its a catfish! ( sorry I had to :P ) - Gary Bacon II
I really did not think the cat would go in... - Michael Narciso
1. how does it breathe 2. how does it get out 3. ppl training a pet to this, what happens when the cat gets stuck in there or something like when you are at work? - Michael W. May via twhirl
Leo, I think you could really make a strong push for people moving to FF. - Ryan Cates
I've thrown myself on those rocks before. I keep wondering how long before people start wandering away from Twitter. I've gradually phased it out and phased in FF myself. But I still use Twitter to broadcast - I have 6x the followers there. The two are really symbiotes. - Leo Laporte
I like the support for attached images very much! - Fu_
symbiotes. i like that. mutually beneficial. totally agree Leo. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
I've wandered away from Twitter. They've could have rebuilt it from scratch by now. What gives? - Dan Lovejoy
We need to crowd source the TWiTnation for something on the Mac to bring our Twitter follows over to FF. - Ryan Cates
The honeymoon is over. Obama is now running for President, with all that implies: need for vast sums of money, move to center, compromise with non-liberal voters. And now the backlash begins. "But he's OUR candidate! How dare he." - Leo Laporte
I take it as read that politics is all about compromise, and money. Take the latest vote on giving Telecoms immunity. Nancy Pelosi says she voted for the bill because there might be another bill that's worse than this one. I just don't see how a politician can be elected without selling themselves out in some way. I like Al Gore far better since he left politics (sort of) than when he was an elected official. For me the longer I'm around the more cynical I get. Lost my virginity with McGovern. - Henry Burger
I don't agree with Obama on immunity - but I'm a supporter and he was NEVER the most progressive candidate. Obama is being pretty consistent here with what I expected in the primary and the more I think about it, the more I agree with Keith Olbermann's take on this - Obama might be being smart here. - Lee Stranahan via Alert Thingy
I got the same email only they asked me for $25 bucks. Maybe it's proportional to what you've donated in the past? - Kyle
Kyle - it's much more effective to ask for a small amount - those who can do more will, and those who cannot won't be offended. - Anthony Citrano
@Henry Burger - You like Al Gore more - that's understandable. Firstly, because he does his cool slide show. Secondly, because he doesn't have to make possibly uncomfortable choices any more. Telling the world what's wrong is easier than fixing the world. If he actually had to fix the environment, he would have to make choices that a lot of people wouldn't like. - sebmos
Kyle, all my donations have been $100. - Dave Winer
I had a donation of $30 dollars during the primaries. Sounds like they are just asking you to re-donate the same amount you have in the past. - Kyle
Of course you're an ATM-what do you think he wants to show up at your house and shoot baskets with you while he finds out about what issues really matter? If you want that you better put a lot more zeroes behind the amount you give. - Mark Forman
@Mark Forman - You obviously don't understand the US election donation law. - sebmos
@sebmos - you obviously don't understand humour :) - Jordan Brock
Yesterday I was sitting with one of Obama's Tech Advisers. We were having breakfast. He told me to look around. He said that everyone around us was Clinton's biggest money supporters. Turned out he was right, they spoke to these people later that day. They are very pissed, he said. Why? Because they raise money millions at a time. Obama has gotten them out of the loop because they were no longer able to buy their way to power. So, I'm now far more willing to be seen as an ATM by Obama. - Robert Scoble
There is always power and luxury to those that cater to those outside of the borders they represent. Obama and Corn will turn America into a modern day plantation for fuel. No energy diversity here. All about the money - Noah David Simon
So Obama is a bum because we all don't get to have a personal sit-down meeting with him? - Mike Doeff
I believe it is called a "Cash Crop Economy". America really will be a 3rd world nation, because we won't be able to eat our own food! Energy for the rest of the world. No more corn bread. - Noah David Simon
@Kyle and Dave: Typical fund raising is to ask for the amount you gave previously or a slight bit higher. It's all dynamic. You gave $30 last time, you might be asked to give $35, doesn't sound like a lot, but that's a 17% increase in giving, do that across a vast donation base and it adds up - quick. Politics and money are intertwined (like it or not), and I'm happy Obama and Democrats have finally figured out and harnessed direct marketing. - AJ Kohn
I think it's pretty amazing to see the extent to which Obama's supporters will rationalize his pointless conservativism. - blackmailismylife
All this talk about money and special interests is why the US should adopt the California policy of two term limits. It keeps anyone from getting to entrenched and beholden to special interests. Or we could go to the Mexican policy of only one term and the holder of an office can not campaign for a new position unless they resign from their existing position. This eliminates the advantage of the incumbent and keeps the person focused on governing not raising campaign funds. The current system if broken. - Jon Erickson
Leo, then let him get the money from non-liberal voters. - Dave Winer
Obama is just like every other politician. He flip-flops and begs for money. I love how he said he would use public funding and then as soon as he found out he could get a whole lot more from people, he's doing that. - Jason Mitchell via Alert Thingy
Finding it sad that once again Democrats are finding ways to divide themselves and look for ways to lose an election. - AJ Kohn
I feel honored that I'm being asked for my support... the alternative (the rich and special interest groups) form of funding has put us where we are now. Why isn't McCain asking for your $100? Because he doesn't need it and you definitely don't get to tell him how you feel. - Nathan Manley via Alert Thingy
While it was nice he donated to Clinton so she could repay her debt, he should have kept it so he wouldn't have to go out and ask for another $100 a pop from his contributors. I find it much easy to donate when not asked or pressured. - Tony Kanzia
I don't feeling like an ATM either. Ease up - money is important. Agree: focus on community building more. - Brian Rendel via twhirl
better you being the ATM than Big Pharma, Oil, etc. - Aaron Brethorst
If I recall the book,didn't Freakonomics authors find that money really didn't affect the vote by more than 1%? Will Obama spend $300 Billion this fall for 1% of the vote? - Daltonsbriefs
Well, instead of going to the network error, we are now seeing the Whale. I suppose that is progress...of a sort. - Justin Whitaker
Same here. With this level of up time, they're really giving a boost to your fave here at Friend Feed. - John F Morton
Why spend more time investing in Twitter as a system at all? I mean when Twitter's working you get it all here. When it's up you can still broadcast with that Twitter megaphone if need be, but why not invest your time developing the actual conversations here instead. Twitter simply is not designed for conversations, FF is. It's not just about the reliability, FF is simply a better platform. - Thomas Hawk
@Thomas we're still missing XMPP and SMS - that's a huge advantage for Twitter. - Steve Rubel
I'm sure some of that will come in time Steve, but I'm not convinced in the value of XMPP or SMS. I know some people use those features, I've always had them disabled personally. There is not much coming from FF or Twitter that I think has the level of urgency necessary for XMPP or SMS. - Thomas Hawk
@Thomas I use it to publish but not receive. But you're right when you look at things like Mail2FF. - Steve Rubel
@Klaus, Steve is right. XMPP and SMS broadcast still has to be included at FriendFeed. ;-) - AJ Batac
OMG, Twitter is down, twitter is down!! Watch this video, it's funny as hell http://tinyurl.com/63zpt3. Every time twitter is down i think of that, LMAO!! - David Cole
Twitter down again huh?....now there's a surprise! - Emma
Mkes me angry that they didn't fix it up yet.... - Isabelle Lopez
Summary: The social networking and search mashup is big and extremely monetizable. It will create a business around social contextual advertising. Will Friendfeed be able to scale? Time will tell but someone will make this work - Friendfeed, Facebook or maybe even Google. - Steve Rubel
"complements aggregated content from friends" as in ranked by likes/ comments from friends? Or even by favorable or unfavorable comments? Interesting post. - Roberto Bonini
Steve Rubel's summary is precisely the kind of valuable comment I would like to like. - Sean McBride
Steve, you have hit the nail on the head. Watch how the "best of" feature of FF morphs into search over time. FF is essentially using social media to rank stories, articles, posts, etc. It's the social search promise that Yahoo never delieverd. The question in my mind ultimately be will Yahoo try and sue them over this. http://tinyurl.com/uljes - Thomas Hawk
social context and search definitely provides a different perspective than google. - Rob Diana
@Thomas Hawk - I can't belive they would patent "interestingness". Interest is subjective rather than objective. Now I havent read the full patent (its enough to give me a heachache just looking at it), but it seems to me that it is specifically talking about ranks, tags and other metadata associated with somthing. FF is, in this context, more of a discussion board. Digg, Technorati, geotagging photos, PageRank ,etc seem to fit the description of metadata more than FF. Anyone got a lawyers opinion on this?? - Roberto Bonini
@Roberto, you'd think. But the patent filed by Yahoo is amazingly broad covering not just photos but the broad category of "media," and FF is using comments, likes, etc. to gauge relevance, same as Flickr to rank media. Apply it to search and who knows. I've always wanted an attorney's opinion on this patent as I've always opposed its filing personally. - Thomas Hawk
it is already starting to reshape marketing. this is another beast out of the box that pr just can't contain or ignore. ;) - Rodney Rumford
Thomas Hawk: A really powerful signal in the noise -- could this patent be one? It bears close reading. One is always looking for the successor to Brin's and Page's "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine" http://tinyurl.com/y98mbt for world revolutionary potential. - Sean McBride
@SteveRubel your use of a summary is going into my FF best practices for blog posts on FF - Christian Anderson
@thomas hawk - except that "interestingness" is really just regurgitating the a-listers' content... i maintain that friendfeed has "potential" and thats about as far as I'll take it right now. - Jeremy Toeman
I disagree Jeremy. Interestingness done correctly is not at all about regurgitating a-lister's content. But to really do it right, FF should introduce a "ratings" option for users. A subjective score from 1-100 that you could enter for contacts to determine relevance. This way your brother or mom or best friend could get a 99 score while a casual acquaintance could get a 5. Relevance could then be reshuffled and presented in highlights, search, etc. highly personal and very powerful. - Thomas Hawk
Sean, that interestingness patent from Yahoo is the biggest BS ever to come out of that company. I'd be embarrassed to have my name associated with it. It's the patent definition of patent abuse. I wish I knew the status on its progress and would love to hear an attorney's opinion on it. - Thomas Hawk
@Thomas - I would avoid physical ratings at this point as it tends to lend itself to gaming. @Jeremy - FF is only as interesting as who you follow. If you follow mostly a-listers and like a-listers, then that is the content you find. If you follow a diverse set of people, you get a much different list. - Rob Diana
I haven't changed my list of followeds but today is more eclectic than any in the past. Not sure if it is the beginning of a trend or not. Hope so! - Brian Sullivan
I have to agree with @Rob Diana. The more people you subscribe to the more diverse you feed is going to be and the more intersting it gets. Not to mention the "Friend of a Friend" feaature that makes it even better. I don think we want to see FF adopting a Digg style ratings system. The fact that people post items ( by whatever means) in here is indicative enough of the items importance. - Roberto Bonini
@rob diana - thats missing the point. I am friends with Robert Scoble, so I follow him. BUT, due to the FF algorithm, his overwhelming popularity with *others* impacts his interestingness here above and beyond his interestingness to any one individual... - Jeremy Toeman
jeremy: Aren't you and Rob saying the same thing basically? If you follow a diverse group of interesting people (who are likely to have interesting "friends") you will get an interesting feed - Brian Sullivan
@brian - well, I follow >200 people, and my 'interesting' stuff today is from a very small group of them, and guess what, they all have the most followers. so i'm sure i could be wrong on this, but it appears that the algorithm takes into account the quantity of followers, regardless of discussion or "interestingness". - Jeremy Toeman
Steve, just read your post and it is a good one. Is it friendfeed that you think is the trend or the concept friendfeed of FF as a piece of software. Could facebook copy ff and put on the news feed? - Laurent Courtines via twhirl
Interesting stuff, particularly about the influence of peers: i've always thought of FF as a P2P network in the very truest sense.... - Iain Baker
FF is already changing things and fast. It would be nice if comments and FF could trackback to source docs & vice versa. Maybe Disquis for now. You're right on, FF can disrupt search & reshape advertising. Is this the point where semantic web really need to come in? Or are we going to just go insane? (I like the noise, but could use a melody now and again.) - phil baumann
OK now I'm serious. I want whatever it is, Scott. I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a ??? today. Actually I'm hoping it's more than just another iPhone. - Leo Laporte
