Eric Johnson - Likes

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Testing out a Twitter retweet using Favorites. First, import your Twitter Favorites into FriendFeed as an RSS/blog feed, using a URL like http://twitter.com/favorit.... Next, tell FriendFeed to post your imported entries to Twitter via http://friendfeed.com/setting.... That's it.

May 3, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

Turkish Delight, Playing Well with Others, Rolf Schewe and 26 other people liked this

Once done, in Twitter all you have to do is Favorite something (the star that no one uses). This will get posted in your Favorites RSS feed which will be imported into FriendFeed. Then, FriendFeed will post this to Twitter and will look something like: lancearmstrong: @taylorphinner breaks the US record in the "kilo" going 1:01. As he says, "slayed it". - Mike Reynolds

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Hootsuite will allow you to import RSS in a similar manner and will poll X number of updates per hour (where you can specify the number X) in addition to allowing you to pre-pend additional notational text in front of the tweet (so you can add "RT" for example) - Chris Aldrich

I recently started to play with my favourite Twitter feed using Yahoo Pipes with the intention of feeding it back to my Twitter account. I used Pipes to add the suffix '#fav', but didn't take it any further. - Chris Marshall

Very cool Chris and Chris. - Mike Reynolds

I'm doing this as well Mike - Thanks for the tip - Bwana ☠

Problem with this is it will add the ff.im link to every tweet. Maybe a better way would be to use a service like Twitterfeed? - Pat Hawks

I don't mind the ff.im link because I want people to come here to discuss it - Bwana ☠

I wish the delay were't so long...you lose the instant feel - Bwana ☠

Does this happen automagically? Can I favorite something on Twitter, and have it autoretweet? Is that the point of this exercise? - Mike Shields

Yes Mike, that's the idea - Bwana ☠

ok, that's huge. - Mike Shields

Still having a little problem with this. How do I create the RSS feed itself? - Mike Shields

just an FYI @Pat Hawks: you can't use twitterfeed to post back to twitter from your twitter favorites feed.. "Twitter does not allow posting of twitter feeds back to twitter..." is the error message provided by twitterfeed - its too bad because twitterfeed gives you the option to prepend RT: if you could get it to work.. I suppose you could pipe the feed then use twitterfeed to circumvent the restriction - Bill Rawlinson

kool. i am gonna set this up for myself. thanks! - (jeff)isageek

I set this up but the retweet didn't happen the way I wanted it so I created a pipe at yahoo pipes to help http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes... put your username in the field, hit "run pipe" then click the "get as rss" link and use the address it takes you to as a service here.. then reshare that service to twitter.. It will prepend the retweeted item with RT: @ so that the original author is cited as normal and the RT: label is present. - Bill Rawlinson

Not seeing how to reshare to Twitter automatically... :( - Mike Shields

Thanks a lot like it - Geris

Is this still working? Mine doesn't seem to be pulling anything in at the moment. ( using http://twitter.com/favorit... ) - Chuck Kahn

Okay, now it's working again. - Chuck Kahn

Erhan Erdoğan

Old way < New way

April 2, 2010 - Comment - Like - Share

Raoul Pop and Eric Johnson liked this

So true! - Eric Johnson

Fred Wilson

The Collapse of Complex Business Models « Clay Shirky http://www.shirky.com/weblog...

April 2, 2010 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Eric Johnson liked this

Mitchell Tsai

102 FriendFeed Picture Groups & 3 Video Groups [Last updated 3/3/10 - most of the room counts are from 8/10/09] - http://friendfeed.com/rooms...

May 31, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Kol Tregaskes, Daniel Rowley, sean808080 and 45 other people liked this

The Apple Room (5,672) http://friendfeed.com/applero... Funny Pics and Videos (2,100) http://friendfeed.com/funny-p... iDesign (2,033) http://friendfeed.com/idesign Persian-cam (1,941) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... Photography as Art (1,371) http://friendfeed.com/photogr... - Mitchell Tsai

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Photography United (1,161) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... Fotograf (1,063) http://friendfeed.com/fotograf Typography (1046) http://friendfeed.com/typogra... Crazy Gadgets (990) http://friendfeed.com/crazy-g... DSLR (971) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... - Mitchell Tsai

Creative Design (936) http://friendfeed.com/creativ... ART ROOM (888) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... Lovefest (840) http://friendfeed.com/lovefest Decork ::: Home Decoration (785) http://friendfeed.com/home-de... Funny Funny (767) http://friendfeed.com/funny-f... - Mitchell Tsai

Ideas & Inspiration (728) http://friendfeed.com/ideas-i... All Things Apple (640) http://friendfeed.com/all-thi... Photographing (497) http://friendfeed.com/photogr... Web Design Inspiration (433) http://friendfeed.com/web-des... Photoshop (409) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... - Mitchell Tsai

Photo Gallery (409) http://friendfeed.com/photo-g... Love-pic (400) http://friendfeed.com/love-pic Graphic (370) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... Architectural & Interior Design (355) http://friendfeed.com/isunix Flickr Central (351) http://friendfeed.com/flickr-... - Mitchell Tsai

Dog Lovers (315) http://friendfeed.com/dog-lov... Illustration (311) http://friendfeed.com/ill Arts and Culture (303) http://friendfeed.com/arts-an... Ads of the World (283) http://friendfeed.com/ads-wor... Science News (282) http://friendfeed.com/science... - Mitchell Tsai

It seems Persian-cam is in top Ranking !!! - Mahdi Ebrahimi

Yep! Persian-cam is the popular photo room on FriendFeed! You guys find the best pictures. - Mitchell Tsai

Thank you Mitchell for collecting data from all FriendFeed photo room - Mahdi Ebrahimi

Photography Tips, Tricks, and Know-How (280) http://friendfeed.com/photogr... Design (Tasarım) (280) http://friendfeed.com/tasarim CoolPics (274) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... Cat Lovers (272) http://friendfeed.com/kitteh Comic Book Goodness (259) http://friendfeed.com/comic-b... - Mitchell Tsai

عکس (irphoto, 251) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... Beautiful Women (221) http://friendfeed.com/beautif... Nature (204) http://friendfeed.com/nature Photographers sharing links, photographs,and tips! (198) http://friendfeed.com/brandyl... IRANIAN photos & photographers (189) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... - Mitchell Tsai

Parenting-A-Go-Go (189) http://friendfeed.com/parenti... Persian Pictures (174) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... Wallpapers (140) http://friendfeed.com/amazing... Fashion (Moda) (130) http://friendfeed.com/fashion... Legos (117) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... - Mitchell Tsai

FAILpics (110) http://friendfeed.com/failpics Graphics 'N Design (109) http://friendfeed.com/the-gra... ستاره شناسی (Astro-fa, 108) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... Photo Walking (101) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... Contemporary Art (101) http://friendfeed.com/contemp... - Mitchell Tsai

British & Irish Residents (101) http://friendfeed.com/brits-i... Animals (96) http://friendfeed.com/animals Fun Stuff (90) http://friendfeed.com/the-fun... Architecture (87) http://friendfeed.com/archite... Question of the Day (82) http://friendfeed.com/questio... - Mitchell Tsai

Cool! (74) http://friendfeed.com/coolness Silver Screen (71) http://friendfeed.com/silvers... Vintage Photos (69) http://friendfeed.com/oldphot... Fine Art (63) http://friendfeed.com/fine-art BabyFeed (59) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... - Mitchell Tsai

Art - painting (55) http://friendfeed.com/art-pai... The Solidarity Project (53) http://friendfeed.com/the-sol... Classic Novel Challenge (51) http://friendfeed.com/classic... Oh So Cute (49) http://friendfeed.com/oh-so-c... Movies (41) http://friendfeed.com/movies - Mitchell Tsai

Places (38) http://friendfeed.com/places Coming up NOW (35) http://friendfeed.com/enginee... Lovemetender (34) http://friendfeed.com/lovemet... furniture design (30) http://friendfeed.com/furnitu... Motion Graphics (29) http://friendfeed.com/motion-... - Mitchell Tsai

FRIEDFeed Hall of FAIL [sic] (28) http://friendfeed.com/friedfe... Digital Photography (27) http://friendfeed.com/digital... Fails (25) http://friendfeed.com/fails Digial Photograph [sic] (22) http://friendfeed.com/digial-... Squashy Frog Photography (21) http://friendfeed.com/squashy... - Mitchell Tsai

FFrooms (20) http://friendfeed.com/ffrooms About books - quotes, etc (16) http://friendfeed.com/about-b... Redl1ne (16) http://friendfeed.com/redl1ne Fotos (16) http://friendfeed.com/fotos The Photogenics (14) http://friendfeed.com/the-pho... - Mitchell Tsai

Masaüstü (8) http://friendfeed.com/masaustu Kinda Funny Pictures (7) http://friendfeed.com/kinda-f... Uphaa - Odd Things Around the World (6) http://friendfeed.com/uphaa-o... Web & Teknoloji (6) http://friendfeed.com/web-tek... Simply Life (3) http://friendfeed.com/simplyl... - Mitchell Tsai

NSFW rooms: NSFW Stuff (145) http://friendfeed.com/nsfw-st... i love your beautiful ass (142) http://friendfeed.com/i-love-... Nudes, artistic view (+16) (136) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... NSFW Posts - Images, Videos and Messages (136) http://friendfeed.com/nsfw-im... sexy moments in pix (+18) (128) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... - Mitchell Tsai

NSFW rooms: Polysexuality (19) http://friendfeed.com/polysex... Side boobs (18) http://friendfeed.com/side-bo... Big Boob (10) http://friendfeed.com/big-boob I Like That (NSFW) http://friendfeed.com/i-like-... Hotts http://friendfeed.com/hotts nancydancy http://friendfeed.com/nancyda... - Mitchell Tsai

[Video] Funny Pics and Videos (2,100) http://friendfeed.com/funny-p... Best of YouTube (368) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... Interesting Videos (74) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... - Mitchell Tsai

Defunct rooms: Funny Pics (was 91 - doesn't exist) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... Thomas Hawk (60 - not used since 6/20/08) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... Flickr images (17 - last pic 8/10/08) http://friendfeed.com/rooms... - Mitchell Tsai

Truly impressive. :-) - Moody (Sweet FA 4 Life)

Also, here are ~50 people at FriendFeed with cool pics (remember to check their likes & comments) http://ff.im/Bd3L http://ff.im/BqOL This page was motivated by Thomas Hawk's "What is your most viewed set on Flickr? Mine is my my 10 faves or more set" discussion (5/24/08) http://friendfeed.com/e... I finally made myself a "Picture Rooms" list. :-) - Mitchell Tsai

[Update Wed 9/16/09 2:46 am ET] Fashion photography (378) http://friendfeed.com/fashion... Technology News (105) http://friendfeed.com/alt-new... Big Pictures (74) http://friendfeed.com/thebigp... FriendFeed Art (10) http://friendfeed.com/friendf... - Mitchell Tsai

[Update Wed 3/3/10] Tattooz http://friendfeed.com/tattooz (59) Fine Art Photography () - Mitchell Tsai

Ivan Boothe to Ivan's feed, nptech, #4change

Will "web 2.0" help advocacy groups hold officials accountable? Case study of unprecedented live, online Q&A btw Sudan advocacy groups and the White House: http://rootwork.org/blog...

November 18, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

E-Advocate Network, Michael R. Bernstein and Eric Johnson liked this

Meryn Stol

FriendFeed best-practice (at least in my eyes): When you post something, search for other people who have posted about the same website/article/tool/event as you did, and "like" the posts you like (duh). Why? It's pro-social (e.g. friendly towards other FF users) and adds to the overall metadata. It helps the best content rise to the top.

November 12, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

Eric Johnson liked this

And, with Twitter's upcoming native retweet feature, I think this will soon be a Twitter best-practice too. - Meryn Stol

I think that would work Meryn if FF was topic oriented rather than person oriented. What happens when you search is there is often a dozen people who have shared through reader, twitter etc, and there's no logical way to make a choice. - Todd Hoff

nptech: Ivan Boothe

MySpace Causes shuts down, abandoning 184,674 nonprofits supporters. Is it time to demand some openness? http://rootwork.org/blog...

November 7, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

Michael R. Bernstein, Eric Johnson and E-Advocate Network liked this

Its time to for 3rd party apps in the nptech "business" to focus their usability and functionality on creating strong relationships between supporters and nonprofits. Social change happens outside the application - in the real world. Apps should be connectors - the abondonment would not have been relevent if this was already a goal. Causes tech philosophy is inverted, despite good intentions. - E-Advocate Network

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It's time to pull the plug on MySpace - Que Sarah Sarah

I think that conclusion is based on stereotype Sarah- MySpace leads by 14% in family density. Parents using social media is rare majority and find on social media. LinkedIn had 20% with children in the home. It would be a huge loss to nonprofits that focus on families. - E-Advocate Network

If you think TechCruch's synopsis of MySpace catering to "people of color," it is wrong. It only leads in hispanic women making up to $100,000.000 per year. This demographic migrates to Facebook after 50 years old. - E-Advocate Network

Where it falls behid is graduate degrees, yet it stronly leads in female majority. I think what we are seeing is women choosing motherhood over graduate school. It also had the same percentage of middle class users, yet falls behind by 8% total in the higher upper classes. - E-Advocate Network

sorry, it was an off-the-cuff remark. I know MySpace still has users, I just can't stand the site personally. - Que Sarah Sarah

That is your taste, strongly not others. Out of all social sites (especially Twitter) MySpace has the smallest level of passer by users, the largest percentage of dedicated users and "addicts" It is a dedicated, vibrant community for those who use it. - E-Advocate Network

This is a Causes design failure because it is not working on a social change paradigm - it is working on an internal, gated app paradigm - E-Advocate Network

Ivan!! Have you been to MySpace Impact or A Place for Impact. There is an entire suite of tools that does what you state MySpace users are now without. Does anyone writing about this have a relationship with, know the demographics of, or use MySpace Impacts tools? - E-Advocate Network

Louis Gray

"I even remember what it was like before Robert Scoble got here!" - http://louisgray.com/live...

August 11, 2009 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

ydfeed, rtshiva, Shea and 89 other people liked this

i do miss festivusfeed. airing of grievances brought about actual FF updates, right? - MG Siegler

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there should be a "love" option for things like this. lol - shaun mclane

Great example of how the FF culture was a big part of growing a love for the service that will no doubt be eaten by the FB dragon. - Mark Krynsky

++Mark - vijay

Awwwww - Susan Beebe from iPhone

Will this be the butterfly? - Jesse Stay

Bump for the good times. - Mark Krynsky

Jesse roflol! - Melanie Reed

Jesse wins! - Micah

Cristo, not enough. It was in December of 2007. :) - Louis Gray

FriendFeed has never released user statistics, to my knowledge. - Louis Gray

I forgot about this one, a true classic. I need to have a high-trafficked site just so I can pull out gag logos. - Vezquex

Johnny to Johnny's feed, Louis Gray

Now we just need some VC funding and we're set, sir! (http://friendfeed.com/louisgr...)

August 13, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

edythe, Paul Buchheit, Jimminy, CoG of FF and 63 other people liked this

good couple,sir:))) - K.D.

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Come on Vs and Cs - Giddy up! So we can get on to: http://friendfeed.com/micahwi... - Micah

lol - Jemm

what kind of capital do you want? - K.D.

Hahahaha, priceless! - Mladen Srdić

I'm keeping my firefly quotes to myself, I'm keeping my firefly quotes to myself, really... - Rachel Lea Fox

I'm in!! - Chris Myles

"Take my site. Take my brand. Take me where I have no friends. I don't care, I'm still free. You can't take friendfeed from me." (I couldn't keep my Firefly quotes to myself, I'd explode.) - DGentry

Bahahaha!!! - Mo Kargas

May this image stay with you throughout the day...Goodnight everyone :) - Johnny

hahah this is awesome!! - Susan Beebe

Is FriendFeed going to end the same way as LHotP? Spending that VC money on dynamite? - Andy Dustman

*dead* - WoH: Minding her Steves

WHAT THE SAM HELL IS GOIN' ON??? - Josh Haley

Josh, don't you mean "DO ANYBODY NO?" - Yolanda

not this time...I used my backwoods accent for this one - Josh Haley

LOL - Dobromir Hadzhiev

JohnnyMal (to Facebook): “Now think real hard... if your hand touches FriendFeed, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you.” - WoH: Minding her Steves

...After reading DGentry's entry, it was sort of obvious :) - WoH: Minding her Steves

We don't need VC funding! There's gold in them there hills! - Louis Gray

LOL! - Susan Beebe from iPhone

Bump for the good times. - Mark Krynsky

ROFL - I missed that one! - Jesse Stay

*wants to LIKE again* - Micah

"I married me a powerful ugly creature." "How can you shame me in front of new people?" "If I could make you purtier, I would." http://www.imdb.com/title... - Christopher Galtenberg

Paul Buchheit

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 :)

October 19, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

WoH: Minding her Steves, BRҰANSAҰS, Jeff (Team マクダジ ) and 227 other people liked this

What is transforming... FriendFeed, or the idea of FriendFeed? - Christopher Galtenberg

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Thanks for the update, Paul! - Anne Bouey

THANK YOU! - tehKenny

Fabulous News :) - Susan Beebe

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

To Robert Scoble: I told you so ;-) - Jesse Stay

Sounds like they're adding some of FF's features to FaceBook. yay - iTad from fftogo

Mark - got link? - Susan Beebe

Thanks Paul :) - Ashish

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. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Thank you Paul for bringing "FriendFeed goodness to the larger world" -- THAT sounds awesome!! - Susan Beebe

integration with facebook? - Rocco Galluzzo

@Alex Scoble: That's true - Jorge Escobar

Susan: http://blog.facebook.com/blog... and http://mashable.com/2009... - Mark Trapp

I hope out of the chrysalis emerges an infested Kerrigan. That'd be awesome http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki... - Ivan Kirigin

Thanks Mark, much appreciated... I'll check those out - Susan Beebe

+1 Ivan :) - Benjamin Golub

But we knew this was the deal the moment the full details of the purchase of friendfeed by Facebook became public. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Yeah, I don't give a crap about Facebook. I want to know about FriendFeed. - Rochelle

sadly, no one with any power seems to care about FF anymore. - Joe The Sausage

And there's your answer, Rochelle. friendwho? friendwhat now? Oh, you mean Facebook! (No I mean friendfeed) friendwho? (rinse, lather, repeat) - Scoble, 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

yep - Jason Wehmhoener

Thanks for the transparency on the Friendfeed "ghost town" matter Paul. Much appreciated. - Alex Knight

Thanks Paul... bring the special sauce to Facebook: http://blogs.zdnet.com/weblife... - Andrew

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

Mark LOL nice, ... haha - Susan Beebe

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. - travispuk 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. - Scoble, 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

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. - travispuk from iPhone

Travis, there are better ways of getting the FF team to comment - Jesse Stay

:( I quite liked the caterpillar. - Nick Lothian

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! - travispuk 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

Agree Adina. - travispuk from iPhone

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

@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

Crickets chirping... is this site alive?? :) - Christopher Galtenberg

+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

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 (bird whisperer)

+1 everything Alex Scoble has said. Friendwhat? What's a feed? Who uses RSS anymore? We've got PubSubWTFOMGBBQ now! - Mr. Gunn

Agree with Jandy on +100 Adina. - Amy℠

Also, I agree with Jandy and Adina's comments. - John (bird whisperer)

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

This is not the news that Friendfeed fans were looking for. - Vezquex

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... more... - Melanie Reed

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...... more... - Johnny

LMFAO. Johnny++ - Rah-PM 2012

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

Yes, but blocking doesn't work so well since you can just use Chrome's Incognito mode to get around it. - Scoble, 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)

Paul, will FF be here in 1 year, 5 years? - Robert Higgins

Thanks for the update Paul.. - Chris Myles

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

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

Ohhhh a perrrttty butterfly, I'm moist with anticipation. - The Real sofarsoShawn

Glad to hear it, Paul. - WoH: Minding her Steves

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

Great news. Thanks! friendfeed team. :D - Friendfeed's Francisco

@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).... more... - 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

I like butterflies. - Harold Cabezas

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

waiting.... - ffcode

ffcode: Good luck with that ;-) - Jim Connolly

So the changes are at Facebook not FriendFeed, Paul? - Kol Tregaskes

And good luck to all of your team - Özkan Altuner from iPhone

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

yemezler - MobilAdam

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

bump! - Jesse Stay

Why? edit: so... 18 months later i'm still wondering what exactly this post was all about - Chris Heath

Paul Buchheit to Paul's feed, Collaborative Charity

Text books seem generally expensive and insipid (http://friendfeed.com/paul...). Are there any promising open-source textbook projects? (high quality content and likely to see actual use)

June 25, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

Julia, nahnu, Bill and 40 other people liked this

http://twitter.com/bookmaid - RIT Rochester Institute of Technology has their own text book exchange on Twitter :) - Susan Beebe

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Obama's chief technology dude (can't remember his name) headed a project like this before taking the cabinet position. The folks at Buzz Out Loud (@acedtect @Mollywood @raygun01) would know about this as he recorded a message for their 1000th episode last week and we were reminded of the program (somewhere on the east coast). - Kevin Arth

paul - Literacybridge.org is a great non-profit focusing on this issue. there are numerous issues here in terms of language localization, cost of print and transport of books, ability to have access to and understand content, etc. many textbook programs also assume one basic fact that is not necessarily true - literacy. although i am a fan of building schools and education, the reality... more... - Joyce

IMO, most textbooks betray a massive bias of quantity over quality, in part because quantity is confused with depth. If professors were doing their jobs (some are of course), they'd concentrate on distilling out the key points rather than partake of the laziness/spoils of the rigged textbook market... most textbooks are the equivalent of a public works program. - Alex Schleber

I am planning on using an open-source book for the intro programming class I am teaching next fall at Colorado University - http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpy... - Robert Felty

Doesn't the Wikimedia Foundation have a project for open source textbooks? EDIT: Why yes, yes they do, although YMMV. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki... - Chris Charabaruk

I agree with Alex. Sometimes a good curriculum or at least a lesson plan is more important than a textbook. That's why I think a great project is Curriki.org. It is an online community, where educational resources can be created, shared and re-used in an open license environment. They concentrate mainly on K-12 curriculum, however it seems like it can be a great tool to share the... more... - Maciek Zielinski

Paul I agree that textbooks are way too expensive. As you may know, because of the way textbooks get adopted by some states, most of the kids in the country end up learning from books that were specifically designed to get approved in Texas and California. So how's this for an idea of how to give away your "lots of money": fund the development of a complete set of textbooks through an... more... - Peter

Flat World Knowledge: Check it out: Professors donate time to produce textbooks. Students get them for free. - http://www.flatworldknowledge.com - scott willeke

Note the importance of audio to building literacy - http://literacybridge.org/talking... - Ed Dodds

Consider also that if a person "open schools" all the way up through university material, there is no way to CLEP a degree. The US Department of Education should issue guidelines for the degrees where this makes sense. - Ed Dodds

...i suspect that the textbook business is terrifically profitable for publishers, and that they'll fight any move to displace them tooth and nail. - .LAG liked that

There's also http://ck12.org/ They make it easy for teachers to put together custom textbooks by reusing existing pieces of content (chapters and such). - Meryn Stol

The South African "Free High School Text Book" project has a reasonable reputation: http://www.fhsst.org/. There are a lot of free non-textbook resources available through OERCommons (http://www.oercommons.org/) - Nick Lothian

@Peter - curriki looks pretty interesting. Do you have any kind of harvesting facilities? - Nick Lothian

@Nick. Yes. Curriki provides several ways to export materials from the site. Each of the 30,000 free and open source resources can be downloaded on to your computer, where they can be printed. You can also get the XML data for any resource. In both cases, you just have to mind the specifics of the Creative Commons license requirements. You can also embed a widget for any learning... more... - Peter

Here is a project that I have tried to contribute information to and one of my websites is actually listed there because at their request, it was easier for me to start a site of my own with the info I gave them, than for them to list all the book titles and links I provided them with. http://textbookrevolution.org - April

Curriki is a knowledge exchange which is the 21st century textbook. EVERCHANGING, always adding, always collaborating. When I see this, I don't just see worksheets... I see customizable games- good easy to change content. I see LEARNING ACTIVITIES, best practices, I see collaboration, I see a whole curriculum FOR TEACHER INSTRUCTION- on learning how to use and implement different... more... - Sharnon Johnston-Robinett

Ditto on Flatworld, but @scott, profs are not donating their time for free -- basic web-version of text is made for free, with chapters, learning materials, etc. available for fee-based download -- don't have to use the fee-based material, but is very nice to see business model that offers a good hybrid between paper-only and web-only content. In my classes, students often print out material because they want to work on their computers and have something "hard" to refer to. - Mickey Schafer

Check out my new blogs on Curriki, we address this issue and hope the community will make sure we are sustainable. - Bobbi Kurshan

http://www.cnx.org and http://ocw.mit.edu - Just Joe from iPod

Timo Luege to Timo's feed, Social Media, nptech

Fwd: Why "RSS -> Facebook" is bad for you - http://sm4good.com/2009... (via http://friendfeed.com/timolue...)

October 6, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

Laura Norvig and Eric Johnson liked this

M F

Latest Data on Facebook’s US Growth by Age and Gender – October 1, 2009 - http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009...

October 1, 2009 from M Farber's shared items in... - Comment - Like - Share

Nispell, Aspa and Eric Johnson liked this

umair

Wanted: Your Thoughts on Awesomeness - http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque...

September 25, 2009 from Umair Haque - Comment - Like - Share

Eric Johnson liked this

imabonehead to imabonehead's feed, All Things Open Source, Ruby on Rails

How Ravelry Scales to 10 Million Requests Using Rails | High Scalability - http://highscalability.com/how-rav...

September 22, 2009 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Eric Johnson liked this

"Ten years ago a site like Ravelry would have been a multi-million dollar operation. Today Casey is the sole engineer for Ravelry and to run it takes only a few people. He was able to code it in 4 months working nights and weekends. Take a look down below of all the technologies used to make Ravelry and you'll see how it is constructed almost completely from free of the shelf software that Casey has stitched together into a complete system. There's an amazing amount of leverage in today's ecosystem when you combine all the quality tools, languages, storage, bandwidth and hosting options." - imabonehead from Bookmarklet

Jeremiah Owyang

The Future of the Social Web: In Five Eras - http://www.web-strategist.com/blog...

April 27, 2009 from Web Strategy by Jeremiah - Comment - Like - Share

Rajif Krobat, Baytech, Björn Klose and 109 other people liked this

Interesting stuff...thanks for sharing - Hugo Guzman

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Great info! I agree fish where the fish are :) - Peter du Toit (S.Africa)

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

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

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

Just found this... great stuff! - Gerd Leonhard

Paul Buchheit

Don’t! The secret of self-control. - http://www.newyorker.com/reporti...

May 12, 2009 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Mark Crowley, Christian Burns , WoH: Minding her Steves and 91 other people liked this

"At the time, psychologists assumed that children’s ability to wait depended on how badly they wanted the marshmallow. But it soon became obvious that every child craved the extra treat. What, then, determined self-control? Mischel’s conclusion, based on hundreds of hours of observation, was that the crucial skill was the “strategic allocation of attention.” Instead of getting obsessed with the marshmallow—the “hot stimulus”—the patient children distracted themselves by covering their eyes, pretending to play hide-and-seek underneath the desk, or singing songs from “Sesame Street.” Their desire wasn’t defeated—it was merely forgotten. “If you’re thinking about the marshmallow and how delicious it is, then you’re going to eat it,” Mischel says. “The key is to avoid thinking about it in the first place.” In adults, this skill is often referred to as metacognition, or thinking about thinking, and it’s what allows people to outsmart their shortcomings. (When Odysseus had himself tied to... more... - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

14 more comments

This is an interesting quote because it implies that "will power" is more about mental strategy, not some kind of mental strength for forcing yourself to do something. I have the same strategy with food -- I eat whatever I see, so in order to not eat something I just need to put it out of sight. - Paul Buchheit

effectively "out of sight, out of mind" - alphaxion

This is where the magic of science is: you spend time and resources to prove a proverb. - .i.m.a.r.s.o.r.a.m.a.

"The child who could wait fifteen minutes had an S.A.T. score that was, on average, two hundred and ten points higher than that of the kid who could wait only thirty seconds." - J.D. Deutschendorf

Sometimes I worry my metacognition is slowing me down because I'm spending less time just cogniting. (that oughtta be a word.) But no, in all seriousness, I think something, then realize the thought was there before I subvocalized it, and then I go in a circle several times subvocalizing those same thoughts as I examine the process of thinking. Frustrating! - Andrew C (✓)

Some friends and I refer to this study often, pointing out when we've failed the marshmallow test. Staying up late is my most common mashmallow test failure (sacrificing morning time to enjoy a few more bleary hours NOW), but it's easy to spot this sort of behavior and fun to have a standard vocabulary to highlight its ubiquity. - Seth

Episode on Mischel's marshmallows on RadioLab -- http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiola... - Alex Haar

As a parent, I consciously used this strategy to distract my children whenever they got in mischief, behaved badly or acted out. As a grandparent, I often send a box of tricks, things like super balls, an "uno" deck, paints, a book, a yoyo or top, for my daughter to use with my grandchildren when they are driving her crazy and need to think about something other than running around screaming. - Phil Boiarski

OK, that makes sense, but let's flip this on its head - How do you instead keep your mind on something and prevent yourself from getting distracted? You can't distract yourself from your distractions. Andrew C, the word you're looking for is cogitating. - Mr. Gunn

Mr Gunn, thanks. Though I think 'cogniting' is a touch funnier. - Andrew C (✓)

Some chimpanzees use this strategy as well, though not all of them. - Björn Brembs

i think bhudda had some theory on this too...:/ - Paul Moss

Today my 4yo daughter was having trouble waiting for a treat, so I told her (and my wife) about reading this article last night. I talked about the ability to distract - and I thought I was doing a pretty good job of explaining it in 4yo terms. When I was done with my paraphrase/lesson, I asked her if she understood. "Uh-huh," she said. Then after a few moments, she asked if we could stop and get some marshmallows on the way home. All I could do is laugh! - Gary Walter (gwalter)

I read a different writeup of this experiment a couple years ago, when our daughter was about 1 year old. Its something that can be taught, and encouraged. She's now very good at distracting herself from something which she knows she shouldn't do or would get into trouble over. She's not easily distracted in general: she can focus quite well on something she wants to do (and is allowed to do). - DGentry

The experiment: http://friendfeed.com/haggis... - Jérôme

Marshall Kirkpatrick

A Closer Look at Facebook's New Privacy Options http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...

June 29, 2009 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Eric Johnson liked this

"We think most other reports on the news missed a key point, too, though. Everyone focused on the new option for shared messages to be publicly visible outside the constraints of a Facebook user's friends network - people called it a shot at the wide open paradigm of Twitter. In fact, the biggest change may be that sharing options are becoming much more granular - more human." - Eric Johnson

This is an interesting article and I think that not only should facebook be clear about its privacy options but it could also make editing settings & other stuff on facebook more user friendly. It can take a while to work out how to turn something off or on and there is a minimum of info to guide people. facebook obviously know what they are doing but the truth is they are serving a very large public & they may need to remember that. Thanks for the post! Pemo Theodore, AstraMatch Blog - Pemo Theodore from FriendFeed MT Plugin

Anthony Citrano to Anthony's feed, Photography United

Isn't the Los Angeles Times violating copyright law and/or Creative Commons terms by using people's photos commercially *and* without attribution *and* without a link *and then* asserting their OWN copyright thereon? http://www.latimes.com/news... #fuckinglame

August 30, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

Mitchell Tsai, Alex Scrivener, Jeff P. Henderson and 58 other people liked this

That is some freaking lame-ass shit right there. How can the LAT think they've any right? - Moody (Sweet FA 4 Life)

39 more comments

That's very lame. Almost as lame as looking at the fullsize pic and then trying to click onto the next image.... - WoH: Minding her Steves

They have a very creative use of the term copyright. - Pete D from iPhone

And now they're using several of mine (screenshot: http://www.citrano.com/pix...) -- I've e-mailed their editorial staff and am eager to hear the explanation. - Anthony Citrano

They just pulled it right off your Flickr? That's lame. (without attribution and slapping their copyright on it.) - Gus

Sounds like it's the MSM doing the pirating this time. - Dennis Jernberg

@Gus: correct. @Dennis: well said. - Anthony Citrano

Depends how they are doing it actually. If they are only pulling off Creative Commons licensed photos then they'd be ok. If they are pulling of all rights reserved photos and creative commons non commercial licensed photos they'd be in violation of these licenses. In either case they are violating Flickr's terms of use which require them to include a link back to the original image on... more... - Thomas Hawk

Perhaps they intend the copyright to apply to entire content of the page versus the specific content of the photo. In any case, I agree quite lame. - Khürt Williams

FWIW their attribution link is hidden behind that 'i' at the bottom. They do this *all* the time and each time they get more and more clever about hiding the attribution from the pictures they pull from Flickr. Still, they need to stop pulling in photos by keywords and pay attention to the CC license. Too time consuming? Then don't do it, LA Times. - Anika

"Do link back to Flickr when you post your Flickr content elsewhere. The Flickr service makes it possible to post content hosted on Flickr to outside web sites. However, pages on other web sites that display content hosted on flickr.com must provide a link from each photo or video back to its page on Flickr." Per the community guidelines at Flickr. the L.A. Times is not linking back. - Thomas Hawk

Well, it looks like today they added the "LINK TO OWNER" thing within the "i" button. This was *not* there last night - I looked, very hard (and much harder than 99% of LATimes readers would look). But they're still ignoring the main issue. I've seen several today and last night with various license settings, including many marked "All Rights Reserved". - Anthony Citrano

I am just trying to get my mind around how this is much different than if the pictures where posted on FF. - Brian Sullivan

@Brian - (non-stolen) pictures on FF (such as flickr favorites, etc.) are always linked back to their creator and are (ostensibly) being used noncommercially. Further, a user is not asserting their own copyright. Yet further, I have long howled about FF users who steal images and then upload them directly to FF without credit - not because of the money or lack of respect for the artists but because they (the FF user) essentially orphan the work by doing that. - Anthony Citrano

The linking back is the only issue I can see. Here it could be said it looks like FF is asserting copyright -- much the same as LA Times put a copyright notice on the page.See http://friendfeed.com/briansu... where I used the bookmarklet to post pictures from your Flickr site. - Brian Sullivan

@Brian - sure, for my stuff, which is CC, but if you did that with someone's images that were marked "All Rights Reserved" then what you did there would be illegal. That is to say, it would not qualify as "fair use" (but I'm no lawyer) and the creator could pursue remedies against you and/or FF. - Anthony Citrano

But almost every use of the bookmarklet would then be deemed illegal and FF would the most copyright offending organization on the planet - the LA Times would be rank amateurs-- but maybe that is where this is all headed? - Brian Sullivan

Just for kicks, I marked one of my uploads "All Rights Reserved" just now. A few minutes later, there it was on the LA Times site. Brian - to your point about FF, let's set aside the general rule that just because other people do it doesn't mean it's not wrong - and think about commercial use. Say what you will about FriendFeed's future profit potential, but it's a hell of a lot more... more... - Anthony Citrano

Is the "commercial use" thing real though -- "all rights" would include even what happens on FF. - Brian Sullivan

Anthony, take a screen shot of your image and send them in invoice for $1,000 and see what happens. If nothing else it would make for an interesting story as you followed the progress of it all. - Thomas Hawk

@Thomas I want to see what they say first. They deserve a chance to respond. If I do send them an invoice, it will only be to make a point - and if the invoice is honored, the money will go to a non-profit. - Anthony Citrano

Anthony -- my name is Sean Connelley. I am the one who created the Flickr widget used on the LA Times. I wanted to just explain what happened from my side, in hopes it clear some of this up for everyone. The CC issue was an honest mistake on my part and in know way was I just trying to hijack or steal anyone's photo. When retrieving photos using the Flickr API, there is a parameter... more... - Sean Connelley

Interesting to see what Anthony says but good to see Mr Connelley giving an explanation. - WoH: Minding her Steves

Sean, thanks for posting here with the explanation, but can you explain why both mistakes you detail were left up and running for more than a day before being corrected? I understand the point you made about wanting to rush out your widget, but even a few minutes of testing after launch should have revealed both errors to you. - Stephen Mack

Stephen -- All I can say is they slipped through. After initially finishing the widget, I debugged it for about an hour or so, for various problems. So I guessed I overlooked those. Also on the CC issue, I had no real reason to believe it wasn't working, I thought I was doing it right. I was alerted to the problem this morning and I fixed the link back to the user and I thought I fixed... more... - Sean Connelley

Sean, thanks for being forthcoming and posting the details. - Stephen Mack

Hi Sean - thanks for explaining what's going on here. We all make mistakes. I didn't think you guys were being intentionally malicious, just careless. And it appears you still are - I just went over to the widget and you are *still* using photos marked “Noncommercial” and “All Rights Reserved.” Are you asserting some kind of fair use claim with select images (which I really don't think you can legitimately do here), or is it still just coded incorrectly? - Anthony Citrano

For example, the first photo the widget is showing at the moment is this one by Theron Trowbridge: http://www.flickr.com/photos... which is marked with a CC Attribution-Noncommercial license. Images 4-17 are by Clayton Bruster, and all of Clayton's images are marked (C) "All Rights Reserved." (e.g. http://www.flickr.com/photos...) And to... more... - Anthony Citrano

A great reason to establish your social media plan of attack parameters long before a crisis, so as to eliminate (or at least reduce) opportunity for error. This realm of reporting will continue to extend its reach into territories that continue to test the scope and spirit of traditional media. An editor must also wonder at which point does the life of a reporter (photographer) transfer to and from personal and professional. - FidelGonzales

interesting. Good to see the L.A. Times chime in, but it does seem pretty sloppy that it would appear that *still* all rights reserved photos are showing up in the stream. I just looked at it and the first photo that was pulled up was an all rights reserved one: http://www.flickr.com/photos... - Thomas Hawk

The first photo that now shows up for me is also "all rights reserved" - http://www.flickr.com/photos... The second photos doesn't have a link (probably due to a too long description). Number 3 is this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos... LOL! - Holger Eilhard

Guess people need to start sending invoices. Maybe we should post onto the photo's comments that 'did you know the LAT is currently using your image?' - MikeDeal / ZoneDancer

I thought photos were "free like the air". Invoices would certaily be the way to go - Jim Goldstein from iPhone

Not to be obstreperous here -- but again I ask -- how is LA Times use any different than what happens on FriendFeed? - Brian Sullivan

oh, my nightmare continues... I assumed the widget was taken down. I have now corrected it, with a version that should eliminate any of your photos from being grabbed please check in a few minutes, also might need to clear cache and reload page. I apologize for these series of mistakes. - Sean Connelley

ok, I just checked... it does not appear to be loading any "All Rights Reserved."... Anthony to your question of why I didn't just check. I should of and I didn't, I wish I had a better answer. Can I ask this group a question. Seeing as you all seem to be passionate flickr user's and photographers. Do you see any value and/or need in a widget like this? Of course, a widget that worked correctly and respected copyrights and provided links back to the owners - Sean Connelley

side note - the power of FF! This would have not gotten visibility on FB due to the way privacy works over there - Jeff (Team マクダジ )

Sean, Yes this is a very cool idea, as long as you respect copyrights. It is a great way to croudsource news, as long as your not outsourcing your photographers. - MikeDeal / ZoneDancer

@Jeff: truth is, this has nothing to do with the power of FF. @Brian: asked and answered. @Sean: it looks to be fixed now, if a bit sparse. - Anthony Citrano

Sean, absolutely see value in a widget like this and am actually impressed by the ways that the L.A. Times is embracing social media. You guys are ahead of the curve in that regard. - Thomas Hawk

Anthony -- I'm glad that it is now working correctly and again apologize for the inconvenience I caused you and other flickr users. Unfortunately, the results now are a little discouraging but I what can you do. I'm just happy that it is working correctly now and learned a pretty good lesson from this. I'm going to try to expand my search tags to see if it helps bring in more content... more... - Sean Connelley

Benjamin Golub

I found out how to make FriendFeed publish "short" stories instead of one-liners at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authori...

August 22, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

LonelyBob, Scott Kuperus, Thomas Hawk and 65 other people liked this

This will also include pictures :) - Benjamin Golub

21 more comments

Ben, if you ever need help in anything like that let me know - I'm all for helping FriendFeed integrate better with Facebook. :-) - Jesse Stay

If we have to, sure, this is awesome. This is a minor revolution. As usual, Thanks Benjamin! - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

You rock Ben - Charlie Anzman

This works GREAT! Now if I could only select *which* FF entries I want to ship to Facebook, I'd be all set. - Phil Glockner

I agree with Phil.. even if I could tag things with #FB it would help. My friends are already overwhelmed with my geekness, flooding them with ALL of my FF content would seal the deal!! - Chris Myles

Ben: I am only getting one-liners what else do I have change - a privacy setting somewhere? - Peter du Toit (S.Africa)

I've tried this several times without success, will try again... Thanks, Ben. - Kol Tregaskes

it will post to facebook..but does not show pics if it has them in it. - (jeff)isageek

Woohoo! Thanks for getting this working! :) - Keith Bourgoin

nice! - .LAG liked that

Still doesn't work for me I'm afraid. It stopped posting a few weeks back and no amount of removing/readding/checking settings helps. Not even your awesome link :( - Alex Lomas

Alex: has just stopped working for me too! Everything is fine with the application ie it shows up on the tab but does not publish into the news feed... interesting... - Peter du Toit (S.Africa)

Peter and Alex: Have you tried this: http://www.facebook.com/authori... - Benjamin Golub

@Benjamin: Thanks for the tip - it always used to be set and I've double checked via your link and it still is. How long should things take to show up? - Alex Lomas

Thanks Ben this was not set on my side about to check, thanks for the help! - Peter du Toit (S.Africa)

hey its working for me now!!! rock on. pic and all! - (jeff)isageek

Hm. The pics I just posted to FF never showed up in FB. Anyone know if this should be working? - Keith Bourgoin from IM

Alex: according to our logs http://friendfeed.com/alexlom... has already been posted to your Facebook profile. Facebook responded with a successful publish. - Benjamin Golub

@Benjamin - Wow, thanks for looking into that. Still not showing up on my wall, so I guess it must be something else :( - Alex Lomas

@Benjamin - Woohoo! They've appeared! But the stories were way down the bottom of the wall amongst posts from early this morning so I didn't initially see them. Maybe something to do with time zones (I'm in the UK)? - Alex Lomas

Ben: that solved it for me too! Pics also showing! Thanks for the help! 1 quick question for you :) when do you think we will be able to add the FF app to Facebook Public Profiles because that would be awesome! - Peter du Toit (S.Africa)

Cool. Thanks for the tip. - Mitchell Tsai

Ozer Wrzl (EN)

[EXPLORE] When the sun goes down.../ Fishing "After Eight"

August 23, 2009 from Flickr favorites - Comment - Like - Share

Bluesun 2600, John (bird whisperer), Eric Johnson and 3 other people liked this

Kol Tregaskes to Kol's feed, FriendFeed Talk, Appetite

The Would-Be FFugees Shouldn’t Pack Up And Find A New Home Just Yet - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009...

August 22, 2009 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

NaHi, Charles LePage, Bonnie Foster and 9 other people liked this

"Following Facebook’s acquisition of FriendFeed, a lot of users in that community were up in arms. Basically, everyone was quick to jump to the conclusion that FriendFeed, as we knew it, was dead. And with the comments immediately following the deal, the parties on both sides did little to change that line of thinking, basically saying things along the lines of “we’ll see.” Many users were threatening to leave the service immediately, turning them into yes, FFugees. Well, now that the FriendFeed team is successfully in their new Facebook office and working to get up to speed on their new site, Steve Gillmor got a chance to catch up with FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit, and to ask him some of the questions that Mike didn’t touch on too much during his interview with Buchheit last week. Warning, the video below is quite long (over 50 minutes) and free-flowing at points, so I’ll summarize some of the key things said first." - Kol Tregaskes from Bookmarklet

4 more comments

The video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Kol Tregaskes

Still nothing very concrete from the notes anyway. Oh well, I'm just going to continue as normal. But sounds like very little new stuff will appear on FriendFeed for a while. :-( - Kol Tregaskes

OK, this is the first truly substantive interview by anyone from the FriendFeed team since the acquisition. A MUST-READ, largely somewhat reassuring re: the future of the service beloved by many of us.. oh, and how in hell is this not on Best of Day yet ?!?!?!?!?! You gotta be kidding, after all of the howling and gnashing of teeth last two weeks, one would think that people are hungry for this information. Must be a 5 stages of grief thing: 4 - depression.. - Alex Schleber

Must be the slightly insider-joke-ish title and post image that has people unduly ignoring this, anyway, I don't care that it's Summer, Saturday, or #Gnomedex...FriendFeeders, vote this up! - Alex Schleber

+1 "On the topic of the fears some FriendFeed users have about still using the service because their data may just disappear if FriendFeed does, Buchheit notes that if anything, the Facebook acquisition has lowered the chances of that happening. He says that in the big picture, it’s so little data, and takes very little to support. And Facebook is a huge, secure company now. (He is, of course, alluding to the fact that FriendFeed was in a much less stable position in the market.)" - Eric Johnson

AJ Kohn

Colors on The Web: Color Theory for Designers - http://designreviver.com/article...

August 21, 2009 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Eric Johnson liked this

"Psychologists believe color does more than impact our visual systems. For example, the same mechanisms which receive color input, also allow the pulses to reach the pituitary and pineal glands by way of the hypothalamus. The pituitary regulates certain hormones and other physiological processes. In fish, it is believed the pituitary may even regulate color. The pineal, interestingly, was thought by Decartes to contain the soul. It is believed generally that at least temporary responses affecting mood occur as a result of exposure to certain colors – red to stimulate, blue to calm, and so on." - AJ Kohn from Bookmarklet

Kol Tregaskes to Kol's feed, FriendFeed Talk, Google Reader, All Things Google, Appetite, TheNextWeb Forum

Is Google Reader The Next Friendfeed? - http://www.makeuseof.com/tag...

August 18, 2009 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

امیروفسکی, Ola, MikeDeal / ZoneDancer and 29 other people liked this

"With the news that Friendfeed was being sold to Facebook for an undisclosed sum, people have started flocking over to Google Reader, which shows you how fickle the internet can be. One minute they are all in Friendfeed professing their love for it and the next they are moving over to Google Reader just because they may not agree with the future direction of the other site. I have always been more of a Reader person than a Friendfeed person. I don’t know why but I feel more comfortable with Reader. Maybe it’s because it is tightly integrated with Gmail so I can email things to myself, maybe it’s because Reader has a really nice user interface so I can whiz about from post to post. I can’t pin it down but Reader has always been my preferred app. Say what you like about Google but they always instinctively seem to know what is good for the general net user and what works / doesn’t work. As a result, they have built an app which is primed to benefit from any disgruntled Friendfeed users if Facebook messes too much with it." - Kol Tregaskes from Bookmarklet

8 more comments

I see that more promising than facebook - Leandro Ardissone ⍨ from IM

I can't agree with a Reader move until Wave is released, then the combination will be better. For now though Reader is incomplete. - Andy Ciordia

A GReader GWave combo would be ideal. - Kol Tregaskes

Just not feeling the love with Google reader. - cheapsuits

It has been very odd how Google seemed to ignore social networking through the years. Sure they have Orkut, but Google Reader, iGoogle and other Google tools COULD have been much better if they allowed you to add your own connections. Big miss. - Mike Reynolds

I can't handle the regular Reader interface. Much better via feedly. - Nils Sandin

Google reader has a long way to go before I become a regular user. The interface is crap and too jam packed with stuff. - Jonathan Hardesty from Android

Since I joined Friendfeed 14 months ago, Google Reader has been my Friendfeed client. Maybe because I'm more a "reader" person than a "comment" or "like" one? - Iñaki Arrieta Baro

I tried GReader as a FF client for a while but was too clumsy. For me FF is best read in FF, though GReader is a good alternative. - Kol Tregaskes

Steve Rubel

I am seeing a lot of my Friendfeed followers asking to follow me on Facebook but I treat the networks differently - for now.

August 13, 2009 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

testbeta, Eric Gourmet, Marco Castellani and 40 other people liked this

Me, too. I'm trying to think about what to do with that. - joey

28 more comments

Might actually make more sense to gather around Google Reader for now, in case Google advances it towards a more FF-ish interface. - phil baumann

I made a special group called "online friends" Now the question remains, can you have different privacy settings per group in facebook? That would be the best fix. - BRҰANSAҰS

My FB friends are soooo different from my FF friends. I dread the day when I need to merge the 2 groups.. - Winston Teo

yes, total worlds collide problem. http://friendfeed.com/metaler... - metalerik

I can only accept more connections on my page at http://www.facebook.com/scoblei... - Robert Scoble

I think people are being prepared, and they will continue to be worried until they get answers. I am more than happy to invite all FriendFeeders into my Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/louisgr... - Louis Gray

Same here, it's a different level of connection - Amit Morson

I was already on FB. I set up lists to separate my family from my FF friends on FB. I'll set different privacy settings for each when I get to it. - Dennis Jernberg

My Facebook is here: http://jessestay.socialtoo.com - request away! - Jesse Stay

I'm loosening my policies regarding who I befriend on Facebook. Of course, I have separate lists for different groups of people. - John E. Bredehoft from fftogo

And I also operate under the assumption that nothing is truly private, privacy settings or no. I don't use Facebook to discuss confidential info with my work friends, or private family issues with my family friends. - John E. Bredehoft from fftogo

Fans aren't really connections, Robert--at least not in the same way. Not diminishing that, by the way. In many respects, I far prefer the sensibility of fan pages. Meanwhile, I'm here http://www.facebook.com/kfitch and happy to accept FF connections as friends. (I have more than one account on FB. Some who are concerned about boundaries might try that.) - Kathy Fitch

Robert has no choice but to use a fan page. And you can still interact on the wall of the fan page. I just wish fan pages weren't limited to one incoming feed. - John E. Bredehoft from fftogo

As I said, I far prefer fan pages in many respects. Very good for organizations and brands (and Robert is definitely the latter). Just a different sort of connection. (I have fan posting entirely off for one fan page. We'll see how that goes over time.) - Kathy Fitch

I see Facebook as a different animal. Hey there's a staggering amount of content here on FriendFeed, but it's not as overwhelming. I agree, different audiences. - Rob Schieber

I put two of my blogs on fan pages, primarily to keep them off my main feed. - John E. Bredehoft from fftogo

Yep I am the same. Friends on Facebook, business contacts on LinkedIn, Everyone on Twitter - Tony "Frosty" Welch

I think these walls are getting tougher to build, though, and maybe not as useful. When I built a new FB page more for my business/non-academic persona, friends from my other account started adding me. There's a fluidity about it that's appealing. Tsunamis aren't so appealing, though, so it's all about balance, I guess. - Kathy Fitch

It's funny. When I began with FB, *nobody* that I count as a friend in my personal life was there. Some of my nieces and nephews were there, but I didn't friend them--too intrusive. So, my early connections there were all academic--not classmates, but fellow professors. From the beginning, it has been a professional space, for me--friendly and silly, but professional. I don't do the post baby pics, frequent update on personal life, etc. thing at all, on any network. - Kathy Fitch

I'm waiting for the coming Fan feature. - Hugh Isaacs II

I got a friendfeeders list and a limited privacy list for the "others" Friendfeeders are more than welcomed to hit me on fb - Dobromir Hadzhiev

Same here. I use FriendFeed as a way to monitor what my contacts are doing, and occasionally to interact. I use Facebook primarily as an interaction vehicle. - Daniel B. Honigman

I plan to keep things totally separate; Facebook is for people I deal with in real life (with a few exceptions). If I can't find a similar service to FriendFeed, I and anyone following me are pretty much screwed. - Chris Charabaruk

A while back I cranked up the public aspect on my Facebook account, and forgot all about privacy there. If my friends want to have a private conversation with me, the can use old-standards: Email and IM. Facebook is now the place where I get to know people. (and FriendFeed, but who knows about that now...time will tell) - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

I use LG as my model. - Pete D

Up until recently I kept everything separate mainly out of respect and concern for my daughter, her privacy, and overwhelming her with stuff, but I have discussed it with her and she feels I shouldn't restrict myself and in her words "bring it on, it might be more interesting than your lack of posting has been." - April

Regarding Steve's post on his blog, I'm going to share this tidbit (which I also posted to Steve's blog): "I'm really hoping that FriendFeed stays as-is and integrates lots of nice features into FB. It'd be really unfortunate if we lost all of our dedication (I share stuff on FF I like referring to) for nothing. Still, I begin to wonder if FF would have been sold to FB if the FF members... more... - Tamar Weinberg

I was on FB before FF and only opened the account because of some cousins, neice, nephew, sister.....even my mother is on it for god's sake....but I found it silly and drab. None of my family knows anything about technology to speak of. I even have some friends who won't go on FB because they know nothing about social media. When I found FF I was thrilled....exactly what I wanted, and... more... - Bonnie Foster

I use Facebook with my family and because of their lack of privacy I cannot accept business connections. - Eric Gourmet

Paul Buchheit

A Stroke Leads a Brain Scientist to a New Spirituality - http://www.nytimes.com/2008...

August 18, 2009 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Nathaniel Thurston, Nenad Nikolic, Panagiotis Astithas and 39 other people liked this

"Today, she says, she is a new person, one who “can step into the consciousness of my right hemisphere” on command and be “one with all that is.” To her it is not faith, but science. She brings a deep personal understanding to something she long studied: that the two lobes of the brain have very different personalities. Generally, the left brain gives us context, ego, time, logic. The right brain gives us creativity and empathy. For most English-speakers, the left brain, which processes language, is dominant. Dr. Taylor’s insight is that it doesn’t have to be so. ... people debate whether she is truly enlightened or just physically damaged and confused. Even her own scientific brethren have wondered. “When I saw her on the TED video, at first I thought, Oh my god, is she losing it,” said Dr. Francine M. Benes, director of the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center, where Dr. Taylor once worked. Dr. Benes makes clear that she still thinks Dr. Taylor is an extraordinary and competent woman. “It is just that the mystical side was not apparent when she was at Harvard,” Dr. Benes said." - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

10 more comments

Not often to read in Fashion & Style?! - David Schmidt

http://www.ted.com/talks..., her video, worth watching. - Lim, Kok Kim

watch her ted talk video. quite thought provoking - gunes ozturk yilmaz

I read her book, it was quite fascinating. - Ruchira S. Datta

I got the chance to speak to her in person last year about her experience, spirituality and religion. Fascinating stuff. - Thaths

Her video on TED is amazing - she really goes into detail about her stroke...wow! - Susan Beebe

I always wonder how her experience compares with various drugs. Obviously her's was different in that it left permanent changes and almost killed her (instead of simply wearing off in a few hours), but was her actual moment of "enlightenment" as unique as it's made out to be? - Paul Buchheit

I love her story - in WNYC's RadioLab she goes into a lot more detail than her talk at TED. Not sure about her book, though, haven't read that. no doubt it's even in more detail. - anna sauce

To me, Karen Armstrong is the more interesting one, having seen her on Book TV on Cspan - heretic_twit

k2, yes, I think absolutely meditation can lead to this state. But it's not like flipping a switch. A sustained meditation practice will gradually develop the ability to turn off your left brain. Or you could try dropping acid. - Laura Norvig

No matter what message she's conveying (without even trying to much), one must admit Ms. Taylor's experience was an extraordinary one, especially she was someone who had a chance and capability to analyze and retell it. - Nenad Nikolic

Bwana ☠

I wonder how the developers feel about their investment in the FriendFeed platform. Share your thoughts? Has today's announcement changed the way you feel?

August 10, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

Jimminy, CoG of FF, "Sedat", "Serhat Ozan" and 16 other people liked this

TIRED —And I rarely feel so when I code for fun. The best eg. might be NoiseRiver which I made in a single month with people watching over my shoulder, _THAT_ was fun. - directeur

14 more comments

sitting looking at hours and hours of personal code now nothing but digital dust - bear (aka Mike Taylor)

At least it might be around for a while. - Rob Diana

Given the choice, would you develop for Facebook or FriendFeed? I would think Facebook - Bwana ☠

Now, you have to choose FaceBook. Would you invest time in a site where you don't know what will happen? (Outside of thinking that for any startup of course) - Rob Diana

I had a few hobby projects I was working on: no incentive to continue working on them. There's next to zero chance the API will continue in any situation; Facebook has its own platform. Facebook's platform wasn't appealing to me the last time I looked: maybe I'll go through it again. - Mark Trapp

I'm annoyed, I was seriously considering fixing up the FF Comments plugin because a few people had asked me to, but I just don't see the point now - Glenn Slaven

Personally as a developer, Not FF, this deal means that all the time and effort I put into my experimental personal projects may one day actually pay off. Not a waste of time after all. FF have shown that the dream is still alive, and congrats to them for doing it in this dreadful downturn. - Bryan Whitehouse

And thank you for that Glenn. - Anika

Bwana - I suppose the same (maybe) that MANY Twitter developers felt over the weekend ... Don't put all your eggs ..... ?! We still don't know if FF will stay autonomous to some extent. Lots of conclusions being jumped to here. - Charlie Anzman

+1 @Charlie - .LAG liked that

Whoa. I got me a +1. (Thanks .LAG) Can I get some sleep now? Seriously ... People have Twitter Consulting businesses (some are actually real :). Can you imagine the 'new' client? "Hey you told me to tweet and then it got attacked ?!". The FF crew has always been extremely responsive. Have a question ... beef. POST IT! ... Maybe they and Zuck will read the Feedback Group??!! Why change now? - Charlie Anzman

The acquisition funding model isn't new. I'm thinking Twitter is envious about now. - Mattb4rd

Friendfeed's API is a dead end and Facebook's "API" (I put that in quotes) is the worst I've ever tried to work with. Lose-lose :( - Carter ♥ HTML5 from iPhone

I think I'm done developing tools for proprietary APIs. Between Twitter turning off features last year and this shift in FriendFeed's direction and business model, I'm tired of not having control. From here on out it's all about open standards and tools that work with multiple systems. (see also http://friendfeed.com/feedtech) - Ken Sheppardson

Ken++. Take a look on NoseRub... - Marcos Marado

Benjamin Golub to Benjamin's feed, Louis Gray, Jenna Bilotta

How to use the new Google Reader feature to "Send to" FriendFeed:

August 12, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

orie, A. T., NoahDavidSimon and 160 other people liked this

But doesn't it already send to Friendfeed? I suppose you could send to a particular room - Deepak Singh

29 more comments

Deepak: this is a little different, but yes FriendFeed already pulls from Reader and is pushed data from Reader using PubSubHubbub. - Benjamin Golub

Ben ... will have to try it out. Have always wanted to send to a specific room from reader - Deepak Singh from IM

We also support http://friendfeed.com/... which reads a bit nicer :) - Benjamin Golub

... Ben, that looks rather interesting in ichat :) http://img.skitch.com/2009081... [http://img.skitch.com/2009081...] - Deepak Singh from IM

I am wondering why FriendFeed was left out in the default services - siva s

For copy: http://friendfeed.com/static... - NaHi from m.ctor.org

My shares already come to FriendFeed, as you know, and I won't be sending them to any other network (until forced). But appreciate the how-to. - Louis Gray

Is there a keyboard shortcut for the new "send to" feature in Google Reader? - Jesse Stay

It is shift-t, Jesse. - Louis Gray

Cool, Ben. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Done! Now all I need to do is find something to share... - Dennis Jernberg

Is there any way to make it include an image if there is one? - Simon Wicks

Simon +1, to include images I go to actual page and bookmarklet, wish there is an direct way in reader. - Jacque

Yeah, i'm sure people have managed to do it before somehow, but i've never figured it out direct from Greader. - Simon Wicks

Simon +1. pictures are needed. BTW, do we need "https"? - woodear

Interesting - geeky feature! :) I already use FF to pull in my gReader shares. How is this different? - Susan Beebe

Yes, I brought it into FF long ago via add/edit feature. - Rob Schieber

Thank you very much. - David Faulkner

Does this speed up the transfer? I've noticed the past 2 days have been a little laggy getting here. - Courtney Engle

Yep. Similar to the behavior with other engines. You can then add other rooms etc (something not possible with regular sharing AFAIK) - Deepak Singh

BTW, FriendFeed (and Tumblr) should now be a built-in option on Send To http://www.google.com/reader... - Mihai Parparita

Thanks, Mihai. - Louis Gray

So what is the code to send it to a particular room? If I wanted it to flow in the public FF I would just click 'share'. - Paul Arterburn

Whoa, sharing to a particular room would be epic :) Would probably have to create a shortcut code for each room instead of multiple rooms... - Zulema ⋅ spicy cocoa tart

Ya, I really just have one group for this - public share or private share among close friends (private FF room). That would also let me DM the link to a FF user if I wanted a *really* private share. - Paul Arterburn

What about diigo ? - stanjourdan

Would also like to know, if there is a way to configure Google reader to send to a certain group in FF? - Gerald Hildebrandt

At the very least, it's always good to know the code. - Mike Reynolds

tried 'http://friendfeed.com/$userna...', but did not worked out - Gerald Hildebrandt

AFAIK sending to a Room is a bit painful. I tag the item in GReader. Then subscribe to that tag's RSS in the FreindFeed Room. A little laborious to set up, but quick when sending - you just tag. And wtih GReader's pubsubhubhub they show up in Room immediately. - Nick in Manila

Louis Gray

I Love You Google Reader, But We Have Some Issues - http://regulargeek.com/2009...

August 17, 2009 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

Rob Cairns, Bas, Kol Tregaskes and 19 other people liked this

I blame Louis for the proliferation of this style of blogging (relationship letters). It's a lot harder for someone like me to extract the feedback from this as opposed to him just saying: 1) You want me to create groups, but don't show them to me in Reader 2) Do all people subscriptions have to be connected to Google contact manager 3) ? - Jenna Bilotta

27 more comments

we are working on some of this stuff, but we prefer to release early and often and some features that seem reasonable are just bits that haven't quite been built yet for one reason or the other. - Jenna Bilotta

Hey now. :) For the record, when I want to make suggestions, they're direct. Like this one. http://louisgray.com/live... or this one: http://louisgray.com/live... - Louis Gray

I think the confusion I have seen here and in other articles stems mostly from people who are familiar with FriendFeed and are curious as to how much overlap with Reader they should expect. I find Reader to be fantastic, but I'm not looking for it to be my social network. Another similar article to Rob's is this one: http://shegeeks.net/google-... - Louis Gray

On the flip side, it seems clear that if LG uses GReader to share your GR rant, you can be reasonably sure that someone on the GR staff will read it :P - Daniel J. Pritchett

Jenna, I have not had enough sleep lately :) I tried to be somewhat clear when I was making the real point, but as usual failed to balance it. Basically, groups should be more directly obvious in google reader and maybe used within the interface as well. Using Contacts as the starting point and then having no reference to them (except in settings) makes it really confusing. - Rob Diana

And by the way, I really love Google Reader. Just check how many shares I throw around on any given day :) - Rob Diana

The other main point I was trying to make was that trying to integrate other google services like contacts can really confuse things, and even start people down the path of Google wanting to own everything. - Rob Diana

Rob - agreed. I'd say we are at the mid-way point for making group editing and use much much more robust without leaving Reader. (and I know contact manager is working on improvements as well). Thanks for the post, tho, and the feedback! - Jenna Bilotta

On the flipside of that, though, is that if you have all of your "people" or connection information in a centralized service, getting started quickly with content from people you care about on new services (or on old services in new ways) demonstrates immediate value. The android/latitude integration is just one example, but since I got my Gcontacts in order and sync them all to my... more... - Jenna Bilotta

Well, centralization/decentralization is an argument in computing that constantly goes back and forth. Both have benefits and issues. I think part of the problem is that Contacts needs work and Reader needs better group integration. If both happen, then you would probably get the benefits that you mention. However, given that Reader is evolving more into a social networking application,... more... - Rob Diana

I think what you describe is a mental model shift, fundamentally. Did you know that when you follow someone in Reader who doesn't make their contact information public, that person's info is stored in the Google contact manager as a reference URL only? Maybe it's a nomenclature issue, but the contact manager is becoming so much more than actually contacting people. It's a way to manage connections to people (and info) you care about. And yes, it needs to be better and so does Reader's links into it. :) - Jenna Bilotta

Jenna - Great to see Google Reader innovating so quickly! Fine with me to trade some rough edges for quick progress... - Eric Johnson

Jenna - Interesting. Could Reader be a bit smarter about how it adds folks to gcontacts -- at least if they've got a public profile? Right now Reader adds a gmail email address. Not name. Not nickname. Not shared google reader url, or profile url. So I'm left with gcontact orphans -- because nothing I know these folks by has made it into gcontacts. - Eric Johnson

Rob - That's what groups are *for*. One could, theoretically, place everyone who you share with into one contact group and your Reader contacts would be separate from your email contacts. Jenna - Reader has so many great features already, so I have to say that I am totally satisfied as-is. There are a couple of additions which would be (extra) icing on the cake though, so some of my... more... - Californian

holy cow! You made a doc! That's totally awesome! (sending it to team.) - Jenna Bilotta

Californian, I understand the idea of grouping all of my Reader contacts into one group, as that is what I am doing right now, but it seems to only be a partial solution. As Jenna has said, they are not done, so I am just waiting to see how they continue to improve. If you are looking for people to follow, there have been several FriendFeeders sharing their feeds, and I dumped them into a spreadsheet at https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc... - Rob Diana

Jenna - I'm thrilled that you read it! I hope it was helpful. :) - Californian

Rob - Maybe I don't understand what you mean by group integration. I'm looking forward to the improvements, too, but I don't see how contacts can improve much more. Thanks for that link. That's quite the list! - Californian

Californian, my thinking is that if we are using groups from contacts, then the group itself should be part of the google reader interface. So, under the "People You Follow" section, you would see the group names (like folders), and you could expand the groups to see the users. Of course I leave it up to the Reader team to do something awesome. - Rob Diana

Rob, we do show you your groups, under "sharing settings" but only the groups you check there will show up when you are editing an individual person. more to come. - Jenna Bilotta

Jenna, I did see the sharing settings stuff. I am just waiting to see what you can do to improve. No, I am not waiting patiently :) - Rob Diana

patience is a virtue! :) - Jenna Bilotta

Hmmm. Jenna, it's the "I'm not a fan of" that I'm not a fan of, because I find it ambiguous in a confusing, rather than an interesting, complex, way. Why not just say, "I don't like?" - Amy℠

@amy - confused. what are you referring to? - Jenna Bilotta

Oh now I get it! Yes, that *does* make sense. I added it to the request doc. :) Jenna - even if Rob won't be patient, I will! It's only possible to go so fast; there have been a lot of features added recently. Keep up the awesome work, and I'm sure even Rob won't be to mad about waiting! - Californian

I've always loved GReader. My #1 gripe after it became social is duplicates within shared items. The #1 wish list item is to allow mapping folder shares to contact groups. - Mahendra (SkepticGeek)

@jez If you've added someone that doesn't make their name public, you'd get anonymous. But if you can visit the profile URL stored in the unnamed contact and see the name, that's a bug. (we'll look into it if so.) Related: Do you also use an andriod phone? (i had several unnamed contacts that I eventually realised were being created there) - Jenna Bilotta

By the way: for heavy lifting you can use the standalone version of the contact manager to work with your groups if you don't want to load all of gmail at contacts.google.com - Jenna Bilotta

Joshua Nunn

With 81 subscribers on FF I get no response to anything I do or say here. I imagine I'd need to participate in the community more, which would involve subscribing to multiple hundreds of people, filling my Friendfeed stream with a lot more stuff to read. I chose not to do that, and it made FF less useful to me.

August 17, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

anna sauce, Mike Nencetti, Tanath and 11 other people liked this

Could I offer some advice? - Johnny

22 more comments

Absolutely! - Joshua Nunn

Somehow, I feel as though all that is about to change... - Rah-PM 2012

When you subscribe to those people, put them in lists but remove them from your home feed via the check box. That way you can participate in the larger 'party' but still have your corner of the room for your important people. Your home feed would just be your current people but you can pop into other feeds as interact to grow some following. there are some other things about content, twitter and pictures etc but in a pure interaction sense, I would suggest that. - Johnny

I have done that to some degree already. It's one of the reasons I tried advocating FF over Twitter to my friends, as I could mute things temporarily and only see what I wanted to. But I didn't think it kosher to add a tonne of people just to build up my reader numbers? I figured if what I was saying was interesting it would be shared and liked and seen. Maybe I'm just boring :P - Joshua Nunn

Joshua, it takes time, a long, long time. The core users tend to be a very incestuous bunch who seldom interact with outsiders (even if you're an insider, right Johnny? :) ). Just keep plugging at it, both participating and contributing, and someday you will be noticed. - JCunwired

Joshua, it's not just about content unfortunately... And I by no means am suggesting subscribing to a whole bunch of people for follow backs. If you subscribe to more people, you will have more opertunity to put your name out there on threads. You can still have your normal experience but if your '- Joshua Nunn' isn't infront of eyeballs, no one will visit your feed to discover your interesting stuff. I have to be very proactive in my FriendFeeding to get any response back. - Johnny from iPhone

I agree with Rahsheen... several of us right now have one foot on the FF base, but we're reaching for the next one (for many of us, the next base is GReader). Our trust in FF has been severely shaken, though we love it more than anything else online. - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

participate. a certain amount of talking about yourself is okay, even good, but mostly bring in things that other people might find interesting. but participation is also about giving feedback/commenting and how you treat people weighs HUGE around here. also, forget about keeping track of your metrics, they're worthless here except as meaningless trophies. - Joe The Sausage

I actually started out this post to talk about why Google Reader is going to be even less effective for me... I pressed enter too soon! I actually decided not to focus on FF a couple of months ago, as I was having more interactions on Twitter and needed to choose one to focus on. It was my choice not to actively get involved with the community here. Thought I needed to clear that up, as I don't mean to whine about not being "recognised". - Joshua Nunn

Agreed with Google reader, I just can't get into it - Mo Kargas

Kamilah, while I agree, this kinda stuff applies universally to all social media. I don't want Joshua to think I am picking on him but if you look at his home feed, right now it's all text based and several @replies. Anywhere that wouldn't excite me to explore, regardless of FriendFeed or Google Reader etc. - Johnny from iPhone

Is there a blog post somewhere on the interweb which shows you the best tips for making FF lists. - BRҰANSAҰS from iPhone

haven't bothered with Google Reader yet. - Joe The Sausage

*needs desperately to implement Johnny's suggestions from above* - Joe The Sausage

The problem is compounded for me with GR. I can't afford to subscribe to too many people, as their management tools are no where near as advanced as FF. And there is no "stream" to stand in and let the posts wash around you. - Joshua Nunn

Johnny, I appreciate you checking out my feed. I'm not sure how to rectify the lack of "interesting" items, as I don't actively go looking for pictures and gifs to share. I use the net, and if it interests me it gets bookmarked or shared, and eventually turns up here. Mostly that means text. If I have a question I ask it. Maybe I'm doing it wrong. - Joshua Nunn

No, not doing it wrong but the level of interaction anyone recieves correlates directly to the level of interaction elsewhere, name recognition and visual interest. It's the basics of advertising and PR. If you're not out there and getting attention, no one will know your brand exisits. Keep on fighting the good fight but in the end we are visual creatures with short attention spans and a lot of stuff flowing past our eyes... - Johnny from iPhone

I was kind of just mentioning GR as a "by the way", which is what I think Rahsheen may have also been doing. You're right about enlivening feeds with images and interesting links. If I don't see any pictures in a feed, I don't linger over it long (unless the person already has a lot of subscribers to recommend them). I very deliberately try to include an image with every more important post, and I try to have at least one image for something per day. - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

To put it into perspective, most of my posts get interaction from about 0.5-1% of my subscribers. My top all-time posts are anywhere from 5-10%. The only reason it looks like a lot is because I've collected a lot of subscribers over a year. I'm willing to bet most everyone's actual engagement percents are actually quite close to the same, but 0.5% of 80 subscribers is a lot different than 0.5% of 1800. - FFing Enigma

You don't need to subscribe to participate. Use search to find conversations that interest you, and comment on them. That will help build your name. - John E. Bredehoft from fftogo

Thank you for those numbers Tina. I didn't expect the activity percentage to be that low. I just want to be clear here that I never intended to imply that it wasn't my fault that I don't have huge participation on my items. I fully realise that I could participate more. - Joshua Nunn

What John said - AJ Batac :)

If you effectively use the FriendFeed bookmarklet (include teaser-text and photos with your entries), the FF community's response will come. I PROMISE. Bookmarklet... http://friendfeed.com/share... - Brad Williamson

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