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First People's Plus & GreenFORMS Vision Paper - http://www.firstpeoplesplus.com/index...

September 22 from StumbleUpon - Comment - Like - Share

Indigenous, native firm focusing on Green IT and information - Ben Watson

Happy 10th anniversary to the Matrix! See http://blog.friendfeed.com/2009... and Kevin's awesome logo: http://friendfeed.com/static...

March 31 - Comment - Like - Share

anna sauce, Jayavasanthan J, Ricardo Vidal and 177 other people liked this

so, you guys are agents... 8-| - xekc

33 more comments

WFT? It's been 10 years? Wow. - Arda Çetin

Definitely my favorite logo ever! - Shannon Jiménez

very nice. i think you could add a bubble explaining the reference to Matrix with a mouse over - Ouriel Ohayon

may have been 10 years to you :o - chaz2b

great! - K.D.

and people still ask me why I LOVE friendfeed, sign... - Dobromir Hadzhiev

想不到都10年了，好快 - Kunshou（困兽）

Ok, not just me seeing that. Nice job Kevin. - Andrew Smith

Oh my. It's official, I'm old. Eeeeeniwayyyy... Glad to know it wasn't my mind going when I rolled over the logo. - Andy Kruger

This has to be FriendFeed's best logo yet! - Nicholas James

Wow! That is neat! I LOVE creative people! :-) - Pat Graham Block

A very cool logo! Keep up the creative work! - Sanne Buurma

Very cool logo you guys! :) Like Nicholas said, best and most creative one yet! - vijay

How about change the color of entire background next time? - Ray Chen

Gosh - ten years have passe me by - no one told me where to run . . . - Chris Loft

Chris: those are Japanese characters, but yeah, I thought the original matrix logo had numbers, but might be wrong. - Robert Scoble

@slayerboy - agree totally / "Show that you have no respect for those that built you, and you'll wonder why you were just a fad." lots of proof of that... - Ben Watson from twhirl

sorry - twhirl jumping around got my think in the wrong drink ... oops - Ben Watson from twhirl

This is so sweet! - Brandon Titus

Kevin, this logo rocks!! hahaha - love it!! "Take the Red Pill" !! OK :) - Susan Beebe

Very nice, you should do something for the 30th anniversary of 'Alien', too. - Michael R. Bernstein

Great logo! - Jorg Jansen

rick sanchez approves! - Cee Bee

Great Stuff! - Sidharth Shah

The film used a combination of hiragana, numbers, Latin characters and some reversed characters. I opted to just go with hiragana for a specific reason... (Matrix screenshot here: http://thefuturebuzz.com/pics...) - Kevin Fox

So AWESOME. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

I was very pleasantly surprised to see this. Awesome job, FF! - nadim

geez has it been ten years? - Justin Long

My 9-year old son has been asking to watch this with me and I really need to make the time for us to do that. This is one of my favorite movies of all time (and he is one of my favorite persons) - Alan Cheslow

What a great movie. Always think about it when I get deja vu :)! Love the logo. - Ruth Helfinstein

I can't believe it has been that long! - Gary Stiehr

@Gary, I know! I was in high school when the first one came out. - Brandon Mendelson

The coolest and I would have missed it if Jeremiah Owyang never made a post about the Best of Day content (I found it in the BoD), which included a filter from FFing Enigma (aka Tina) and finally brought this post to my attention. The lengths I will go to for good content! - Michael Fidler

ha! thats great... cool stuff - Peter Efland

Robert Scoble

Let's talk on friendfeed about my wacky idea to combine techmeme, friendfeed, google news, twitter search into 1 site:

April 2 - Comment - Like - Share

Dan Brickley, Enrique Gutierrez, Rob Diana and 73 other people liked this

I tweeted this: http://twitter.com/Scoblei... and it got a big discussion going about what I was looking for. Here's more details: - Robert Scoble

90 more comments

I was looking at the "Everyone" page here on friendfeed and realized what I wanted was the "everyone" page, but filtered to show items that were already on Techmeme. - Robert Scoble

Then I thought about all the other sites I visit every morning. Google News. Google Blog Search. Twitter search. And wondered why no one had built a "meta news" site that uses all of these. http://www.techfuga.com/ is one idea. http://www.feedly.com is another. http://www.alltop.com is another. - Robert Scoble

As I said on Twitter, you're looking to solve a problem VERY few people have + are going to have in the future. - Robin Wauters

But none of those satisfy. None have done a good job for me alone. - Robert Scoble

I want the same thing. All my RSS feeds in one client, with the ability to tweet them, and have a conversation thread that you can actually follow (which for one reason or another Twitter doesn't enable very well). Add to that search capabilities that span several social networks and then you'd have a winner. - Josue Fontanez

Robert, seems like it's already a pretty doable idea using Yahoo pipes and dupe removal... - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Robin: I really don't give a shit. Why does everything have to be for billions of people? - Robert Scoble

Your wacky idea should have an algorithm to combine similar posts (links to articles, mainly). FF doesn't seem to do this very well. - You.

Robin: a great meal happens four people at a time. No one complains that no one else can experience it. - Robert Scoble

Everyone: There's millions to be made here. Pay attention! - Meryn Stol

Tina: I need to learn Yahoo Pipes. Has anyone created a Pipe that does something close to this? - Robert Scoble

@RobinWauters maybe it's a problem that people just aren't aware that they have. - Landon

I have no capital to invest in your plan Robert, but I would like to subscribe to your newsletter, and support this idea in a non-money sort of way. - Matthew DeVries

Robin: great technologies get built to scratch an itch all the time. Even Twitter. When they built it they had no clue that it would be popular. - Robert Scoble

I'm not sure they should join such a site even if it were cool. Twitter search is destined for greatness. Imagine Live.com was the only search engine to display real-time results from Twitter.com together with their normal results? People would search for something, and not only get the usual results, but what people are saying about that right now. It would be a killer combo, something... more... - Odi Kosmatos

Scoble, why don't you quickly break down what specific value each service brings to the table? ie why do you bother going there in the first place? - Landon

I've played around with Pipes and it's a very powerful (and not surprisingly user-unfriendly) technology. - You.

Landon: sure. Techmeme shows me the biggest stories in Tech in a way that's unique and shows me lots of blogs that are talking about each story. Friendfeed has the best community and best "live web" search engine. Google News shows me all the news from around the world. Sports. Finance. Big city stuff. Etc. Just like your newspaper.Twitter search shows me what people are talking about right now. - Robert Scoble

Pipes seem too complicated for my musician mind. I should have digged it more, but I don't have much time to find a perfect solution for myself. I wish I could just login to one account and everyone I'm interested in would be there. - ilter

I'd like to be able to subscribe to notifications on a post's comments. Like FB, I guess. - You.

Take a look at Streamy. I'm finding it to be very useful for this type of thing. Saved FF and Twitter searches like TweetDeck. Across the board service seraches. The service itself is similar to FF (with discussions, etc) but a much better RSS reader than FF. Development is ongoing with new features very few days right now it seems. http://www.streamy.com - Kevin Kuphal

This morning I started out on friendfeed and noticed it was very slow. Then I went over to TechMeme and found lots of interesting stories and wondered if I was missing people talking about those stories over on friendfeed. So I went to the Everyone page here and started doing some searches. But was very frustrated with what came back (mostly non-English sites). - Robert Scoble

Robert: I've made a couple of pipes. The main ones grab info from 7-15 different feeds, remove dupes based on a couple of criteria and filters out keywords I don't want (which is a HUGE plus IMO). It's not perfect, and some dupes still get through because different sites put information in different places in their markup, but that's because I use so many sources. If you're using Google... more... - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

I wanted a friendfeed search that showed me news that was being discussed on Techmeme. That's what got me thinking about all this. - Robert Scoble

Tina: I'd like to smoke your pipe! :-) I have a Yahoo account. You can email me at scobleizer@gmail.com - Robert Scoble

I would want just one more element: authority. i'd like to know who submitted it and if they know their shit. - Landon

They are integrated in my eyes, and for me. - Richard A.

Sounds like a sort of info/comms nirvana...maybe it's an Air app, adding windows for these other services into something like what Yahoo just released which is a modest gas - Sideline. - Thom Kennon

Robert: Would tapping into RSS be fast enough for what you want though or are you thinking more of a real time thing? - Landon

friendfeed combines techmem, googlenew, yahoo , twitter and a lot more other sites, including itself , that is, if you sub to a room into another pvt room: !! This is a self ecusive space much like a Mandelbrot set , if you can handle it !! - Peter Dawson

Landon: http://www.peoplebrowsr.com/ gives you some of authority because I can tag people. Someone else recommended http://oursignal.com/ - Robert Scoble

Landon: RSS isn't enough. It's not fast enough, for one, and it won't include friendfeed items for two. I'm not sure if you can even do what I want. Peter: I'm an advanced private room user here on friendfeed and it doesn't do what I want. - Robert Scoble

Peter: I want the ranking to come along with Techmeme too. What's at the top of the page is more important than what's at the bottom. That's why RSS isn't very satisfying since that forces everything into reverse chronilogical order unless you do some wacky tricks with RSS. - Robert Scoble

Well, I don´t know the details, but the people want to talk about popular things... other sites like Friendfeed offer this, your site must be different... what would be the difference (exactly)? I suposse the site offer the popular themes on Techmeme or Google News as topics for conversation - HECTOR ARTURO

Robert, wouldn't it be a good idea to take the feedback and your thoughts to your blog, so you can elaborate a bit on what it is you want? You can explain in more detail and the feedback will be even more valuable. - Robin Wauters

Hector: yup. I wish I could see conversations on friendfeed that match up to what's on Google News or on Techmeme or on Twitter search. That would be cool. - Robert Scoble

Robert -- what is the problem you are trying to solve? It seems to me you posted a solution and people are madly discussing other solutions. I don't see any clear statement of the problem. - Brian Sullivan

Robin: yup, after I think about it some more. This was mostly a brain fart I had and I like being interactive when I'm brainstorming ideas like this. Seems to have at least a few other people interested too. - Robert Scoble

Brian: the problem is that on friendfeed it's hard to find the really good tech conversations. If you are over on Google News, it's hard to find the blogs and tweets and friendfeed conversations that are happening around the news. If you are over on Techmeme it's hard to find the stuff that's happening on Twitter or friendfeed. That tells me there's opportunity for something new to glue all of these together to make all of them more useful. - Robert Scoble

Robert: I think this is a great idea...I'm swimming in all the details of trying to sift the news and see whats really happening and what people really think about it. I also don't have as much time to go through each and every site to discover the gems-This idea certainly has the potential of being VERY useful to a good number of people. Meryn points out there are millions to be made w/ this - Correct. Directly possibly, and Indirectly FOR SURE. - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

It's an interesting train of thought, but I'm still left wondering what you want - Robin Wauters

Robert: I can dm or email you something I'm working on that you might like. Private - trying to launch at TC50. - Landon

Robin: let's just take it from friendfeed for a second, to answer what I want. I want to have a site that uses the "Everyone" feed and shows me everyone who is discussing an item that's currently on Techmeme. I'd love it if it were displayed like Techmeme too. Is that understandable as to what I want? Now, that we got that, let's add Twitter search's trending topics. Cool? Now let's add Google News. - Robert Scoble

the question is does FF support any RSS feed? if so then integrate what you want, integrating service is interesting, filtering by interest even more interesting. - abdellah

Landon: please do. I'll keep to embargoes. scobleizer@gmail.com or you can call me at +1-425-205-1921 - Robert Scoble

Here is a search that shows all of the most engaged items on friendfeed right now. (This search shows all items on the Everyone feed that have 5 comments AND five "likes."). http://friendfeed.com/search... Note how noisy it is and how unfocused it is. I'd love it if I could say "filter by Techmeme." Or "filter by what's currently on Google News." - Robert Scoble

love that idea filtering by service :) - abdellah

abdellah: Friendfeed can pull in any RSS feed (or most of them, anyway) but that's not what I want. I want it to display items that are already on Techmeme. RSS might play a role in that, but it isn't enough. I'd need an engine to go through the Everyone feed looking for discussions already taking place and then I'd need to display those. Techmeme's value is in its display, which isn't easy to communicate via RSS. It's a tough problem. - Robert Scoble

Robert. Here's a quick screenshot I did from Streamy. Took seconds to create a search widget added to my FF page that shows techmeme conversations. http://img504.imageshack.us/img504.... Works the same for searching twitter as well as your RSS feeds. - Kevin Kuphal

Well, casually. some minutes ago, I was talking about the tendences on Twitter users & those tendences can fix on your project (if is a project): http://twitter.com/hectora... http://twitter.com/hectora... http://twitter.com/hectora... http://twitter.com/leugimf... - HECTOR ARTURO

Robert: i'll buzz you now if that's cool. - Landon

Fallon's Skimmer - http://www.fallon.com/skimmer - does a good job of the more media-centric social networks (FB, YT, etc) - maybe an AIR app is the way to tackle this as opposed to burying it in a tab that can easily lose its session/context/settings etc... - Ben Watson from twhirl

Tina: you have the right idea here with your pipe setup & de-duping- It would be great if something could then point out where all the dupes are at the end of each entry, rate/rank by # reads (of article and originating sites), and have "authority" rating via tags perhaps imported from the likes of peoplebrowsr. - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

Kevin: but that shows all items that discuss Techmeme. I don't want that. Too noisy. I only want to see items that actually are ON Techmeme. - Robert Scoble

sounds like my stream, thankyou, lol :) - chaz2b

Heavens me, Robert. I would love to have 'problems' like this. For someone whose on the interent non-stop, what would you do with all the free time you'd have If you just had one "single stop" for meta-everything? (conversations, feeds etc, etc) /tounge-slightly-in-cheek, of course ;) - Chris Duffy

I think Pipes are probably the way to go then. You really need some logic behind the filtering. More than a typical search will give. - Kevin Kuphal

Robert - how would you relate or tag the conversations as being on "Techmeme" or "Google News". I don't think it works if it is a mechanical connection (url referenced for instance). That kind of connection misses so much is an generally unsatisfying. It seems the connecting requires intelligence, personal involvement -- difficult to do in real time -- maybe you could pay people to do it (like Mahalo?). - Brian Sullivan

robert, I understand yes, it is a kind a a big puzzle where all the "related" "related by what" items a cross diverse services. - abdellah

Doesn't BackType do this? Just pump a Techmeme link through BackType's API to get everyone's comments. Example: http://www.backtype.com/connect... - Daniel Sims

Chris: if I had this, I'd find something else to complain about. :-) Kevin: I must learn to use Pipes. Marshall Kirkpatrick showed me that last year and it looked useful, but I never had a big enough need. This is it. - Robert Scoble

Daniel: that is very close to what I want, but not there. Backtype is mostly about federating comments, I thought. At least that's how I use it, although the link you gave me shows that it can be used in other ways. Interesting. - Robert Scoble

brian, you are brilliant, there are 2 sort of connection "words" and "social graph", without going in AI level algorithm this may be done by investigating those 2 direction : "related words" , "related peoples" - abdellah

as brian says it is hard if we try to make it real time , pipes are useless if we have to make it real time :) - abdellah

Brian: you might be right that it needs to have some human involvement. Even Techmeme is learning that it's better to have atul working for them (for free, I might add!) than to have just algorithms doing the work. - Robert Scoble

I think the issue is that the controls necessary to fine tune the conversation would look like you are flying a plane. If you want to just see everything based on a keyword at a point in time there are really easy tools but if you want to archive everything, like I do in Google Reader, have curation like Techmeme, and let friends play like friendfeed it would be a very complex interface. That's why we are talking pipes, tweetdeck, http://tradeshowmetrics.com/Default... or maybe tinker.com - Tom

I've been advocating for integration between TechMeme and FF in terms of comments and links. Twitter threads also need to be preserved in FF. I don't use GoogleReader. Lora and I have been talking about the opposite though and things getting too connected. Hotmail, for instance, shows "what's new in your network" (Twitter, Live status, etc) by default and to me this just doesn't seem... more... - Loren Heiny

I can almost guarantee you there are at least 10 people reading this who are part of teams trying to build such a service/app. I'd guess 50% are building a web site, expecting people will add yet another site to their daily workflow or just drop some other combination of sites to use theirs. 40% are probably building Air apps, and 10% are building Mac apps. And I'd guess none of them are talking to each other, because everybody wants to be the next big thing. I wonder... - Ken Sheppardson

...what would it take to get them all in the same room, and convince them to pool resources? - Ken Sheppardson

Isn't it far easier to just ignore it all and serendipitously skim the occasional bit or piece of it, rather than bulk it all up and eat it whole? Use the lack of integration to your advantage. Blimey, you're probably reading every single comment on here, too! - Ian Tindale

Ian: I am! :-) - Robert Scoble

Robert (or anyone else for that matter): here's an example pipe http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes... This takes a Google Blogs search for Techmeme, a FF search for Techmeme (items with > 5 likes & 5 comments), and a news.Google.com search for Techmeme. Filters out any from Scoble's site, and then permits any that are a link to Techmeme, Google News, or have... more... - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Tina: that's cool, but it's not satisfying. For one, it doesn't look like either Techmeme or Friendfeed. I think I need to do a video of what I want to explain it better, but I'm off to attend the Web 2.0 expo so will noodle on that this weekend. Thanks everyone, interesting times we live in! - Robert Scoble

Robert: this kind of pipe creates a feed that you can bring directly into FF, say into a room that you create. Just a thought. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Let's combine the whole internet into one site.... ooh wait, Google already done that. - Amit Morson

Robert: We (BackType) certainly federate comments, but around more than their authors -- we federate around keywords (search) and content (connect) like the example Daniel showed you, which connects the conversational graph for a particular blog post. I e-mailed you about what we're doing w/ the latter. But more generally, I think FriendFeed for news is a basis for what you're... more... - Christopher Golda

@Scoble: i agree with your initial assertion that Feedly is pretty close...they've done an AMAZING job with it so far... - .LAG liked that

I hate to pimp my own service (not really) but with our last update at justSignal.com we now have support for Twitter, Google Blog Search and Backtype - you get each as a widget that can be fully customized via CSS and incorporated into your site. You also get the DATA... which is great if you want to learn something from what you collect. FriendFeed is next on our list... Link: http://briantroy.com/blog... - Brian Roy

@BrianRoy... everyone knows: pimpin' aint easy! i'm heading over for a look at justSignal. thx. - .LAG liked that

LAG - love to hear your feedback/thoughts brian dot roy at cosinity dot com - Brian Roy

@Scoble +1 for Feedly. It is FriendFeed aware. - Ahsan Ali aka. Slick

Feedly is the service which is best on track to pull all this together. - Sean McBride

I thought the whole point of FriendFeed was to aggregate other sources. Wouldn't it just make sense to lobby FF to add those additional things? - Kevin Elliott

@Kevin Ah, but here's the question. Should FriendFeed be used as a 'Friend' aggregator or a 'Web Feed' aggregator ? I would prefer to use Feedly/GReader for the latter. - Ahsan Ali aka. Slick

In a very general sense I see things headed in that direction, aggregation of news/blog/social media sources with tools for users to interact with the content. FF already does an amazing job with much of that, of course :-) - Eric Berlin

I am working on a site like this. Will send you invite in few days - Niraj

I'd like to be in the beta too Niraj - Matthew DeVries

And for your next magic trick, figure out some way to deal with all of the duplicate posts... :) - Steve Lynch from twhirl

and Digg? - HECTOR ARTURO

I like this idea of yours Robert. Portal of goodness :) - Susan Beebe

Check out http://www.memereview.com - James Payne

Appetite: Carlos Granier-Phelps

Gmail Autopilot - The easiest email could possibly be #web - http://mail.google.com/mail...

April 1 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Numan Arda Çebi, Fabio Caballero, Head Ov Metal and 11 other people liked this

"As more and more everyday communication takes place over email, lots of people have complained about how hard it is to read and respond to every message. This is because they actually read and respond to all their messages." - Carlos Granier-Phelps

I have been using a neural alpha version of this for a while - Ben Watson from twhirl

It can handle inter planetary email - TrafficBug

Veronica

Feeling wary of the minefield that is the Internet on April 1st.

April 1 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

mjc, Sylvain Nadeau, Jeremy Campbell and 17 other people liked this

hate the internet on April 1st - Stuart Evans from twhirl

6 more comments

Its just too much! Cant believe anything I read 2day - Jorg Jansen

not as bad as I thought it would be, thought I was going to have 'unfollow' on standby - Stuart Evans from twhirl

You mean Gmail autopilot ISN'T a real thing?! - Mike Nayyar

So what about Google brain search? - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

Battelle says this morning that Twitter is being sold to Murdoch for 750 mill. - Ben Watson from twhirl

Today would be a good day to take a break from the Internet, but I don't take my own advice - Fee501st

Yeah and Hulu and YouTube merged to create HuTube, YouHu. Thank god April Fool's is over for another 365. - Jeremy Campbell from twhirl

Zee.

wondering...who were some of the first people you remember meeting on Friendfeed who are still on here frequently today?

March 31 - Comment - Like - Share

Anthony Farrior, Nicholas James, Penguin It's Cold Outside and 52 other people liked this

Ummmm... Mona, RAP, Perez, You =D - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

59 more comments

josh, derrick, akiva, rochelle, johnny, rahsheen, monique, yolanda - Trish Haley

Mona, CeeBee, Akiva & Rochelle - Zulema ◕ ◡ ◕

You, LG, Robert, TH... - Mona Nomura

Live4Soccer!!! - Nurse Katie

you, Eric Berlin, Jason Goldberg, Anthony Farrior, Scoble - shayne catrett

...off the top of my hea: Mona, Tina, Rahsheen, Monique, RAP, TrishR, Scoble, Thomas Hawk - JA Castillo

Mona, RAPatton, MWM, Tina, Akiva & Rochelle - Haggis (Sean Loyless)

Mona, RAPatton, Rahsheen, Monique, Tina, Kol - Shevonne

Edythe was the first person to follow me on FriendFeed aside from Mark Trapp (whom I know in real life). Then probably RAP. - James Ferguson

Yeah, that Scoble guy sure does get around. - Alex Scoble

Ditto, Polly and RAP were amoungst the first if not the first. - Michael W. May

Ontario Emperor for sure. I've been rocking it here since December 2007. :) - Nathan Chase

I did a quick email sort and have discovered some of the first to sub to me were Karoli, Michelle Martinez, Polly, Tad, and Michelle Marie Miller. Good peeps. - Michael W. May

Alex Scoble, Tina, Yolanda, Ontario Emperor, Kol - Ladybug Heather

Everyone mentioned in this thread :) - Rodfather

What Rodfather said. - Derrick

MWM, Polly, Mark Trapp, Yolanda, Lindsey, Shey, Michelle Miller - Michelle Martinez

all y'all. - Jim Is Not Smart

jim, bret, paul and sanjeev. and steve c. - Jessie

Agree with the lists above. - Kol Tregaskes

You, Changeforge, Louis Gray, Mona, Scoble - Keith - @tsudo

Paul Buchheit, Bret Taylor, Kang, J1M, ⓞnor, Ana - Louis Gray

Louis Gray and Steve Rubel - Russ Jackson

Louis Gray, RAPatton, Sprague D, Alex Scoble. - Keith McCammon

Rahsheen, Mona, Tad. - DO ANYBODY NO MONIQUE

For me most of the people already listed all of which I've either met or interacted with for the first time here on FriendFeed. - Mark Krynsky

Mona, Polly, and Mladen. - Andrew Trinh

Robert Scoble, Louis Gray, Zee, Jason Goldberg - David Petherick from twhirl

Scoble, Shey, Mona, Zee, Kol, Emma....... - Iain Baker

Anna Haro, MWM, MJC, Mona, Scoble Bro's™, LG, RAPatton, Shey, Yolanda, Tina, Rahsheen, Perez, Tad, Rodfather, yourself :D - Mo Kargas

Louis is the one who got me here. So, throw the fruit in his direction. :-) - Robert Scoble

Jessie, Jim Norris, Anne Bouey, Anna Haro, Tina - Steve C

Louis and Mona. - DGentry

Mona, LG, Tad, Shey, Johnny, Anthony Farrior, Kyle Lacy...hrm...the whole Night Crew, I guess. Too many to name. EDIT: Hrm...I guess a lot of the Night Crew folks aren't here anymore... - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Mine was Mona, Candace Holly, Abby Martin, Shey , Rahsheen .... and then I was off and running. - Amani

RAPatton, Mark Trapp, Rahsheen, Shey, Tad, Lindsay & Lindsey a bit later Anika & Akiva & Rochelle & Mark Wilson etc. edythe was important, but she's not around so much anymore :( - Kamilah Gill

Bill Romanos - bcultral

mona, tina, shey, scoble family :D, paul buchheit, sanjeev, directeur and much more who i can't remember. - Alp

edythe was the first, but lots of people were around in the early days like Mark Trap, Sci Fi Ranter Girl, Michelle Miller, Jason Toney and Mr and Mrs Hawk - RAPatton

Queen of Spain Erin (first to subscribe to me when I was figuring this thing out), Derrick, Tina, Yolanda, Alex Scoble, Mona, Akiva (bonded over scotch neat), and Anika. I can't remember everybody. A couple folks I really miss I think left during the heated election period. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

Mona, Rahsheen, Scoble, Louis Gray, Mo Kargas, Kol Tregaskes, Johnny Worthington - Mattb4rd

Robert Scoble, Dave Winer, Louis Gray, Tad and Lindsey, RAPatton, Rasheen, Mark Trapp, Jay Tannenbaum, Edythe, Candace Holly, Shey, Sean McBride, Anika (as FM, of course), Yolanda, Kyle Lacy, Michael W. May, Anna Haro... just off the top of my head. - Akiva Moskovitz

Susan Beeeby, Joe Dawson, Lindsay Donaghe, Zee, Phil and Scoble of course to name a few - Dobromir Hadzhiev

some memorable people it would seem :) - Steven Hodson

krynsky, tina, mona, mark trapp (who's since unsubscribed from me for some unknown reason), lindsay, rap, edythe - Cee Bee

@steven funny thing, but this wouldn't work for twitter, it's just that people here are much more memorable! go figure... - Dobromir Hadzhiev

Robert Scoble - Junal Rahman

and yes, robert scoble for me as well - Cee Bee

you, Robert Scoble, Mona, Louis Gray, Paul Bucheit - Pico Seno

RAP, Edythe, and MWM are the first 3 I remember. Then Robert Scoble and Louis Gray. EDIT: How could I forget Thomas Hawk?? - Yolanda

RAP, Anna Haro, Thomas Hawk, Mona and Cee Bee. - Emma

@Leather ♥ Donut: Self love is safe love - Mattb4rd

I did on 28 April 2008 according to email verification in archive - Michael W. May

Would be nice if this info was in the account info here. I think I actually deleted my email sign up thing. :( Edit: I'd also like to know what my first likes were. Awwww... getting all nostalgic or something. - Yolanda

There's too many to name but they are all still here and I like and comment on them often. - David Cook from fftogo

Bwana, RAPatton, JA Castillo, Dobromir Hadzhiev, Akiva, LG, Michael W May, edythe, R. Scoble, Thomas Hawk and many more that don't come to the top of my head right now - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Zee - Ben Watson from twhirl

Cee Bee, too. I went back & forth on subscribing him until I realized how cool & smart he was :) - Kamilah Gill

Haro - Mona - Johnny Worthington - Monique - Akiva - Rochelle - Cee Bee - Emma......meeting and noticing right off the bat! :-D ...................... and a big "awwwwwwwwwwwwww" @Katie! I remember when you were a bright eyed and bushy-tailed newbie...now look atcha! :-) all growed up and a veteran! - Live4Emma (L4S)

Wow, first ff email was 3/15/08 and I have to think Bill Bittner, Paula, Bwana McCall, Steve Hodson and Robert Scoble for getting the ball rolling :) - Anthony Farrior

Allen Stern

Should Early Adopters Reap The Rewards for a Startup's Growth? http://www.centernetworks.com/early-a...

March 30 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Internet Strategist, Dave Martin, David Berrebi and 28 other people liked this

Though I am not a twitter early adopter, I tend to be one for most apps & services I use. I am currently doing kind of work with a couple companies as describe in this article: testing, reporting, feedback and so on. Sometimes in great detail, requiring hours of labor on my part. In at least one case, the company is sending me some promo items. Not much compared to the hourly rates that... more... - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

64 more comments

I remember how I was treated by investors and employees. Will no one involved in Twitter start another company? Fred Wilson? Really? I will be far less willing to pour thousands of hours into their next venture cause they treated early adopters like shlubs. Even Ev and Biz will probably make a crapload and then want to invest in new companies. Leo Laporte is the one who got me onto Twitter and he was treated like crap by Twitter. - Robert Scoble

But the real question is how does the early adopter community as a whole change this dynamic? How do you deal with the fact that there's always someone who's going to do that work gratis? If you don't participate you miss out on the opportunities that the early adoption brings you that are beyond the scope of the company -i.e. Revenues derived directly & indirectly from blog & vlog coverage. How do you (we) get the companies to sign up for some clear form of reciprocation/recompense? - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

Rob: that's not really true. There are a few super connectors who can really help get a much larger audience onto new services by getting excited by them. My brother, for instance, no matter how excited he is by friendfeed, has only dragged a few hundred people on here. If Leo Laporte talks about friendfeed, though, thousands sign up (I've seen this happen over and over). So, if a company then turns around and treats the super connectors like crap (like Twitter has) and they remember (they do) ... - Robert Scoble

... then next time they come pitching they'll just stay quiet, which will retard their ability to get an audience. It's very possible they'll get that audience anyway due to other connectors, but it's a lot tougher. This is why PR people gripe about Techcrunch in private but usually treat Mike nice when it comes time to do a press tour. - Robert Scoble

Leo is really the one who got Twitter hot at SXSW two years ago. Most people don't know that. But he talked about Twitter on TWiT two weeks before SXSW and got all the early adopters onto it before SXSW. Then when we got there it was the talk of the conference. - Robert Scoble

So the question really remains, for the next big thing (forgetting the investors of Twitter for a moment) How do you ensure that you can change the dynamic? This story is all too often repeated. And the end result is damaged relationships, and a damaged community - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

How did Twitter repay Leo? By putting far less popular people onto their suggested follower list, which, in TechCrunch's case, got him 250,000 followers already (TechCrunch had far fewer followers than Leo did before Techcrunch got put onto Twitter's list). - Robert Scoble

Rob: make anything you do algorithmic and a meritocracy. Why is Techcrunch on the list (or Veronica, who had far fewer followers than Techcrunch did) on the suggested follower's list and not Leo? The fact that there's not an equal way to get onto this list is what screws things up. It penalizes people like Leo who brought huge numbers of people onto Twitter. - Robert Scoble

In the case of Twitter (and the example of supporting the celebrities on the recommended users list) I think that twitter is not only screwing the early adopters (and super connectors), but in the process they're screwing the community as a whole. What value are these celebrities actually bringing to the _conversation_ ?? How many people do @iamdiddy or @The_Real_Shaq talk to? How many people do they follow? Just seems wrong all the way around. - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

Look at Facebook or friendfeed. Facebook is growing far faster than Twitter is and they didn't need to do a "suggested" list that was made up of Zuckerberg's friends. Neither did friendfeed. Friendfeed's list is algorithmic and is based off of people you've already added. - Robert Scoble

Rob: bing. The thing is Twitter is arrogant. They see all the hype and let it get to their heads and forgot the people who got them there. But, worse, now "little people" like my brother know they have absolutely no chance at getting onto the top tier because they didn't bring Biz Stone cupcakes and aren't already celebrities. So, even if you don't care about A listers or early adopter/super connectors it hurts everyone (and messes with stats that could be used to suggest followers to you, like wefollow). - Robert Scoble

The signal that sends to everyone is quite caustic. - Robert Scoble

Leo and Kevin Rose are the reason I joined Twitter. I respect their recommendations - if they suggest elsewhere I check it out. I was on Pownce before Twitter because of that. I hope Twitter appreciates that. I know I've been treated like crap by Twitter, but I know they don't really care. - Jesse Stay

Jesse: yeah, I forgot that they even treat you like crap and you're a developer. Sigh. What's worse is they probably will go onto make billions. I'll be laughing, though, if the wheels come off the train because of their arrogance. I notice that more and more people are going to Facebook, especially developer and early adopter types and friendfeed is seeing a nice pickup lately. - Robert Scoble

well said Robert - Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)

Agreed. Now it seems that your job, and that of others in positions like yours, is to prevent that same arrogance from infecting the other services that you want to see succeed. Like FriendFeed. - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

I feel much more welcomed by Facebook. Dave Morin notices me by name in the halls, and goes out of his way to say hi. I get regular announcements via press channels from Facebook. Josh Elman has been wonderful to work with - he talks and listens when you approach him. Their PR department has been through a learning curve, but I think even they are improving and have been much easier to work with. - Jesse Stay

Robert! I haven't seen you this worked up in quite some time, but I agree with your sentiments. I gave up on twitter a while ago because I stopped having meaningful interactions there. Friendfeed on the other hand, and more recently Facebook (as much as it pains me) , have got my attention. Your take on Facebook's potential to take on Google in next gen advertising/marketing is where the next battle will be waged. Consider me among your early adopter crew. Where to next? - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

I'm on the verge of ditching twitter and sticking with FB and FF. The only thing is FF doesn't have a private message feature. If FB/FF were to do a public/private sort of thing where I can have IRL people I know see private info and just people in general who I "friend" online that I don't know see all my public stuff but not my private stuff they will win my eyes. - Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ

Jesse: yeah, isn't that a turnaround? Facebook is much nicer lately. Zuckerberg is a lot more confident, too. He keeps playing the shy kid, but I see him really growing his personal skills. He's definitely THE one to watch in Silicon Valley. Everyone seems to want to work there, the recruiting they are doing now is pretty extreme. - Robert Scoble

FF needs to add more features to lists and allow private info to be shown to certain lists I add people too. That would make me completely switch. FB is so mainstream right now, but I can't import everything I do in the social web like I can with FF. And twitter...well they're like Myspace. Look at what a wasteland Myspace is right now. - Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ

Brian: this is the single worst thing I've seen a startup do to its early supporters. It has pissed off a whole community. Most of whom aren't willing to stand up and say they are pissed, because it looks bad. But they sure changed the dynamic when they did this. - Robert Scoble

Rob: the friendfeed guys are very good at dealing with community. You can see that in how they participate here. Ev and Biz never really participated with Twitter's community. I'm not worried about arrogance here. Over at Facebook they know they are very close to finding a serious gold mine and are staying humble so that they don't miss it. If they get arrogant, it'll be after they figure it out (sort of how Google got arrogant after they did AdSense). - Robert Scoble

I've always been confident about Facebook's development staff and knowledge. I'm not so confident about Twitter's. (Twitter also needs some better Project Management) Facebook's PR and Executive leadership has definitely turned around over the years. I really love what I'm seeing, and right now have a lot of faith in them again. I hope they continue that way. - Jesse Stay

slayerboy: friendfeed has some new stuff coming soon. I haven't seen it yet, but have heard the rumblings. Can't wait to see what they do. - Robert Scoble

I do agree, early adopters mostly are not getting the reward they deserve. The trivia celebrity hype e.g. on Twitter may be the reason for the disappointment early adopters feel and why this debate http://friendfeed.com/e... popped up. - Mark Jacobs

Mark: I don't want a reward, I just want to be treated fairly and equally with everyone else. In other words, if someone who has brought fewer people into the system gets a goodie, I should too. Not saying that there shouldn't be rewards for everyone who participates. - Robert Scoble

i think Jason over @ Social Median did a good job with us early folks. he treated us well and took what we said to heart...ended up making some good changes - Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)

Robert, you know what's interesting is that since you're saying it on Twitter or FriendFeed, Ev and Biz will never call you out on it. They seem to only pay attention to blogs. The minute you complain on your blog they notice and demand an apology. I find that interesting considering they run the service they're not even paying attention to. - Jesse Stay

and he also placed us early birds in the "Featured Newsmakers" section on the home page. a nice touch - Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)

Jesse: that's cool. Zuckerberg has a Twitter account so he can see what other people are saying about Facebook and respond there. Companies who don't track what's being said about them on all services are not doing a very good job. - Robert Scoble

I think it would be a very interesting experiment if Scobleizer deletes his twitter account. What would the twitter founders react? What about Scobleizer's followers do? etc... - imabonehead

Jeff Social Median is a well-run company. I've been impressed with how they treat people. Makes me want to use their service more. - Robert Scoble

imabonehead: they wouldn't care. That was the point of "would a kitten die?" (Kitten is a metaphor for would Twitter care?) No. Most of my fans have already followed me here on friendfeed anyway (I have 31,000 followers here, which is far more than I had on Twitter a year ago). - Robert Scoble

I think that's one reason Social Median sold in under a year. They are extremely well run, and I still wear their shirt proudly that they sent to me for free, at their own expense. - Jesse Stay

Robert it's funny (and sad) that all of Twitter's competitors are using Twitter to track the conversation about them, but Twitter is not. I think that says something. - Jesse Stay

Robert: I have noticed certainly that Ev & Biz haven't and do not partiipate in their community (in fact that was one of the first things I noticed on Twitter...and thought it strange). I'm glad you feel that way about FriendFeed. I got on here not long after I got onto Twitter, and at your suggestion I might add. I've not been a huge Facebook fan, but like the overall direction of upgrades and changes I use it more and more. I think I see correct decisions being made, despite massive outcries. - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

Yo, Jesse: Can you go do a manual refresh of your Twitter feed here so we can talk about your whitelist Q? Sorry to borrow the thread ;-) - Ken Sheppardson

Jesse: Exceptional point. One of the big uses for Twitter is brand protection and customer service. It truly is mind boggling that Twitter itself doesn't jump on that bandwagon. (Especially considering their Direct competitors use it!) - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

It's a hard question. On the one hand, early adopters provide free beta testing, free design ideas and free brutally honest evaluations of your project. On the other hand, it's kinda like the users of Open Source projects demanding a new feature for a product the haven't paid for and then complaining when it doesn't happen! - John Rubier

John: I'm not demanding new features. I'm just asking startups to treat all users fairly (one user who does less on a system should not be treated better than another user who does more). Systems built should be meritocracies, not rewards for bringing the founder cupcakes (or worse). - Robert Scoble

But see part of the problem, Robert, is that life's just not fair. No matter how much longer you or I or been using a service, we're just not as popular as Britney Spears or Ashton Kutcher. It's a pretty classic big fish small pond issue I'd say. - Ken Sheppardson

Ken: if you're more popular than me, that's fair, but the system should treat everyone fairly. If you are less popular than me, the system shouldn't make you more popular just because you brought Biz some cupcakes. The system as it is now is NOT fair because people who had far fewer followers than, say, Leo Laporte, now have far more followers than him because Twitter's founder "picked" them to be popular. - Robert Scoble

If startups were smart they would reward users for engagement, too. But in a fair way that everyone can have access to. The world should move toward meritocracies and away from systems where merit is thrown out the window. - Robert Scoble

Dave: the list is 97.99% of it, yes. The fact that getting on the list is arbitrary has built a system where other services like http://www.wefollow.com are now suggesting people who were picked by Twitter to be popular, not who earned that. For instance, Leo Laporte and Guy Kawasaki and Jason Calacanis had far more followers than other people on the list and now have been passed by. Those three earned their spots on the list, and were snubbed. Not to mention that people like my brother have no chance. - Robert Scoble

Speaking of the article, I helped Beta-test the original Qik iPhone app and even submitted several bugs. They're picking Kevin Rose over me to give the final version to. Should I get Qik for the iPhone more than Kevin Rose since I contributed more to the original product? (Note I'm just posing the question for discussion - I recognize Kevin Rose brings much more to Qik than I ever could) - Jesse Stay

Jesse: I think so. Companies that only go for A listers are blowing it big time (and I give that advice to lots of companies behind the scenes). Go read my corporate blog manifesto. Here, let me go find that for you... - Robert Scoble

http://scoble.weblogs.com/2003... -- note #7 (talk to the grassroots first). - Robert Scoble

Isn't your corporate blog manifesto Naked Conversations? - Jesse Stay

Jesse: I wrote the corporate blog manifesto before I worked at Microsoft and long before Shel and I wrote Naked Conversations. - Robert Scoble

Wow - that's good, sharing it with my Twitter and FriendFeed audience. I never saw that. - Jesse Stay

Companies that bypass their most loyal people over "celebrity" stars are just trying to get the most exposure instead of using the tried and true method of word of mouth. This is how Twitter ORIGINALLY started, by word of mouth. Instead of letting that continue, they shoot themselves in the foot and move "stars" to the forefront. Treat everyone equally and you'll retain and actually gain more people. Show that you have no respect for those that built you, and you'll wonder why you were just a fad. - Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ

That could have been written yesterday and still be applicable. - Jesse Stay

Rewards are typically related to risk. Early adopter risk what? Wasting some of their time? Entrepreneurs put a lot more at risk. Simply grabbing on to someone's passing coattails doesn't qualify you for a reward. - Nathan Wenzel

Nathan: bullshit. I've spent 5,000 hours on Twitter so far and I've pulled my audience from my blog over to Twitter (I have hundreds of thousands of readers per month). That was a HUGE risk to my reputation. In fact, go back and read some of the hate mail I got when I kept talking about Twitter to my blog's audience back two years ago. Many kept asking me to shut up about Twitter. Maybe they had a point. - Robert Scoble

Show that you have no respect for those that built you, and you'll wonder why you were just a fad. - Ben Watson from twhirl

RScoble: easy... Companies are rewarded for their value proposition. You say you have hundreds of thousands of readers per month. That would appear to be your value proposition. If you want to make the argument that companies should reward those who bring them value, I'd agree. If you make the argument that companies should identify their high value customers and make sure those people are happy, I'd agree. But simply being among the first 100 people to sign up doesn't seem to merit much. - Nathan Wenzel

Nathan: It's not just about being the first 100 or 1000 users. It's about putting in the time to make the service viable for a mainstream audience, and it's about using your clout (as in the case with Robert and Leo) to bring additional users to the service. How successful would Twitter be today without some of those "super-connectors" writing about it and adding to the hype? That seems to merit a great deal. Some of the tech-pundits can make or break a site with how & how much they write/speak of it. - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

Rob: I agree. The post and my comment was about early adopters. If the post was about "super-connectors" or "evangelists" (a new title I've been seeing a lot lately) then I would have agreed. Do I think Twitter/FF owe people like Robert something? Absolutely. But not because they're an early adopter. Because as you said, they're super-connectors. - Nathan Wenzel

Nathan: people who are early adopters are often also evangelists and super-connectors. That's sort of the same personality type. After all, who would be stupid enough to use Twitter before all their friends were on it? Early adopters. Anyway, I don't want startups to give me anything, I just want them to build features that treat everyone fairly. The world needs more meritocracies. - Robert Scoble

I find it hard to be an early adopter without being the evangelist. If I try an app or a service out, and it's terrible, I don't continue, and don't evangelize. If I like it, especially enough to spend the time to report, diagnose bugs, and provide feedback, I want to see it succeed, & I push the product to all my friends. I may be "little" but it's basically no different than what someone like Robert does (just less press). I want the companies I support to show they value my efforts. Pay it forward & back - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

This conversation gets to the heart of social media and what is meant by community. Once a brand's early adopters build a community, the brand has an obligation to keep the brand promise. When it doesn't, like the automakers didn't by building crappy cars, the community deserts the brand. And then the brand goes bankrupt. So we have to ask "what is Twitter's brand promise and are they keeping it" before talking about early adopters and how they are treated. This is a big, important discussion. - Francine Hardaway from BuddyFeed

My expectation is almost always as an early adopter I will eventually be alienated by the service I helped. I use, I promote, I provide feedback (and being in the tech profession my feedback is not unuseful). Like most people; I do this to improve the service I am using, or eliminate the headaches I'm living in it. The most heartless version of being alienated is when a service decides they will now become a pay service and not grandfather their early customer base into the service, even for a year or two. - Keith Barrett

So why does this seem wrong? Because the reality is that the company could NOT have gotten where it was without the early adopters. There's no way they would ever have had the resources or staff to perform the debugging, promotion, customer growth, or eventual press without that FREE public participation. - Keith Barrett

Robert is absolutely right expecting brands to respect the contributions of those who got them off the ground. They make a cardinal error in snubbing those people because they ARE still bringing in new users and keeping existing users there. Those users are more likely to keep using the system unlike the fad group that creates an account because Oprah mentioned Twitter and never uses it. If they were really wise they would seek out and support their evangelists - even those much smaller than Leo and Robert! - Internet Strategist

Ben Watson

reportonbusiness.com: Canada envy, amid a global meltdown - http://business.theglobeandmail.com/servlet...

March 31 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

"Derided for years as meek and mild while banks around the world expanded wildly, suddenly the reputation of Canada's big lenders as prudent and sometimes downright boring has become an asset instead of a liability." - Ben Watson from Bookmarklet

Jenn Lowther

My student loan acquires $3/day of interest They really don't make it very easy to pay back I'll pay almost as much interest as principle!!

March 17 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

It's a matter of principal? ;-) - Ben Watson from twhirl

Gotta love auto correct:) - Jenn Lowther

Veronica

Star Wars as Classic Art http://www.somethingawful.com/d... (via @buzzfeed)

March 6 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Amy, Marc Hustvedt, Bluesun 2600 and 8 other people liked this

Awesome! :) - Jemm

2 more comments

nice - Mike D. from twhirl

Looking for Luke in the Louvre... - Ben Watson from twhirl

Very funny - Fee501st

Louis Gray

Twitter is for Following Topics and Listening, Not for Following People - http://www.louisgray.com/live...

February 26 from louisgray.com - Comment - Like - Share

Diana Lewis, Nicholas James, FunTimesGuide and 81 other people liked this

Totally disagree. Don't make the mistake of saying "Twitter is for..." based on your own narrow use of it. That's how YOU use Twitter - and, to my mind, it's as dumb as using Google Trends to talk about "what's going on on the web". I follow less than 300 people, the vast majority of which I've met face-to-face at least once. I don't auto-follow. The Twitters I get tend to be funny,... more... - Ian Betteridge

66 more comments

http://www.kyte.tv/ch... has a video that shows how I read tweets and use friendfeed too. It is close to what Louis says in his blog post. - Robert Scoble

Ian, I expect disagreement. I am explaining my viewpoint. It is a platform, and it has some strong characteristics and some weak. But notice how you're answering me here, where there is room for discussion. I'm not picking a fight but suggesting why I can see both views from Loic and Robert. - Louis Gray

I'm answering you here, Louis, because I don't follow you on Twitter - and Friendfeed, at its heart, is discussion medium. Twitter never has been, and was never intended to be - hence its small character limits, lack of threading, and so on. I think both you and Robert are guilty of having in the past hyped up Twitter to be something it was never built to be - hence your ultimate (to my mind) disappointing use of it. - Ian Betteridge

Ian, depending on the day, I get called a Twitter hater or fanboy. That's all part of being visible. In terms of hyping Twitter, I think I am fairly low on that scale. Most would instead suggest I hype FriendFeed, but I tend to promote services I think bring value - and there is a long list. - Louis Gray

Ian - I agree. I follow 64 people on Twitter. - Larry Hudson

Larry, so help me with the following issue. Loic is getting pilloried for reducing the people he follows and having a big disparity between those he follows and those that follow him. Is he snobby for doing that, or do people have artificial expectations on him? I've found it's best to just get connected wherever people want - be it Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook or LinkedIn. - Louis Gray

Interesting perspective, but not the way I use Twitter. It's pretty cool that there are so many different ways it CAN be used, though. - Jill Walker Rettberg

And Jill, also interesting, as your feed is private on FriendFeed, we may never know if you are the person I would like to engage with. I am thinking you may be, but there's no clue. Why do you prefer a locked feed? - Louis Gray

I absolutely agree, but the question is: Twitter doesn't allow you to follow topics, it's a semantic web feature. This is why such things as hashtags and twitter search allow you to pull our an RSS feed. Should this be a feature for Twitter? So you can directly follow a word or using something like word sense disambiguation follow a subject. - Daniel W. Crompton

Ah - most of my feeds are open (@jilltxt, http://jilltxt.net) but I'm still finding my footing with FriendFeed. I like for ME that I can see all my various "selves" online together, but I'm not sure I want them all connected for everyone else. I like being able to have one space to talk about professional/web geek stuff and other spaces to share photos of my baby or discuss parenting a preteen and so on... - Jill Walker Rettberg

Sounds good, Jill. Again - each person uses the services differently. My post suggests what I've found. And when I'm logged into the work account I do read as many tweets as I can and follow a smaller (200 or so) amount. - Louis Gray

OK, I made it public. I suppose I'm not really experiencing FriendFeed so long as I keep it locked, eh? Can I ask you though: you seem to follow even more people on FriendFeed than on Twitter. Isn't that almost as impossible to track in any meaningful way? Or do you just use the best of day etc to skim stuff other people like? - Jill Walker Rettberg

I have several social nets where I have 10 - 50 contacts that are slowly discovering twitter. It is interesting to watch the interaction between my contacts as they meet each other, and form a larger social net away from their walled sites. Many reject twitter, it can be overwhelming. Each to their own, but I think Twitter's search has the greatest potential and it requires no 'follow'. Lurking, searching, what's the difference? - Wallace

Louis, to answer your question about why Loic's getting pilloried: I think that's partly the (unfair?) expectation when you're a high-profile figure that a a follow means a follow back. But the problem is that, unless you're constantly reading Twitter, more than a few hundred followers is impossible to coherently follow. At that point, it's *only* useful in the way you describe - but the answer to that is to follow less people. - Ian Betteridge

Just to be clear, though: there's no "one true way" to use Twitter. What I was objecting to about your post isn't your use-case, but the way you phrased it: "Twitter is for...", not "I use Twitter for...". Your headline sounds like an edict, not a suggestion. But hey - that will get more traffic ;) - Ian Betteridge

Ian: or the other choice is to follow everyone on Twitter, and use search to find people you want to listen to and use friendfeed lists to follow JUST those people you want to listen to. There's a variety of ways to handle this problem other than the way Loic decided to handle it. I get a lot of value out of having a lot of geeks and early adopters aimed at my TweetDeck. - Robert Scoble

But Robert, in doing that you're really creating a false expectation in people who follow you. You're following them - which is a positive action which creates the expectation that someone is listening. If you subvert that by not *actually* bothering to follow what they say, using tools to "find people you want to listen to", what's the point in following them? Loic is just being honest about the fact that he can't actually follow everyone who follows him. - Ian Betteridge

And it's interesting you bring up FriendFeed. I follow lots of people on FF who I don't follow on Twitter, for exactly the reasons you like FF: it's *really* conversational, it lets you manage more groups, etc. But it's not "Twitter vs FF" - it's "use Twitter for what works on Twitter, use FF for what works on FF" - Ian Betteridge

And FURTHERMORE... Go to bed! Its 2am where you are, mate! :) - Ian Betteridge

It's just how one uses it, my use of Twitter varies over time, i use it for marketing, listening to others, enjoying what others have to say or share.. From my point I don't think you can ever limit Twitter's scope, or Friend Feed as well - Sardar Mohkim Khan

i can t totally agree with that. There people/brands i really want to track in any single update they publish. - Ouriel Ohayon

Whats wrong with people? - Ben Watson from twhirl

Of course there will be lots of opinions here. I agree on some of your topics since from your point of view everything makes sense. Not everyone here is to find useful info as I said on Rob Diana's site the other day. There are a lot of people just having fun with friends and that is cool too. 140 is too small for that, true. Not reading all tweets, true. FB and FF better to express ideas and communicate, true. But following a person you care is possible. And topics are created by real people. - Carlos Lorenzo

As people can use LinkedIn to find a partner(!), they can use twitter for following others! But we suggest them to use suitable tools for their jobs - farzaam

To be honest, I'm like bored with Twitter. I don't see any valuable content there except for personal and ironic messages of - let me figure it out - 10 to 20 contacts. Chats were popular when I was in junior high though. I prefer to manage data stream myself, that's it. +++ But I still like FriendFeed - mostly for Louis's and Robert's open discussions. - Alan Kodzasov

There is a similar discussion going on with how should politicians use Twitter. Sen Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) was interviewed yesterday about it and she said she could not possibly follow all the people that are following her. But I think if her staff used the proper tools, they could easily listen to Twitter, and not just use it to broadcast. How do you think politicians could/should use Twitter? My full thoughts on it: http://bit.ly/fPCcU - Wallace Wilson

Right now I don't know anymore what Twitter is becoming. Too much info mixed with too much spam. Either someone figures a way to get it organized (by topics, for instance, or by tweet-popularity) or it's gonna die of success. Maybe the key is to drop the "Follow" option: sometimes you follow a guy that makes one good tweet and after that he becomes dull, and sometimes you miss the good stuff just because you didn't follow. How do I know where the best tweets for me are? - Jordi Soler

The thing that has me puzzled is I don't really see Twitter as a company moving in a direction that makes me think they'll be the ones to get it under control. It seems that tools like Tweetdeck, MrTweet, and others that probably don't exist yet will be the ones to follow in the footsteps of Summize and get a handle on things. How they work that out challenges like Twitters API limits in place will be interesting to watch. - Ken Sheppardson

I also deleted the 20,500 people I followed - but unlike Loic, I ALSO deleted the 23,500 people following me. I totally reset my Twitter account. Loic wanted all those followers - clearly this matters to him a great deal. Personally, I think we should all be free to use Twitter however, we want. - Jim Connolly

Ummm ... I just follow people that are important in my life or whose thoughts I find interesting. Twitter works great for that. - Crutis

Glad to hear others have the same issues with Twitter as I do. Although I don't share the same views as many on the usefullness of twitter (I use it more for listening to a live stream/broadcasting and for close work related team members), I just mentioned to @hlooman yesterday how people pushing the bounderies of applications generate unexpected and sometimes very creative outcomes that often change my view and use of an application. - Phil Ashman from twhirl

Louis - Loic builds Social Networking tools and services. The man follows everyone and one day decides "Oh, I'm changing my ways" then criticizes people who used to use his method. Not classy and i am not a fan of the man or his products. - Mona Nomura

Louis: I think Loic has lost a lot of good will after unfollowing everyone - BUT keeping THEIR follows. - Jim Connolly

Liking for Jim's comment - Loic's a good guy but I know a lot of people mad that he unfollowed them. - Jesse Stay

I'm sure he is a 'good guy' -- don't know him personally, but his methods show no class. - Mona Nomura

@Mona hear, hear! - Jorge Escobar

No class? Le Meur wrote a blog post telling exactly what he was doing, and why. How does one make someone else unfollow? Block? Now that is rude. He was completely transparent and there is no merit in saying this move makes him less classy (or that one doesn't like a product his company builds). - coldbrew

I have no interest in reading rants and namecalling - like what was displayed on Twitter last night. He builds a tool especially FOR Twitter. If he can't manage conversation flow that is a problem. His product should fix it. How am I supposed to have confidence in a product where the creator is complaining? - Mona Nomura

welcome, coldbrew :-) - Jesse Stay

Thanks, Stay :). Mona, I have no idea what ad hominem attacks were occurring on Twitter last night, but I don't see the connection in having confidence in a company's given product, and the class of its founder. Just don't see it. [EDIT: for clarity] - coldbrew

To my understanding, Loic unfollowed people because conversation flow management became an issue. One of his well known products is Twhirl, a Twitter tool. If he can not resolve his own problem, how can a user have confidence that Twhirl will solve MY problems? - Mona Nomura

Agree with that. Still unrelated to Le Meur having "no class", which is quite a serious statement (and uncalled for). - coldbrew

coldbrew - he went on an insult rampage last night on Twitter. Grown men insulting others in public is NOT classy. At all. And to add, he is criticizing other people's methods -- something his product can or SHOULD solve. Which in turn, insults his own product. Is that class? - Mona Nomura

Just looked through Le Meur's Twitter feed and I didn't see anything disrespectful. No ad hominem attacks, nothing to make me think Le Meur has no class. Calling it like he sees it. I think a bunch of people partaking in this discussion have allegiances and other conflicts of interest here. - coldbrew

I'm with Mona. All of this lead me to lose faith in Twhirl so I uninstalled. I also don't appreciate being considered noise or a nuisance so I did people like Loic and Calacanis the favor of removing myself from all of their services. Maybe they'll eventually remember not to insult the people that make it possible for them to not have real jobs. </rant> - Mike Lewis

Loic seems that he wants to stay 'in the news.' Mini dramas and controversies make it easy. - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

I've rebooted my Twitter approach. it was getting a little crazy to be broadcasting and only listening to the replies. Now that i've restarted my account i'm planning on keeping to < 1,000 people I'm following. - Jason Calacanis

Rather than self-centric, there is a topic focused Twitter. See http://tv.tEarn.com, http://s.tEarn.com (sports channels), http://ce.tEarn.com (ce products), or http://sw.tEarn.com/. - DJ Chang

All you guys who decided to follow tons of people and then get frustrated about the spam levels... I just don't get it. I am picky about who I follow (anyone not from my city, and not in my fields of interest is nixed EVEN if they follow me) and therefore I get more personal interactions out of twitter. If I want more that is what the public timeline and twitter search are for... in some ways are we learning that facebooks 5000 friend limit might be a smart thing ;) - James Ostheimer

How someone else uses or does use Twitter is up to them, each to their own, its certainly nothing that's going to upset me. Maybe it makes sense for people who have thousands of followers to every once in a while to clear everything out and start again. - Kim Landwehr

dont you all get sick of talking about the same thing? there's about three seperate conversations on the same topic running on FF now.. - Terry O'Fee

O'Fee, obviously not, and neither do you since you are tracking the conversation around FF. - coldbrew

Landwehr, the debate is not about WHETHER one can use Twitter any way they want. It is about what it means to use Twitter in various ways. - coldbrew

i hide the convos and more come! it's like a friggen plague! - Terry O'Fee

You're a better man than I. I could only see so much before I had to chime in from my very unattached position. - coldbrew

it's like people don't have anything interesting to talk about apart from the services themselves. how can this level of SM worship be healthy?? - Terry O'Fee

Terry: It's been like this for the 20+ years I've been on the internet. BBS folks talk about BBS software, Usenet folks talk about usenet software, web forum people talk about web forum software. The tech folks talk about tech stuff, and the "Social Media" people are going to talk about Social Media tools and services. If you don't want to hear those conversations, you need to go follow Lance Armstrong, TheRealShaq, and Britney Spears. Otherwise, you're out of luck. - Ken Sheppardson

...oh, and my quick suggestion would be you unfollow Scoble and JesseStay. Since both those guys make their living building and talking about Social Media tools, guess what... - Ken Sheppardson

here's an idea! talk about yourselves, people. what else do you all do?? whats some other interests you have?? - Terry O'Fee

I like to discuss ideas, not people. And, I don't think anyone is really trying to discuss themselves, just using themselves as an example. - coldbrew

All this is quite interesting really and everyone manages their Twitter and FF how they see fit. I've got my Twitter working nicely after a year of constant pruning, adding etc to find & interact with scientists, Pharma, economists, real life friends & FFs. Not everyone is on FF, many aren't. I happened to be on Twitter when Loics outburst happened. It came across as emotional, not v classy & irritated with us as 'noise' so I unfollowed. - Sally Church

That may be true, Church, and I appreciate that (I bet Le Meur does too). But, anyone that is been online long enough knows that it is difficult to communicate efficiently by text alone. So many senses are cut off (note the wide use of emoticons), it is easy to misjudge what someone says. Especially having never met them in-person. - coldbrew

... of if they're, you know... French. [NTTAWWT] - Ken Sheppardson

That too :) Cultural difference could magnify the issue for sure. - coldbrew

As an Englishwoman I wasn't even going there on the French in case of accusations of continuing the 100 year war emerged :-). But the analogy of JP Rive and the French rugby team getting in a strop did cross my mind at time. - Sally Church

Twitter is for whatever you want it to be. Your 140 characters, eh? - Phil Boiarski

Lots of good comments here. I liked Robert Scoble]s video, on how he use Twitter and manage to auto-follow all these people. Loic might have unfollowed a lot of people, but each have their own choice right. Just because his a social media star doesn´t mean he HAS to use social media in any certain way.... However, as reciprocity, for me, is central to social media, I do disagree with the choice. - Peter Efland

Dave Winer

GM says it may kill the Hummer brand. http://online.wsj.com/article...

February 17 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Kevin Gough, Travis Parsons, Denise Howell and 28 other people liked this

No big loss! - Jeff P. Henderson

28 more comments

<deadpan> That's just awful. I may weep. </deadpan> - Ron Bailey

... hate to see the big guy go down </deadpan> - Johnny Worthington

... That's a real blow to the industry </deadpan> - Johnny Worthington

... got to suck for all involved </deadpan> - Johnny Worthington

I think the only people who will weep over this are Oil company execs. - Jeff P. Henderson

Also they will be killing off Saturn and most of Pontiac. - MVB (Grinch of FF)

I will feel bad for those who work making Hummers, but the vehicles are ridiculous. Good riddance. - Rob McNair-Huff

Not sure I understand why they want to kill off Saturn. They are low cost, low price, relatively high mileage cars. Seems like that is what is selling right now as opposed to higher cost Buick and Cadillac models. - Jeff P. Henderson

Who are they to go around making decisions? Seems to me, GM should be asking what their new owners (The American Taxpayer) would like them to make. Windmills or light-rail trains anyone? - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

20 years ago Saturn cars were unique to the brand. Now they are rebaged GM siblings. GM sells the same chassis at Chevy, Buick, Pontiac, Saturn, Cadillac, Saab, etc... GM can save money by not having to design so many different name badges. - MVB (Grinch of FF)

They want to kill Saturn because they destroyed the brand to the point where no one's buying them and the brand has one of the worst initial and long term quality records out there. - Alex Scoble

@ Mark, makes sense. Pontiac has some pretty ho hum looking cars, with the exception of the Solstice. I can see how some of them could be cut also. - Jeff P. Henderson

I definitely won't miss them. http://moourl.com/ouo27 - Carmen

I think had intended to do do away with the Hummer along time ago--they just kept running out of gas on the way to work. - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

This has always been GM's Achilles heel. Too many brands which weakens their focus. - Alex Scoble

But that means Earth 2 can never happen! - Alix Whitmire

Didn't production of the H2 stop in October or November? - MVB (Grinch of FF)

It's taking them this long to come to that conclusion? They deserve to go under if they can't respond to realtime market conditions. - Jim Goldstein

Great, about time, me and my little Mazda are just plumb sick of saving the planet for everyone. - Martin Bayly

What about the Hummers already on the road? They need to pull them back too! - Mahesh CR

Aww.. darn.. What will all the overpriviledged yuppies and men with compensation problems do? :D - Haggis (Sean Loyless)

That'll make them collectors items once again...the H2 not H3. - Mohamed J

yeah!!! - Susan Beebe

Collector items? the H1 maybe. The H2 is a rebodied Chevy Suburban. - MVB (Grinch of FF)

But what are The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse gonna drive? - Christopher Harley

@Christopher Range Rovers - MVB (Grinch of FF)

the stupid mistake was killing the Hummer I, and keeping the 2 and 3. While yes, the Hummer I was the biggest impact on the environment, it was also the only one that had true unique utility that people who actually have jobs that require off-road abilities, loggers, ambulance and the like. The H2 and H3 were just market clones that had no real need to exist. - Matthew DeVries

great news. - andrei_c

Matthew makes a good point on the pointlessness of the Hummer 2 and 3 - in its current form killing it off is a good thing. - Ben Watson from twhirl

Robert Scoble

Davos, World Economic Forum, #davos #wef is next week. What do you want me to bring you back? Discuss:

January 24 - Comment - Like - Share

Matthias Catón, Mitch, Michael Forian and 15 other people liked this

http://friendfeed.com/rooms... I built a room to track all Davos news. But who would you like me to interview? What would you like to learn? This is one of the world's most exclusive conferences. Very hard to get into and lots of the world's richest and most powerful are there. - Robert Scoble

36 more comments

Zuckerberg interview - Tim Beyers from twhirl

My videos from last year: http://scobleizer.com/2008... and http://scobleizer.com/2008... -- what can I do better this year? - Robert Scoble

How about some Swiss chocolate ;-) - Alexander van Elsas

Alexander: last year I tried to bring you some home but I ate it on the plane. :-) Tim: Zuckerberg interview would be most cool. Agreed. But I gotta tell him off for kicking more people off of the service first. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO, will be there too. She's one of the smartest people in the industry. Facebook is definitely the "good news" story of 2009 so far. - Robert Scoble

A 25-point (foolproof) plan that'll sort out the entire global economic crisis, and a six-pack of Grolsch :) - Patrick Jordan

I lost a glove there last summer. It was in cafe by a lake, which should really narrow it down :-) I really liked that glove so if you find it please let me know. - Todd Hoff

Will the US or Europe have the first exits? or the most? When and why? - Kathy Johnson

Patrick: Give a trillion dollars to new startups. Electrify all American cars within 15 years. Build 40 nuclear plants. Upgrade our power grid. Put broadband into every American home. That's five and do you see the problem already? Too controversial. Will never get passed. - Robert Scoble

Great to have you there. I think perspective on opportunities to work across borders to help each other overcome the current economic gaps would be prudent. Is there an opportunity to reduce redundancy, while still building strong competitive offerings, and use this shared knowledge and flow to expedite profitability. Narrow this down on the technology sector perhaps, although I think we already do it reasonably well. Too high level? - Ben Watson

A Rolex. Davos is nice. You'll find a watch dealer... - Håkan Dahlström

The US and some other countries are deep in debt. China and others are buying debt and equity and resources. Which nations do you perceive to be rising in power and influence with true economic strength behind them? - Greg Griffith

I'd love to hear what people think about venture capital, M & A, IPO mkts. Are they just hibernating or are they dead? - Dave Hodson

Allright, I'll settle for two sixes of Grolsch then :) - Patrick Jordan

How about asking them to make the world a better place by heavy investments in green technology, instead of burning our economy to hell with oil. It's a matter of political will and standing up against the oil lobby. I wonder who has the balls to do that. PS. if you pass by Amsterdam, let me know and I will pick up the chocolate and buy you a beer ;-) - Alexander van Elsas

@Scoble - the nuclear question would be a good one. Solar/wind are great, but people need to get real about electricity generation. - Dave Hodson

You could bring me back an invite for next years WEF! - Marshall Huwe

Wow maybe you can interview Merkle or The French Prez to see where their heads are at regarding the restructuring of the Global Economic system they keep talking about. - Larry Lewis

Request Obama to re-vitalise the USA /World economy, and solve the war problems-hiro bachani- http://www.merlin-me.com- Merlin Gadgets that even geeks rave about- http://www.sufi-masters.com - hiro

more money for science, technology, and startups ... only way to improve productivity and create more jobs ... - mitultiwari

How about a bushel of Economic Renewal, and make it a double! - Canyon R

Robert, ask about corporate responsibility. From UBS, to Citigroup, to Apple, we're experiencing more and more corporate irresponsibility than ever before. What Sarbanes-Oxley was supposed to fix hasn't changed anything. What are global leaders going to do to hold corporations responsible for the decisions they make? (Answer can't be current default of "bail them out") - Morgan

I would want to hear if corporate leaders have learned not listen to the investment bankers. Just because you can do something is no reason just to do it. - Charles Alden

Ask the titans of industry how they intend to measure risk in the future - accurately. Also, what kind of regulation would be best to discourage excessive risk-taking while not throttling growth or innovation overly much? - Doug Alexander from twhirl

Please, ask every single interviewee if they see an alternative to a money economy. Not communicated central planning of course, but something totally new, based on the latest information technology (and social media of course!). I think we can do better than our age-old money economy. Money, interest and banks were invented FAR before electricity, the telephone and the internet. We have just "patched" an old system. It's the same old system, but running at light speed. We can do better. - Meryn Stol

I'd be curious to hear if there is a trend towards 'deglobalization' because of the economic crisis - will leaders focus inwards for economic investments, innovation, infrastructure? - Donna K. Kidwell

Ask them to comment on 1. food distribution (we have enough food to go around.) and 2. smart energy use. How to get people to WANT to consume & waste less. - Dana Dowell

a video interview with Tariq and a demo video of Jolicloud. I am sure you will like it ;) - Sascha Pallenberg

Here is a question that I'd like thoughtful answers to from the rich and powerful: "Change of every sort (climate, political, economic, technological, environmental, social) is happening at faster pace every day. Do you view this as a threat or an opportunity? How are you dealing with the accelerating pace of change both on a policy or strategic level, and on a personal one?" - Michael R. Bernstein

I think at any major event you need to be focused on bringing back the important things....like freebies - Duncan Riley

After they answer my first question, if they don't bring up this topic themselves, ask what ideas they have for making local, regional, and global systems, institutions, and infrastructure more *resilient* in the face of unanticipated changes. - Michael R. Bernstein

Bring us the head of Rupert Murdoch - paul mooney

One historic breakthrough begets others. American women need to make progress and we can only do this with collective willpower, disruptive innovation, global respect and trust in our credibility. Who will help us to gain equity? Phyllis Shabad - Phyllis Shabad

A Lanyard please. For my badge (University). I have one from IBM, but thats not cool anymore. Davos, TED and successful tech startups are cool again and 'wear-worthy'. Send me an email to.michaeljung -at//- gmail.com And I give u my address. Postage from Switzerland to UK is about 2 CHF. BTW: Swiss postal service has a nice virtual post office http://www.post.ch/de... - Michael Jung

How we drive local economic development for positive change at mass scale. I am working to mobilize community towards green infrastructure and green civic engagement with an engagement serics called Change SF. http://www.consciousrevolutionnow.com/change-.... Interested to see how corporations, vc, philanthropy, non-profits, local and national govt. can amplify and accelerate the deployments of solutions we have today in collaboration with the grass roots movements. - James Hanusa

Sascha: Tariq has already given me a demo of that, and I agree, I can't wait to use it. To everyone else, these are great questions. Thank you! - Robert Scoble

Response from world leaders to the following (prompted by Davos Question) "Why don't corporations and company executives have a code of ethics similar to doctors and lawyers?' and "How can code of conduct be enforced to avoid corporate scandal (Madoff) and/or collapse of firms (ie Lehman Bros) in the future? thank you and Have fun... lucky dog. - SuSaw

Does western 19th Century Industrial Era Free Market Capitalism still equate to the Only One Way Jesus and does Everything Else Socialism still equate to Devil Worshipping Terorrism? Or can we get past superstitions to new sustainable Mixed Economies http://tr.im/cfzz that make more sense in the context of accelerating changes hurtling us toward the 22nd century? http://tr.im/newcapitalism Sans hyperbole for CNBC's sake, of course; but always a bit more colorful to make the initial point, don't you think? - michael silverton

Robert Scoble

Why does every great product have skeptics and haters?

January 9, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

Nicholas James, VC Freak, Varun Mahajan and 46 other people liked this

that's just kinda how it works....nothing is universally loved or hated... - Live4Emma (L4S)

84 more comments

Because not everyone can afford to get everything. As a result we need to find which device we prefer. - Richard A.

I am thinking of Bwana. - Robert Scoble

Because "great" is subjective? - Mario Menti

I guess because the greatness of the product is a result of somehow creating such biased passion in users either hate or love but not neutral. - Rida Al Barazi

why do some people like certain food and others hate it? It's all down to their own preferences. - alphaxion

The world would be very boring if we all thought the same way! - Tom Raftery

LOL - Bwana ☠

isn't it the same for great men? :) - Markingegno - Donato

Well, the answer is that every great product has its skeptics and haters. It's up to the creators to figure out what they want to do with those voices. Respond to the minutia? Label complaints as bug fixes or feature requests? Embrace the beta status or work for the early adopters? - Dave Ferrick

because people have varies tastes & some just hate objects because they think it will an 'it' crowd object - sort of goes back to high school mentality - SHTW

Skepticism is a virtue. - Rob Haas

Strong opinions mean they must have done something right. It makes supporters happy and supporters of competition feel threatened. - Jemm

I'm honored :) - Bwana ☠

because people like to 'express their individuality' by going against the grain - Christopher Harris

I think its because each one of us have different interests, for example the Palm Pre, I don't like its roundness..others might not like the OS, you might find a product great, but others might not like some features about it,and I think that skeptics are people who actually care the most about that certain product because they are afraid that its going to fail somehow, so they lower their expectations.. - Ahmed

Spencer: it is very healthy obviously. - Robert Scoble

My answer: If its your passion, improve it. If not, leave it. - Dave Ferrick

This is real world, there are black and white. We can't expect all people to love our products. - Alif Rachmawadi from twhirl

I think it's absolutely normal to be skeptical of something that you've not seen. I think I'm with Bwana on this one, I've not seen or used the device and it's not even on the market yet. - Paul Grav

Look at my background Robert. QA/QC. the glass is half empty and cracking :) - Bwana ☠

there is opposition in all things. - Trish Haley

Paul: the iPhone had the same kind of skeptics. - Robert Scoble

Because it's not available and I don't have it in my hands so I'll QQ - Rodfather

Because said skeptics and haters lack the skills necessary to develop it themselves and make it perfect on their own. They also fail to consider the alternative once they start expecting a new product to solve problems they didn't know they had in the first place. - TheMacMommy

I was one of those iPhone skeptics. Wait and see was the mantra then - Bwana ☠

Bwana -- wrong then and wrong now. :-) - Robert Scoble

What was I wrong about? - Bwana ☠

Good products require a fusion of usability and emotional perception. Great ones build an emotional addiction upon the latter. So we get fierce pros and cons. - Alan Kodzasov

Patience is a virtue. I reserve judgement and people respect that - Bwana ☠

I will repeat - a fair amount of it is down to personal preference.. why do some people love curry and others not? Personal preference. It doesn't mean a good product is no longer good because some like it and some hate it. - alphaxion

I haven't even passed judgement yet and I'm a hater because I say it's too early to declare a winner? - Bwana ☠

Could it be that the skepticism comes from a lack of trust. Even when something is seemingly "great" in tech, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop due to having so many bad consumer experiences. - Brad Coy

@Robert. And those iPhone skeptics had every right to be skeptical prior to its release. I'd like to see the thing released, and hear feedback from people using it day-to-day. The OS could be buggy as hell, we don't know yet. Then even if it is the greatest phone that the world has ever seen, that doesn't mean that it's going to sell. - Paul Grav

Better skeptics and haters than simply ignored ... - Clarence Chiang

I remained a skeptic of the iPhone untill release. I reserve judgment until I can get my hands on one. Until then I apply Tufte's principles of "Information Density" - Scott Thomas

This question reminds me of Seth Godin piece: "Now that you've got digital thermometer, everyone suddenly catch a fever". My point is there's no such thing such as skeptics and haters. Somehow, I don't feel confident in writing this comment. But I have a strong feeling that it has something to do about what I cite. Err .. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_b... - Toni @ NavinoT

Because the creator of every great product has a spouse to keep them grounded :) - Photar

LOL Jacob :) - Mo Kargas

Seth Godin in tribes: To have a tribe, there have to be exclusion. If everyone agrees then there is no tribe. So some hate and skeptics are in fact a very good thing. - Juan Pablo

Skeptics are a good thing: haters are not. I won't be convinced about the Pre, for example, until I have one in my hand - so I'm a skeptic. But unlike several of the iPhone owners commenting here, I'm not a hater: I don't reflexively attack anything that's not my chosen platform. - Ian Betteridge

Why does every brand new product have instant fanboys calling it great before they've got a change to really use the product. - Nick Shue

@Nick because it's not always necessary to use something to judge its impact. It was clear when Jobs announced the iPhone that it would completely change the mobile phone/device space - six months before we could touch one. The pre's improvements in organizing information (contacts, calendars) are obvious. - John Craft

I think we have been trained to see everything as a contest - as soon as anything comes out it is either the "x killer" "the new Y" and you get articles "a vs b". So people will immediately see any new great product as a threat to their favorite. - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

Because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One person might think it's great, but another might not. - Shevonne

ona mans gold another mans crap ;o) - Rob Sellen :o)

"beauty is in the eye of the beholder." - so true! - Meryn Stol

So they can improve it and make even better :) - Sasha Kovaliov(.com)

The same reason that you do Robert. - Mathew™ one of a kind

Because some people think chocolate ice cream is the best, and everyone else is TOTALLY WRONG. - stretta from twhirl

Because only then is it truly a great products. The better the product the more admirers do exist that would have loved to create it themselves - naturally some of those then in their own insecurity try to bash those products - Manuel

Because we're human and each individual has their own definition of a "great product". For example, I happen to think Sirloin Steak is a great product, but I'm sure there are tons of grass-munching hippies who'd disagree. - Will Higgins™

I find it quite telling that a few of us are pointing out that it is personal preference while a lot of others are pointing to envy. - alphaxion

And its the downfall of USA in a sense... it triggers GREED! - Rob Sellen :o)

the proof is that most of the nicest people you ever meet are the poorest. ;o) - Rob Sellen :o)

Ah, yes Ryo, keeping up with the Jones', conspicuous consumption, the American dream. - Will Higgins™

a good example of this can be seen in what HDD manufacturer you would recommend. Personally I've had nothing but good experiences with seagate and samsung, unmitigated disasters with fujitsu (especially because we had almost all of our IBM PC's at work fitted with them during their 4.6mil defect run, click of death happened often) as a result I recommend the first two and suggest avoiding fujitsu. Others will swear by fujitsu instead of at them. There are more factors at work than pure envy. - alphaxion

Petronius said it BCE: "De gustibus non est disputandum." Don't argue about taste!" - Phil Boiarski

Ryo, I understand what you're saying. When I was young, I was totally peeved that my dad didn't buy me the cool shoes/clothes so I could be cool at school, but now that I'm older and (arguably) a bit wiser, I can understand the reasoning behind it. It might even be WHY I can have perspective on people's envy/conspicuousness. - Will Higgins™

Every shitty product has skeptics and haters as well. - Brian Sullivan

Why even ask this question robert? You knew the answer lol.... or is it that not everyone likes what you like? :o) - Rob Sellen :o)

Without them, no great products would ever come out. - xero

Early and late adopters, same as good and evil, just different points of view. Some need a reason to overcome self-imposed barriers. - Eli Robillard

Until they sell one, it's not a product. It's just an idea. The Pre may turn out to be the next great smart phone. Or not. Until people start buying and using it, it's a little Pre-mature (I crack myself up) to be calling it a "great product." - Kevin Pedraja

tall poppy syndrome - Maurice Walshe

Great ideas and prototypes do not always make great products. - JosephLew1s

Never underestimate the power of envy. - Tom Guarriello

Joseph - bingo - Apple excels at execution, which is why they aren't know for the Cuil syndrome (over hype under deliver). Palm's entire future depends on their ability to match the hype they've created IN THE REAL WORLD with the pre. I'm pulling for them, but the more Scoble (and others) hype it the more downside risk there is. - Brian Roy

For some people any/all change is bad. Progressive or not. - Enrique Gutierrez from twhirl

I am pulling for the Pre hardcore. - Nation Hahn

Perception. Some folks get it; others do not. No 1 size fits all. Unfortunately, some skeptics and haters hate the COMPANY so much they automatically hate / criticize anything produced by said company as a result. - Susan Beebe

Competition is great for everyone. I hope Palm does well (I had one of the first Palm Pilots), and I hope Apple responds to some of their cool UI stuff. - Mistletoe Glen

Greatness demands a reaction. Reactions can't always be positive or they wouldn't be genuine. - Todd Hoff

I'd also say you can't aim for "great" without making some tough choices, and as soon as you make those some people will hate your choices - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

We need the Bwana's. Keeps us honest. - Mike Doeff

Haters and skeptics are two pretty much completely different things: I totally understand Bwana et al being skeptical. I am myself a bit. That's based on past experiences and the expectation that things don't change easily. "Haters" on the other hand... the folks who just dismiss things out of hand... seem to do so either because they're either uneducated or fans of a competitive product and don't want the competition. - Ken Sheppardson

I STRONGLY believe in a healthy dose of skepticism. Moreover, skepticism to me equals, weigh the pros and cons and what will this product REALISTICALLY do for me, in practical terms. Dreaming and blowing money on things I don't need because of what they supposedly promise is foolish. - David Moore

great products are religions. Refers to Clash of Civilization by Samuel Huttington :p - Pico Seno

Because we've been burned far too many times in the past. For every great product there are hundreds that suck. - Alex Scoble

Because every great (or seemingly great) product has Hype and Expectation run-up. - Brian Roy

No product is perfect. - Morton Fox

SO TO RECAP: taste, envy, execution, buyer's remorse, audience/pipeline(concept/prototype/mass produced product) standpoint and past performance is no indicator of future success. Oh, and about the Scobleizer vs Bwana cage match: easy on the smiley emoticons - I'm losing the kayfabe ;) - Micah Wittman

My marriage taught me the sad reality of bait and switch. :-) - Rod Bauer from twhirl

In fact, the greater the stature of the skeptic, the greater the product. Skeptics and haters is a media term anyway - customers that love it are ALL that matter. - Ben Watson from twhirl

because of this http://xkcd.com/528/ - dK

because marketers always ask for your opinion - Lisa Schwartz

Ben Watson

Take the Positivity Challenge! - http://www.positivityblog.com/index...

January 9, 2009 from StumbleUpon - Comment - Like - Share

Good reminder that we get almost nothing from being negative and SO much from being positive. - Ben Watson

Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Keywords that scare me on a profile: expert, trainer, coach, marketer, speaker, leader. (not deal-breakers, just scare me)

December 8, 2008 from Ping.fm - Comment - Like - Share

Roney Smith, edythe, Nurse Katie and 10 other people liked this

Well, as a former customer service trainer I say BOO =P - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

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Obviously, it depends on context. "social media expert" and "Internet marketing coach" immediately make me believe they have no idea WTF they're talking about on either subject. Usually, it's not even a job title, just some junk they're saying they are. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

I can't include trainer, coach, marketer, or speaker in those. Those are generally valid professions. "Expert" and "leader" are titles you're not supposed to give yourself, with a few exceptions for leader, such as "team leader", "leader of x troops", etc. - xero

+1 - Jack Lhasa

I include those terms because, while they're valid professions, people re-purpose them for whatever they want when it comes to marketing online. When is the last time I saw an actual "coach" or "trainer"? Well, not sure I have yet. If I did, I didn't notice their title. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

guru is one that gets me - Ben Watson from twhirl

I could use .. axeholder . jaws of life user .. flame resisitant garment wearer , CPR instructor .. firetruckdriver , first aid trained - all words that would describe me , but I prefer to be *me *.. just me a "human bean" . People are too caught up on titles .. pretentious is the word .. - johnpiercy

I agree with ben - the self proclaimed guru always makes me laugh. - Richard McKay

to add to that .. were all just pebbles in the "Beach of Life " - johnpiercy

I can relate--and I'm a coach. :) - Molly Gordon

Ben Watson

My Twitter Weighs a Ton - http://mytwitterweighsaton.com/people...

January 1, 2009 from StumbleUpon - Comment - Like - Share

Analyizes and counts related words in your Twitterstream to determine what you're tweeting about the most. - Ben Watson

Ben Watson

a faster horse. : ryan mcmanuss blog : : the barbarian group - http://www.barbariangroup.com/posts...

December 30, 2008 from StumbleUpon - Comment - Like - Share

homer's PM is worth it alone... uncredited photo though - Ben Watson

Ben Watson

Google Plots Ad Model for Friend Connect, OpenSocial Widgets - MarketingVOX - http://www.marketingvox.com/google-...

December 30, 2008 from StumbleUpon - Comment - Like - Share

friendconnect starts to make ad sense - Ben Watson

Louis Gray

Scobleizer > It’s time for the geeks to sit down and shut up - http://scobleizer.com/2008...

December 23, 2008 from delicious - Comment - Like - Share

Kol Tregaskes, sofarsoShawn, Franklin Pettit and 12 other people liked this

Arrington's got him _right where he wants him_. - Louis Gray

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I mean that Scoble has a leadership position on FriendFeed and Twitter. TechCrunch has a leadership position on blogs. As Scoble gravitates to where he is strong, and engages here, it gives him more authority. By pushing Scoble to go back to blogging, Arrington has him playing on his home turf. Why give up power if you have it? That's why Mike and other A-Listers shy away. - Louis Gray

I have this feeling that, the more we focus on becoming more powerful, the faster this is all going to fall apart. - Shawn Farner

I don't think Scoble really has a home turf. He's good everywhere: blogs, video, social media, conferences, et al. - Mitch

And Shawn, that's one of the major reasons I like Robert. He's genuine. Being participatory is not about power. But for others, it can be seen that way. - Louis Gray

Mitch, Scoble makes his own home turf due to focus and the capability to both ingest a lot of data and push out a lot of data. I do a fraction of both, and it is time-consuming! Having been at some conferences, I'll tell you he comes up whether he is there or not. :-) - Louis Gray

Scoble is an alpha-geek. Although it has taken me a while to appreciate his contributions, for the most part I do. - Mattb4rd

Louis: sssshhhhh, we all have Mike thinking we're playing his game now. The longer we keep him asleep the better off we all are. It's sort of like how Netscape fumbled by waking up the bear, er, Microsoft, too early. So, keep your voice down when you talk about this stuff, don't want Mike to hear us. OK? ;-) - Robert Scoble

Top 10 most embarassing moments in social media and technology journalism. - Ben Watson from twhirl

Oops. Sorry, Robert. I'll delete the thread now. :-) - Louis Gray

An interesting feature would be to close comments on a thread. Probably better than outright deleting a thread if you're wanting to halt a conversation. - Mitch

Jenn Lowther

YouTube - best commercial ever - http://www.youtube.com/watch...

December 18, 2008 from StumbleUpon - Comment - Like - Share

kids arent all that bad actually...just give them the candy - Ben Watson from twhirl

Dave Winer

Is a netbook a cheap laptop? (Scripting News) - http://www.scripting.com/stories...

December 18, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Jordi Soler, Warner Crocker, Shawn Farner and 2 other people liked this

"First, I agree that a netbook is a cheap laptop, although of course I'd prefer "inexpensive," but let's not quibble. It's that, and it's a new market category." - Dave Winer from Bookmarklet

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I agree - it is a market category. - Ben Watson from twhirl

It's cheap because almost all netbooks lacks the functionalities of an expensive ultra portable - such as: a high quality and high resolution display (see Vaio Z, TZ, TT series), an internal DVD drive (not necessary for everyone), Firewire port, high speed CPU, 4 GB RAM support, instant-on for media playback, higher disk capacities, etc. So all these make Netbook a new category for me - a new category that's adequate for 90%. - Burak "cyrus" Bayburtlu

PCmag seems to agree with you, they are interchangable in their article Eight laptops under $800 where half of those machines are netbooks. http://tinyurl.com/3potth - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

nope, they are small and less feature rich laptops... and most of them are cheap. - jkkmobile

To see netbooks as laptops manque is to miss only everything. I relate to my netbook entirely differently from how I did to my laptop. For one thing, the netbook comes everywhere. It's so light it has become a portable accessory, rather than an additional thing to lug and leave. - tom matrullo

Paul Thurrott

Court Filing: Microsoft Knew About, Refused to Fix Xbox 360 Flaw - http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article...

December 16, 2008 from WinInfo - Comment - Like - Share

TiTi, Andy Breeding, Spencer and 6 other people liked this

wow! ...on behalf of all XBox 360 owners. Good times for the game disc manufacturers!! - Ben Watson from twhirl

Anthony Farrior

Facebook Connect Coming To Twitter - http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008...

December 15, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Jennifer Van Grove, Kevin Whalen, Jorge Escobar and 13 other people liked this

"Soon, anyone with a Facebook account will soon be able to use it as login for micro-blogging service Twitter, we've learned. That's because Twitter is at this very moment working on an integration with Facebook Connect -- the service that allows Facebook members to login to third-party Web sites using their Facebook account." - Anthony Farrior from Bookmarklet

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Whoa! - Anthony Farrior

Yikes! Twitbook? Fwitter? - Bill Sodeman

More like FaceBitter ,lol - Anthony Farrior

I wish they were more specific about what they meant by "integration". Authentication? or just inviting your Facebook friends to join Twitter? - Daniel Sims

LOL @Anthony's FaceBitter - that may be the case indeed. - Ben Watson from twhirl

All of this social media connect stuff is making me swimmy-headed like - Susan Beebe

I put a Google Connect Widget on a web site of mine, but I don't know what for. If you log in, it's not going to make any difference that I see. - Ian May

@Daniel very good comment -- it's not so much integration, but more like convenience - Jorge Escobar

Something tells me social media is on the verge of a new and exciting transformation. I can't wait. - Andy DeSoto

Robert Scoble

Tumblr’s lead dev: “Scoble doesn’t know what he’s talking about” - http://scobleizer.com/2008...

December 15, 2008 from Scobleizer -- Tech geek... - Comment - Like - Share

Franklin Pettit, Joe Dawson, Adam and 17 other people liked this

Great points - and I agree - Even though I primarily post through FF here and on my own blog, I still have my Tumblr account because I just feel like something big is going to happen for them next year. And agreed about Marco as well (Instapaper for iPhone is fantastic). - James Hull

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My eyes are crossing from the iterative self-reference... =D - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Just having some fun. Of course he doesn't listen to me, so he will never see this, right? Hah! - Robert Scoble

I love the tweet. Draw people to Scobleizer.com with the possibility that Robert Scoble might be wrong. - Shawn Farner

Does this tactic mark the shift to long tail phase and tactics for Scoble? - Ben Watson from twhirl

ha ha, would you have posted this even if Marco hadn´t made his comment? - Peter Efland

Tumblr is super cool, and I always find I wanna use it more often than I do. But was thinking the other day with the Twitterblogr if that would get what Tumblr doesnt really have - at least not as easily - conversation? - Peter Efland

Peter: actually, yes. I found it because I was doing some research on Tumblr for a Fast Company column. - Robert Scoble

quote from article: "I don’t think much of Mike Arrington* and haven’t read any of his sites in years. If I accidentally open a link to his site, I cringe and close it faster than I’d close Goatse." lol - Karim

Robert, Marco also updated his post with a comment about your blog post: "OK, at least the guy has a sense of humor." :-D - Karim

Karim: so, how did he hear about it if he isn't listening to me? - Robert Scoble

I think this shows real class Robert; great post - Eiso Kant

lol Robert good question! maybe a little bird told him? or he doesn't close *your* blog faster than he would close Goatse? ;-) - Karim

Karim: I didn't tell him. But I did Tumble it, which showed up on his page. I'm sure someone emailed him too. - Robert Scoble

I love the idea of Tumblr and I'm experimenting with ways to make it work for a new side project. Re: Marco I applaud him for saying what he really thinks, and it seems like it's actually working in his favor. :) - Jennifer Van Grove

Marco just posted that a Facebook friend emailed him the article and asked him if it was really him. - Robert Scoble

He's entitled to his opinion of course, but publishing it online might not be the smartest career move. Future employers might think twice about hiring a lead developer who publishes statements like that in their blog. - John

John - I wouldn't hesitate to hire him... actually I'd prefer him. Give me someone with an opinion and the guts to say it as opposed to some schmuck that tries to make sure no one will ever be offended by anything they say. - Brian Roy

Tumblr's an interesting platform. I opened an account in September, did a test post and promptly forgot about it until this weekend when I clicked on a link of Fred Wilson's in FF and decided to give it a try. It looks a great way of posting ad hoc notes or pics via an iPhone app to the Tumblog. - Sally Church

Robert: I love your style! : ) Tumblr was a briallant idea with a bad execution. (Note: I heard something about Tumblr days and days after - by the help of your this blog post - like your lots of listeners:) - Erhan Erdogan

Not a huge fan of tumblr myself, but then again, I really don't know what I'm talking about. - Jim Is Not Smart

Veronica

I have a hard time remembering the internet before YouTube, but it's only 4 years old! Amazing how it became so entrenched in our culture.

December 11, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Chris Luckhardt, ·[▪_▪]·, Burak Arikan and Fee501st liked this

Back in the day, it was hard to send video at 300 baud. - Robert Hafer

I have a hard time remembering the internet before The Amazing Netscape Fish Cam - Fee501st

.mov attachments - thats what you need to think back to. you loved that! - Ben Watson from twhirl

Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Google Chrome Has 10 Million Users; Are You One of Them? - http://mashable.com/2008...

December 11, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Mathieu Ayel, tomit, Mike Reynolds and 28 other people liked this

"Google has announced that its Chrome browser is now out of beta – an unusually quick transition for Google considering that Gmail still bears the “Beta” tag, 4+ years after its launch. In the announcement, Google claims “more than 10 million active users around the Globe,” a believable number considering the roughly 1-3 percent market share according to various estimates that the browser has been able to attract so far (3.4% of Mashable readers use it too)." - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah from Bookmarklet

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Yep - Shevonne

NO I am not. - Mona Nomura

tried it and switched back because my form-filler didn't work with it. - BEX

No. Google has a hell of a long way to go (featurewise) if they want to catch up with Firefox. - Eric P

No, I'm on OS X here - Uwe Schwarz

ditto - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

No, until they do not support plugins/extensions and mac, I wouldn't have. - Leandro Ardissone ⍨

Half of the time. Right now I'm on Firefox. This morning, on Chrome. - Kamilah Gill

No. When I tried it, I noticed it installed a Google update manager process. I don't think this is necessary for my usage. If there's a way to disable that, I'll give it another try. - Wade Dorrell

Nope. I'm on Linux. - Alejandro

No, no Mac version - Sally Church

I was until I replaced my Sony VAIO laptop with a MacBook Pro. I really like it on Windows, though. - Akiva Moskovitz

I am at least 4 of their users - Ben Watson from twhirl

It depends on their definition of "active." I have the program downloaded onto my home PC and I've used it once in the past month or so. Does that count? - James Ferguson

Maybe 40% of the time. I don't like that Chrome doesn't tell you that it's updated. I never know what version I'm using until I specifically go look. - Kenton

I'm one of them - AJ Batac

I'll give it another chance when it supports extensions - Paolo Feadin

me2 ! - αida®

a resounding YES! - Nathan Chase

Google is good if you want to do something quick. I always have Firefox and Google running simultaneously. At home, I just use Safari. - Shevonne

Yes I am! I ♥ Chrome. - Clay Newton

No. That whole Mac thing. - Derrick

I don't think it will be unless they do some modifications because they use the same WebKit. Could be a potential lawsuit. It's strange that Chrome took off for PC users, but Safari didn't. I wonder why. - Shevonne

I use Google Chrome most of the time, on my computer at least, it loads much faster than Firefox, and I never was a big extension user anyway. - Jamelle

I'm on Linux. I'm actually really hoping they'll get Picasa on OSX soon. No hurry on Chrome. - Bruce Lewis from fftogo

Nope. Don´t think I will be even if they did manage to release a mac version. - Thomas Bøhm

If they get around to releasing a Mac version I'll definitely try it out. Unless they take too long in which case I'll be too miffed to care. - Deborah Fitchett

yep. and what's more, loving it to the max. - vijay

Yes, on 2 XP's - a god box and a decent 17 inch laptop. If you have a slower computer or at least one with a slow hard drive (caugh... laptop), then Chrome is a definite winner as it starts up soooo much faster than firefox. Loading pages seems a bit snappier too, but not as dramatic as the start up time. On a godly computer... firefox is a better choice as it scrolls much smoother with one of those smooth mouse plugs. And then there is all those other plugins too for firefox. Minor details. ;-) - Adrian

I LOVED Chrome on my PC, but I recently just switched to Mac and really don't want to jump between Windows and OSX just to browse the web when Firefox pretty much does the trick. I just miss that light weight browser feel that Chrome has :( - Devlin Dunsmore from twhirl

Heck yess. Ditto on what Jamelle said; when I was using Firefox, I only had about three or four addons/extensions I used. - deepikaur

What Adrian said. For those on high end comps chrome's edge over Fx on startup speed is negligible. - vijay

yes I am. it is so Fast - nesman89 from twhirl

i switch between chrome and FF - Sarah Perez

I'm a Flock rocker... - Gus

I was loving Chrome on XP, but that's on the other partition and I really don't go there much anymore. Although, I'm curious to see what happens with the newest firefox since the engine is at least as fast as Chrome. It's all the other bloat FFx will need to work on to keep up. As far as add-ons, meh. I don't use many and they just cause more bloat for me. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

I love Chrome - and still go back and forth between it and firefox. But I need my firefox add-ons too much. - Peter Efland

Until this is available for Macs natively, there's always Stainless which is quite similar in concept. - Glenn Batuyong

On and off, yes. - Kol Tregaskes

I was using it on and off, especially when using google sites like gmail and docs till I had to give up my work computer (vista), now I am back on my own macbook...no google chrome love for mac users yet - Rajiv Doshi

I still use Firefox because I have found many frustrations with Google Chrome, especially no bookmarking and videos don't play at all, and lack of plugins. Hopefully the new version of Chrome out of beta, will solve most of these problems. I'm downloading it right now and trying it out again. - Alvin

Yes, I love Google Chrome! - Mike Reynolds

I love portable Chrome when I am on someone else's PC: it doesn't require PortableApps and is way faster than portable Firefox. Can't browse Facebook properly though! On my PC (which BTW has Linux on) I prefer Firefox with its extensions. - Flavio

I'm happily one! I wish it was on the mac already!!! - tomit

The Apple Room: Nadine Schaeffer

My question set for the day: Those of you with Mac laptops, how often do you use the built-in video camera? Do you use it mostly for work, or for fun, or both? What are your favorite video chat applications?

December 10, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Ben Watson and Shevonne liked this

I am using it all the time since I joined Seesmic.com. Now that I am relaunching my freelance business, I am going to use it as a form of podcasting. - Shevonne

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Not often. Just when I need to shoot a quick video or take a picture of myself. - Clay Newton

I have used the camera a couple times to take avatar photos, and for Webex. Real-time video for group meetings just doesn't seem high quality enough to justify the extra fidgeting at the moment. People have terrible lighting, and add that to low-res output, and the results are underwhelming. There's a reason Cisco puts so much emphasis on lighting in their Telepresence products. - Jason Wehmhoener

For Skype. But not very often. - Thomas Bøhm

Never use it personally - orionstarr

I use it for Skype, and messing in Photo booth from time to time. - Simon Wicks

Think I used it once to take the photo for my login and then putzed around on Photo Booth for a little bit. That's about it. - ronin

I rarelly use it. Still expecting Adium to support the built-in video camera - Nuno Curado from twhirl

I use it for Skype, Delicious Library and Photo Booth on the odd occasion. - Paul Grav

Several times per day for Skype, iChat or Google Talk sessions. - Peter van Teeseling from twhirl

I can't wait for Adium to support the camera. Until then I don't use it too much. - Amani

Me too Amani ... Adium + Video = Ossem - Nadine Schaeffer

I use it to record video in video or karaoke on our website (as do thousands of other Mac owners) at http://overlay.tv - Ben Watson from twhirl

Never. Video isn't my thang. HAAAAAAAAAAAAY HUEBEL - Akiva Moskovitz

iChat is a really great way to stay in touch, especially with far-away contacts. Unlike a phone call, you actually feel like you're hanging out with someone. - David Poe

Photo Booth occasionally, iChat or Skype very occasionally, MSN in Windows more often - Timothy Griffin

I use it very often as it a very good cam. I use often with iChat (Gtalk) & Skype mostly - Jean-François Amadei from twhirl

I use it as a mirror for shaving... - spin

James

i think Cisco CTO @padmasree just said that video communication is key to overcoming and enabling Asymmetric Follow. I disagree

December 9, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

as in video can enable assymetrical or overcome it? or is it not required to overcome? - Ben Watson from twhirl

Fast Company

The Twine that Binds: Q&A with Nova Spivack - http://bit.ly/i6Cfhtt...

December 9, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Ben Watson and Robert Scoble liked this

Spivack gets it, "A keyword search finds haystacks, but what you really want are the needles." - Ben Watson from twhirl

Ben Watson › Comments