"Web 2.0 was created so that people could publish cute photos of their cats. But this same cat dissemination technology has proved extremely helpful for activists, who’ve turned these tools to their own purposes." - Ethan Zuckerman (http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog...)
: ) - "Twitter lets Robert Scoble tell me what he’s doing 200 freaking times a day… but it also lets me know whether Egyptian activists have been released from the police station when they go in for questioning."
- Sarah Miller
I use twhirl, but it keeps moving the screen while I'm typing if there is an update. Hence these random bits of comment you get sometimes...
- Rahsheen
from twhirl
Using twhirl also. Just not enough screen space there, and things to roll off. Web page is easier.
- Todd Jordan
Well said Robert, good article on why FriendFeed will go mainstream.
- Mike Reynolds
FF is definitely gonna need a better interface if it IS going to be useable by non-geeks
- Rahsheen
I was thinking the same thing, Jason. I don't think my mom would ever be able to handle FF, but I'm sure most geeks/social media addicts will love it and it will be a success
- Rahsheen
my mom is not a good design test case i doubt anyone's mom is- the person who wants to be highly digitally connected, is.
- Nathan Eckenrode
Robert, I know you didn't intend it, but your two part piece is a great friendfeed newbie tutorial. Thanks. Also, again don't know if it was intentional, but you forgot to include this friendfeed user: http://friendfeed.com/hillary ;-)
- Robert Stevens
Robert Stevens that user needs to engage people with the tools as adults who vote not speakat them like children who must be contained.
- Nathan Eckenrode
Well, my mom is a programmer and uses online communications to coordinate her team, so I guess she is not the most common "mom" example :)
- Rahsheen
from twhirl
Nathan Eckenrode absolutely right about that user needing to engage. Check her friendfeed page. Not a single subscription.
- Robert Stevens
and not everyone's mom is theprototypical bumbler that frequently gets assigned t that architypical user group
- Nathan Eckenrode
it does make a good friendfeed tutorial, but I don't think it's going mainstream without a serious interface improvement. Its ass ugly!
- Justin Flood @justinflood
from twhirl
It's not even that it's ugly, it's that it's not really useable. I think it was created to provide as much as possible, but with the understanding that someone would create decent filters/clients for it for regular consumption.
- Rahsheen
I this that whether FF goes mainstream depends mostly on us.
- funkyboy
@PatrickJordan - using Twhirl client.
- Todd Jordan
Well said. Not entirely certain I agree or disagree with your thoughts, but either way you do present a compelling argument for FF. I think the number one reason that will hold back adoption of a mainstream FF is the benefit to the average user. Unless that is articulated so the *average user* can understand, they will not see the desire to attach themselves to another service. The question at this point is what can, or should, FF do to attract average users?
- Scott Jarkoff
@ScottJarkoff - well, partnerships would help. When you sign up for a service, if that service had a check box to add that feed to Friendfeed, it'd be a done deal.
- Todd Jordan
@Todd: Agreed. But that begs the question, how would such a partnership benefit the service you're signing up for? There has to be some mutual benefit to a partnership like that. The obvious benefit is for FF, but what does everyone else gain through such an arrangement?
- Scott Jarkoff
Scott: I'm not so sure that FriendFeed should worry TOO much about that right now. Instead, make the system of great utility to advanced users like me and you. If they make it easy for me to get rid of the noise and present it to everyone else, then it'll take off.
- Robert Scoble
Why FriendFeed WON'T Go Mainstream: 1.) in the mainstream, people don't want to be THIS informed. That's probably equally good for them, and good for those of us who do want to be this informed! 2.) Steve Case subscribed, friended some people and then...didn't engage at all. He's my go-to guy for what the mainstream will eat up like ice cream.
- Robert Seidman
Robert: But how does such usage translate over to the average user? Just because us mega-geeks can use FF, and more importantly we can understand it, does not mean that the average user will comprehend why it is useful to them. _Something_ needs to bridge that gap, no?
- Scott Jarkoff
Last night I tried to explain FriendFeed and even Twitter to my friend the cop. While he has a Facebook profile, He Just. Didn't. Get It. The harder I tried to explain, the more he just looked at me like I just landed from Venus.
- Capn' One Eye - adrift
FF can't go mainstream and I said as much in my comment on your blog post, which is awaiting moderation I guess :(. Main point - I could never explain FF to any of my non techy friends...never
- Jennifer Van Grove
from twhirl
Alert Thingy helps with the interface 'issues'. I think it has really helped with adoption / holding onto users
- John Duff
from Alert Thingy
@Geoff Longman - we are from Venus! ;-) welcome to my planet!
- Susan Beebe
No doubt FF will go mainstream. It must over come the too many sites back lash, but over time this is a winner.
- Russellreno
#humdaybumpday "5. It is freaking fast and much more reliable than Twitter. Today I’ve been putting dozens of Tweets into Twitter and they show up in FriendFeed BEFORE I can refresh the page. It is amazingly fast at gathering new stuff from Twitter. I have not found any other service as reliably fast." So true!
- Ahmet Yükseltürk
Wait...we all knew +Louis Gray was with the Googs team already, no? Yes. :D Congratulations Louis!! All the best to you!!!
- sofarsoShawn
You can be like the guy in the Dilbert comic. Instead of telling them to make it more "webbish", just tell the team to make it more "friendfeedish."
- Laura Norvig
Well congratulations to you!. All the very best from this died in the wool Mac Guy. I hope you can find the time, sometime, to make that My6Sense available in other apps and contexts outside the My6Sense app itself.
- JSLeFanu
Sounds like a great fit. Congratulations!
- Benjamin Golub
I might have to make Louis a t-shirt that says "Google Apps users are people too!" Do you think he would wear it to work?
- Skyler Call
Congratulations! wow, being all poker-faced about it last Tuesday... :)
- Tudor Bosman
Congrats, Louis. Though I suspect we should all be posting on Google+ now since you're the Product Marketing Manager for the Google+ team. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
congratulations Louis don't forget us mortals! we know you are a robot!
- testbeta
Congratulations! I'm looking forward to watching your progress there.
- Anne Bouey
Batuhan, I have a hard time imagining not using FriendFeed? But you've already seen me using it less, in favor of Google+. I think the best solution is for those of us interested in making the move to do so, and/or Google+ learning from the best FriendFeed has to offer.
- Louis Gray
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Congrats, Louis. Of course, this means even less sleep, right?
- Friar Will
Can I use your employee discount for some Android toys?
- Rodfather
most surprising thing for me is that TNW didn't wrote anything about this.
- batuhan icoz
Strange that I found out about this on Twitter and not G+ or FriendFeed... (Louis, you're now in my Google People circle. Just sayin'...)
- Dennis Jernberg
Congrats - but... but... - it means now I will ignore anything you say about google+ or it's perceived competitors... well, not ignore, but strongly pinch-of-salt it... Anyway, here's to you kicking ass there and making google+ better!!!
- Iphigenie
I LOVE this move. Congratulations. +1 to you!!
- Harold Cabezas
Louis, agree on your comment about Google+ and FF. G+ needs to learn from FF and hopefully everyone here will move over there... then I don't have to jump form one service to the other all the time. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
... there goes the neighborhood ...
- Laura Norvig
WHAT. I completely missed this. Processing...
- Josh Haley
posted as comment on blog: "Dude..... DUDE! Wow. Congrats! Next post has to be something negative about Google, so we know you're keeping it real. Kidding. You're the standard of keeping it real. All the others could learn a ton from watching you. Best of luck and please wear your FFundercats shirt to Google one day and send me a pic of you in it with some amazing Google backdrop. Your assignment is before you. Go and do. ;)"
- Josh Haley
RT @Smarterer: .@brlewis is absolutely dominating our #HTML test. Think you have what it takes to sweep the number one spot? Prove it: http://t.co/Kfgvatk
parulia: @AshMaurya taking live questions from Austin at #LSChallenge. Real live example of pivots were at Groupon, Paypal, Starbucks, flickr. - http://twitter.com/parulia...
adrianjwong: Elizabeth Yin from Launchbit: first step is to achieve product/market fit. This should eat, sleep, poop this #lschallenge - http://twitter.com/adrianj...
HackerChick: I'm here because I have a problem, I HATE getting out of the building. Just spent 2 weeks developing i probably shouldn't have #lschallenge - http://twitter.com/HackerC...
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from Bookmarklet
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