++Abby - The Amber

exactly - andy brudtkuhl

also would have loved to have sat in on that dinner - andy brudtkuhl

Yup. It's so true. Just so FF sticks around. - Roberto Bonini

+1 Abby - Yolanda

Does Zuckerberg have an account here? - Hutch Carpenter

And Facebook is FriendFeed's lead generation and user training hub. Get the lite version on Facebook and graduate to FriendFeed when you've had your fill of Mob Wars. - AJ Kohn

I guess that makes us their beta testers. - Todd Hoff

For the record, Scoble said it, and I agreed it had merit. (Credit where credit is due) - Louis Gray

After next week's FB release, not sure what FF's lasting appeal is? I guess somewhat more open in terms of API? - Michael Broukhim

Michael: More open, and less crap. - Chris Charabaruk

Hmmmm. Two things popped into my head when I read this. 1) It is a repeat of every "walled garden" vs. open feature race. The walled garden believes it can hold off the open by having all the features they have (I will, however, grant that Facebook is opening slowly). 2) It is impossible for any one service to out innovate the open market from behind forever. What I mean is, once you lose the innovation advantage (which Facebook CLEARLY has) it is only a matter of time before you aren't innovative at all. - Brian Roy

HAHAHA - Erhan Erdoğan

Nicely said, Brian! +1 to you. - Chris Charabaruk

Excellent point Brian... It basically reiterates what Abby said - Facebook has built a "me too" business.. but crazily has made it succeed. How long can that last? - andy brudtkuhl

Andy - but they weren't me too. They were miles ahead of everyone for quite a while there. I think they got to wrapped up on becoming THE social platform ala salesforce and lost track of the target (cause the target is moving... rapidly). The platform worked for Salesforce because the market for CRM is uber stable... very little "disruptive innovation". You can platform that. And by the way - regaining the innovation advantage isn't unheard of... they just need to go to what's next... - Brian Roy

Brian - they were more than "me too".. the original idea was a spinoff of a similar idea ("facemash") that was already being used on Harvard campus. Their roots have been built as me too and they have constantly been stealing ideas since. Not that there's anything wrong with that - we wouldn't have Microsoft, Apple, or Google today without the stealing (or purchasing) of ideas - andy brudtkuhl

Brian / Andy -> Microsoft has done pretty well borrowing the best features / ideas of other software companies to maintain its position based on the network effects at work in OS adoption... seems like FB could follow a similar model to keep FriendFeed / Twitter at bay, no? They do have a 180million user lead! - Michael Broukhim

@Michael - I can see that happening with FB. They are in an interesting position to where they can constantly piss off their user base yet maintain growth (sound like Microsoft to anyone?). But there is obviously room for all of them (and more). More power users prefer to be here or Twitter than deal with the kludge that is Facebook. - andy brudtkuhl

Switching cost. What is the switching cost to move from Facebook to Twitter/FriendFeed/etc Also - one of the major reasons for MS being able to hold that position was their dominance in corporations. People didn't want a computer that "worked different" or the had to "learn to use" at home. - Brian Roy

+ity ++Abby - Micah

Andy - Everything is derivative... OK not everything but I'll bet you can't name 5 truly NEW ideas/products. Innovation isn't invention of the new - it is a new way of solving a problem - often by combining ideas from disparate fields/etc. The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player... it was a huge leap forward in the innovation of mp3 players. - Brian Roy

@Brian yea now you are getting into the whole network effect theory and how it relates to switching costs. I think increasing data portability between systems is lowering the cost - but Facebook is fairly protective because it wants to own your data and not let you take it with you - unlike other services like FriendFeed and Twitter. Unfortunately (fortunate for us) the mass of FB users are oblivious to other networks like FF and Twitter so switching costs become irrelevant then. - andy brudtkuhl

Wow... just re-read this thread. Great conversation. You guys are smart. - Brian Roy

@brian agreed.. although there is a difference between innovating a current idea and blatantly copying a current idea. One could argue that FB has blatantly copied FF while not adding any value to the original idea - thus not innovating but copying. Apple did it right with the iPod - they took an idea and created a new experience. Facebook just took an idea. - andy brudtkuhl

Sometimes when you have the customers, as FB does, you copy the better features of other companies so you can give those customers what they expect/want - Francine Hardaway from twhirl

@Francine you are right on.. and that's the beauty of competition. Innovations turn into commodities and force new innovation - andy brudtkuhl

If Friendfeed fails to be aggressive about lifting the best features of Twitter and Facebook that work, it risks losing its mojo. Facebook and Twitter won't hesitate to lift from Friendfeed. Chances are, only one of these three services will be left standing -- the one that steals most copiously from the other two. (Or perhaps an entirely different service that comes out of nowhere will discover a yet unimagined higher level of integration.) I think Friendfeed is beginning to lose some juice to Twitter and may be starting to stall. - Sean McBride

LOL - Mona Nomura from fftogo

Scoble nailed it with that statement :) Right he is! - Susan Beebe

They're all with originality, but lack that Steve Jobs management insight and obsessiveness necessary to driving beyond the revolutionary stage to the conquering stage of self-perpetuating stability. - Douglas Hopkins