+102 for Bill Waterson references in picture Kevin or words Sinterclas
- Steve C
cute but what happened to festivus this year?
- Laura Norvig
Merry Christmas to the FriendFeed team. You guys rock! FriendFeed reacts quickly and you're adding wonderful features all the time (Thanks soooo much for the "edit" feature.)
- Mitchell Tsai
Happy Holidays FF crue -- you've made this an excellent and memorable year for many of us. Facebook couldn't have done it without you! :)
- Christopher Galtenberg
w00t you gave me the best online year in 15 years!!! ;p Thanks a lot, everyone, for what you've done here XD
- ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,
Sigh. Sometimes it is the little touches, like seasonal logos or easter eggs, that mark a site as a living project, and that you really miss when the developers have all moved on to something else.
- Michael R. Bernstein
I was nodding in agreement until the end where the suggestion is an empty text box where the user can type free-form text. I would instead suggest that the destination page should check for a cookie from Google, Yahoo, AIM, etc. and if you find a valid login cookie from (say) Yahoo, show them a login popup from Yahoo, let them log in, then send them back to the original site with Yahoo vouching for them.
- Matt Cutts
Funny, I must not have read closely enough. I thought Chris was arguing against the free-form text box. I agree with you that the text box is not the way to go at all. However, a very simple browser plugin could auto-populate that behind the scenes. Even better, a plugin could obviate the step of typing in a password at the originating party completely.
- DeWitt Clinton
Hmm, I'm wondering if this is something that could be hoisted via Gears.
- DeWitt Clinton
How would the user FIRST indicate to the browser who their identity provider is? And no, I don't think saying "buy a Chrome OS netbook" is a valid answer. :P
- Chris Messina
Matt, the cookie is dead - the selector is the future (Just my not so humble opinion)
- Jesse Stay
DeWitt, you guys should seriously look into supporting information and action cards in Chrome. That would solve a lot of this problem.
- Jesse Stay
Of course, as Kevin Marks said earlier today that will also depend on an <input type="openid"/> HTML 5 element being adopted into the spec
- Jesse Stay
IMO in the future there will be no sign in buttons - you use your information card and it auto-provides context, logs you in, and gives you the experience you want. All via OpenID, oAuth, etc. but the user won't even know that.
- Jesse Stay
I'd hope there'd be some kind of strategy to it! Though, if I were to take the "obvious" path, it's because people want less computer for their computing these days. And, as the video says, more people are spending more time in the browser, so...! why not just rid of all the other stuff that gets in the way?
- Chris Messina
Google Chrome runs web pages and applications with lightning speed. Chrome OS runs them even faster. Faster means more users on the web. More users on the web means more users using Google. That's a pretty simple, and highly effective, strategy.
- DeWitt Clinton
Well, I think the coupling of Chrome OS to specific hardware reqs is one of the more interesting things here. It gives Google a "hand to reach out into reality" in a way that it only previously had with Android/G1 devices.
- Chris Messina
(As always, speaking for myself, not Google) I assume the coupling to hardware specs is the only reasonable way to guarantee sane behavior. Encouraging people to install it on arbitrary hardware would open it up to all the problems that any non-Windows OS (and sometimes even Windows) has on arbitrary hardware -- driver hell and unpredictable performance. Very similar to Apple's approach, but without the overpriced hardware.
- Joel Webber
International growth has started to completely dominate on FriendFeed since August. Below is an unlabeled graph of page views on FriendFeed this month, broken down by country. Guess which country is the largest green slice below? (Hint: it is not English-speaking)
where other is proxied users from Iran. ;)
- EricaJoy
If we were not blocked , we would win a big slice for iran :(
- Milad.p
from FreshFeed
Both China and Iran would have been in there if they were not both blocked currently
- Bret Taylor
Is Russia any of the other slices pictured above? (other than gray)
- Itachi
That's where Australia is, in the grey :)
- Glenn Slaven
OMG. Friendfeed is going the way of Orkut ;) Btw, is Norway/Scandinavia even visible in all this ? Just curious.
- Thomas Bøhm
@thomas. even though Orkut is Turkish (the guy), it is (site) not big in Turkey.
- Ozgur Demir
i'm sure finland is forbidden long time ago from this list ;)
- Nia
from fftogo
Just look at the public feed for 2 secs or 2 hours - yep, definitely.
- Micah Wittman
from iPhone
Facebook has a very similar story as far as I know.. we are a communicative nation:)
- Neşe Uyanık
Who's Gray? It's Gray, Louis of course :)
- Micah Wittman
Thank you for sharing this graph, Bret.
- Micah Wittman
Interesting - though for the sake of data visualization, pie charts are the worst of all.... :)
- See-ming Lee 李思明 SML
See-ming, a-hem, take a look at your avatar ;)
- Micah Wittman
@Bret, what is the exact number of Turkish people on FF?
- Ozkan Altuner
Ozkan, I'd be curious to know too, but I have a feeling there's an internal policy about not releasing absolute numbers, hence the percentages. But it never hurts to ask :)
- Micah Wittman
@Micah, it's the page view, however, not the number of users :)
- Ozkan Altuner
Good point, Ozkan. But I can't remember Visitor or View counts ever publicly reported before. But today could be the first time! :)
- Micah Wittman
I'm not surprised that Turkey is the green portion. I've seen more and more Turkish posts in my home feed. I thought it was just a biased sample, but perhaps not.
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
Intense competition between Iran and Turkey occurred :D
- Nimaa
Hmmmmmmmmmmm...MOZAMBIQUE luminous orange l guess
- Pam Gwenzi
the desire to push the boundaries of internet of the turkish is troubling. the possesive tendecies of the turkish can be observed in the currently popular ''ff bu deYil'' (this is not ff) comment. turks are crowding ff, westerners are in panic!
- ferayebend
international growth dominates FF and yet the USA dominates the world. Not always in good ways either. What is the link? I don't think there is one. All I can say is that I love the USA and I love FriendFeed. What does it all mean? More free, cold beer is needed to find the answers.
- Morgan Haley
.. because, Turkish Facebook users are 10-20 years old. FF is very good alternative for older users. (and in addition Twitter is non-useful)
- Murat Tatar
If that is so, can we get some way of filtering by language? I want to follow more international people but be able to ignore them or their friends when they post in what I cannot read :)
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
<h2>How Hubbub Works</h2> There are three parties in the Pubsubhubbub model. There's a Publisher (FeedBurner, for example), and a Subscriber (perhaps Netvibes) and the communication is facilitated through a Hub (Google's AppSpot Hub is the demo and most popular Hub so far). The publisher knows that every time new content is published it's going to notify the Hub - the Hub that gets notified will be declared at the top of the publisher's document, just like an RSS feed URL. So the Publisher delivers new content to the Hub and then the Hub will deliver that message immediately to all the Subscribers who have subscribed to recieve updates from that particular publisher. This is very different from the traditional model of a subscriber polling a publisher directly every 5 to 30 minutes (or less) to check and see if there's new content. There usually isn't and so that model is inefficient and slow. Hubbub is nearly immediate and only takes action when something important occurrs. It's...
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- Marshall Kirkpatrick
Pretty good. For context, I think it's important to point out that the hub in PuSH is acting as a relay. The relay is necessary largely for scaling purposes — that is, it plays a very important role, but the technology underlying the hub is extremely simple.
- Chris Messina
A better example publisher would be ReadWriteWeb, rather than FeedBurner (which would likely turn into a hub itself). Let's say RWW posts a new blog post; the blogging software then pings any number of hubs with a message: "Hey, new content here". The hub says, "Great thanks," grabs the content, and then *pushes* the content to everyone on its "subscriber" list.
- Chris Messina
RWW could send out those notifications itself, but it would be highly inefficient. It's better to have a hub handle and route all those notifications since that's *all* it would be doing.
- Chris Messina
And, it's also not unlike SMTP ("simple mail transport protocol"). The difference is that it works over Port 80 using HTTP ("hypertext transport"), which means that you can effectively "send message to URLs" — not just email accounts! Thus, http:// status.net/chrismessina could send a message to http://twitter.com/marshallk.
- Chris Messina
Chris, you're making it sound even more interesting than I was aware of.
- Marshall Kirkpatrick
Marshall, I agree with you on this. Chris is indeed opening our "third-eye" on the range of use cases for this. It is a powerful "atomizing" protocol delivered with very simple underlying technology. I've been looking at XMPP, AMQP & a Comet-derivative for an application that may now be accomplished quite simply via PubSubHub / PuSH. It would also be great if Chris could also get Jyri to comment over here with his views. - http://twitter.com/AAinslie
- Alexander Ainslie
What about ssh? ftp? editors for coding? There's a lot of things that won't run on ChromeOS
- Itachi
@Maxamad - Robert was talking about the applications he saw demoed at the TechCrunch Real Time Crunchup. I don't believe anyone demoed photoshop there.
- DeWitt Clinton
Yet you can't ignore the fact there's a lot of things that ChromeOS simply won't be able to do just in a browser. If you can somehow get a high quality photoshop-equivalent image editing suite online with something like Cappuccino or canvas, I might be impressed, but there's much it can't do
- Itachi
@Maxamad - My coffee maker makes a lousy panini press, too, but I still use it every morning. Likewise, my smartphone doesn't run photoshop, but I'm on it a lot more than my iMac, which does. Your point?
- DeWitt Clinton
My point is that it seems underpowered and it doesn't look like a viable replacement for my computer right now; although I'll admit I don't think it was intended to be. There just doesn't seem much reason to buy it if it's this stripped down besides the speed factor
- Itachi
Fair enough. Personally I'd love an inexpensive fast portable device with a decent keyboard that lets me do even 80% of what I need to do (the 80% that's already online). If Chrome OS happens to be the best platform in the world for that, then I'd say it was a pretty big win for everyone.
- DeWitt Clinton
and even if everything ran on it, what's the point of it? There are already better implementations of these kind of features. I guess it might be a less-open-and-free linux for the masses who havent heard of linux yet, and that is not to be sneered at, Google can push it into manufacturers etc. Let's not forget their goal: everything through them
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
@Joelle - In 4 years at Google I've never once heard a single person at any level of the company articulate "everything through Google" as a goal. Literally not once. Quite the contrary, I've heard (and said myself) hundreds or thousands of times that it is an explicit anti-goal.
- DeWitt Clinton
@Maxamad webGL exposes OpenGL pixel shaders to Javascript, this means a lot of photoshop style filters can be offloaded directly to hardware from Javascript. For iPhoto-like photo editing (fix exposure, contrast, etc) you can definitely do it. You could even do it in pure JS, especially with server-help to send you previews. Netbooks are not graphic workstations, so I don't see a need for professionals to want to run Adobe CS on them.
- Ray Cromwell
DeWitt - I am not as paranoid about Google as I perhaps sound at times, but I find it strange that there is such disconnect between the rank and file at google (all smart guys with a tad of idealism) and what I have heard in business conferences where I have heard executives define Google as "the dominant advertising company" (not how they describe themselves in a tech or user...
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- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
@Joelle: w.r.t. "Google in control of way too much": I just don't understand how building a free OS in the open, on a Linux base, open-source, with no proprietary APIs qualifies as "in control". This is a machine I desperately want to be able to give to my mom and my in-laws, because it will be so much simpler than the mess they have now, and does everything they need it to. But if any...
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- Joel Webber
@Joelle: Seems to me there are many more people blindly crying "nothing new here, move along" or "ooh, scary Google" than there are people blindly crying "genius." I used to be upset about this, but now I realize it's a huge competitive advantage for Google when a lot of people who might otherwise be competitors simply have no clue what the good ideas are behind what we're doing. It...
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- Daniel Dulitz
@Joel: this is why I called it a "kiosk" OS - it will be far easier to use for people who just want a machine to communicate and do the occasional letter (via webapps). And yes, for that usage it is far better than the closed options. No discussion there. And indeed Google could not work on an existing full Linux project, because every other distro would have called foul. And since the...
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- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
@Daniel - [slightly rejigged to make it shorter] these weren't sales execs, these were officer level, first time was 2003... But it doesn't matter really. But come on, being such a successful company with lots of talent, and so dominant in the market, a near monopoly in some areas, we are allowed to be a bit wary as users. Especially since most the products are free and there is no...
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- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
I realise this all made me sound far more anti Google than I am :( I'm not, really. This is a move by Google to anticipate where things are going, and point them in a direction that protects Google's business model (i.e. stay in the browser instead of using apps and clients for specific purposes ala adobe AIR or iphone), via a return to the thin client. And that is totally a fair...
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- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
@Joelle, do be wary. But companies without lock-in have continuous accountability. I respect people who say, "I don't use Google (or a specific Google product) because Google did Y, and that's over the line for me." That's accountability. But "I don't use/engage with G (or specific G product) because G is big and scary" is harder for me to understand, because that treats G as though it...
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- Daniel Dulitz
@Joelle, also, my group is a central contact point for monetization models at Google. Typically months or years after a product launches, its team contacts us to discuss whether and how to monetize. I remember only one team ever coming to us before launch, and it wasn't Chrome. Thinking about revenue and profiling and so on matters most if you have small ideas. If you have big ideas,...
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- Daniel Dulitz
Just enjoying the discussion in the comments. :)
- Matt Cutts
from iPhone
FWIW, I feel like anyone saying "wow, how innovative -- those guys are geniuses" about Chrome OS itself is being a bit silly. In essence it's actually kind of a simple thing, and one that is a recognition of the fact that the web is finally coming into its own as a platform. Arguably Chrome OS *isn't* a platform -- it's just a way of getting everything else out of the way and...
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- Joel Webber
Meh. You have to realize Scoble is a cheerleader for this stuff. He will come out with another blog about the negatives in a few weeks. Not trying to take a shot or anything, but that's what he does. Chrome OS isn't going to take over much, especially if people have to buy new hardware just to run an enhanced browser.
- Spencer
The way I see it is this, there is a segment of population, namely tweens and teens, who spend most of the computer use online and not running desktop applications, who could use an ultraportable $150 netbook that powers on instantly and has awesome battery life, and is good enough for their communication needs as well as the needs of school. Do these people need Windows 7? I don't think so.
- Ray Cromwell
I have a $600 HP laptop and I run nothing but chrome 95% of the time. I also run Pidgin and VirtualBox every so often but mostly it's just Chrome. I would be happy to do this on a smaller/cheaper machine.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
@Daniel - I like the vision you describe. No doubt I can align with that. It's also a very good point you made about coercive versus uncoercive. If too many people mix them up there will be no reward for being uncoercive. Guilty as charged (I'm irrationally anti hype - hype triggers me in silly ways -because typically it unustly ignores other products and prior art etc. - I'm sure you...
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- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
@Joelle, that makes sense to me. If you block third-party cookies like I do, I think G has far less data about you as a passive surfer (e.g. AdSense) than many other parties do. Sadly, there's no way to turn off passive ISP tracking like you can choose to turn off passive Google tracking. Anyway, I don't think you need to choose now on the basis of whether you can trust G in 10 years;...
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- Daniel Dulitz
@Nick: I was actually aware of all of those except net2ftp, and I must say, I am having a change of heart towards ChromiumOS. Just tried it out today and it's pretty nice. I guess my only objection is the dummification of the computer, but if it works for some people and is fast, I would definitely get it. It looks like a really nice side computer as well
- Itachi
Yeah, I think the whole side-computer thing is a big deal. I use an Ubuntu netbook a lot, and the only thing I have on that which won't work as well under ChromeOS is Dropbox.
- Nick Lothian
Everybody talks about filtering the real-time stream of information online but the Activity Streams community is the place where those conversations go on between leading engineers at the world's biggest and smallest social networks, with the goal of replacing the "walled garden" model of social networking with an open, interoperable communication marketplace. If Activity Streams succeeds, you will be able to subscribe to and filter the activities of your friends across multiple different networks, without having to sign-up for or even ever have heard of those other networks. This is almost the equivelent of AT&T phones being able to make calls to Verizon phones. Of rail-transport companies being able to ship goods across the country over different railroad networks - because the rails for the trains to run on are the same size. It's different though, because of the granular filtering by type of activity. Applications built on top of Activity Streams will allow the equivilent of a...
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- Marshall Kirkpatrick
Can't wait. And no redundancies, please.
- Laura Norvig
Will be interesting to see how much granularity over permissions the content creators will have. Will I have to just choose "yes" or "no" that anyone who is connected to me anywhere will be allowed to see my stuff? How could greater control work - seems complicated.
- Laura Norvig
Here's a fractal I use that may be useful as a template for Activity Streams... 1) interest-generating opener 2) background on current threats/tension to resolve 3) opportunity or vision of a better state 4) strategy w/steps to get there 5) issues to solve before accepting strategy 6) next steps by stakeholders
- Mark Frazier
This is awesome Marshall. I'm wondering whether we broaden the concept beyond messaging to decentralize the social graph itself, so app developers can leverage existing relationships without having to build on top of a facebook or a twitter...(or perhaps that is implied here?)
- Tony Zito
Marshall ... thanks for the initial explanation... I've been intrigued by all the references to Activity Streams and http://activitystrea.ms/ by people I know and trust - I just haven't had the time to join another mailing list. Just yesterday I was on the site trying to understand more and reading Chris Messina's almost-year-old post: http://factoryjoe.com/blog...
- Dan York
Will this "first draft" evolve into a RWW post?
- Dan York
"You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. Remember — all I am offering is the truth, nothing more."
- Itachi
from Bookmarklet
NOT! The point ignored in the article is that, with the exception of the Facebook URL blocking, EVERYTHING else is using URLs to access those services. And the reason those services even exist is because of the Web and its URLs. Of course, for some users and services, URLs aren't friendly or not practical, so it makes perfect sense that they'll be hidden. But for others, they're fine and they will never be hidden.
- ·[▪_▪]·
What I took away is that, for convenience, people will less often push beyond what is presented in these limited interfaces. HTTP is still the underlying mechanism, but there's a real risk of most people's typical media consumption being re-focused through a small number of large commercial entities... kind of the antithesis of what many hope the open web should continue to be.
- LogEx
it's kinda like saying "telephone numbers will die", utter nonsense in the real world even if the incidence of direct use drops. You will always have a URL, even if it's just the IP address because you need a way of locating a device on the network. Now, the interfaces of the devices/apps that access this network is another matter entirely and this isn't a new thing at all - it used to...
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- alphaxion
α, I guess I'm not so optimistic. Sure there will hopefully always be a way for motivated people to access whatever is out there, but the more things get concentrated through highly-controlled interfaces, the more resources are drawn away from the rest. It's not a zero-sum game, but I'm still concerned for the greater good if most access gets dumbed down through walled gardens.
- LogEx
LogEx +1. You get what I'm saying. URLs won't go away completely — but they'll increasingly be relegated to "technical" or "advanced" interfaces. And I'm not sure that's for the better.
- Chris Messina
as I said, it's not a new trend. Tell me, how easy is it to type in the address of an SMB share path in OSX? compare that to the ease in Windows. It's one of the things I miss when I'm using my mac, the ability to type \\servername\sharename from my file browser. For some places, such as on a TV, I can understand limiting the interface to as simple as they can... tho doing if for profit...
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- alphaxion
alphaxion, you are right that this is the latest incarnation of a time-tested pattern... cycles that emerge whenever control can be exerted by dominant players in exchange for profits. I think the significance of this one is that it threatens to change the nature and dynamic of much of the popular use of the web, right at a time when many have been fighting hard to keep it open.
- LogEx
On the one hand, I love URLs and send weblinks by email to everyone I know. My grandmother and luddite mother know how to click on a link in an email and whether or not they understand the concept of a URL, they end up on a non-YouTube and non-Facebook page. ... The boyfriend on the other hand spends 100% of his online time on one website (+/- offsite links which he will occasionally...
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- Miss Elle
"However Play is a very unique Java framework. It does not really rely on the so-called Java Enterprise standards. It uses Java but tries to push all the good things from the frameworks based on scripting languages like Ruby On Rails, Django, ... etc. to the Java world. We really tried to get the best of the Java platform without getting the pain of traditional Java web development: slow development cycle, too much abstraction, too much configuration..."
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
And Bret is probably the first reasonable evaluator of existing Java web frameworks I see. Because 95% of those are in fact unreasonable. Bret! I will appreciate if you also try to find some reasons in HybridJava - http://www.hybridserverpages.com/ Alex
- Alex Serov
There was a lot of chatter about the future of FriendFeed this weekend. The short answer is that the team is working on a couple of longer-term projects that will help bring FriendFeedy goodness to the larger world. Transformation is not the end. Consider this the chrysalis stage -- if all goes well, a beautiful butterfly will emerge :)
Noticed the "leaked" Facebook UI screenshots and the groups blog post today, and both seem FriendFeed inspired: nice to see Facebook trying to bring the stuff we like about FriendFeed to a larger audience.
- Mark Trapp
Devil is in the details: "couple of longer-term projects that will help bring FriendFeedy goodness to the larger world" == Facebook projects with FriendFeed-like elements == no work on FriendFeed itself.
- EricaJoy
Paul, FriendFeed rocks as Gmail does ;)
- Orlando Pozo
Thanks for the update, the more you communicate, the less we have to speculate.
- Peter Hoffmann
The fact that these improvements are coming to Facebook and not friendfeed will not sway those who like friendfeed but dislike Facebook.
- Alex Scoble
Thank you Paul for bringing "FriendFeed goodness to the larger world" -- THAT sounds awesome!!
- Susan Beebe
But we knew this was the deal the moment the full details of the purchase of friendfeed by Facebook became public.
- Alex Scoble
Yeah, I don't give a crap about Facebook. I want to know about FriendFeed.
- Rochelle
Is it the interface people dislike about Facebook or the people they're friends with on Facebook? I can imagine being able to import all your subscribers from FriendFeed and have them in a separate group that doesn't interact with other groups you may have on Facebook.
- Cristo
I'm glad to hear this. I prefer FriendFeed to Facebook any day of the week.
- Nathan Clayton
And the answer for me would be some of both. I have real life friends and family that I don't necessarily want to get into the same discussions with as I do with people here.
- Cristo
And there's your answer, Rochelle. friendwho? friendwhat now? Oh, you mean Facebook! (No I mean friendfeed) friendwho? (rinse, lather, repeat)
- Alex Scoble
there are some ui differences (and i tend to prefer friendfeed in those cases) but i have friended quite a few FF people in FB and the experience is remarkably similar in many ways.
- Jason Wehmhoener
Another big difference is I don't think you get the same FOAF interaction on Facebook as on FriendFeed.
- Cristo
I like the "chrysalis stage" analogy - sounds cool.... goes an looks for FF goodness butterfly!
- Susan Beebe
Good to know that FriendFeed still has some fight left; hope that translates into a viable and sustainable platform/utility for the masses (though I quite enjoy the close-knit, uber-geek community that it's become).
- Christian
I don't like the chrysalis analogy. The butterfly emerges from the chrysalis and buggers off leaving the shell. Of course, it might then also get eaten by a bird. Tweet, tweet.
- Mark H
Note that he didn't say that FriendFeed.com was going away, only that they're diverted to bringing it to a much larger audience
- Jesse Stay
The problem is Scoble (Robert) and MG both just sent half of FriendFeed away so most of those that would benefit from this announcement won't even see it.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, I didn't get that from Paul's comment. I read that some of the friendfeed ideas will be going into FB. I like that idea, but I still prefer FF to FB because of the different conversations here that I don't have with friends and family.
- Travis Koger
from iPhone
Yeah, Paul's statement won't help friendfeed. This will just either give people more reason to go to Facebook or find another service entirely.
- Alex Scoble
What Alex and Rochelle said. This sounds like a "we're bringing FF to Facebook" announcement, and I don't give a damn about Facebook. I want to know what's happening HERE. And Cristo, both, but more the interface. I care about the friends I've made here, and I'm connected with many of them now on Facebook as well, but I prefer to interact with them here, because I like it better.
- Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
Travis, he didn't say that - you read that, but he didn't say that. I'm willing to bet FriendFeed.com will not go away.
- Jesse Stay
As much as I agree about Scoble and MG driving people away, they have also effectively flush out some comment from the FF team.
- Travis Koger
from iPhone
Travis, there are better ways of getting the FF team to comment
- Jesse Stay
I think it's the opposite, the butterfly is becoming this crawling caterpillar :)
- Jorge Escobar
Oh I don't think FF will go away, and damn will hope it doesn't either!
- Travis Koger
from iPhone
What I do see is more Facebook integrated into the FriendFeed environment - I think that's a good thing
- Jesse Stay
The critical difference between Facebook and FriendFeed is the social model. With Facebook as it is today, you need to be mutual friends to see each others content. There is a "fan page" model but it is oriented toward "publishing/celebrity" rather than information sharing. FriendFeed has an asymmetric model like Twitter, where you can easily discover someone's content without any "friend" gesture whatsoever, and you can follow without friending. This makes the converation more discoverable, and useful..
- Adina Levin
If the integration is bringing public/asymmetric to Facebook, then it will be very useful indeed. If the integration is to add FriendFeed-style service integration into the symmetric/private Facebook model, it will be much less useful - it's more of the same - I'll be able to more easily share updates from youtube or last.fm or delicious to my friend network, but be unable to discover new people and infomation.
- Adina Levin
Adina: And unless Facebook goes radically toward that model, it won't suffice for me. I could not care less about their upcoming redesigns.
- Christopher A Carr
@Jesse - I can't see any sign that they are working on FriendFeed at all. All the indications are that the FF team is now working on Facebook, and only Facebook. That's great for Facebook, and I'm sure they will do wonderful work there. But don't delude yourself that FriendFeed is going to get anything more than critical fixes, and maybe the occasional thing done in someone's spare time.
- Nick Lothian
Butterflies look totally different than caterpillars and they also fly away
- Melanie Reed
+100 Adina. The things I like best about FriendFeed (easy content/people discovery, FoaF, asymmetrical following and being followed) are completely opposite to Facebook's core model. That's why as much as people keep talking about Facebook adding FF-like features, I don't see the REAL FF core features making it over, because the mindset is different.
- Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
I don't see this announcement as anything new, or as reassuring. We knew from the time of the acquisition that there would be would be some movement of FF capabilities into FB. The real question is whether this means absorption of FF into FB or attracting the FB user base into FF. The comment about "bring[ing] FriendFeedy goodness to the larger world" still leaves that question open.
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
+1 everything Alex Scoble has said. Friendwhat? What's a feed? Who uses RSS anymore? We've got PubSubWTFOMGBBQ now!
- Mr. Gunn
Nick, Paul just said they're working on other projects right now. That still doesn't mean FriendFeed is going away. I'm not deluding myself at all. I'm telling everyone else they're deluding themselves by assuming it's going away. All the FriendFeed team is still using FriendFeed, and Paul just tried to give us comfort not to worry. For some reason we all don't want to believe him. It's actually kind of amusing.
- Jesse Stay
I wonder what the powers that be mean by "FriendFeedy goodness"? Is it understood what WE like about it vs. FB?
- Amy℠
Paul - Wishing you all the best as you tend your new butterfly garden :) I'll be here to enjoy them!
- Susan Beebe
Jesse: "For some reason we all don't want to believe him." <-- Don't want to believe what? He didn't really say anything.
- Christopher A Carr
This is not the news that Friendfeed fans were looking for.
- Raphael, Raphael
The issue isn't belief that they are going to do something. The question is what they are going to do, and whether that will continue the core value of FriendFeed, which is not just information aggregation but discoverability.
- Adina Levin
I know more about the "Last Days" and heaven than I know about what's going to happen to FriendFeed as we have come to know it than was given in your rather cryptic answer, Paul. :) And while that may not be a fair comparison (God actually gave details and signs), there is something definitely not forthcoming about your response. A person usually withholds details that affect another...
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- Melanie Reed
Melanie, in other words, Paul works for a technology company in Silicon Valley that doesn't disclose future features, products, and services until they are ready.
- Cristo
Hopefully this helps to quiet all of the "friendfeed is dying" talk. Because this thread proves ff is alive and well.
- Garin Kilpatrick
@Jesse - I read it differently to you. To me, Paul is saying "We are taking what we were working towards on FriendFeed, and trying to bring that goodness to a bigger audience". No one is claiming they are going to shut down FF.
- Nick Lothian
@Jesse - Want to make a bet on the number of new features added to FF before the end of the year?
- Nick Lothian
You read my mind. Having seen a few acquisitions, I am wondering if FF staff was told to put the site in bugfix mode.
- EricaJoy
from IM
Cristo, to deliver some straightforward talk is not about giving away company details. If you have a product that is original and stands on its own, you don't need to refer to it as a "butterfly". Many companies even promote something new and upcoming especially to their loyal user base. It gives a signal. A proper one. It tells your users and future users enough so that they can make an informed decision about what they want to do instead of keeping them on tenderhooks
- Melanie Reed
"the chrysalis stage in most butterflies is one in which there is little movement" (via wikipedia) So if you follow that metaphor then eventually FriendFeed will go through a metamorphosis -- that means it's not dead... really how hard can it be to get what he's saying?
- Chris Heath
Its pretty hard :) The burning question is if they are putting FF goodness in to the walled gardens that are Facebook or are they bringing FF openness to FB too. I think the people here want the open forums that are FF not the closed ones that are FB. If FB is going hybrid with both walled gardens and open forums that would be OK too. People on FF want open forums... like Twitter and FF... without the crude interface that is Twitter and without the uncertainty that is FF now.
- Ed Millard
Facebook is gonna have to rip off much of the privacy to maximize their product in the real-time web world. I am going to assume FF goodness is going to be applied to FB :) *crosses fingers*
- Susan Beebe
Just a thought... why does "longer-term projects that will help bring FriendFeedy goodness to the larger world" JUST mean facebook.com? What I get from this is that they are working on a range of things, maybe bringing the FriendFeed sauce to a range of sites, powered by the Facebook back end. Who knows what that means. A FriendFeed service powered by FacebookConnect? Also to......
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- Johnny Worthington
FB needs to leave the privacy for the walled garden and the inner circle. Their current user base likes that. They just need a second feed that is an open forum and you can talk there without it bleeding in to your inner circle feed.
- Ed Millard
Seems like the inner circle is breaking down some now, what with parents and other relatives friending teenagers. I'm guessing the information posted on the walls these days is not as private. Is there a way on FriendFeed to limit what on your wall can be seen by particular people and groups?
- Cristo
Yes, but blocking doesn't work so well since you can just use Chrome's Incognito mode to get around it.
- Alex Scoble
Translation: if you haven't switche to Facebook yet, you better do it now so you can get a good vanity URL.
- David Chartier
from iPhone
I don't know what all the fuss is about. But could we have the long answer too, please?
- Laura Norvig
Although I'm interested, FB != FF. I don't see how the two mix in a way that makes me feel otherwise. Mixing audiences is not a good thing for me (with a few exceptions) and I know others share the same thought.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
Did anyone notice that Robert Scoble didn't comment on this thread? What does this mean? Does it mean Robert Scoble won't exist soon? He must be working on a Monday afternoon, no? ;)
- Cristo
Paul, will FF be here in 1 year, 5 years?
- Robert Higgins
Robert, will you and I be alive in 5 years?
- Cristo
Cristo I am funking nobody, I would like Paul to quantify his post. Simple. Will FF be here in 1 year? Will FF be here in 5 years?
- Robert Higgins
Robert, I was trying to make the point that he might not know and can't predict what will happen over time.
- Cristo
IMO friendfeed shoud attract more general audience... Facebook and twitter are having more general users. Most of the FF users are tech bloggers or those who needs aggregation services... I dont know it's just my feeling or not . but this is my impression on FF. but it's great service.. the features are too good... but we will roam were we meet our friends... thats most of the people are into twitter and FB.
- Sarath
Sarath, is there a place you can get away from tech bloggers? :)
- Cristo
Ohhhh a perrrttty butterfly, I'm moist with anticipation.
- sofarsoShawn
Cristo: i almost made the same observation an hour or two ago when i first read through this posting and its comments. I was skimming and kept seeing alex, alex, alex... and thinking to myself... where's Robert!?!
- Chris Heath
@Sarath - I have a lot more in common with the people I've met here on FriendFeed than FB or Twitter. Twitter is too hard to search, and FB (and Twitter to a good extent) is driven by the people you know in RL (and unfortunately I don't have nearly as much in common in RL with my family, co-workers and acquaintences as I do with people scattered all over the world who I have met on FF)....
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- Fa La La La Lindsay
I think that in his cryptic statement he means, and a lot of people here agree with me, that more Facebook's going to get more FriendFeedy. Which doesn't mean that FF still isn't dead or doomed. After all, he works for Facebook now. FriendFeed=open forum, Facebook=walled garden, totally opposite master metaphors; but I don't think Zuckerberg gets it, and FF belongs to Zuckerberg now. So this is really about FB; FF's still in limbo. Still, some FF people friended me at FB, and I put them in a special list.
- Dennis Jernberg
@FF-team keep on rocking :). BTW I also think it's really cool you guys open-sourced tornado.
- alfred westerveld
+1 what alfred said, and good to hear words like "longer-term" & "beautiful" coming straight from The Walrus - keep that vision strong. Hope all goes well for FF team doing some good re-inventing the Octopus Garden of FB - seems you've got your work cut out for you there! It would be so nice if any way to keep a "simple & pure" form of FriendFeed alive (maintained and developed - more open source?) for us to enjoy, but no worries .... you've simultaneously raised the bar and paved the way for the rest!
- Dan Freeman
Good luck with the development Paul! Hopefully Zuck has some positive insight.
- Garin Kilpatrick
Paul: If someone offered me a bag of money to do what you guys did, I would have done exactly the same (probably a lot faster too). However, it would be nice if you spent an hour answering some of the questions here. It might also give people like me a little more faith, in what used to be your primary project; Friendfeed. You made the best platform on the planet - why not use it to let us know what the heck's going on?
- Jim Connolly
I'm assuming that Facebook wants to keep their roadmap quiet. I respect that but leaving you community in the dark for a brand that the applications stand for community building is rather ironic.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
SUPER!! I don't Blame ya 1 Darn bit fer Dumpin' FacePOOP Paul!! ;PPP Wait FacePOOP is the Maggot Stage!! ;))
- Billy Warhol
If I can still have all my friends that I have here on friendfeed and share things with them the exact same way, I don't care what "www" address I have to type in to get it. I just hope i don't have to give up any of FF's awesome features! Thanks for the update Paul!
- David Cook
The problem is I don't know whether to wrote an app on your API or not because i'm not sure whether it will all be dropped in the "transformation". Imagine speding late nights and weekends coding something up only for it to be dropped suddenly. Need a decent long term picture. Looking at Cliqset.
- Steven Livingstone-Pérez
Good point Steven - and one of the reasons many of us are spending so little time developing our networks here.
- Jim Connolly
This is a truly disappointing/concerning post and I think it would have been much better to hold comment until something more tangible could be discussed. Thanks for adding to the confusion/drama Paul.
- Nicholas Kreidberg
I do care about what happens next, but this is the best news of the day nonetheless ! thanks for giving us updates at last ! and I do hope FF will awaken again ! such a great tool, but letdown since the announcement of the buyback by FB
- laetSgo
will I see this post in my "best of week" email from FF?
- Kirill Bolgarov
If Facebook is going to get fixed, please remember that it needs fixing politically, not just technically. It needs to give people the option to open their data to Google - for instance. A walled garden where the walls are fixed in place sucks.
- Tim Tyler
@Paul, or perhaps an Alien will erupt forth from its stomach? (kidding, kidding!)
- j1m
I see no reason that it wouldn't work on WordPress. I integrated FB Connect into my theme a while back, and it's easy enough to do. This would just take the "create a FB App" out of the process.
- Otto
I don't know how to do the upload file part. Would be better to have a way to do this via WordPress.
- Thomas Hawk
Google Friend Connect had this process for a while, now they improved over FC again by eliminating the file-upload part. No uploads needed now.
- Ray Cromwell
The whole file upload thing is necessary for allowing FB to set cookies on your site (cross-domain). It's not hard, just upload the file to your web host in the normal manner, like FTP or what have you. I mean, you had to upload WordPress to the site the first time, right? Google gets around it by not storing cookies on your domain, they just call back to their servers on every hit instead.
- Otto
actually Otto somebody else uploaded WordPress to my site for the first time. I'm not sure how to upload files to my domain. It would be nice if they had a WP widget that you could just install that did all of this for you.
- Thomas Hawk
Unfortunately, it just doesn't work that way, Thomas. WordPress doesn't really have the same kind of control over your website that you do, in many cases. And if you don't have the ability to put files on and off your site, then it's really questionable as to whether it's "your" site at all. I'd highly recommend getting that level of control, ASAP.
- Otto
I'm sure I have the ability. I just don't have the know how.
- Thomas Hawk
Agree on the whole. I always find these categories a little artificial: Really "Forrester-speak". :) I think the recommendations are the most interesting. I'd make a separate post out of that.
- Meryn Stol
You say it yourself: "What’s interesting isn’t this vision for the future, but what it holds in store for brands, " . I'd like these recommendations to be fleshed out with concrete first steps to take. Doesn't have to be more than links to relevant resources.
- Meryn Stol
Meryn The recommendations are fleshed out in the actual reports. Our clients (brands) have access to see them.
- Jeremiah Owyang
Hmm ok... Then I'll need to get the details elsewhere I guess. :)
- Meryn Stol
Interesting categorization of the development into eras. Any consideration to the impact of scale on the 5th era? Just as a recent example with Facebook, their format evolution was not well received by what is not an insignificant number of members, and yet the reality is - that change - negative impact not withstanding is not rolling back.
- Patrick Boegel
There will be a give and take between communities and brands. The thing is, Facebook doesn't have a competitive alternative that users could go to. In my report, we suggest that active communities could define specs for products, and bid MULTIPLE companies to build it.
- Jeremiah Owyang
I completely understand that Jeremiah, just wondering if the nature of scale impacted or perhaps better said impacts the thought process for very complex long term brand relationships, ie Health Insurance, Financial Services, a college/university choice, where consversation and user invovlement can be complicated. Very interested in the full report either way. Thx.
- Patrick Boegel
good stuff Jeremiah, enjoyed and some good thought provokers there for the future
- Richard Binhammer
Nice paper but really expensive for young people. $750 means $41 for page.
- Alp
Great information, understanding the future's potential is more important than ever on the social web.
- Maria Reyes-McDavis
Interesting, but very general and hard to apply. I see companies more as å provide of tools/stage for conversation, aka the gold rush mining vs selling tools
- Anders Dahlberg
Alp, Many of Forrester's clients are large brands who have a subscription. We're still sharing a great deal on this blog, and have given the report to bloggers to cover, so there's value to be had there.
- Jeremiah Owyang
Jeremiah (and the team), a great piece of work and, I imagine, a labour of both love and loathing at times! I have been very interested in this area as I have looked at the shift in skills to deliver social media activity changes from one of basic coding knowledge to much more human, interactive skills.
- Paul Fabretti
Fantastic article! I found it SO intriguing that I've even printed it out!
- J. D. Ebberly
"How Brands Should Prepare" is a great bit of information. Jeremiah, it would be nice (i'd be reading) if you expanded in future blog posts about the "How Brands Should Prepare".
- frank barry
That's likely to be a research report I'm thinking about writing Frank
- Jeremiah Owyang
Probably correct in assuming that most online social networks will neither spawn nor solidify to the point of being considered ‘affinity groups’ with the level of cohesion, unified budgetary authority or organized implementation capability of NGOs, churches, or employee aggregations. Even in the era of social commerce. I hope I’m wrong.
- A Mitchell
Great post, understanding the future's potential is more important than ever on the social web.
- Vlad Hrouda
Nice piece. I enjoyed your rationale for 0.01% as a rational cutoff. Signal to noise. At some point, it's just not worth worrying about.
- Eric Borisch
"Tornado is an open source version of the scalable, non-blocking web server and and tools that power FriendFeed. The FriendFeed application is written using a web framework that looks a bit like web.py or Google's webapp, but with additional tools and optimizations to take advantage of the underlying non-blocking infrastructure. The framework is distinct from most mainstream web server frameworks (and certainly most Python frameworks) because it is non-blocking and reasonably fast. Because it is non-blocking and uses epoll, it can handle thousands of simultaneous standing connections, which means it is ideal for real-time web services. We built the web server specifically to handle FriendFeed's real-time features — every active user of FriendFeed maintains an open connection to the FriendFeed servers. (For more information on scaling servers to support thousands of clients, see The C10K problem.) See the Tornado documentation for a detailed walkthrough of the framework."
- Jason Wehmhoener
I was hoping the OpenFF folks would find this :)
- Benjamin Golub
man - just when I thought I was going to have a "no new project to review" weekend...
- bear (aka Mike Taylor)
I was just thinking of posting this. I'm pleasantly surprised to see parts of FriendFeed being Open-Sourced. Could it be of use for the OpenFF endeavour?
- Tyson Key
I think some kind of non-blocking server is a necessity if real-time is on the roadmap.
- Jason Wehmhoener
How similar is it to FriendFeedServer? (Assuming that it is the "real" FriendFeedServer code, and not a "Made for Open Source" rewrite that is being released).
- Tyson Key
Tyson: it is nearly identical. We pulled Tornado out of the FriendFeed server and cleaned things up to make it not dependent on any FriendFeed specific code
- Benjamin Golub
Does anyone want to try and weld it to the Facebook Open Platform stuff, using some sort of PHP-Python bridge module (in the same vain as mod_php in Apache)? ;)
- Tyson Key
Some of the UI and translation stuff sounds interesting, for what it's worth.
- Tyson Key
Tornado comes with built-in support for a lot of the most difficult and tedious aspects of web development, including templates, signed cookies, user authentication, localization, aggressive static file caching, cross-site request forgery protection, and third party authentication like Facebook Connect. You only need to use the features you want, and it is easy to mix and match Tornado with other frameworks.
- Jorge Escobar
from Bookmarklet
Excellent. If you remember, last year, I needed to get rid of my Blogging While Brown ticket and you hooked me up with Corvida. I think this is a topic that the BWB conference would love to have presented.
- Admiral Anika
Thanks, I really try to stay away from talking about race or anything controversial but oh well.
- Wayne Sutton
as i commented on Anika's post of this piece, I can't believe something like this got further on Twitter than a few ignorant people. I used to think the Twitter community was, by and large, a more aware subset than most. I guess that aspect shrinks as the Twitter populace grows.
- edythe
I don't keep up with the trending topics often, but this is ridiculous. I hate people sometimes. That's about as deep as I can get.
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
I TOTALLY agree with you on this. I'm SO sick of the pointless trending topics that I've been ignoring them. So I didn't even know this was going on til reading your post. This is very sad indeed.
- ChaCha Fance
That is an interesting question something that Wayne and i have talked about over the course of my short life on Twitter almost 1 year in 2 weeks it will be 1 year. I am iluvblackwomen on twitter along with whatblkmenthink, kulturefirst, urbanlitreview and other Black oriented Brands. I make money marketing strictly to African Americans and i have Major Black Brands for whom i manage...
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- iluvblackwomen
Really strong writing Wayne. Seriously.
- Jay Cuthrell
joe, speaking of bugs... loaded up fine... browsed the news feed, and commented once... then went to homescreen and tapped on friends... hung up and crashed... opened up and tapped friends again... crashed... then wouldn't open up again just crashed on open... deleted and re-synched and all is good... just fyi
- Chris Heath
Maybe Apple never heard the one about a billion eyeballs and shallow bugs or whatever. ;)
- Chris Messina
totally with you...btw, great job on the Facebook app. we've experienced similar situation with our app and we're only just under 2 million downloads...
- Scott Magdalein
I agree. The UDID limit makes pre-release beta testing an ineffective way to find bugs.
- Scott Ludwig
from iPhone
This app store debacle has ceased to be amusing. I think all free app developers should release their stuff on Cydia as well, in protest. Thus, those of us who jailbreak can be ahead of the crowd. Sorta like Google's beta. ;)
- Otto
Got it! Okay, *delete* the current app on your iPhone, then go to the App store and download it again. It says it'll be 2.5, but you'll get 3.0.
- Kevin Fox
Wow. Notifications are *awesome*. Someone liked an entry while I was using the application and it popped up at the bottom.
- Benjamin Golub
Yep, removing and redownloading did the trick.
- Otto
"It’s taking something everyone knows on the web (your email address) and making it immensely more valuable as a way to identify yourself and information about you. Exactly what kind of information? Here are some of the ideas from the WebFinger Google Code page: * public profile data * pointer to identity provider (e.g. OpenID server) * a public key * other services used by that email address (e.g. Flickr, Picasa, Smugmug, Twitter, Facebook, and usernames for each) * a URL to an avatar * profile data (nickname, full name, etc) * whether the email address is also a JID, or explicitly declare that it’s NOT an email, and ONLY a JID, or any combination to disambiguate all the addresses that look like something@somewhere.com * or even a public declaration that the email address doesn’t have public metadata, but has a pointer to an endpoint that, provided authentication, will tell you some protected metadata, depending on who you authenticate as."
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
I don't want my contact information to be my identifier. I shouldn't have to give a website my email address, just like I shouldn't have to give a store my phone number.
- Daniel Sims
Daniel, I think it just takes the form of an email address, but does not in fact have to be one (or could be a "throw away" account).
- Paul Buchheit
It would be cool if we could get our act together (as an industry) and make this stuff happen. I'd also like to see ENUM deployed to the point that my phone number can be linked to my identity. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...)
- Joe Beda ()
This is a bad idea in so many ways I can't even begin to list them.
- April Russo (app103)
If a site wants my email address, it's probably in order to spam me. It's usually a bad sign. If legit sites ask for my email more, it will make it harder to identify the spammers.
- Tim Tyler
Do gmail users seriously still have problems with spam? I don't.
- Robin Barooah
Personally this sounds great - as long as it really doesn't force you to use your actual gmail address.
- Robin Barooah
Does this mean I can have a .plan again?
- Benjamin Lee
Sounds like the .plan which is (again) accessed via an id in email format and returns different information/metadata about a person depending on who's accessing it. Email id is used to do a DNS lookup in order to discover URL for the XRD file (accessed with a HTTP GET) containing the metadata about the person being, er, WebFinger-ed.
- Nenad Nikolic
it is like user authenticating, having two three ids won't hurt ;) well i don't want to be identified, they are going same as gravatar
- testbeta
It's so curious to me that people have concerns that WebFinger would lead to more spam, and yet don't like the "format" of URLs for IDs. Personally, as far as OpenID is concerned, I don't care what the identifier looks like as long as people can remember it — typically email seems easier to recall than URLs (for most people in today's world).
- Chris Messina
Some users who have an email account with Google, myself included, have oodles of incoming mail both standard and secure so it fits the bill to increase security for both vendors and marketers.
- frank burns
I have no problem with the idea, but it seems to me that it won't help the current state of affairs much. The kind of information I'd be interested in sharing via Webfinger (my OpenID, a URL to a FOAF file, etc.) will have no better adoption, so the Webfinger configuration doesn't buy me much. I'll hold out hopes that after a couple tight integrations between Webfinger and OpenID providers (say if Google, Microsoft and/or Yahoo provided and consumed both) things will improve ... here's to hoping :(
- J. McConnell
"By marking up social activities and social objects, delivered in standard feeds with microformats, I think we enable anyone to run a FriendFeed-like service that innovates and offers value based on how well it understands what’s going on and what’s relevant, rather than on its compatibility with any and every service."
- Ken Sheppardson
from Bookmarklet
"Starting today, people who visit your profile will see it in the theme you've chosen... We've [also] added an option that lets you create a custom theme by uploading a background image and choosing a few colors."
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
Haha, cool. Thanks for the answer Bret :) BTW Congrats on the acquisition earlier this week. Fantastic news for a great team and great product :)
- Sam Houston
Duck hunt is awesome! Tell Kevin to go sit in the corner for a while. :-)
- Robert Scoble
But what if I don't want to see other people's themes? There's a reason I avoid doing that on Twitter. Can we make our theme the default at all times?
- Admiral Anika
ah, I figured as much there would be a setting, thanks Kevin! :P
- Tim Hoeck
Thank you, LE. It wouldn't have killed me to check that first, but I'm super tired.
- Admiral Anika
Robert: If you change your theme's background color to black (even though it won't display because of hte tiling) the links will turn white.
- Kevin Fox
Robert, that's too much green monster for me. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
to your guys' credit you make it pretty hard to make this as hideous as you can make Gmail
- MG Siegler
@ Chris ..well, how about to make this personal themes showing through an option? /quick button, no need to go to settings - that'd be too far :] .. option for viewer, not for author
- Petr Buben
Ok so I'm shooting ducks here. is that part of the custom pages open to all?
- BairdWilliamson
I'm sorry, but this is the lamest thing FF has done (besides sell to Facebook, perhaps). This should not be default, especially when there's a theme that sends a duck flying across pages distracting you from reading them (it's like 1997 all over again). The only upside is that you can turn it off. It's a neat gimmick the first time, but after that it's just lame and becomes a...
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- Tanath
I'm sorry, Tanath, but I 100.000% disagree with you. Don't like it? Turn it off. Me? I love it.
- Stephen Mack
Already have - but it shouldn't be default behaviour.
- Tanath
Why not? I bet more people love it than hate it.
- Stephen Mack
Look, I'm excited that FF is still being worked on too, but this is arguably a step in the wrong direction. There's reasons why MySpace is going down the toilet, and different themes on every page is one of them. I'm inclined to take that bet, just not at this early point because it's mostly die-hard FF addicts that even know of the feature's existence.
- Tanath
As long you guys don't f*** with it, I can't see a problem. Why should FF staff avoid a feature only fearing its possible misuse? I'd rather see an option inside FF to explicitly hide user themes, if they get disturbing.
- David Schmidt
On or off, I can't see any themes on friendfeed except what I have in my browser's usercontent.css file. It would have been nice to include an "advanced user" feature that could have allowed us to enter in our own custom CSS for designing our own theme, sort of like how LiveJournal allows. That would have not only allowed customizing on friendfeed, it would also fix the problem with...
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- April Russo (app103)
David: you can hide other people's themes in your settings (top right of the page)
- Bret Taylor
Comparisons to MySpace seem off, since custom themes involve only four possibilities (background image, background color, bar color and box color) -- no widgets, no custom HTML, etc. And first and foremost, they can be switched off. How many times do you visit someone else's page on FF anyway? Most of the time is in your home feed or different lists. I just don't get the negativity, when it's a fun and optional feature that you can opt out from ever seeing again in about two seconds.
- Stephen Mack
I don't know if I consider customizing a few basic settings is really a "Theme".
- Steve de Mena
The correct analogy is to twitter.com user pages, right?
- Stephen Mack
Stephen, that was our thinking internally, though we also give a bit more control with the checkboxes.
- Kevin Fox
Forcing themes on others is bad. This needs an opt out. Glad I use custom CSS.
- Michael W. May
Michael: It DOES have an opt out. If you don't like it please opt out! Click Settings in upper right, you'll see two prominent check boxes regarding theme display.
- Stephen Mack
Kevin: Thanks! You're right, you did twitter one better by letting people opt out of seeing customized themes entirely.
- Stephen Mack
Michael, just uncheck the "See other people's themes" checkbox under settings and you won't see anyone else's theme.
- Dan Hsiao
Stephen's right. Read Bret's comment further up: "[Y]ou can do that by clicking "Settings" and then un-check the "See other people's themes" checkbox" - Bret Taylor
- Micah Wittman
i really like this.really really :-)
- dwightboozer
If this is any indication of what is to come, congrats :) Absolutely gorgeous!
- mySingapore
Thanks to the FF staff, this has been a long awaited request =) Ya'll rock!
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
What's the next? I guess "FF background creator tools" will come out nowadays. :)
- Oğuz Serdar
To begin with, is "Themes" really a necessary feature? Still, great to see the new features coming. =)
- Winston Teo
Winston: yes. I've been waiting for this for a long time. It lets me put some personality onto my home page and that is, believe it or not, important. Very important for brands, too, if this is going to become a business.
- Robert Scoble
@All for design: Nice theme. Only the blue of the logo sticks out like a sore thumb.
- Peter
Can you guys stop adding awesome new features, please? Otherwise, no-one else will have a chance to catch up and it'll be an even greater disappointment when it goes. ;)
- James Myatt
Hurrah! I just themed my page along the lines of Twitter and my web page [ http://www.achean.com - shameless plug, but I need the hits! ]
- achean
I changed my background, but how do I let others see? when I click Bret's page, I still see my own background...I assume this is similar to twitter's custom theme where every user has a different background when their link is clicked. (I'm on friendfeed.com/bret, but still seeing my own background). -edit-Nvm...I guess I have to log out to see it...
- brainno722 (Peter)
@Kevin, thanks for removing the borders <3. @Peter he probably doesn't have a theme set for his own profile...
- Zulema ◕ ◡ ◕
issue uploading background. hangs on firefox & safari. tile image checkbox is greyed out.
- sɹǝɥʇɐǝɟʞɔɐןq
how can i change the font color of "my name"?
- Bahriye
DiSo - (http://diso-project.org) - "Social networks are becoming more open, more interconnected, and more distributed. Many of us in the web creation world are embracing and promoting web standards - both client-side and server-side. Microformats, standard APIs, and open-source software are key building blocks of these technologies."
Here to help, if you guys have questions. Would love to rally this effort to help build out the original vision of Diso (which has largely lacked dev resources for the past year...!).
- Chris Messina
Chris: If you were trying to build an open implementation of the FriendFeed service would you start with DiSo, or is there some other project you're aware of that might be more directly aligned with that goal?
- Ken Sheppardson
Obviously I can't provide a lot of detailed plans and guarantees, but I can tell you that I'll do my personal best to ensure that the FriendFeed users and community are treated right. I love this product too, and don't want to see it disappear.
We love you guys and FriendFeed.. we are just a little hurt and worried.. just please give us details as soon as possible.
- Tim Hoeck
FriendFeed lets me use people as filters to turn data into information. Facebook doesn't. Until it does, please, Please, PLEASE keep FriendFeed as a destination alive.
- AJ Kohn
congrats guys! facebook needs what you got!
- Lorna Herf
I'm sorry that I haven't said more about this. As you can imagine, it has been an extraordinarily busy day (and I've barely slept in the past week).
- Paul Buchheit
I'll add my plea to the chorus: Please don't take FriendFeed away from us. And don't make us go to Facebook (because we won't). FriendFeed means a lot to a lot of people and the thought that it will dry up and blow away shortly is very disturbing.
- Fa La La La Lindsay
It's still great to hear from you Paul. Congrats on that new swimming pool full of cash. :D
- Chrimmus Tad
Simply glad you're here now. You've always been a very responsive and transparent team. As much as I cringe at the thought of FF going away, I *am* happy for you and the team.
- AJ Kohn
I request you make it to the next scheduled FFundercats podcast to talk to the community. This announcement deserves a live appearance to the community.
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
Have been dealing unsucessfully with Twitter for two days, trying to get logged in...Their password reset page says"Snap we can't find you." I keep writing to Tech Support at Twitter and get their helpful auto-generated Twitter Trouble shooting email. My problem is not there. =( Hope FriendFeed does not get that blaise about helping users. @EV
- SashaKane
If FB can't keep the service running, would you consider open-sourcing the thing, so we can?
- Christopher Galtenberg
from iPhone
Hi Paul, thanks for the assurances. In the future, I would highly suggest that you make this sort of statement shortly after the initial merger release. Thanks again.
- Alex Scoble
I would like to give you a hug right now Paul. However, that would be awkward and April might beat me up so I will just say thank you and press the like button.
- EricaJoy
Thank you for affirming that. Much appreciated.
- Karoli
A few more points that would be nice to have addressed soon. Ability to export data, tool to import friends to Facebook, and will ff.im urls continue to function?
- Mark Krynsky
Those that like friendfeed as is should be most pleased with this statement, as it probably means maintenance to keep the current system as is, without as much attention to new features. It's also good news for all those who like both friendfeed and facebook, as facebook will likely adopt the better features from friendfeed
- Ivan Kirigin
Thanks for making FriendFeed what it is, and lets hope it stays that way, though there's slim chance of that
- Aaman (Clone of FF)
Now that I think about it: are you kidding me? They've already stated that FriendFeed's going to be absorbed into Facebook. What kind of sleight-of-hand are you trying to pull now, Paul?
- Akiva Moskovitz
@EricaJoy: I have nothing against hugs. :)
- April Buchheit
Thanks, Paul. I've been getting more and more depressed thinking about the bad ways this could go. The reassurances help a bit, at least. In fact, just hearing you speak on the point is encouraging - the open lines of communication between the FriendFeed team and its users has always been one of the great things about FriendFeed that I'm afraid will be lost with the Facebook buyout. And yes, a FFundercats appearance would be a great idea.
- Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
I don't want to read too much into this reassurance but the "personal best" remark made me think like there is not a united FF anymore and that it's up to your personal efforts to prevent it from being eaten by FB :)
- Turker Keskinpala
you can sell the tech but the community can not be bought sold transferred or merged
- Robert Higgins
from f2p
Turker, I do believe that this deal was the right decision -- I'll write a bit more about that when I get a chance. I say that I'll do my "personal best" because I will -- it would be misleading to make promises on other's behalf :)
- Paul Buchheit
Paul: I'm hopeful that this will be the best for both Facebook and Friendfeed. What you and the staff at FF have done is amazing, with only 12 people! I love the service here. I also enjoy Facebook (one I ignore all quizzes and stupid apps), but in a different way. Hoping some coolness can be brought to both. Good luck to you and your team!
- Travis B. Hartwell
this echoes star wars galaxies, incredible unique community. but they upgraded it to be like world of warcraft. this is a replay of the devs soothing messages. the forums were livid the community evaporated.
- Robert Higgins
from f2p
When socialmedian was acquired by Xing they left it alone. I hope the same happens here. I'm sure you will do your best though!
- Michael Fidler
On behalf of the Dutch citizens our Queen wants to let you know: Thx Paul.
- Ton Zijp
Don't know what to say, so lets start with big congrats! from one hand, as an early member of Friendfeed I think we've created here a very cool, collaborative and tech-savvy/passionate community of great people that all probably wish to stick around as much as possible. From the other hand, I know how corporates work and it takes one small decision of share holders to close Friendfeed...
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- Nir Ben Yona
My first reaction is disappointment. I don't believe big corporations do better than small ones. Facebook is inferior to FriendFeed, although it's user base is much larger. Clearly FriendFeed won't survive in the long term, unless it is open sourced. Why not open up and embrace the wonders of the GPL instead of joining forces with the Walled Garden no #1? Facebook don't even operate with permalinks,.
- Morten Blaabjerg
Thanks for the explanation Paul. Of course, I congratulate you guys. I think anyone would do the same thing if they were in your shoes :)
- Turker Keskinpala
Ryo: if you delete your account everything goes away. I totally disagree with you about Facebook, but that's OK.
- Robert Scoble
Good to hear. Unfortunately I think Facebook are going to download the brains of all FriendFeed staff then kill FF.
- Michael McGimpsey
but Paul it is going to disappear - Facebook bought FF not for the site but for you guys. So obviously once its integrated into Facebook, development on FF will stop
- Anthony Feint
If FriendFeed and all of it's functionality get integrated into Facebook I'm all for it.
- Hugh Isaacs II
Paul - that's great news. It surely can't cost a lot to keep this place running and it's a good place to try out ideas before they move to FB.
- Martin Bryant
what about improving the product and making sure it gets more users, not only supports those who stay?
- Ihar Mahaniok
Ihar - unlikely. Facebook bought FF for the developer talent, not for FriendFeed itself.
- Martin Bryant
from iPhone
Martin - I also think so, and it is most likely. But I could still have a hope
- Ihar Mahaniok
Paul, please - underpromise & overdeliver...they say it works.
- A.T.
Nice to hear. Too bad you don't call the shots anymore.
- jcunwired
FriendFeed is Dead! Long Live FriendFeed! (nice name for Facebook skunkworks) I'm sure everyone would love to see FriendFeed itself stay around, even if the innovations that happen are geared towards implementation at Facebook. Thanks for this note Paul! :)
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
There are a few promises and guarantees that you SHOULD be able to provide. Like, that our network of friends will remain intact and that the features that make this site great will remain. If you can't make those promises, then you shouldn't have done the deal. I sure do hope that the real-time search engine wasn't the centerpiece of this deal (it probably was), because that certainly...
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- Brad Williamson
Paul you did such a nice job with friendfeed, and I so want to believe you, but I'm not sure I can. Not because of you, but because of your new employer. Because your new employer is no longer you, and while I have kind of come to trust you, I do not trust your new boss. Not at all. Please prove me wrong, if they'll let you.
- Jim Is Not Smart
Paul - thanks for that reassurance. PLEASE stick to that! I was in the middle of reading and participating in a lengthy discussion off of a Robert Scoble post yesterday ... then I came up for air and saw your news. Congratulations - I have no idea what that feels like or how pumped you must be. There are so many things FF does that I LOVE...I know you know that. Please Please PLease dont' go away! Thanks!
- Tobin Truog
Thank you, I think everyone here loves Friendfeed. :)
- Hunt
from BuddyFeed
This is nice to hear, and I really hope that FriendFeed will keep on living. I still have some pain in my stomach because of this :/
- Patrik Johansson
First zombie/mafia request and we're all outta here....
- Fossil Huntress
+1 Fossil Huntress The partitioning of the networks between friendfeed and facebook was a major feature that many people made use of, lacking appropriate controls for who sees what. Merging the two groups of friends isn't going to work, at all.
- Mr. Gunn
we all know what needs to happen. the question is, where? ... FB needs, - apart from being/it is, a large, general, open application platform, - 1. Smart keyboard shortkatze - and Im a kbsCzar to go to, 2. Aggregating facilities, smart /RSS/ .. 3. Full blogging facilities, capabilities, not 140 chars. 4. Full real time comments facilities, capabilities. 5. Real time, live, but ALSO...
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- Petr Buben
I hope you're being open and honest with us. This time. :(
- Kamilah Gill
Thank you! I am sure you will do great things at FB. I just hope that the great app you built here isn't destroyed. I don't know of any other aggregation app that I can embed into my site like this one!
- beersage
Congratulations on your successes, best wishes for more. And thanks for continuing to look out for us loyal, addicted FFanatics!
- Rob Schieber
I hope it continues, i'm a new user and absolutely love it (wish i knew the value of it before)! Congrats!
- Luis D. Santos
As nice as it sounds I'm sorry to say that as a, now, Facebook's employee I'm afraid you'll have to comply to whatever your new boss tells you. Didn't MZ make it clear?
- lelapin
and let me add second, obvious, "Facebook needs" - Friendfeed bookmarklet, and Friendfeed tools - widgets, embedding - real time and not - of posts, and groups ...to embedd, to inject oneself into this thing called Internet ..... so, if FB listens to FF engineering long enough, they are going to get it .. right
- Petr Buben
Paul, what I am worried is not that you're brainwashed, but that there's simply no business need for Facebook to improve FriendFeed from now on, period.
- Ihar Mahaniok
I have confidence Paul. While some of the comments were probably uncalled for, covering an investment (of time and money) in these times to move on and hopefully provide even 'better stuff' makes sense to me. It's pretty obvious there are a LOT of people that don't want to 'lose' Friendfeed. (I wouldn't hold a town hall for a few weeks though :)
- Charlie Anzman
Congrats, Paul. It's sad that people have to make these uncalled for hatred comments about Facebook though. Why can't both sites work together. I think Facebook will do better with FF and vise versa. Take the good features of both services. Don't boycott FB, enjoy it. I'm sick of the negative comments going on, that's all. :(
- Molly, "sorry"
Molly: What makes you think there's going to be a "vise versa?"
- Christopher A Carr
Because I don't think Paul and the other FF developers would allow FB to do anything. I'm sorry, I am not going to think negative here like some here are. I guess I'm a fangirl for FB.
- Molly, "sorry"
Finally something about the changes on the horizon that isn't all d0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0om and whining. Thank you, Paul! :D
- Christian (Simply X)
The time to think about how you could do your 'personal best' to ensure FriendFeed continues to exist was prior to the discussions with Facebook. Not after.
- Andy C
Paul, what about the content scam that FB T&C is, does it apply to Friendfeed now? Should we all start writing scripts to retroactively delete all content ever uploaded to Friendfeed? Elaborated a bit here - http://friendfeed.com/mbravo...
- Michael Bravo
We know you'll try your best, Paul. But sometimes, you just can't win the dark side...
- Winston Teo
Thanks Paul for all your efforts. Founders often want the best, but acquiring companies often have people with political/power issues or different/limited visions.
- Mitchell Tsai
*throws a sheep at Paul* is that a good thing?
- Joe
from iPod
yes, thank you, Sergeant Paul ... well, good to hear we go on ... because if not, how about starting www.anotherFeed.com ... or, www.Letsgofeed.com ...... anyway, lets boost blogging capabilities, post more than current amount of chars, lets have TOP POSTS / clicks count list at the head of each group, some stats, lets index group headers, lets have MORE keyboard shortcuts .. - now ......
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- Petr Buben
What? No lawyers in suits? Mark's setting a pretty low bar on the dress code for this sort of thing...:)
- Tomas Remotigue
Our lawyers were wearing shorts actually -- no air conditioning at their office on Sundays I guess.
- Paul Buchheit
Zuckerberg's the only one from FB who could be bothered to show up?
- Andy Bakun
American big business such a formal affair
- Robert Higgins
Contrary to popular misconception, lawyers don't actually enjoy wearing suits. Haul us into work on a Sunday, and we'll definitely be dressing comfortably. :)
- Brian Chang
Andy, the person on the left is Vaughan Smith from Facebook. Sanjeev (the fourth FriendFeed founder) is not pictured because he was boarding an airplane.
- Paul Buchheit
Paul, that's so awesome. FB's an awesome company to do business with.
- Jesse Stay
Hey Paul congratulations - FriendFeed has been leading the way since its inception. Are the photos you've posted copy-protected or could I use them in a story on the deal?
- Mitch
...congrats.can't wait to see what happens with both FF and FB as a result of this.
- .LAG liked that
Please try to keep Friendfeed like it was if they let you. Either way, congrats on the financials!
- Josh Haley
from iPhone
Congrats and best wishes for the future.
- Jeff Stannard
For $50m you could at least have hired a photographer who doesn't shake so much. :)
- Rodrigo Jaroszewski
FF was the cutting edge whereas FB is quickly becoming the mainstream. Unfortunately, the mainstream does not necessarily equal innovation and pushing the envelope. We all suffer when innovation is chilled. But on the other hand, congrats to the FF crew. They made their money!
- laosan
congratulations! keep the innovation coming...
- ozlubling
VERY happy for you guys. Possibly even owe you one or two. Are we getting FriendPhone next?? Think Mark should seriously think about 'Friendbook' :)
- Charlie Anzman
Congratulations to you and your team.
- Maria Niles
just showed the pictures to my students and they were like, "they look like normal people!" Congrats on the deal, onward and upward!
- xxx xxxxx
Congratulations, Paul -- to you and everybody at FF.
- Eric Johnson
Congrats Paul, Bret and the rest of the team, this is awesome news! The big question on everyone's lips is: Who gets to have http://facebook.com/paul? :)
- Fenn
Congrats, and thanks for taking us all on such a terrific ride! Big ups. :)
- Pete Delucchi
You've done a great job! You deserve this and more... Congrats!
- Ricardo J. Valle
now this is what a deal term meeting should look like - file under inspirational -
- mediaeater
Congratulations to everyone at FF. Whose house was the deal made?
- seman
I am sad .. !!! I do not know .. why .. for me its not good news
- Nayan
I call this pic... "Six Happy Dudes & 1,000,000+ Pissed-Off FriendFeeders"
- Brad Williamson
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
- Mathew™ one of a kind
Looks like Mathew™ has found a UI bug by flooding contiguous characters.
- Jay Cuthrell
I don't get the negativity - did no one realize FriendFeed was a business? The object of a business is to sell eventually (either privately or publicly). We should be celebrating their success. This is a huge win for them, as well as Facebook. I personally think it's a huge win for the "loyal users" as well. So now we stab them in the back when they do something huge?
- Jesse Stay
Not to mention we know *nothing* about what this will mean for both services. These guys haven't let us down yet, have they?
- Jesse Stay
Congratulations Paul, you should have got more, but I guess $50m is nothing to sneeze at. Have a great wedding anniversary too, I'm sure you both deserve it. Much happiness - :)
- Chris Loft
Those are the kind of business meetings I could get used to - no suits... but selling to Facebook? Hmmm... Good for someone of course but I suppose we'll see where this ride takes us.
- Ken Stewart | ChangeForge
congrats on building an amazing product and incredibly passionate community! I was mad at first, but then realize that the technology was most likely sold, not the community. I'm hoping ff community will stay somewhat untouched and features that have been built into ff will be ported to fb.
- Derek Coatney
Congratulations, FriendFeeders! I'm anxious to see what changes this will bring. FriendFeed is my favorite site to visit, so hopefully y'all will find a way to maintain the FF spirit somehow.
- Keith Pelczarski
No matter the type of big change, there are those who will not like it, often simply because it's change. I for one am very pleased that two of the services I use most are joining forces, and am eager to see the new developments that come of this acquisition. Congrats to EVERYONE on the FriendFeed team. You all deserve it! You've done a great job with a small company. Now lets see what you can do with a large one :)
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
@Jesse Stay re: "the objective of business is to sell eventually" : Ummm, the objective of many businesses is to become profitable by providing a valuable experience to their users. Businesses that feel they can't do that are the ones that sell.
- Shane Gibbons
Congratulations to everyone involved. Well done.
- Darius Dunlap
This is a very sad day in friend feed history. It is horrible because I like friend feed for how it's different from face book. I use facebook but I find it really annoying and I wouldn't use it if my friends and family weren't using it. So if Friend Feed becomes another facebook then i donno if I will keep coming to friend feed.
- Colide81 (James)
from iPhone
Congrats to the FF staff, but you'll have to pardon my lack of exuberance. I have mental pictures of being forced to use the FB UI and it makes me sad =(
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Very happy for the Friendfeed team. These pictures say it all.
- Christian Burns
from iPhone
Where are the photos of everyone celebrating? No beer or champagne?
- Shane
Great match-up guys ! The Fabulous Friender Boys ! - Let's see some integrated mashups and extensible apps and FF UI. Given Google and Twitter a run for their money... Looks like they are going to have to "hook-up" now !
- Mike Schmidt
Congratulations Paul and the team! Hopefully we'll still get the same simple UI for FriendFeed. I'm sure however that no matter what you do, things will turn up nicely.
- Ovidiu Predescu
NOOOOO! I _LOVE_ friendFeed and this will change it forever. Yeah - this will improve Facebook. Great deal guys - I can not wait to see how this works out
- Ric Johnson
@Scobleizer: Come on you're a genius and can not realize future of FF? Turkey was one of important countries which is using FF! They asked no one about this! We hate fcking morons and stupid people on facebook, and I'm sure that this post will be real, just read it: http://ff.im/6pRmM
- Ahmet Alp Balkan
But Ahmed you are still being an ass about it, trying to rain on their good times. Go find a hole under the bridge where you belong. You can be sad and not have to come out all bitchy about stuff. Clear thoughtful comments instead of going all into "fuck you" mode.
- Rasmus Lauridsen
OK, that's great. I hope you can be successful at Facebook Dev Team and enjoy spending that money.
- Ahmet Alp Balkan
böyle önemli bir iş için fiyat açıklanmadı ama 50 milyon $ deniyor. Bu kadar lakayt bir ortam olur mu yau. Uzaktan baksan gençler eğleniyor dersin
- Fatih Hayrioğlu
Şİmdi yorumları okumadım ama çok kişisel bişi söyleyeceğim. Bu gençlerin milyon dolarları çeviriyor olması durumuna şaşıyorum. Bizim memlekette bu seviyeye gelecek mi veya? Kaç sen uzaktalar bizden bu gençler?
- mustafa can
Bizim şirket sahipleri konunun belli saatler arasında, belli kıyafetlerle ofiste oturmak değil, yapılan işin niteliği olduğunu analdıkları zaman gelir tabii. Ama bence bu gavurların dediği gibi "When the hell freezes over".
- özlem ercan
bu postu türkçe commentlerle doldrmak süper fikir.. sarcasm diil ciddiyim
- MobilAdam
Bakmayın böyle güldüklerine arkada buyuk yatırımcılar olmasa batar gider bunlar..Adamların yatırımcıları işi biliyor...
- Zeki Pehlivan
Great result Paul. In such a short time, millions of users, 1 new interface and a marriage with internets' celebrity. This is a period which you should write down to make it as an on-line business case. You people are really wise businessmen. Nice job, congrats! :)
- Olcayto Cengiz
Not happy happy congrats bullshit from me-I used FF.
- frankiecarl
Frankie, a lot of us use FriendFeed and are concerned about where things are going from here. As I said in my comment above: I'm happy for the staff but displeased with who they chose to sell to. I'm perfectly capable of feeling both emotions at the same time.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
wonderful so normal so ordinary so simple
- Thomas Power
MZ looks like he has just returned from the gym
- Joe Dawson
These guys represent the most talked about entreprises (Ok even more so by geeks in the case of Friendfeed) and they're still in their 20s. We're talking millions of dollars and look how relax they look and casually they're dressed.
- lelapin
Awesome, nice to see they are actually in fact human still.
- Robert Schultz
Great photographs showing the very reason why 99% of all people start their own business - money! Well done and good luck for the future.
- David Jagger
this is so great! congrats paul! im really happy for u guys!
- Jason Pollock
Business is Business and we can only move forward with social-media applications as we herald a new interactive platform. Albeit thanks to the Mothers of all Mothers, Google. Frank Burns
- frank burns