, etc. For newbie car drivers like me, why not come up with a model that's like a Honda Accord? If people insist that I'm using the NASCAR car incorrectly, then I'm not going to drive it at all - which is why more people use Twitter than FriendFeed. The firehose is not for everyone.
- Ontario Emperor
Sean, could you post a screenshot of your FriendFeed/GReader-based scanning solution?
- Ontario Emperor
OE makes a good point and an good analogy. How many of us circle the block in our cars for days, stopping every other time around to change the suspension settings?
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
From a user interface standpoint, hiding items strikes me as extremely wrong. Not smart. Not efficient. I want to see the information that is most valuable to me with the least possible effort.
- Sean McBride
I wouldn't want a bunch of line items as if I'm reading email. I like seeing the comments and who has liked it. That is what makes me give an item with maybe a boring title another chance. One thing I would like is if my or my friends comments stood out a little better.
- Yolanda
Ontario: a single screenshot wouldn't capture my Google Reader view on Friendfeed. Anyone here can try this simple experiment: create a Friendfeed folder in GR, and add a few FF friend, room, list and search feeds. Be sure to include feeds for FriendFeedLinks, FFholic Most Discussed and Best of Day. You'll be able to rip through hundreds of items with the greatest of speed and...
more...
- Sean McBride
Sean, assuming the interface isn't omniscient, wouldn't the bare-bones case require you to add sources of information? And isn't that something users would be much less likely to do than Hide? I think the hide-based paradigm, while counter-intuitive, is more likely to lead to the success which is having just the right amount of feeds.
- Christopher Galtenberg
+1 Barce - yeah if the guy wants an RSS-feed pure list of his friends' content, just pull his feed it into Google Reader via RSS... then he can scan headlines all he wants, and he doesn't have to care about likes or comments...
- Nathan Chase
Christopher - you are correct that it takes a bit of effort to add FF feeds to GR, and probably requires more skill with feed management than most net users possess. We need a slick interface to expedite the process. But try this: go to Best of Day http://friendfeed.com/summary... and click on the RSS icon in the address bar. If you are already a GR user, you will be served up a...
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- Sean McBride
I discovered this post through GR, by the way.
- Sean McBride
I also use a Twitter folder in FF to cut through all the noise. From my bird's-eye view, FF and Twitter are just bundles of easily manipulable feeds.
- Sean McBride
Sean, that's actually a pretty brilliant idea, cause I always forget to check the "best of the day", so it would make for a good "news feed" to check, since most of the posts are important news/articles, or at the very least, important memes/social conversations among FF users
- Nathan Chase
Nathan: in my FF folder in GR I place FriendFeedLinks in the number one slot; FFholic Most Discussed in the second slot; and Best of Day in the third slot. It takes me less than five minutes a day to identify the most important new posts on FF as a whole. If I were unable to create this interface, I wouldn't bother using FF at all -- it would be a serious waste of time.
- Sean McBride
Sean: I'm subscribing to you based purely on my respect for your l33t news-reading skillz
- Nathan Chase
More: I find the posts of certain FF users to be exceptionally valuable, like Anthony Citrano, Meryn Stoll, Paul Buchheit and Louis Gray. From my GR view, I can quickly see that user X has posted *number new posts. I can then click on a user's feed, scan the headings of all their new posts, and zoom in on the posts that strike me as most interesting. Viewing all their items as a single list/group gives me a much better conceptual understanding of their posts, without wading through torrents of noise.
- Sean McBride
More: my FF and Twitter folders in GR are nicely integrated with many other folders, all of which are prioritized by importance. I manage all these feeds under a single interface. My lead folder is Top 10 Feeds, and includes BreakingNewsOn, CNET News, FriendFeedLinks, Lifehacker, NYT - Breaking News, NYT - Technology, Slashdot, Yahoo! News: Mideast Conflict, Yahoo! News: Technology and Yahoo! News: Top Stories.
- Sean McBride
Sean - I'll bet your desk is clean too.
- Scott Maentz
Nathan - I've been strongly interested in optimizing my news-reading flow for several years now. This current setup that I've described is the best method for news reading I've discovered to date.
- Sean McBride
Scott - minimizing to the max, getting rid of clutter, streamlining, more bang for the buck, etc. is almost a religion for me. :) That is why I fell in love with the Google aesthetic from the first week that Google was released to the world.
- Sean McBride
Gabe - if I am in the middle of a hot discussion on FF, I simply click on http://friendfeed.com/seanmcb... to read and respond to the latest comments in near real time. But 95% of the really valuable posts on FF are captured in GR soon enough.
- Sean McBride
Sean - More power to you! I also love Google products and use them as exclusively as possible.
- Scott Maentz
I neglected to mention a key point: ALL the items of interest in ALL my feeds (including Friendfeed and Twitter) are easily searchable and retrievable from a single user interface: Google Reader. And if you star items of interest as you scan and read them, the search space is significantly narrowed. And I can forward any of these items as email, and tag them. What's not to like?
- Sean McBride
For all people who are noting that Google Reader items do not appear in realtime, it should be noted that most FriendFeed shares don't make it to the FriendFeed UI in realtime either. So it doesn't sound like you're losing much by using Google Reader as your FriendFeed interface. I'll experiment with Sean's system a bit and see what I think about it.
- Ontario Emperor
I would hate that interface. I don't agree with any of it. I love FoaF and if I don't want stuff from a certain user, I hide them. If I don't want a service showing up, I hide it.
- Mattie Kenny
The basic Friendfeed user interface is like logrolling or birling: I'll wager that most new users lose their balance quickly and fall off the log. I am a speed reader, and can absorb huge flows of text easily, but I can't begin to get a handle on the FF flow from the main page -- it's mostly random chaos. Surely this interface issue will continue to be a major obstacle to achieving...
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- Sean McBride
Gabe - check out the FriendFeedLinks feed http://friendfeedlinks.com/ Is it really important to see these items in real time? They are valuable to me within 24 hours or a week. The more one is distracted by trivial posts, the less one has time to focus on important posts.
- Sean McBride
I know this is a plug for my own code, but https://launchpad.net/myff (demo at can be seen in the iframe on the right at http://zzzen.jottit.com) tries to address such problems. Not exactly the *same* problems [and it shows my discussion stream (comments+likes) and not my "what's new" stream], but the code is there, and it's easy to add features. Feel free to use this with your own user name (e.g. http://myff.zzzen.webfactional.com/api...) as an iframe.
- ĎÚβĨŐÚŚ Dod
Ontario - try this experiment: add the feeds for your five favorite friends to a Google Reader Friendfeed folder. I think you will find that you will be able to track their new posts with much greater speed and ease than from Friendfeed. One is not equally interested in all the posts from one's favorite friends: GR makes it possible to find the most interesting posts with a quick scan down the list.
- Sean McBride
Dod: intriguing FF interface. But no features for starring, tagging, sharing, emailing, prioritizing and searching. Yes? No?
- Sean McBride
Some interesting comments but I don't agree with all. E.g. it's sometimes interesting to see who has "liked" a post as that might be someone I want to follow. However I do think there should be more options for hiding or compressing content as you choose
- Mark Warren
I'm pretty happy with the interface as it is. In fact, I think when you compare it to other social networking/sharing services like twitter, identi.ca, facebook, linkedin, etc... I think it wins hands down. The issues Joshua highlights seem trivial to me, and his recommendations might make the service less useful as Mattie noted above.
- Jim in Real Time
I agree with the disagreers here. He obviously just wants a gReader with a Gmail UI and links to a (probably mostly unused) commenting feature (to put it bluntly..).
- Thomas Bøhm
@Sean persistent storage of MyFF is friendfeed itself, and the only way to change its content would be via posts, comments and likes. | I *could* keep some external info in a database at the app's server, but this would require user-auth, backups, etc. and spoil the "zero-admin" fun. | Search I can [and should] do, so you'd "tag" by saying [e.g.] tag-widget (like I just did) and then search for it. | An "item to top" cheat is to delete and re-add one of my own comments (only works for discussion feed)
- ĎÚβĨŐÚŚ Dod
An interesting list, but I'm sure if those changes were made that new ones would spring up. The 100% perfect interface will never likely come.
- Jeremy Campbell
from twhirl
Maybe FF could allow people to Hide parts of the interface.
- Christopher Galtenberg
I responded on josh's blog. He's a smart guy who actually did the first iteration of Grazr's home page. Unfortunately the problem is not the interface. It's what *is* friendfeed. He starts the argument with a supposition of what it is, and that's *not* what FriendFeed is to me (or I gather a lot of other people).
- mikepk
That certainly got the discussion going. What this tells me is that there needs to be several (three would be the best number) different pre-configured default types of FF that are easy to find for new users. Provide an icon in the left sidebar that goes to a page that offers the three options with descriptions on how each benefits users. Then let them easily toggle between them so they can pick what they like best without having to know how to alter defaults or know anything more.
- Internet Strategist
@Strategist, that's one way to approach it, but it dillutes your efforts. It also makes the interface more confusing, not less for initial users. It also means you have to figure out what the default is, as a large percentage of people will never explore beyond a default configuration. Everything has a tradeoff.
- mikepk
choice is good,..but too much choice is bad. regarding the OP i disagree completely with all of his "ideas". i def want to see who liked what. i often feel interested in ppl that like things based on topics. all this screen estate talk bash is silly too. the way FF is structured right now makes it possible for each topic to look the same no matter how much text it contains aso. what i would like to see improved is comment rating as @DIGG and filtering. its essential to sort out spammers.
- Chris Hofmann
The post was obviously satire, since he titled it "modest" suggestions for updating FriendFeed, and because his suggestions are clearly chosen to be shocking and wrong.
- Joshua Allen
Dod - there is a great deal of FF material sitting on Google's servers now, and easily accessible through GR's search interface. In fact, material that has been deleted from FF is still available on GR.
- Sean McBride
Joshua, I'm assuming that comment was intended to be saitire. :) I've met josh, I think his suggestions where legit, although it may have been to just spark conversation.
- mikepk
Another intriguing data point, Josh's blog has 17 comments at the moment. On FriendFeed this share has way more than that and is "liked by over 100 people. So again, what is the *purpose* of FriendFeed, what *is* it. That is the hard question.
- mikepk
"So again, what is the *purpose* of FriendFeed, what *is* it. That is the hard question." - Is it? "History" is full of examples of products that were created for one purpose, but were more useful doing something else. FF started as an RSS aggregator - it's evolving based on how we use it.
- John Craft
FF is a powerful vortex that is going to suck in all the blog commentary in the world. :) Maybe not too much an exaggeration. The interface as its stands blows away all the blog comment interfaces out there, in my opinion.
- Sean McBride
@mikepk: I wouldn't be so sure. I subscribe to Josh's blog as well, but the usage of the word "modest" in a proposal hearkens back to Swift's famous "modest proposal". He left some big red flags in there, like pretending to forget that people have mouse wheels.
- Joshua Allen
Yes, all SM is in a major state of flux. And perhaps it will always be that way. Making *it* whatever *you* want *it* to be.
- Jim Mitchem
Thanks for the comments on my post, everyone. I should have made it more clear that I'm not suggesting Friendfeed get rid of its social features...that would reduce the service to a mere feed reader. I completely agree that those features help make FF what it is. What I am suggesting is that in the current design I think they could be presented more efficiently, and as a result I find it hard to scan to find good content quickly.
- Joshua Porter
Yes, it is a hard question. If its use is evolving, and it's not based on it's initial conception (which, you're right, is the norm rather than the exception) then answering that question in the contest of trying to make interface design decisions *is* excruciatingly difficult. you're left with a) leave it alone and allow the evolution to continue b) try to formulate what it is to give users a better experience of *that*. Scoble and Josh have a different use pattern than I do, and probably you do.
- mikepk
"answering that question in the contest of trying to make interface design decisions *is* excruciatingly difficult." - I think the answer is to make the interface more configurable. Create your own style in the same way you create a WordPress theme or a date format - using defined components, and styling them individually.
- John Craft
John, but the more configurable you make it, the more confusing it becomes for users. I've been at this for almost three years now. It's counter-intuitive but the more options you give someone to tailor their experience the more likely they are to choose *none of the above*. Simplicity suffers greatly when you can't answer that fundamental question of what you *are*.
- mikepk
Again - as with any media, it is what YOU make it. Except of course if you subscribe to cable, in which case you get what they give you and pay for it through the nose. My point is that if the medium is in place, and it's pliable, we each use it to our individual preferences. That's why FF will not ever go away - but continue to morph into a highly user-friendly interface that will continue to attract users because of its concatenation/aggregation features. Duh. ;)
- Jim Mitchem
Friendfeed has a UI, I'd just a burned-in green screen away from being a Univax Server. Useful? Yes, but elegant and pretty?
- Matthew DeVries
Here's a simple thought experiment, imagine a poll of the people commenting in this tread "what's the one user interface change you would make that would most improve your experience of FriendFeed". If you didn't get 100 different answers I'd be surprised. That's the hard part.
- mikepk
imo, the point of Josh's post is that for the casual observer, FF looks intimidating. As frivolous as it sounds, 'Appearance' and how the UI is organized *is the most important touchpoint* for the consumer. As it stands now, many just don't have the time nor the inclination to tackle the steep learning curve FF requires--there are just too many demands on attention online. Another barrier to entry, which Josh didnt raise, are the confusing account settings which could be better described w/bubble help.
- Lee Hsieh
"the more configurable you make it, the more confusing it becomes for users." True - but with a "standard" format (like this one), or a few to choose from, it doesn't have to be. Let new users start with something pre-determined, then migrate to their own custom skin if/when they're ready.
- John Craft
Having FoAF defaulted does seem to cause confusion - though it helped me, personally. But if a person is too lazy to scroll, that's not FriendFeed's problem. Sometimes the headline is irrelevant, but the convo contains more valuable information. If I wanted to see headlines from pre-selected people, I would go to Twitter.
- Mona Nomura
Lee, good point. There are a lot of competing requirements. Further complicating these kinds of discussions are things like the initial user experience. It's like a variant of the old engineering adage, you can have it intuitive and simple, powerful, or efficient but you can only pick two to optimize. :)
- mikepk
Here's something 'right' about FF UI, the 'open in mini-window' live stream. Very cool.
- Jim Mitchem
For those who caught Sean McBride's comments earlier about using Google Reader to find interesting FriendFeed content, I *did* give it a try and have taken a couple of screen shots. 1 of 2 (with associated discussion) http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Ontario Emperor
2 of 2 (again with associated discussion) http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Ontario Emperor
And, as Sean noted, such a system is purported to help you locate things easier. So if you're now interested in Yolanda's item (the one at the bottom), it's here. http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Ontario Emperor
I don't know why people are interested in making FF a walled garden. FF remains one of the most enjoyable means of content discovery for me. I think it's something less without FOAF. I would make it a toggle feature on account creation, but not remove it. I'm constantly finding relevant new people through the feature. I think the interface is the strong point - FF is not Google Reader or Gmail - as it's conversation oriented, hence long threads (though for people wanting aggregation *only*, I see the point)
- Mo Kargas
Ontario - nice work on the screenshots. Do you notice now that you can view comments and likes from GR? And that it usually takes no more clicks to uncompress comments for the original FF page from GR than from FF itself? One click on "*number more comments" in GR will drop you into the middle of the discussion stream on Friendfeed, with all comments uncompressed.
- Sean McBride
Hmm... quickly glancing at my GR subscriptions list I see 2 new posts from Patricia, 1 new post from Paul Buchheit, 2 new posts from Veselka, 24 new posts from Dave Winer, etc. A few clicks exposed the lists of new items to view, and I found six items worth clicking through to. All now marked as read, and no need to see again. That was really fast. Knowledge garnered. Desk cleared.
- Sean McBride
So he just wants to turn it into filtered feed reader where only the A-list really gets a look in? What utter bollocks. The strength of FriendFeed is in its social interaction and sharing across the service. Note to Paul Buchheit: please don't do any of these.
- Duncan Riley
@duncan: sounds like you're saying that he's missing the "friend" part of FriendFeed...
- .LAG liked that
This entry had so many comments it would open up in the home feed btw
- Tyler (Chacha)
I guess I disagree with the premise that FF is not supposed to be a firehose. It was a point made by both @Scobleizer and @LeoLaporte in the first seconds of the newest TWiT that FF is supposed to be a firehose. You only pay attention to it when you're looking at it. You step in to it, get your skin ripped off. Then go about your day. There's already readers and such out there that refine the content for you, FriendFeed is about realtime content creation. It only needs the eyes that are on it to run.
- Matthew DeVries
And those eyes aren't necessarily yours. You don't sit down to FriendFeed to catch up on a damn thing, you look it to see what is going on now as everything in it whips around and past you.
- Matthew DeVries
You can't review history... just too much of it has happened. What this type of medium is going to become is a way to take stuff that interests you, and is currently happening, and being fine if you miss some of it
- Tyler (Chacha)
I love the fact that Friendfeed will take the 'likes' of people I subscribe to and give them to me, 435 people can't cover/write/create it all.
- Tyler (Chacha)
now we can see who's really on FF
- Donovan Slennon
+1 Matthew. I like the fire hoseness of FF. The other great function is to zero in on one friend and see what he/she is up to. That was probably the original intention. The social media blast is a cool side benefit.
- Seth Gottlieb
@mikepk dilutes how? I agree that most never change the defaults and get confused which is precisely why I suggest that we offer new users a choice of three "views" with suggestions based on how they want to use FF.
- Internet Strategist
@Chris Hofmann Yes, too many choices cause indecision. That is why it needs to be two or at most three and there has to be a VERY simple suggestion on which someone should pick. Otherwise some won't do anything.
- Internet Strategist
Ok... I'm not trying to be snippy - and I think discussing how to make FF better is great... but for the love of (name your deity) can we stop the friggin' navel gazing. Things evolve... let's give it some time to do that and stop posting on this thread... jeeeezzzzzzz
- Brian Roy
I didn't entirely agree - I like the layout and seeing comments/likes from new people, too
- Sarah Perez
I think Friendfeed would be better off focusing on the functionality over the UI. 3rd parties can deal with changing the UI, but adding functionality like Track/Block can't be done by anyone but FF
- Tyler (Chacha)
I'd like to correct that last statement .. Track/Block can't be done 'well' by anyone by FF. Because 3rd parties can do it, but probably FF could do it better
- Tyler (Chacha)
what a great time to be a FriendFeed developer -- recent tips from power users like Scoble, Gray, and other interesting tidbits like this one. They have so much input now, I wonder what direction they'll take next?
- Pete Delucchi
I wish there were a way I could tell FF to give me only the comments of people in my network when there's a huge number like this...as long as we're making a wish list.
- Rae21
This entry has so many comments it won't open up without me navigating to its page. Grrr
- Tyler (Chacha)
Yeah, Looks like Robert Scoble is a firehose. :) I'm new here. I don't think I'll be friending him.
- Rae21
Rae21: that is pretty smart! But I am looking for great items for you. Just build a new list. Call it "noisy asshole" or something like that. Then add me to that list.
- Robert Scoble
I felt a little guilty about commenting because I didn't want to take up too much vertical space. Sue me.
- Robert Peña
-1. The name is "FriendFeed", not "Firehose". The people are just as important as the feed. Don't lose that, or the mechanisms which promote discovery of new ppl.
- Nick Lothian
Added as a CON for now on the FF PRO vs CON list (for now): http://friendfeed.com/e...
- B2B Specialist
Nick just said it right ^
- Christopher Galtenberg
On Twitter, Followers Aren’t Really Friends - http://gigaom.com/2008...
randulo, Dominic Jones, Rob Diana and 19 other people liked this
Om's post has (to date) 1 comment on the blog itself, but 6 likes and now 1 comment here on friendfeed.
- Micah Wittman
Great, this gives me another social networking paper to read, thanks Om! Shows you the most relevant information can be retrieved from FriendFeed, even for research!
- Alvin
that's kind of a given you don't need a blog entry on such an obvious notion
- sofarsoShawn
brad's life - Best CAPTCHA ever - http://brad.livejournal.com/2331278...
Krishnamoorthy, Mariela, Pete Delucchi and 124 other people liked this
Lol
- Josh Haley
NOTE: If you do not know the answer to the question reload the page and you will get another question.
- Mathew™ one of a kind
I have been deemed sub-human - woe
- Nadine Schaeffer
The answer is FISH over and over again- Rimmer out...
- InPerpetualMotion(Gina k)
Oddly enough, I don't think it's that great a CAPTCHA for a computer.
- Rob Haas
OMG - I was trying to figure out a compound interest problem last night and the formula look a lot like this. I would FAIL BAD on this CAPTCHA.
- Martha
I think the answer's 0 despite what the math whizzes in the thread say.
- Jim in Real Time
This is the reason I hate maths.
- Roberto Bonini
That's one site I won't be joining. :(
- Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)
Jim, once you hit calculus, the answers are all either zero or infinity. :-)
- Ladybug Heather
My son has dyscalculia, and I worry about math-based captchas for this reason. There is always someone who is being excluded by these tests of our humanity!
- Patricia F. Anderson
If you're not good at math, you probably won't be signing up for a Quantum Random Bit Generator Service.
- Rob Haas
Actually, it's a trick question. The answer is "mandatory".
- vijay
14. ... 7*6 cos (6x) - 7*4 (sin 7x + pi/2) at x = 2pi ... and cos (multiples of 2 pi) = 1, sin (multiples of 2 pi) = 0, sin (multiples of 2 pi + pi/2) = 1, so ... 7*6 - 7*4 = 14
- Mitchell Tsai
I'm glad I forgot how to do this kind of math soon after I graduated!
- Craig Eddy
Just found out I'm not human :(...Cannot answer the darn thing! :)
- Joel Reyes
@Joel. I think that's the point. If you get the correct answer, you're obviously not a human!
- Scott of Two Countries
Can't I just copy and paste that into Maple or Mathematica?
- Robin Barooah
Do you think you need prove that you are a human ?
- xuzepei
@Scott,just my humor :). I think @ Mitchell has the answer :)
- Joel Reyes
Well.....I can't solve it. I'm not human either.
- J. D. Ebberly
can we google the answer ?
- Sai
umm... 42?
- Capn' One Eye - adrift
Answer: 5
- Outsanity
i'm not the human!!!!(google Answers)
- OnoQ
Answer: Not important.
- ::Kristen::
Oh my, this means people need to have at least a Calculus background! What happens for those who have forgotten calculus? Perhaps someone is or has worked on an automatic math bot that can read and answer this?
- Alvin
After about five refreshes you get a simple addition/multiplication problem.
- Rob Haas
lovely :) i wish there were more CAPTCHAs like this...! internet would become an esoteric gathering of excessively bright and resourceful humans!!
- Hayk H.
Typing in 0, 14 or mandatory???? really Hayk :)
- Roberto Bonini
Love it!
- Mark Douglass
As soon as you enter the answer you will get this message "Session expired. " and you'll see a new CAPTCHA :)
- Ferruh Mavituna
OMG, that's the way to fight spam
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
Look at the end... "=2pi". So the answer would be 6.283185307179586...
- tomit
Microblog Megaphoning: Informative or Irresponsible? - http://www.louisgray.com/live...
~C4Chaos, SEO and Tech Daily, michael silverton and 18 other people liked this
Mona is on a roll...
- Justin Korn
Great post again Mona! I see Twitter as more microblog than megaphone. If the said example has their mind set on twitter being a personal blog, what's wrong with that? Additionally, does that FOAF have their microblog in the employers eye? I doubt it!
- Mo Kargas
Mo: Google is very dangerous. Especially if you're in the tech industry...
- Mona Nomura
Great point to be made.
- Chris Brogan
Thank you, Chris. Wow.
- Mona Nomura
Mona: I don't think Google indexes tweets? I don't think it's a problem unless you've purposely got your microblog in your employers eye and mention specifics of the job, otherwise it's simply another anonymous microblog in the crowd.
- Mo Kargas
Great post Mona. +1 to Louis for posting it
- Kyle Lacy
Mo? http://twitter.com/mokarga... Found via Googling your name: http://www.google.com/search... I personally know a few people that didn't get hired from prospective jobs because they were Googled.
- Mona Nomura
@Mona Hmm, is that just because I mentioned Techmeme? :D Point noted
- Mo Kargas
Here it is. Asking again: Informative or Irresponsible?
- Mona Nomura
"Just today, I saw a bunch of Tweets from a FOAF (friend of a friend) detailing work, client, and vendor relations." How much of this is FF's responsibility in providing more granular control over what FOAF and other information we want to see from the firehose? Also, I think many are utterly clueless as to the reach of the FOAF relays and some would be horrifically offended that their content is reflected beyond the first-order circle they understand and explicitly linked up with.
- michael silverton
"tweets represent who we are" nicely put. so what does our FF feeds represent when tweets are just a subset of it?
- ~C4Chaos
@C4Chaos Just now processing that very question; foraging for my own analogies. I'm sure others have them and I'd very much like to hear them if ppl willing to share. However, I don't fully agree that "tweets represent who we are." That seems a hugely presumptuous leap to make about people from 140char nano-samples of a complete human being; complete human beings with a vast range of grammatical and other abilities.
- michael silverton
Part 2: I can of course debunk myself with: Tweets are text representations of thoughts; however artfully or ineptly expressed. Thoughts are electrochemical spikes; empirically. In a substrate-independent context, those excitatory and inhibitory spikes are arguably the Totality of Our Cognitive Existence. So it's certainly not a bad idea to get used to in the context of a posthuman trajectory. ;-)
- michael silverton
10 Top New Web Services of 2008 and Their 2009 Forecast - http://www.louisgray.com/live...
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Thao Ly, Charlie Anzman, Minh Bui and 71 other people liked this
Included: 1. Summize (already acquired) 2. Socialmedian 3. BackType 4. TweetDeck 5. Strands 6. ReadBurner 7. Feedly 8. Gnip 9. Toluu 10. SocialToo
- Louis Gray
Good one!!
- Sudhindra Rao
This post took way too long... and when I saw Rick's article in RWW hit my Google Reader today when I was almost done with this one -- oof -- I was just glad he went a different direction with it. Nice job, Rick.
- Louis Gray
Wow, thanks for including us! Discussion on this taking place on socialmedian http://www.socialmedian.com/story...
- Jason Goldberg
Good post Louis. I should add that your blog and comments, etc., would have to be on my list of Top 10 web services of 2008.Thanks for making it easier for me to keep up with this stuff.
- Rex Hammock
No FriendFeed? For shame! :(
- Tyson Key
Tyson, Louis mentioned somewhere that this was only for 2008 and FriendFeed debuted in 2007. So not really an exclusion like we thought.
- Rob Diana
Socialmedian vs Allen Stern.Scandal?
- Igor Poltavskiy
@Jason, you're welcome. Socialmedian is great. @Tyson and @Rob, yes, FriendFeed launched in 2007, and was not considered. @Igor, no scandal, just a disagreement. I happen to like Allen a lot and Socialmedian as well!
- Louis Gray
@Louis - Aah, I see now.
- Tyson Key
Great post!
- andy brudtkuhl
Louis, thanks for mentioning Yokway! Newcomers can still join at http://is.gd/baXr
- Stephan Osmont
Stephan, thanks for noting the Yokway mention. I'm remiss I forgot to include Twine. Hate it when that happens.
- Louis Gray
web2.o..very good.also.What's happening on the web http://www.kosmix.com/ Kosmix searches for a new way around Google.it has won $20 million in funding from investors who include Time Warner.good/bad! kosmix basically hits a sweet spot somewhere between Google and Mahalo. what makes Kosmix worth the investment? Well, 11 million visitors is nothing to scoff at. Plus, Kosmix’s ad model — which will roll out in 2009
- tomartomartini
4 Ridiculously Simple File-Sharing Sites - http://www.makeuseof.com/tag...
Francesco Danieli, Sanjay Subrahmanyan, Andrew Badera and 29 other people liked this
they should have senduit.com really. I like makeuseof.com but i find they often miss out the best apps from these lists of theirs
- Zee.
Nice summary; quick and easy review to jump start our large file needs.
- Kenley Neufeld
My favorite is Drop.io
- Ian May
Keep the suggestions coming. Twitter + good file sharing solution = Pownce replacement
- Justin Luey
drop.io ftw
- @baratunde
Just tried drop.io, awesome features and speed, too bad its only 100mb
- Justin Luey
plug for http://www.transferbigfiles.com - site my company developed a couple years ago.
- Jonas, Leper of FF
if we're doing plugs, how about SkyDrive? get 25GB for free and can share files with public or friends only. and no, public files do not require Live ID to be downloaded
- Franci Penov
from twhirl
its been a while since i used this..
- Tate DA FF MVP
I use filedropper simply because I snagged a free 250gb account for life a while back. Had to cancel the offer rather quickly if I recall correctly
- BCK
Eyescapes - http://www.art-dept.com/artists...
Ari Milner, Parth Awasthi, Steven Perez and 38 other people liked this
wicked cool
- Josh Haley
Cool....I'm going to try this
- Threepwood
LOVE!
- donato
i can haz your biometric data!
- Warren Butler
No you can't haz!!!
- Mo Kargas
human's uniqueness
- Igor Poltavskiy
my experience http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Непротивлени Злу Василием
It would be good if you could embed an individual Freindfeed post, including ff comments, as a blog post.
rampantheart, Tyson Key, Rachael Depp and 7 other people liked this
Could you not wrap the permalink for the FF post in an iframe?
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
A mission for super-directeur! :)
- directeur
Pretty sure you could just stick it in an iframe like Tina said. Or a screenshot. I could swear I have seen someone do this, actually.
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
I have the customizable ff widget in the sidebar of my blog, but it would be good to pull individual conversations out of there into blog posts. A lot of the commenting these days is going on here, rather than on people's blogs it seems.
- jjprojects
I'd like to see an example of it if anyone has seen someone doing it.
- jjprojects
JJ, check my site http://www.isthisstupid.com for a temporary example of a FF post wrapped in an iframe
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Tina, oh that's sweet, thanks! I'll try it :)
- jjprojects
The layout is funky b/c of the confines of my site, but a different layout could easily hold the post without the horizontal scroll. Code for the iframe tag is readily available online. Jason, the easiest thing to do would be to add a new tab an put your personal FF profile into an iframe all on it's own page. Come to think of it...
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Jason, yes! So much of the conversation happens out of your own space these days, it would be good to be able to bring it back to your own space when you want. That would be useful!
- jjprojects
JJ, you might want to consider Intense Debate for your commenting: it will pull FF comments on an item and put them on the post proper.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Tina, I'm not a coder at all, but I'll give is a go for sure. Really keen to do it.
- jjprojects
Jason, yes that would be perfect. FF should do that if they can! Imagine how far ff posts would spread remotely if they did!
- jjprojects
jjprojects, you can use json output and a callback to render the entry with javascript on your blog. Really easy to setup. I have done this in the past for some delicious links
- directeur
Holy crap, easy for you maybe :) Not for me. Sounds like the thing to do though.
- jjprojects
I hope someone from Friendfeed sees this post. I wonder if it's been thought about, surely it has?
- jjprojects
Louis Gray has a FF sidebar widget (i think) on his blog ...nice setup
- Susan Beebe
jjprojects, ok, let me do this - will keep you informed :)
- directeur
Directeur, great! I love that this might be possible.
- jjprojects
Thanks Susan, yeah he has links to his 'most liked' posts in a widget.
- jjprojects
The most liked posts widget is available from http://www.ffholic.com
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
from fftogo
jjproject, of course it is possible. I'm playing with the code now, got some basic stuff working. May release a usable thing tomorrow :)
- directeur
Brilliant. I could see quite a few people being interested in it :)
- jjprojects
Okay, here's my first go at it, using an IFRAME. Yep, a bit crude, but still... http://www.jjprojects.net/...
- jjprojects
coderstyle
- Rachael Depp
SitePoint » The Downside of Free - http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs...
Dipankar Sarkar, Ari Milner, ivanandersson and Jorge Escobar liked this
"“The problem with free is that every time you double the size of your database the cost of maintaining the site grows 6 fold,” says Markus Frind, the founder and CEO of Plentyoffish.com, a wildly successful dating site that makes a lot money by giving away for free what other sites charge for. But even for users who ultimately charge for their product there can be a downside to giving something away for free."
- Cibeles
from Bookmarklet
Does not compute. I'd have to see more justification that 2xUser = 6x cost.
- Jeremy Dunck
*Like* if you like the new Google Reader better
ocde.cn, Web20Critic, Richard Anderson and 134 other people liked this
I liked both because the new design is much sleeker and refined than the old one.
- Mattie Kenny
I must say I am liking the new look.
- (jeff)isageek
I can't decide
- Pinksy
Clean, simple, the Google trademarks. (It's also looking a lot like Zoho)
- Gary Burge
I think I prefer the new look, seems cleaner.
- Robert Nelson
Needs a few Greasemonkey tweaks but overall it's better.
- richrecruiter
looks cleaner but less usable to quickly scan things, due to the far lower contrast (no more blue highlight and menu background). Everything blends together on my screen. Will get used to it, i guess. The typography does not look harmonious, they ought to tweak font sizes and spacing a bit.
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
too much white! I would have loved to see it go in a different direction.
- vijay
i got confused. i meant to like this one. looks cleaner for sure. i LOVE helvetireader script though. it kills
- Cee Bee
+1 for Helvetireader! Lots of space and clean to the max.
- vijay
I haven't seen the new gReader.. but you know what still looks gorgeous? Feedly. ;)
- Phil G
I don't like it yet. It feels sharp and poorly spaced. But I'll get used to it.
- Glen Turpin
I like it. If you were new to reader this would be an easier interface to use, IMO.
- Clay Newton
Me like, very sleek.
- Kol Tregaskes
pretty much the only reason i use google reader instead of another web service is that it used to be fast (not anymore) and the social feed websites integrate with it.
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
It's too early to tell, Sarah. It does look -- *brighter*
- Jorge Escobar
I like it, just hope a redesign means that they bring in themes.
- Zach Chisholm
Any idea how to decollapse the navigation pane back again? I don't say a way to undo the evil that I did.
- Todd Hoff
I was expecting something drastic so I'm a little disappointed. Seems like more of the same with a little cleanup. Nothing offensive and certainly no major changes that make it bad.
- Kenton
I'm inclined to say that the new Google Reader is much superior to the old GR.
- Jamelle
Love the feature upgrades, style is a little stark for me.
- Kamath (नमः)
Disagree. I was so used to the previous version. But that's because I live there.
- Louis Gray
I actually didn't like it when I signed in after getting home. Perhaps I was far too used to the previous look? It's practically always open in another tab. But I'm getting used to it, and it's not too bad..
- deepikaur
I like it, but I want to hide the "Friends shared items" from the sidebar. That's the one feature I don't use.
- Larry Hudson
Like, but I also want to see which blogs you put in the B, C, and D-list, Sarah. :)
- Matt Cutts
Looks sweet, but appears to show less articles on the screen at once.
- Mike Reynolds
like the new google reader and i like sarah too
- Zee.
Haven't seen it yet, as I use Feedly.
- Grant Bierman
I like that I can now find the "Add Subscription" button without scouring the left-hand pane for 5 minutes
- Craig Eddy
schweeet! ♥ it!
- AJ Batac
@Mark - very cool link. Thanks!
- Phil G
no like. I'm a change resistant old man
- Threepwood
It's seems much snappier!
- Pras Sarkar
Works for me. An improvement.
- Sean McBride
I think I can definitely get used to it.
- Deborah Fitchett
Oh I remember Google Reader. That thing I gave up around 7 months ago or so when FriendFeed came on the scene.
- Thomas Hawk
me like! :)
- matthew hunt
Some things are better. Two things I don't like is that the font size in the feed panel on the left seems to have doubled, and sometimes keyboard shortcuts don't work.
- Tanath
liek it, but it looks weird with Helvetireader now - and that was soooo nice... well, hope for a Helvetireader and Better GReader greasemonkey updates now.
- Peter Efland
eh
- Charlie Anzman
the shinyness has worn off and I want my old GR back now. [un-liked]
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
The item you're on doesn't dim when marked as read now either. :-/
- Tanath
Found this: http://friendfeed.com/e... (fix GReader with Greasemonkey/Stylish).
- Tanath
The script helps, but it has a downside too. When you mark an item as read with 'm' the highlighting goes away. Why can't anything be perfect? :P
- Tanath
loving most of it - especially the collapsing of stuff, but hoping for themes soon. having occasional problems with the keyboard shortcuts though :(
- siggimus
I miss the refresh button on the feed list.
- Dennis Hostetler
I did like the "mark all read" button on the old one, and did take some time to find the shift+a command to do the same
- clarke thomas
Other ways to read this feed:
