Lee Kent - Likes - FriendFeed

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Obviously I can't provide a lot of detailed plans and guarantees, but I can tell you that I'll do my personal best to ensure that the FriendFeed users and community are treated right. I love this product too, and don't want to see it disappear.

August 10 - Comment - Like - Share

pastas9, Shey, Jamaican of FF, 1x29 and 482 other people liked this

That's great to read! - Diego Barros 

115 more comments

Thank you, Paul. - joey

:) - Internet's Tad

I hope so. - Mathew™ one of a kind

Good of you to recognize. - Bill Kinney

Thank you, Paul. Hearing something is always better than hearing nothing =) - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

I think this was a smart move fore FF and FB - Joe Hall

What about the service? - Amit Morson

Ok - Matthew DeVries

That's a start. Thanks for reaching out. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

Thanks Paul. - sean percival

Thanks Paul - Mike Doeff

We don't want it to go either. - Yolanda

I would not expect any less from such a cool guy like you, thanks! :) - Susan Beebe from iPhone

Please keep it going for as long as you can or until you can make Facebook actually work. - AJ Kohn

That's heartening, Paul. Thanks. - Admiral Anika

Thanks Paul! - Darren Heydon

We love you guys and FriendFeed.. we are just a little hurt and worried.. just please give us details as soon as possible. - Tim Hoeck

FriendFeed lets me use people as filters to turn data into information. Facebook doesn't. Until it does, please, Please, PLEASE keep FriendFeed as a destination alive. - AJ Kohn

congrats guys! facebook needs what you got! - Lorna Herf

I'm sorry that I haven't said more about this. As you can imagine, it has been an extraordinarily busy day (and I've barely slept in the past week). - Paul Buchheit

I'll add my plea to the chorus: Please don't take FriendFeed away from us. And don't make us go to Facebook (because we won't). FriendFeed means a lot to a lot of people and the thought that it will dry up and blow away shortly is very disturbing. - Lindsay

It's still great to hear from you Paul. Congrats on that new swimming pool full of cash. :D - Internet's Tad

Simply glad you're here now. You've always been a very responsive and transparent team. As much as I cringe at the thought of FF going away, I *am* happy for you and the team. - AJ Kohn

Thanks Paul. - John (a.k.a. dendroica)

Thank you kind sir. - Andrew Smith

I request you make it to the next scheduled FFundercats podcast to talk to the community. This announcement deserves a live appearance to the community. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

Have been dealing unsucessfully with Twitter for two days, trying to get logged in...Their password reset page says"Snap we can't find you." I keep writing to Tech Support at Twitter and get their helpful auto-generated Twitter Trouble shooting email. My problem is not there. =( Hope FriendFeed does not get that blaise about helping users. @EV - SashaKane

If FB can't keep the service running, would you consider open-sourcing the thing, so we can? - Christopher Galtenberg from iPhone

Hi Paul, thanks for the assurances. In the future, I would highly suggest that you make this sort of statement shortly after the initial merger release. Thanks again. - Alex Scoble

Thanks for keeping the passion! - Shane

Nice to hear Paul. Thanks. - Mark Krynsky

I would like to give you a hug right now Paul. However, that would be awkward and April might beat me up so I will just say thank you and press the like button. - EricaJoy

Best news I have heard today. - Angus Burton

Thank you for affirming that. Much appreciated. - Karoli

A few more points that would be nice to have addressed soon. Ability to export data, tool to import friends to Facebook, and will ff.im urls continue to function? - Mark Krynsky

Amelioration?? - heretic_twit

Those that like friendfeed as is should be most pleased with this statement, as it probably means maintenance to keep the current system as is, without as much attention to new features. It's also good news for all those who like both friendfeed and facebook, as facebook will likely adopt the better features from friendfeed - Ivan Kirigin

That means an awful lot to me. - James (!?)

This has been quite a day! Can't wait to hear what is next! - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Thank you, Paul. Thank you for coming out from behind the curtain and finally giving us some communication, some semblance of hope. - Akiva Moskovitz

Thanks, Paul. - Glen Mistletoe

So we can expect a Facebook adaption of this? I like this technology over everyone else! - Shaggy Jenkins

Eric, my schedule is still a little uncertain at the moment, but I'd be glad to appear on a future FFundercats. - Paul Buchheit

That would be a good thing Paul. Thanks. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

Cool :) - Susan Beebe from iPhone

I like this. - ashish from iPhone

Thanks for making FriendFeed what it is, and lets hope it stays that way, though there's slim chance of that - Aaman (Clone of FF)

Now that I think about it: are you kidding me? They've already stated that FriendFeed's going to be absorbed into Facebook. What kind of sleight-of-hand are you trying to pull now, Paul? - Akiva Moskovitz

@EricaJoy: I have nothing against hugs. :) - April Buchheit

Thanks! - Vincenzo Piromalli

Thanks, Paul. I've been getting more and more depressed thinking about the bad ways this could go. The reassurances help a bit, at least. In fact, just hearing you speak on the point is encouraging - the open lines of communication between the FriendFeed team and its users has always been one of the great things about FriendFeed that I'm afraid will be lost with the Facebook buyout. And yes, a FFundercats appearance would be a great idea. - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

I don't want to read too much into this reassurance but the "personal best" remark made me think like there is not a united FF anymore and that it's up to your personal efforts to prevent it from being eaten by FB :) - Turker Keskinpala

you can sell the tech but the community can not be bought sold transferred or merged - Robert Higgins from f2p

Turker, I do believe that this deal was the right decision -- I'll write a bit more about that when I get a chance. I say that I'll do my "personal best" because I will -- it would be misleading to make promises on other's behalf :) - Paul Buchheit

Hoping so... practicing patience - Majento

Paul: I'm hopeful that this will be the best for both Facebook and Friendfeed. What you and the staff at FF have done is amazing, with only 12 people! I love the service here. I also enjoy Facebook (one I ignore all quizzes and stupid apps), but in a different way. Hoping some coolness can be brought to both. Good luck to you and your team! - Travis B. Hartwell

this echoes star wars galaxies, incredible unique community. but they upgraded it to be like world of warcraft. this is a replay of the devs soothing messages. the forums were livid the community evaporated. - Robert Higgins from f2p

When socialmedian was acquired by Xing they left it alone. I hope the same happens here. I'm sure you will do your best though! - Michael Fidler

http://friendfeed.com/akiva... - Akiva Moskovitz

On behalf of the Dutch citizens our Queen wants to let you know: Thx Paul. - Ton Zijp

Don't know what to say, so lets start with big congrats! from one hand, as an early member of Friendfeed I think we've created here a very cool, collaborative and tech-savvy/passionate community of great people that all probably wish to stick around as much as possible. From the other hand, I know how corporates work and it takes one small decision of share holders to close Friendfeed... more... - Nir Ben Yona

My first reaction is disappointment. I don't believe big corporations do better than small ones. Facebook is inferior to FriendFeed, although it's user base is much larger. Clearly FriendFeed won't survive in the long term, unless it is open sourced. Why not open up and embrace the wonders of the GPL instead of joining forces with the Walled Garden no #1? Facebook don't even operate with permalinks,. - Morten Blaabjerg

Thanks for the explanation Paul. Of course, I congratulate you guys. I think anyone would do the same thing if they were in your shoes :) - Turker Keskinpala

Very bittersweet clicking [Like] on this one. - Nicholas Kreidberg

A big congrats for you guys.. However, I feel kind of sorrow :) - Ozkan Altuner

good to hear - Dobromir Hadzhiev

Thank you - but I would very much like our content to stay intact. :) - Mona Nomura

Of course it is, Ryo. - Christopher A Carr

Ryo: if you delete your account everything goes away. I totally disagree with you about Facebook, but that's OK. - Robert Scoble

Good to hear. Unfortunately I think Facebook are going to download the brains of all FriendFeed staff then kill FF. - Michael McGimpsey

but Paul it is going to disappear - Facebook bought FF not for the site but for you guys. So obviously once its integrated into Facebook, development on FF will stop - Anthony Feint

If FriendFeed and all of it's functionality get integrated into Facebook I'm all for it. - Hugh Isaacs II

Thank you Paul! Congrats on the deal! - Garin Kilpatrick

Paul - that's great news. It surely can't cost a lot to keep this place running and it's a good place to try out ideas before they move to FB. - Martin Bryant

what about improving the product and making sure it gets more users, not only supports those who stay? - Ihar Mahaniok

Ihar - unlikely. Facebook bought FF for the developer talent, not for FriendFeed itself. - Martin Bryant from iPhone

Why should we believe this? I'm not going to hold my breath. - Mark Wilson

Martin - I also think so, and it is most likely. But I could still have a hope - Ihar Mahaniok

Paul, please - underpromise & overdeliver...they say it works. - A.T.

Nice to hear. Too bad you don't call the shots anymore. - jcunwired

FriendFeed is Dead! Long Live FriendFeed! (nice name for Facebook skunkworks) I'm sure everyone would love to see FriendFeed itself stay around, even if the innovations that happen are geared towards implementation at Facebook. Thanks for this note Paul! :) - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

There are a few promises and guarantees that you SHOULD be able to provide. Like, that our network of friends will remain intact and that the features that make this site great will remain. If you can't make those promises, then you shouldn't have done the deal. I sure do hope that the real-time search engine wasn't the centerpiece of this deal (it probably was), because that certainly... more... - Brad Williamson

Paul you did such a nice job with friendfeed, and I so want to believe you, but I'm not sure I can. Not because of you, but because of your new employer. Because your new employer is no longer you, and while I have kind of come to trust you, I do not trust your new boss. Not at all. Please prove me wrong, if they'll let you. - Jim Hearts FF

Paul - thanks for that reassurance. PLEASE stick to that! I was in the middle of reading and participating in a lengthy discussion off of a Robert Scoble post yesterday ... then I came up for air and saw your news. Congratulations - I have no idea what that feels like or how pumped you must be. There are so many things FF does that I LOVE...I know you know that. Please Please PLease dont' go away! Thanks! - Tobin Truog

Thank you, I think everyone here loves Friendfeed. :) - Hunt from BuddyFeed

Thanks for the personal note Paul. - Mike Reynolds

Phewww..relief ;-) - Ritu

This is nice to hear, and I really hope that FriendFeed will keep on living. I still have some pain in my stomach because of this :/ - Patrik Johansson

First zombie/mafia request and we're all outta here.... - Fossil Huntress

+1 Fossil Huntress The partitioning of the networks between friendfeed and facebook was a major feature that many people made use of, lacking appropriate controls for who sees what. Merging the two groups of friends isn't going to work, at all. - Mr. Gunn

It doesn't sound like you understand what has people worried. I wrote this to help: http://friendfeed.com/brlewis... - Bruce Lewis

And we'll appreciate this man! Try to do your best to help FF :( - FFTornado

Maybe Bruce analysis is too imaginary, but the question is THE question nobody answered: why did you do it, Paul? - Luca Sofri

I left a response on Bruce's entry (http://friendfeed.com/brlewis...). I'll write more about this on my blog when I get some free time. - Paul Buchheit

Thanks. - Bonnie Foster

we all know what needs to happen. the question is, where? ... FB needs, - apart from being/it is, a large, general, open application platform, - 1. Smart keyboard shortkatze - and Im a kbsCzar to go to, 2. Aggregating facilities, smart /RSS/ .. 3. Full blogging facilities, capabilities, not 140 chars. 4. Full real time comments facilities, capabilities. 5. Real time, live, but ALSO... more... - Petr Buben

I hope you're being open and honest with us. This time. :( - Kamilah Gill

Good to know , we´ll see :) - Yahya

Thank you! I am sure you will do great things at FB. I just hope that the great app you built here isn't destroyed. I don't know of any other aggregation app that I can embed into my site like this one! - beersage

Congratulations on your successes, best wishes for more. And thanks for continuing to look out for us loyal, addicted FFanatics! - Rob Schieber

I hope it continues, i'm a new user and absolutely love it (wish i knew the value of it before)! Congrats! - Luis D. Santos

As nice as it sounds I'm sorry to say that as a, now, Facebook's employee I'm afraid you'll have to comply to whatever your new boss tells you. Didn't MZ make it clear? - lelapin

and let me add second, obvious, "Facebook needs" - Friendfeed bookmarklet, and Friendfeed tools - widgets, embedding - real time and not - of posts, and groups ...to embedd, to inject oneself into this thing called Internet ..... so, if FB listens to FF engineering long enough, they are going to get it .. right - Petr Buben

Paul, what I am worried is not that you're brainwashed, but that there's simply no business need for Facebook to improve FriendFeed from now on, period. - Ihar Mahaniok

I have confidence Paul. While some of the comments were probably uncalled for, covering an investment (of time and money) in these times to move on and hopefully provide even 'better stuff' makes sense to me. It's pretty obvious there are a LOT of people that don't want to 'lose' Friendfeed. (I wouldn't hold a town hall for a few weeks though :) - Charlie Anzman

Congrats, Paul. It's sad that people have to make these uncalled for hatred comments about Facebook though. Why can't both sites work together. I think Facebook will do better with FF and vise versa. Take the good features of both services. Don't boycott FB, enjoy it. I'm sick of the negative comments going on, that's all. :( - Mol, Santa Claws

Molly: What makes you think there's going to be a "vise versa?" - Christopher A Carr

Because I don't think Paul and the other FF developers would allow FB to do anything. I'm sorry, I am not going to think negative here like some here are. I guess I'm a fangirl for FB. - Mol, Santa Claws

Finally something about the changes on the horizon that isn't all d0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0om and whining. Thank you, Paul! :D - Christian (Simply X)

The time to think about how you could do your 'personal best' to ensure FriendFeed continues to exist was prior to the discussions with Facebook. Not after. - Andy C

Paul, what about the content scam that FB T&C is, does it apply to Friendfeed now? Should we all start writing scripts to retroactively delete all content ever uploaded to Friendfeed? Elaborated a bit here - http://friendfeed.com/mbravo... - Michael Bravo

We know you'll try your best, Paul. But sometimes, you just can't win the dark side... - Winston Teo

Thanks Paul for all your efforts. Founders often want the best, but acquiring companies often have people with political/power issues or different/limited visions. - Mitchell Tsai

*throws a sheep at Paul* is that a good thing? - joe is... from iPod

Yeahhhhhhh BOoooiiiiiiiii!!!!!!! - sofarsoShawn

yes, thank you, Sergeant Paul ... well, good to hear we go on ... because if not, how about starting www.anotherFeed.com ... or, www.Letsgofeed.com ...... anyway, lets boost blogging capabilities, post more than current amount of chars, lets have TOP POSTS / clicks count list at the head of each group, some stats, lets index group headers, lets have MORE keyboard shortcuts .. - now ...... more... - Petr Buben

Louis Gray

Twitter's Cap of 2,000 Following In Action!

August 11, 2008 from email - Comment - Like - Share

Nicholas James, Jacob, Voyagerfan5761 and 61 other people liked this

As mentioned earlier today, Twitter seems to have capped your ability to follow at 2,000 people, which just so happens to be exactly where I am. The goal, in theory, is to stop marketing-oriented spammers, but it could be another way to reduce stress on the system. So what should I do now, delete "less favored" people, or wait for Twitter to figure this out? - Louis Gray from email

32 more comments

Maybe it's the legacy talking, but I'm really not bothered by this. :P - l0ckergn0me

I can see why they do it, but it does suck for the people who do it legitimately and are not using stupid mass follow scripts. - David Risley

I'm not super-concerned either, but it does answer why all of a sudden, I started getting these errors last week. It could be part of their "Making Progress On Spam" initiative via the blog, but it hasn't been spelled out all that clearly. - Louis Gray

let blame this one on Scobles... :)- - Peter Dawson

Louis, I think cap is more of the architecture the system. Making it into a more robust platform. Now watermarks have been set, it becomes easier to build consistency of experience and application behavior. <Edit > wait for Twitter to figure it out.. Marketing spammers are targeting the 'stupid' one that have the auto follow !! - Peter Dawson

gotta like it, if I'm the one you are trying to follow! - Ben Hedrington

I don't think there should be limits like this, but I guess everything can't be infinite - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

I honestly am indifferent about it; Twitter is going to hell and i tried my best to convert it; oh well, Hell has cookies - Gordon Swaby

I"m only following 49... with 106 followers.. - Ian May

so what do you think, Louis, is benhedrington worth going to the mat for? - Nathan Rein

I'm sure I can find someone to unfollow in exchange for Ben. - Louis Gray

Twitter needs to build in groups functionality a la tweetdeck for following 2K+ to even be practical. - Nicholas Molnar

Louis: You need to convince the new people to head over here :) - Justin Korn

I'm just curious what the rationale is for following that many people. - Paul Rodriguez

Well, maybe that's why Louis always seems to know what's going on before anybody else. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

I've noticed that most of the time I get followed by somebody with a big number, it tends to be marketing play. It triggers the email to you and then you go look and click on their bio link which takes you to the pitch. Very irritating. I always block em. - Mark Schulz

@Paul Rodriguez, I was wondering that too. I wouldn't have even guessed there are 2000 interesting people in the world </cynicism>, but what fascinate me is that i'm following like 83 people and only about 14 of them tweet regularly. I can assume most of those 2000 do not tweet regularly. Add in the fact that I'm a WAHM to two toddlers, and do other stuff, there'd be a lot of stuff I'd miss. - Admiral Anika

New profit center? Sorry, but now you'll have to join Twitter Pro .... - Charlie Anzman

Info restrictions suck:( - Igor Poltavskiy

Very interesting. System limits is going to be a topic that we all work through in this early phase of the Social Web. It seems to me that it's reasonable to cap the number one follows to 1,000 or 2,000. On the flipside, one would clearly like to enable a very high number of followers. With respect to bi-directional connections, the real number should max at 1,000 to 2,000... - John McCrea

This is awesome! Incidentally, Scoble (@Scobleizer) is still following over 30K. - Vincent van Wylick

So where is the point following 30k people? You might as well hit the main timeline. The only thing that is bad about this limit is that it was not there from the beginning. - Alexander Kohlhofer

@kevinrose: 56K+. Losing 54K+? - Igor Poltavskiy

so what's going to happen to those who follow over 2000? - Wayne Sutton

you follow two. thousand. people.??? never mind twitter; there may be a law against that. - jeneane sessum

I like the new limit. I cannot see how anyone would be able to legitimately follow (and pay attention to) more than 2,000 people. Frankly, even that limit seems higher than it needs to be. If it helps keep Twitter a little more stable, go for it. - Dennis Metzcher

Couple thoughts: the limit impacts the ability to use the service as a direct message router -- for some people. It also reinforces the need for dectralized microblogging -- so if you want exceed the limits you can do so on your own infrastructure. Lastly, nothing prevents you from following everyone or a subset of people through RSS/feeds. - Chris Messina

Are we sure that Twitter has set a 2,000 limit are or we cranking up the rumor mill? I've seen image before with respect to my own account - an account which just reached 1,000 followers today. According the Twitter rep who contacted me, I got - ahem - put in "Twitter Prison" for "Aggressive Following" My ratio of Followers to Following was kinda out of whack - at that time I had only ~800 people following me while I was following ~2,800 - They suspended my ability to follow more people. I removed 2K. - Vincent Wright

I don't understand the motivation for following 2K people if you're not a spammer... someone explain? - Jason Carreira

Jason: For a entrepreneur/VC/angel networker, it would be very easy to hit 2,000 contacts (assuming you used Twitter like a rolodex). From one networking meeting, I might pick up 0-100+ business cards (more at conferences), and during a heavy season I could be doing 7-10 meetings/week. As a angel, I might want to follow 5,000-10,000+ projects/people. Anyone might have a really good project 2-10+ years down the pipe... I've got cartons/boxes of 3-ring binders of business cards in plastic sheets. - Mitchell Tsai

@Mitchell @Charlie - Rumors aside, do you think the cap is a gesture towards monetization? Going after the power networkers? Seems you would have good cause to pay for a Twitter Pro, or would it just not be worth it? - joneilortiz

I use Twitter as both a professional development tool (following people who say useful and interesting things abt health / edtech / social media / libraries ...), a personal tool (friends and folk who are amusing), and a reference tool (following a lot of news streams and information resources). You can hit 2000 fast. A friend says that people are imagining new ways in which Twitter could be used, but Twitter seems bound and determined to force them back into some small box of how it "ought" to be. - Patricia F. Anderson

I would happily follow more than 2000 people, heck I am almost there. And I don't need to see every message. With Tweetdeck it's manageable. I see some Friendfeed users here have thousands to tens of thousands of subscriptions, should we also say it's good to have a cap here? No, please no. I understand that perhaps it has to do with monetization or stressing the system less, these are alas viable reasons. - Jacob

Jeremiah Owyang

On the other hand, I see some benefits for startups to use PR services, esp from my perspective as an analyst http://www.web-strategist.com/blog...

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

Lee Kent liked this

great thread. i am wrestling this decision right now - Lee Kent

newsjunk.com

[Rasmussen]: Palin Power: Fresh Face Now More Popular Than Obama, McCain - http://x.techwheat.com/230

September 5, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Lee Kent, Ron, Dave Winer and Hutch Carpenter liked this

"A week ago, most Americans had never heard of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Now, following a Vice Presidential acceptance speech viewed live by more than 40 million people, Palin is viewed favorably by 58% of American voters." - newsjunk.com

Steve Spalding

How To Dispose Of A Body

September 4, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Lee Kent, Alejandro, mike "glemak" dunn and 4 other people liked this

scarabic officially terrifies me, read the comments, you'll know when you get there. http://ask.metafilter.com/7921... - Steve Spalding

9 more comments

ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun - Phill Price

Umm..yeah. - cmiper

As a reader and a writer and a watcher of all-things-crime-related, I could've given an answer like that, too. Never use quicklime to dispose of a body. It actually helps preserve it. - Nine

@Nine (9) But the question is, would you have? - Steve Spalding

ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun away from Nine (9) too! - Phill Price

Sodium hydroxide. I'm going to leave now. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

i like his response to his initial scary comment - "heh. top of the head." :-p - mike "glemak" dunn

Steve, no, but only because I don't read metafilter. - Nine

Some of scarabic's tips seemed to be common sense. It's the genius details like "remove the toilet to use the bigger drain pipe" that worry me! - Paul Reynolds

@Nine Good point, I think I agree with Paul it isn't the "common sense" stuff it's the little details and the way he presents the narrative that's creepy. - Steve Spalding

Jeremiah Owyang

Can you answer these 4 questions without saying "Semantic"? Why URLs will be an Anachronism: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog...

September 4, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Lee Kent and Johan Bryggare liked this

URLs will be an Anachronism when Web's structure will be changed - Igor Poltavskiy

you may just be a passenger but there still has to be a flight plan - Lee Kent

Jeremiah Owyang

Quick: Which brands first come to mind after the Beijing Olympics?

August 27, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

tagami and Lee Kent liked this

Omega - Jeremiah Owyang

36 more comments

Visa - Arthur Guy

McDonald's, Phelps - Craig Eddy

Home Depot - Mike Reynolds

bolt - mike "glemak" dunn

Barack Obama - DJ Lein

Kellog's Corn Flakes - Shannon

Michael Phelps. Usain Bolt - john conroy

Puma - Shey, Jamaican of FF

AT&T - Michael W. May from twhirl

Rona, VISA, McDonald's - tamera

li ning - Anatol from twhirl

Canon. - Yolanda

Coca Cola - Lisa Creech Bledsoe from twhirl

Lee Kum Kee - imabonehead

Coca Cola - Alan Le

Lenovo - Kevin C. Tofel

NBC and VISA - Adam

Shawn Johnston, Nastia Liukin, Lenovo, Li Ning brand ambush of Adidas - Elliott Ng

coke mcdonalds sprite puma - Kyle A Koch

Coke, Visa - Morgan

Michael Phelps. I don't notice the consumer brands - Sally Church

Cisco - jcunwired

Michael Phelps - Dave Wirsching from twhirl

NBC - Czar

nike vs adidas - Lee Kent

usane bolt - Jay

Coke. And Li Ning (apparently the Chinese Nike) - Ryan Kuder

Speedo - Cyndy

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). Here in Canada we were subjected to the "Mr. Muffin" ad during CBC coverage WAY too many times. http://www.youtube.com/watch.... - Andrew Codrington

Puma and Nike. - Steve Garfield from twhirl

i feel like it *should* be lenovo, but i think of visa - Amanda from twhirl

nike - Dan McCall from twhirl

audi - Paul Whitaker

Lenovo - Sue Radd

China - Fons Tuinstra

Visa - Melanie Reed

Olympic Caning event. Who can get as many wacks in to the troubled teens in a minute? - CW™

Robert Scoble

Now you can play Robert Scoble for a day. At least in FriendFeed. The link here shows you what FriendFeed looks like to me. Cool. By the way, I'm looking at what it looks like to YOU. Just replace my user name with someone else's. - http://beta.friendfeed.com/scoblei...

August 26, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Mark Douglass, Abbas Haider Ali, Jonathan Fusellier and 23 other people liked this

...your accounts look like to you. Lots of fun and I'm finding cool new people to subscribe to that way. - Robert Scoble

10 more comments

Man alive that's some crazy amount of wordage. Hats off to you Robert. - Stu Andrews from twhirl

I think I'll pretend to be Scobleizer for the day. - DGentry

very cool.. - Lee Kent

I can see why you like FF so much. It's a pretty good filter considering the crazy number of stuff you're following - Owen from twhirl

Wow, that's a whole lot of twittering - J. McConnell

Here's what mine looks like: http://beta.friendfeed.com/thomash... - Thomas Hawk

sampsa, just because you don't like something doesn't mean that it's stupid for someone else to like it. - Akiva Moskovitz

but I don't wanna be a Scoble! (in my best Seinfeld voice) :) - Tim Hoeck

Not really can we see what you are seeing - from what I can tell the feed is your feed without all your hides applied. Besides playing Scoble for a day even only on FF would be too tiring. - Brian Sullivan

lol @Tim - Josh Haley

Oh, crap. Too soon! I don't even have my Android website up yet! Gotta rush. - Rob Sterling

Jeremiah Owyang

The best blog I've read in a long time is @peterkim his passion is really starting to show http://www.beingpeterkim.com/

August 14, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Toby Graham, Kim Mahan, Cathryn Hrudicka and 9 other people liked this

ur right! i just subscribed. thx - Lee Kent

4 more comments

Yup, just subscribed. - Roberto Bonini

guilty! (I left a comment on a previous post of his admitting it) - Jeremiah Owyang

So your official duty today is to blow people out of the water...just noticed how many new followers peterkim has received today. He def has some good material. Of all the people on the top youre great about sharing the love. I dig your style. - Greg Bond from twhirl

Mark, thanks for keeping me honest. I've a lot of character flaws, I'm working on em. - Jeremiah Owyang

I subscribed too. He has many original thoughts. A delight. - Meryn Stol

Steve Spalding

Ideas without execution aren't worth the paper they're sketched on.

August 11, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Nicole Simon, Samantha Hines, Tony and 33 other people liked this

interesting. i've heard this a couple times lately in different circles. Steve, would you consider yourself an idea guy? - Christian Anderson

35 more comments

I think that somewhere along the way an idea turns into a plan. With that, I think ideas are worth a lot more than we give them credit. - Larry Kless from twhirl

I consider myself a recovering idea guy. Most of the free-range ideas I generate now I put out for public consumption, they aren't worth anything on my shelf. @Larry Once an idea becomes a plan, it's much more than an idea. - Steve Spalding

I'm supposed to sketch out my ideas? I usually have tons of amazing, world-changing ideas then readily forget them the instant I fall asleep. - ·[▪_▪]·

At least they help you get to sleep at night, there is some value in that mate. :) - Steve Spalding

interesting. the other folks i heard this from, i would consider strong tactical executors. not bigger picture people. would you agree both are critical? - Christian Anderson

They have a symbiotic relationship. I know plenty of people who execute perfectly but can't plan -- they don't have vision. I know plenty of people with vision but no ability to put the peddle to the floor. I know very few people with both. Idea people need Executors and visa versa. - Steve Spalding

agreed - Christian Anderson

idea in itself is nothing. but then again, there are those whose creative side is better developed and who have a constant outflow of ideas but are loosy on details and execution. this is where the implementation guys come in handy. the two types complement each other. most of big corporate names usually have both idea and implementation parts - otherwise it is rather rare to find a person with two streaks equally "developed." - Hayk H.

ideas are just a multiplier of execution http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp... - Hao Chen

That's a fantastic link Hao. :) - Steve Spalding

+1 @ Hao ! cool link ! - Hayk H.

Hell, if NO EXECUTION = $1 I should be worth millions!! - ·[▪_▪]·

You can plan for 6 months in the Internet space and your idea is probably obsolete - Charlie Anzman

ideas without *eventual* execution are worthless. however documenting your ideas is _priceless_. - MikeAmundsen

Engineering is great, but becomes Rube Goldberg-ian without the Math/Physics behind it :) - Zen Master the Librarian

@Mike documenting ideas is priceless, I agree. This is more aimed at the belief that documentation, in and of itself, is a substitute for actual creation. @Aaron I thought it was impossible to decouple Engineering (as a discipline) from math/physics. - Steve Spalding

Ideas/plans without execution may not have much worth but the process involved in generating the ideas may be priceless. - Brian Sullivan

The -ability- to generate ideas is priceless. The skill to corral inspiration is one of the key components to doing anything in the world, but for any -particular- idea I still don''t think the generation process is enough. - Steve Spalding

@Steve: yep, 'documenting' ideas will not result in a tangible win. but you need lots of 'at-bats' to get a 'hit' and getting your ideas out and available is a great way to increase your percentage. - MikeAmundsen

Agreed, that''s the beauty of scientific journals and the entire driving force behind academic publishing. It's all very important. - Steve Spalding

Almost. An idea without *communication* is worth nothing. Even if you create/execute on whatever it is for *yourself* and share it with no one else, it's still worth nothing in almost all cases. It's the communication of the idea, the prototype, or the product that's the key to converting something into value. Read, write, listen, talk. Saying that "execution" is the key is like saying "success" is the key. It's too broad. There are so many other fundamentals. - Loren Heiny

almost everyone has ideas but very few people can execute on those ideas or at least find the right team of people to execute your idea - Rajiv Doshi

Very astute clarification Loren, I have a broad definition of execution. What I meant was finding a plan to take to idea from the drawing board to reality. It doesn't necessarily involve you doing it personally. - Steve Spalding

An eye opener for me, a self confessed idea guy, was when I read a book on patents and inventions that basically said if you have to be secretive about an idea because it could easily be stolen by someone just hearing the idea, then someone has likely already implemented it or it's not really a good idea (yet). - Paul Reynolds

@gregorylent in my mind "worth" means anything that changes something for the better: you, me, anyone. good point to take the thought outside the $$$ frame of reference. - Taylor Davidson

Typical "VC babble". In some areas like Nobel Prizes and mathematics, ideas are valued because of their impact on the thinking/actions of others. This causes some people to over-value ideas in entrepreneurial areas, where teamwork, execution, and marketing may be more important than an idea; e.g. "good ideas are a dime a dozen". Well, Nobel Prize ideas are not a "dime a dozen". I think some VCs are overcompensating for feeling less smart than nerds by competing in other areas like status-connections. - Mitchell Tsai

I guess I just value "ideas" - which to me means "original thinking" - more than many. Frankly I think execution is a "dime a dozen" and truly original thinking is stunningly rare. Granted, original ideas cannot be *monetized* without excellent execution, but that doesn't mean they're not worth anything. To a VC, of course, value can only be measured in money. But my hope is most people are capable of measuring things a bit more broadly. - Anthony Citrano

Apropos quote [Howard Aiken]: "Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats." - Anthony Citrano

"It is by acts and not by ideas that people live." - Anatole France - Hayk H.

@Mitchell @Anthony Nobel Prize "ideas" are often, I dare say always, executed. They usually are the sum of years and years of research and experimentation. Even in the softer sciences these "ideas" have been vetted. I am not saying every idea needs to be commercialized, I am saying that for an idea to have value -- to change anything -- it has to leave your head and go somewhere, even if it is into the hands of someone better equipped to do something with it. - Steve Spalding

"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen." - John Steinbeck - Hayk H.

I hear ya, Steve - but lots of Nobel prizes are awarded for ideas that are not ever tangibly/commercially/measurably "productive". - Anthony Citrano

Steve: I hear the "executed" idea you're promoting. Ideas in math though if they are "really good" may be a 1-page PhD and get you a professorship offer, even without any active marketing. The "vetting" may be informal and volunteer. This is different from most commercial ideas, where there is a small subset of people who successfully deliver a lot of product with almost no marketing and on their own. The academic world requires less of this type of promotion. - Mitchell Tsai

Many savvy academics also use very active lobbying, marketing, and research to promote their ideas, obtain grants, etc... They actively look at the research backgrounds of NSF, DoD and other area heads and use the info in their planning. It however, is still possible to release a "great idea" in academics without using political savvy, personal connections, and active "marketing". It's also not a "failure" in academics to release a "great idea" which doesn't get picked up for 50-100 years (esp. in math). - Mitchell Tsai

agreed. - Tony

Completely agree Mitchell. I come from an Engineering background, so it does sometimes slip that the pure sciences can have very, very long execution cycles, - Steve Spalding

Leslie Poston

Am I the only one on the planet who doesn't really care one way or the other about the FaceBook design?

August 12, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Adrienne Van Houten, AJ Batac, Lee Kent and 2 other people liked this

Well, I didn't really care about Facebook to begin with... - Morton Fox

3 more comments

how can you not care? it's the most important thing to happen since ... ok yeah BFD. - Tac Anderson

I keep seeing whole posts written about it. Driving me bananas. It's just a redesign. I think people are more upset about the learning curve than anything, but could be wrong. - Leslie Poston

i didn't car at first. then i couldn't find my dog book. now i want to move and can't figure out how. HELP - Lee Kent

it's too slow. - mjc

Louis Gray

Is Facebook the Most Popular Social Bookmarking Service on the Web? - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...

August 11, 2008 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

Voyagerfan5761, Rich Harris, Lee Kent and 7 other people liked this

Chris Messina

Wrote back to a recruiter: "I use a new Internet device called the iPhone so could not learn more about you on your Flash-only website."

August 6, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Nicholas James, Jonathan Ferguson, James Tenniswood and 30 other people liked this

I don't have an iPhone, but I loathe flash-only websites. Surely, there's something about your business you cna tell me that doesn't require silly animations. - Richard Lawler from twhirl

12 more comments

it's more like saying: "have you ever heard of accessibility?" - Andre

Adobe said a while back that it would use the SDK to write an iPhone vesion of Flash. Any news on that? - Roberto Bonini

I'm going to take the other point of view and say the it must be a crappy website to be flash-only. - Long Nguyen

I *hate* flash-only sites - Sarah Perez

Hey, google indexes them now, so I expect that there will be more out there now. - Aram Zucker-Scharff from twhirl

Hilarious - Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)

Flash components can be embedded in web pages, which is good (unlike AIR apps), _but_, they are themselves opaque, and so not as nutritious (de-composable and re-composable) for the growth of the web as HTML... and the web is our composition, is it not? - Mark Szpakowski

I hope they write back and say, get a phone that can use Skyfire ;) - Tim Hoeck

people and companies build flash-only sites because they don't really have anything to say, but feel they must be on the Web or they'll look out-of-touch. for those people and cos, my recommendation would be: just get off of the Web, you're just polluting it; stay in meatspace, it's worked for centuries. there's absolutely nothing wrong with flash by itself; it can certainly contribute to a richer Web site experience...agree with @mark: the Web is our composition. - .LAG liked that

.LAG, that is nonsense. Peopel build flash-only sites for different reasons. In my experience, people build them because they are sold on them by developers/designers who know no other way. - Robert W. Anderson from twhirl

Sometimes designers do things because they can with little regard to whether they should. - Aura Mae

@robert: fair enough, but if a client is sold on a flash-only site i'll bet you these are exactly the kind of people who feel they must be on the Web in order to look contemporary... not because they have something to contribute. i'm not convinced that every person or organization needs to have a Web site to succeed. a simple 'contact us' page with street address and phone number would be far more useful than a flash-only brochure site in MANY cases. - .LAG liked that

iPhone or not, I hate all Flash sites too. They are UI nightmares. I can't search or easily navigate to anything. I don't even want to see your flash. As a matter of fact, my Firefox would have problems with it too because I have NoScript and AdBlock Plus running. I approve Flash on a case by case basis. - Kenya

Steve Rubel

iTunes App Updates are Totally Broken - http://www.flickr.com/photos...

August 5, 2008 from Flickr - Comment - Like - Share

Rob McNair-Huff, Rishabh Mishra (p248), Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF) and 4 other people liked this

I'm seeing exactly the same thing. A few days ago, it tried to tell me all my apps had updates too. I'm also having issues downloading tracks from iTunes. It just crashes before it gets chance to finish processing each track. Apple's email support have been unable to help me too (since reinstalling iTunes didn't work). - Tony Ruscoe

not to mention that every itunes upgrade takes over an hour and then freezes my up. apple and windows are just not there yet! - Lee Kent

I've been trying to upgrade wordpress via iTunes and the iPhone but to no avail. - Stewart Steel

Marshall Kirkpatrick

twello.com is so awesome - categorized twitter directory, such a good idea!

August 1, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Brian Daniel Eisenberg, accesine, Charlie Anzman and 10 other people liked this

try this instead: http://www.twellow.com/ - Dave Winer

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Darn. Winer beat me to it. http://twellow.com/ - David Petherick from twhirl

i don't get why it fails a search for 'toeman'... needs fixing! - Jeremy Toeman

Bad home page design, my gut reaction was I landed on a parked domain - Bob Ngu from twhirl

@Bob Ngu I thought the same thing when I was the homepage too, but it is a very useful site - Richard Kannegieser from twhirl

Awesome! Twitterpacks, with actual navigatiion and architecture. (I sure hope it doesn't become another tool for spam followers.) - Ian Wilker from twhirl

yes and Ian, there is a nonprofit section in particular, though you probably know all those folks already. - Marshall Kirkpatrick

Caught Twellow back in June on EverythingTwitter http://everythingtwitter.com/2008... - Chris Miller

Very cool, found lots of new people - Kol Tregaskes

Yes twellow is really cool. Also, Twitter makes for a far more interesting cut from the population than Linkedin. Great for recruiting self-actualizing people! - Meryn Stol

What we need next is a Plurk directory. - Meryn Stol

great concept - their design needs some serious help though! - Morgan

Is anyone actually claiming their profiles on Twellow? - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

i did... haven't been back since though.. not sure why i need it as a service - Jeremy Toeman

Steve Spalding

How many of you consider yourselves information "filters"?

July 31, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

edythe, Susan Beebe, Mike Fruchter and 11 other people liked this

Absolutely. I sort of think of FF as a relevancy filter, for instance. - John LeMasney

11 more comments

I think we'd all be surprised at how many people use us as sources of news. I know FF and the people who I follow here have helped me find tons of stuff that I would never have seen otherwise. - Steve Spalding

No, I'm just an observer. - Mark Dykeman

i think so. i get follows from ppl after digging things and stuff. sometimes they probably don't agree with what i pass on, but for the most part i like the same things as all my followers on any site. - Chris Harris

I don't consider myself an information filter, but I'm sure there is at least one person out there that uses me as such. I guess you could also take this a step further and say I'm an information filter between this world and the world outside my computer screen. I definitely pass along useful info to my family and friends. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

We all are information filters. In this day of technology, we are forced to filter through all this information we have available to us. Regardless of whether we filter this information for ourselves or for others, this is the task that many new startups are going to try tackling in the future. This is going to be big business, and while few companies have tried to take it on, it has... more... - James Mowery from twhirl

Yes, I think so. I'm thankful for the content creators, content finders, and other information filters I subscribe to. - Hao Chen

Isn't it like a food chain: we all filter for someone else in the chain ?. - Antoine Bertier

A bit like that. I got to thinking about it because I think "early adopter" is too broad a term. Early adopters usually are finding the stuff they adopt from even earlier adopters. It's a lot more like a tree, and all of us are nodes. - Steve Spalding

At first I read "It's a lot more like a tree, and all of us are nuts" ;-) - Antoine Bertier

Which is also very true. :) - Steve Spalding

Not I. I am a consumer of the filtered content. Thank goodness for you filterers! - Joanmarie

I think we are ALL filterers to some extent. Some more than others. The more followers you have the more you act like a filter to the folks downstream. Likewise the folks above me filter their content to me...interesting cycle of content. - Susan Beebe

Robert Scoble

Facebook Furthers Attack on FriendFeed, Adds Comments to News Feed - http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r...

July 31, 2008 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ, Sarah Perez, Neal Jansons and 23 other people liked this

now if FB would provide an API for it all so I can have it my Firefox sidebar - Dave Hodson

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That's terrible. I'm worried that I'll now have to travel between FB, FF, and Reader in order to get my 2 cents in. Can't the APIs talk to eachother and leave the input method to user preference? - Derick Valadao

facebook is so 2007 - adolfo foronda

thanks for reminding me to use Facebook... - anna sauce

Eh, This way the rabble can stay on Facebook. - Aram Zucker-Scharff from twhirl

I always use Facebook as an afterthought, but I'm always in and out of FF and Reader - Ian May

i still use FB everyday... not all my friends have the time to spend on twitter, friendfeed or the like. let's not become snobs about it. - Meghan from Alert Thingy

Oh, I'm in no way being a snob about Facebook. I really just don't think to use it much of the time. FriendFeed is much faster so I tend to go for that first. - Ian May

How is friendfeed faster? - morten saxnaes

I tried my first comment on Facebook. Worked great... - Mitchell Tsai

I've barely used Facebook since moving to FriendFeed. How ironic is it that Facebook heavily resembles FF now. I am disappointed with how difficult it is to read the news feed on Facebook. There is an image on the left. Oh wait, now there is an image on the right. Well now there is some indented text. Gah, now there are comments? It's just too noisy. It is almost a strain on my 21 year old eyes, and that is a shame. It needs to be cleaned up and displayed more elegantly. - James Mowery from twhirl

sorry, snob is a bit harsh.. i just meant smart people still use FB - Meghan from Alert Thingy

What's Facebook? - Stephen Pierzchala

Personally, FB is good for looking at pictures and following peoples actions. FF is a living discussion. FB is not a living discussion, I don't think comments are going to help. They have comments on pictures and that wore off months ago. - Ryan

I'm not even going to bother w/ comments on FB.... - Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)

Covered it here: http://www.techwinter.com/2008... - Roger Kondrat

And here: http://www.techwinter.com/2008... Nice article though and most of all I am glad we are drawing more attention to the predatory practices of NEW large organisations e.g. FB and GOOGLE. :) - Roger Kondrat

I use FB quite a bit and I am glad they have improved their newsfeed. I would like to see them improve it some more. - Bindu Reddy

I enjoy the comments as much if not more than the things being shared on FF. Why is it that FF has great discussions and FB has little to none. I think it is historical... people don't think of FB as a place to go have group discussions about things. If so, will FB be able to change this? Do you think they are in trouble if they can't. - Michael Leggett

Comments on Facebook is actually pretty cool - FF'ers should not dismiss this feature so quickly. Facebook is copying FF - a true form of flattery! I think this is a really impressive feature improvement on Facebook...very interesting!! - Susan Beebe

I agree Susan. But I don't see the comments picking up so far... maybe it is only a matter of time. - Michael Leggett

Michael: I agree, it's too new of a feature to get noticed...but is is really awesome!! once folks figure it out... it will be a matter of time. - Susan Beebe

If they can get the graffiti wall to have a blog interface and an RSS feed, that would be dreamy... - sergiooo

Facebook has been forced into copycat mode. They are no longer the leader - just a follower of trends. They look like Plaxo and FF. - Ernie Oporto

They'd do a lot better if they could get an API where the two could integrate together, and I could have a feed of both and comment on both and my comments would show up in the appropriate spots. Well, actually, *everyone* would do a lot better. And there would be so much more commenting ! - Justin Long

seems like a lot of door-knocking and how's-your-mum between the (growing) number of services. As long as of can keep ahead of the cruft eating the bulk of the bandwidth in the process. Or maybe I'm missing the point. FF was not cooperating (for me at least) via FB this morning. Now it simply states that I have actvity on FF with no detail. - ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ

Chris Brogan

Drowning - http://www.chrisbrogan.com/drownin...

July 21, 2008 from chrisbrogan.com - Comment - Like - Share

Duncan Riley, Lee Kent, Sarah Perez and 6 other people liked this

sheesh - that's a post I've almost written on a weekly basis for the last 6 months! Lock yourself in a room - turn off the internet - take a deep breath and knock the pile of work before you off one step at a time. - Darren Rowse

8 more comments

I'm glad I read this before I emailed you. just wanted to say thank you for the fast answers to my little interview ;) - Dennis Bjørn Petersen from twhirl

The suckiest parts are those that I deleted from the post. I have to send out a whole lot of "Sorry, I missed our deadline" and "sorry, but I'm going to have to cancel my previous commitment" kinds of messages. - Chris Brogan

Honest and understandable sentiment, Mr. B. I can only imagine how much more swamped you are because I barely can handle what's on my plate, especially Monday morning! Thanks for raw brutal honesty. Leo from zenhabits and Tim Ferriss would be proud of you! :) - paisano

yikes - good luck Chris, I hope you can get ahead of the curve!! - Adam Singer

Nothing like a little honesty, humility...and human-ness. Good stuff Chris. Got nothing for you. It happens :-) - Richard Binhammer

i don't know if i should chuckle or not... - karim

I was seriously going to call you today. hehe. glad I read this first. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

I know the feeling - Duncan Riley

this made me laugh. ha! - Clintus

Robert Seidman

Pearls Before Swine - http://www.comics.com/...

July 29, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Voyagerfan5761, Cheryl Jones, Lee Kent and 15 other people liked this

There's a joke here about recent Starbucks closings, I'm sure of it. - AJ Kohn

i never get um - Lee Kent

He walked into an episode of Friends? - Cheryl Jones

Chris Brogan

50 Steps to Establishing a Consistent Social Media Practice - http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-step...

July 27, 2008 from chrisbrogan.com - Comment - Like - Share

Winston Teo, Eric Dorsett, Betsy Weber and 38 other people liked this

Good list, Chris. I would add: get your co-workers/employees involved and participating on at least one of the three SNS you picked. Good example: Zappos. http://twitter.zappos.com/ (Repost because I stupidly commented on a Google Reader share instead of here or on your blog) - Hao Chen

7 more comments

Chris -- I need to borrow your brain for a few weeks. You the man! - PodChicks

Thank you so much for all of your great posts on social media. I like the various suggestions on measurement, the focus on the networks YOUR customers hang out and remembering email. So many posts seem to forget not everyone prefers Twitter or RSS feeds. I know I tend to forget. :) I agree with Hao Chen, remember co-workers and employees involvement. The front line folks have great... more... - Jill Howard Allen

Could you be less productive? I've listened to 8 of your podcasts in the last 8 hours, plus reading your blog and clicking all the links...downloaded Adobe Digital Library to store your free reports and ebooks, referred my blog readers to your blog.. and that's one top of reading the 20-some other blogs I'm addicted to... I'm exhausted... Must get sleep... - Toni

Excellent stuff - Charlie Anzman

Great job! Thanks for taking the time to make such a detailed list. - Mitchell Tsai

very well written Chris! - Thomas Hawk

favorite - Pick 3 social networks to join based on where your customers might be. 3 might sound like too few, but it probably will be too many. - Todd Jordan

There's that word I love: consistent. ;-) - Barbara K. Baker

Thomas Hawk

Want to know why the future of FriendFeed is a search engine? Try this search. http://friendfeed.com/search... I get more great blog post ideas and find more valuable information from this search than anyplace else on the web today.

July 17, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Hanna Wiszniewska, Joao, Cheryl Jones and 78 other people liked this

and just you wait until FF begins introducing a "relevancy" filter for searches that sort by "interestingness" (i.e. comments, likes, etc.). Once they come out with their ranking algorithm which correlates time/immediacy with rank (comments/likes) and once more content begins to pool here they will have a search engine more powerful than Google. This is powerful search stuff. - Thomas Hawk

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As long as enough people are talking and blogging about photography, it works. Any archivists on FF, or records managers on FF? - Dave "Freedom 35"

That's the thing David. Google will still excel at obscure search. But if you want to see interesting things about Photography or the iPhone or Obama or alcohol or your favorite company or more general search, social filtering will provide a superior experience to Google or Yahoo or MSFT. It's amazing how good search is now at FF and they *are not even using the social metadata yet!* Just you wait until they let their algorithm loose on the world for that. - Thomas Hawk

No doubt FF is going to be a very useful and fruitful search engine. However they still need to improve the speed of indexing. Search results are far behind the latest entries. - Yuval Atzmon

Now maybe MSFT is actually watching FF. But I don't get the sense that they are. Or Yahoo. But it blows me away that MSFT would pay $100 million for Powerset, a company's whose search technology I've tried and sucks, while ignoring the power in search that is FF. Filtering search by what the general population likes and even more by what your social circle likes is the future of search. - Thomas Hawk

atzmon, that will come in time. What we have today is proof of concept. Everything else is just time. Why does Flickr have the best image search on the internet today? Because of social meta data and ranking. Why is it that Yahoo could never capitalize on this for web search when they had a 3 year head start on everyone else with delicious, flickr, upcoming. etc? - Thomas Hawk

Thomas, I ahve began using FF search as the main Searchlet. google is so web1.0 kindish. My only pain point is that FF does not yeild results for term that is part of the comment content. It is only taking main URI /txt - Peter Dawson

atzmon - i haven't found that to be the case - my searches are returning results that have threads minutes old - ff is a great example of social grid search & how its starting to replace traditional search imho - nice thread thomas :) - mike "glemak" dunn

think about this. As *good* as search is today at FF. they have not even released their "relevancy" feature yet which coordinates rank (comments/likes) with most recent. It will be even more powerful once they do this and I bet that they are working on this right now. - Thomas Hawk

Thomas, one of the first things that caught my attention about FF in the first place was its potential in the search area. I'm willing to give them all the time they need because I'm sure it's going to pay off for me as a user. While we're on the subject, they do have a few basic features to implement, like a bit of morphology. Try searching for 'tactic' and 'tactics', compare the results you get. - Yuval Atzmon

I agree with Thomas. The potential is certainly there. But to be truly useful, it needs a much wider range of users. The interests currently represented here are relatively narrow. - Dan Kaplan

Agree, though not sure if they want to be seen as a search engine. - tomio geron

Love Thomas Hawk's remarks about relevancy and interestingness search algorithms, and concur with Dan Kaplan about the need for a much larger user base to make the search results truly worthwhile. - Sean McBride

tomio, they may not yet. In the same way that I'm sure Flickr didn't want to be seen as a "search engine" either. FF has to first and foremost present itself as a community and as a useful social aggregation tool. Search is the byproduct -- but search is where monetization takes place most powerfully. Dan, depth of content will come with time. Same as what happened with Flickr. - Thomas Hawk

Pretty soon, Friendfeed will even be able to cook your eggs and butter your toast. - Shawn Farner

Good point Shawn and a good reminder that BREAKFAST IS FOR WINNERS!!! - Thomas Hawk

Social search is clearly an important monetization opportunity for any aggregator - John McCrea

I'm tremendously amused that the first thing when I do the search is "Why I think Thomas Hawk is a Great Photographer" - David Thomas

http://friendfeed.com/summary... You can filter the day/week/month summaries by service, so that link is the most popular flickr photos this week - Glenn Slaven

Product searches could certainly be highly monetizable and provide much better/harder-to-game results than Google - Nicholas Molnar

Thanks for this tip, Thomas... it works great and seems very snappy. Also, it's a reliable way to get at my own twitter archive :-/ - Richard ¿digame? Walker

Agree, this has really turned my head recently. I didn't really use FF, but now find it an extremely useful resource - Kol Tregaskes

Agreed. I often check friendfeed (before Google) on certain topics. I do value the shares (and opinions) of my friends more than that of strangers picked by a Google-bot. - Czar

For any that may not have noticed, search results have their own RSS feed. If you find yourself doing the same searches over and over it would be worth creating an imaginary friend with that search results feed in the profile. Your search results would then be folded right into your friends stream. - Jim Stanger

Chris Brogan

The Vital Importance of Your Network - http://www.chrisbrogan.com/the-vit...

July 23, 2008 from chrisbrogan.com - Comment - Like - Share

siavash, Robert Banghart, Fernanda Ibarra and 33 other people liked this

This is a critical topic! Networks are valuable and increasingly observable to business partners, competitors, (potential) employers, and even customers. Managing your network will be a part of your You, Inc. valuation--invest in it. Another great topic/post Chris! - Bill Rice from twhirl

9 more comments

Great article! I use LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and now FriendFeed. These networks have allowed me to meet new folks, stay in touch with old friends and get great info on the social media/marketing area I enjoy. Twitter is also where I learned about the 'twebinar' you did yesterday. Great info and great networking using the hashtags in Twitter! After recently leaving my job, I have... more... - Jill Howard Allen

Jill mentions a subtle point that I see all the time--"After recently leaving my job, I have been actively working my network..." I see this all of the time, especially on LinkedIN, people come alive and begin working their network when they are starting to look for a new job or get separated from a job. It is so important to invest in you network (with value to it) so much earlier. The dividends will be much higher! - Bill Rice from twhirl

I agree with Bill. The best time to engage your network is when you have something to give to it, not when you need to get something from it. Paying it forward is the best way to ensure success from your network in the future. - Morgan

Bill, maybe a better way to put it I have been able to spend more quality time with my network. How about that?! I've been active in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for some time, but I've had some additional time to learn more about networks like FriendFeed and spend a little more time commenting. :) - Jill Howard Allen

Right on Jill/Bill. LinkedIn and Twitter have really been a BIG help. Now with Twinkle to augment my more LOCAL want/need to meet new early adopters here in my own back yard... I finally feel in a position to leverage that network one of these days when I need to most. Instead of having to try and build a network under duress and sub-optimal conditions. And, of course, I'm available as a resource to many more people (which has been a lot of fun). - Gerald Buckley

Jill, Sorry I wasn't implying you were one of those people investing in their network too late. I just thought you made an excellent subtle reference to a mistake (if you haven't been following Chris' suggestions before) I have seen. I can't tell me how many times when someone starts looking or they are let go that I will get barraged with old, suddenly good enough to be accepted... more... - Bill Rice from twhirl

What a killer conversation here. I'm glad that I've dived back into FriendFeed. Clearly some thoughtful conversations here, and I'm excited about that. - Chris Brogan

Thanks for the valuable information! - SRivera

Respect for a wife (spouse) is a sign of true character and sanity. Thanks for sharing from your heart Chris. - Steve

It's funny that I should see this post today--I spent a lot of time this morning/afternoon connecting with people in my networks through blogs, Twitter, email, chat, face-to-face--it's been one of those days that took the reins in its own hands & led me away from my schedule. :-) Just a couple months ago I would have felt really nervous at this point, because I "spent the whole day chatting & didn't get anything done." But...wow. I have done *tons*. (Now the dog wants to network, so I'm off to play fetch!) - Christine Taylor

Robert Scoble

Has/How/Why tech blogging has failed you - http://scobleizer.com/2008...

July 22, 2008 from Scobleizer -- Tech geek... - Comment - Like - Share

Yaroslav Nikolaev, Adam, Dimitar Vesselinov and 174 other people liked this

Long rant, sorry, had to clear the air so I can start blogging again. :-) - Robert Scoble

90 more comments

Wow...I'm very interested and excited to see/hear/read what is to come from Scobleizer land next. - Justin Korn

I hope I make your list and if not, please let me know why so I can potentially improve. - Allen Stern

Glad to see that you are starting to realize, despite Techmeme that the world doesn't revolve around just the bay area. - Harold Gilchrist from twhirl

Gotta say you're bang on the mark there. Tech blogging should be about the tech, not the biz. - Luke Robinson

Allen: I like your blog. It's just that I love hanging out with all of you and talking geeky stuff a lot more than talking about this deal and that deal and all that. - Robert Scoble

Harold: I've always realized that. I feel I got unfairly tagged with believing the world only was about the Bay Area. I guess I deserved that to some extent, but this area is quite dominant in the world of tech (including the tool you're typing on right now) so some of my boosterism is to be expected. Funny that the top Israeli company has offices here too. - Robert Scoble

Kudos to you Mr. Scoble, what a very bright post you delivered today! Thank you for bringing some fresh perspective, that's always refreshing and welcome. I'm also happy you cite Lifehacker as an example. They focus on the smartest digital experience possible and help us improve ourselves. That's the biggest deal of all. Techbloggers should never forget it. - c0wb0yz

I love the tech first and foremost but the business is important too, especially in respect to the sustainability of said tech. - Jamie

Jamie: I agree. But the business needs to serve the customers and the customers/participants/users or whatever you want to call you and me aren't coming first in this industry anymore and that's worrying. - Robert Scoble

Wow funny enough thats the way i have been feeling for a while now I am looking forward to seeing what is next from the Scobelizer... - John Spencer from twhirl

I agree overall - CN has only a small percentage of biz - most is trends, analysis, and reviews. I had an interesting discussion about this with someone last week - if i had a computer that could handle video, i'd make a quick video to explain - there's an important part you are missing - Allen Stern

Next is to get some sleep. Gotta be up at 7:30 to be at Fortune Conference at 8 a.m. for breakfast. It's an incredible conference, hope to see some of you at the Tweetup at 5:45 p.m. - Robert Scoble

This is often relevant from major blogs/ celeb bloggers. The smaller and more personal blogs are still focusing just on tech ;) Perhaps you need to update your feeds :-) - Dennis Bjørn Petersen from twhirl

Allen: will be watching in the morning for what I was missing. I'm sure I'm missing a lot. I had to stop ranting at some point, it was getting too long! :-) - Robert Scoble

Dennis: I know. It's why I spend a lot more time here lately than on blogging. The smaller stuff shows up here a lot more regularly and I see a lot less "Yahoo business news." - Robert Scoble

Excellent post Robert. It's why I don't read Techmeme as much as I used to. The life and joy in exploring, playing with and dissecting tech, the geeky exuberance in 'new stuff' has been lessened across almost all tech sites in general, leaving a bland veneer that is just business talk. Things a geek like me doesn't care about, as I'm not an investor. - Mo Kargas

Techmeme has suffered because most of the tech blogs they follow have become nothing more then PR outlets like you said. - Harold Gilchrist from twhirl

As I posted in your comments, that's a really good post. It's great to see the old Scoble back - the one who I started reading back when your "latest thing" was Tablet PC! Welcome back, mate. - Ian Betteridge

Robert, blogging is becoming commercialized, as it becomes popular. I do not see it as a problem. It just might mean that you and a bunch of other likely minded people have to move on to a greener, more fascinating and less populated pastures. Like friendfeed, etc. Luckily, there are lots of them around and tons in the pipeline. Enjoy! - Павел Романовский

I don't know, Robert. On the one hand I agree 100%. And can I say that as editor of WebWorkerDaily I am the one who gets those 15 press releases a day and I *constantly* have the "is this useful?" filter on. I hope that's clear in our postings. Anyway...Your post is kind of like the person who is used to picking their own corn complaining about the supermarket because it's not the same garden. It's not. The grocer has to pay its bills, as does the paid tech blogger. - Judi Sohn

I know I am a newie to all this but I have been reading blogs for a while. I've bee thinking up a response and I'll post later. Long comments on the iPhone make for one queasy bus ride. - Derick Valadao

Finally. Thank you. I follow 357 feeds. Everyday. Granted I have many pop-sites (lifehacker, engadget, etc) on the list. But not one is of these "new breed" of tech bloggers out there. Even though I am in the industry, they do not speak to me. They are just another form of CNN to me. Linking to each other and regurgitating the same gibberish, no matter how relevant or important, it does not speak to me. Anyway, welcome back! This is very refreshing news to me. I will be following it with much interest. TY! - Carlos Ayala

We should all just organize a "Tech Blog Strike", unsubscribing to those blogs that only push press releases. Let's see how they sweat when they see their subscriber count falling... - Jorge Escobar

Obviously my previous comment was "tldr". I just wanted to say how great it is that a person in your position is able to repurpose his content to better fit the goal you are trying to reach with your content. It's a great direction to take in a time where most blogs are just trying to echo up to the top. - Derick Valadao

Excellent post on the state of the blogging nation. - Sheila Thomson

My only real problem with tech bloggins is how easily ideas take hold and spread to get page hits. This is very easily seen in the Vista hatred - there was never any objective reasonf or it... but it was so useful for traffic generation and looking cool that it was rampant. - Soulhuntre from twhirl

It's probably less about the business/tech divide, and more about me-too echo blogging - Dave Pelland

I think so... tech bloggers are jsut as easily victims of peer pressure and memes as anyone. Once an Idea ("love google") defines someone as "getting it" then few will look at it objectively. - Soulhuntre from twhirl

This is a welcome breath of fresh air. Fantastic. - Pete Gilbert

Scoble. Great post. Agree completely. - Tom Quinn

Super excellent post and, ironically, exactly what blogging is all about. One good thing about an economic downturn, it will weed a lot of fluff out of the infosphere -- with less incentive to act as promotional platforms for startups, blogs may get more informative about using established tech. - Sprague D

Great article Robert. It is your authenticity even more than your tech blogging that has made you the great writer that you are. Anyone can report Apple's earnings yesterday. You have always had an honest voice though that makes your writing stand out. - Thomas Hawk

The take away is 'sensational headlines'. Add to the "Rumor:" and we don't need this stuff unless it's coming from a tabloid format site - Charlie Anzman

Blogging is about saying what I want to say, and sharing things that I like with anybody who cares to listen. I'm not interested in driving traffic (thank goodness) or repeating what others have said, but contributing to a discussion. - Chris Nixon

Great post Robert. Very good read and right on the mark. I religiously read feeds in Reader, but only a few that help me. I love Lifehacker. Almost everyday I find something new and useful to my job. - Gary Schmidt

The Techie audience thirsty for knowledge is much smaller then the Get-rich-quick audience, but the largest demographic are the Free-lunch boys. The blogs with the most revenue have tricked their advertisers into believing teenage boys are business decision makers. - paul mooney

I love tech bloggers and the things they write about. The good ones will always come at a common topic from a different angle and I just LOVE that because it makes me think outside the box and start connecting dots all over the place. Robert you are definitely one of those bloggers that I love to read and I don't think any of the ones I read have failed me. - Devlin Dunsmore from twhirl

Awesome reading! THX a bunch!! - Ronald

I have to agree about the comments system though. One thing that we started to see a while ago was data portability and being able to communicate accross services. I think Disqus does that quite well and it's a great first step to making sure that the comments system becomes a little more useful on blogs. - Derick Valadao

Well said Robert, left a comment, said my piece, cheers! - Steve Spalding

Wow, an impressive and honest assessment of some major issues in the techblogosphere. - Richard Akerman

Robert - I'm not in the tech industry. But I love what lots of tech stuff has done for learning stuff in my life and for others. And I want to keep on learning. You've certainly helped me here - I wouldn't know a fraction as much about using Friendfeed productively, for example. Glad we're going to see more of this kind of stuff. Welcome back. - Tom Landini

Knocked it out of the park. If we can just get back to being geeks again, a lot of this drama will calm itself... - Jared Smith

this, along with Luis Grey's article today about Techcrunch and Techmeme, are both really interesting features on why blogging, and more specifically high-profile bloggers that were once more passionate, more personal, more engaged, more interesting, are falling to the wayside - Kevin from twhirl

Great read, but kind of depressing the way things have gone. I just like being a bit geeky and all things will work out in the end. - Alan Ashley from twhirl

The key issue for me is that there isn't enough analysis. Just reporting what an app does is useful, but very baseline useful. What are the implications? That's where tech bloggins has really failed. - Shripriya from twhirl

Shripriay, you hit it on the head. It is a shame that all the tech bloggers just wants to be Engadet or Gizmodo these days. - Harold Gilchrist from twhirl

Nice writeup Robert. I enjoyed your detailed analysis & history of the situation. Perhaps you can lead us in a new direction? - Mitchell Tsai

i read the tech bloggers then try to actually use the gadget. would like to hear more results from the usage angle. - Lee Kent

Shripriya, I agree with you wholeheartedly. My original comment was much longer but got cut due to length. I wish more blogs were like Louis Gray and Lifehacker which take a step back and then hit us with posts that are useful/interesting almost 100% of the time. Zero Punctuation is a great example for the gaming crowd--one post a week, internet fame. - Derick Valadao

Hmm... A Scoble article I like.... Is this the Seventh Seal? Seriously, you're right on in that the echo chamber of groupthink has made tech blogging boring and predictable. I think there's a few people out there fighting it, and FF makes it easier to find them. I think you're off on the business side, though... I think it SHOULD be about the technology, but the entrepreneurs coming out of the Valley have made it necessary for us to discuss the business side by not having solid business plans. - Jason Carreira

Anyway, hope this is a sign of things to come from you. - Jason Carreira

Thanks Robert. Great read, and perspectives. Love to see more on productivity, like Lifehacker. Just became a GTD convert BTW and loved the David Allen piece. - Jericho

Thanks for that Robert -- perspective is key. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

I'm sorry but those that don't scale are toast, from a commericial and traffic standpoint. I know that is part of the point (varying aims and objectives of blogging etc.) - Alex Hammer

Slap your self and get back on that horse Robert. You have NOT failed us. Human nature makes us want what we do not have. For some it's page views/revenue, for trolls it's attention, and others it's n-list status. The rest of us are looking to quench our thirst for knowledge. And please give our group a little credit. We have become ever-so-skillful at weeding out those sources that do not provide this knowledge. I repeat...You have NOT failed us. - Andrew Smith

I appreciate what you are saying, and am glad that others share the same opinion as myself. What happened to being the guys who always had some tech trick that seemed like magic to the uninitiated? The joy of tech for me is showing that magic to others and getting them interested in what's out there too, and lately we have all become business whores a little bit. I look forward to the future content coming from you, and getting back to what made tech cool in the first place, the tech itself. - Aaron Krug

One of the things I value most about Robert is his inner homing mechanism. He's very prone to get lost, but something always shakes him loose and he re-calibrates. Or is that re-boots? (Kind of like iPhone 2.0 now that I think about it.) - Michael Markman

I agree w/ your article, Robert. The wonder that makes so many of us interested in tech does get lost at times- I never saw tech blogs as the place for that stuff, but appreciated it when I found it there. - anna sauce

Alex: While scaling is necessary if you want more people to view your content, why should that come at the cost of the content itself? Too many startups are trying to replace a solid marketing plan with social media and end up trying to use big blogs as a means to advertise their product and ride the traffic tail to customers. From what I gather, this tends to make jaded bloggers who... more... - Derick Valadao

I kinda find this funny.. the comments are so distributed between FF channel and Scobles blog channel ? which one am I too follow ? I mean yesterday we had this big huge augments about cluster and fragmentation of conversations. So Robert, here's a suggestion. Turn off comments on your blog and let your readers comment on FF only. Else dont post your blog entry to FF and break your own... more... - Peter Dawson

I just approved a bunch of comments that were held in moderation. Now there's 88 comments over there. Whew. - Robert Scoble

melmcbride: good point. It's easy to just stay on FriendFeed all day. It's hard to come up with something new to say that takes more than a short paragraph. Damn, I'm sounding so old school. The neat thing is when I do a longer blog is comes in here and improves everything. - Robert Scoble

i think this is part of the echo chamber that is the silicon valley. people who live there use the "new" thing for so long they soon get sick of doing it. they are same people who think everyone elses use technology the same way they do and feels the same way they do. - Jonathan Jesse

Scoble steps out of the bubble and takes a breath of fresh air... hopefully more follow or we're going nowhere fast. - Harish V

I thought this was great! Robert, I think what I hear is your desire to just do whatever the hell you want to without regard to "The Man". Go for it. You of all people can do that! - Elliott Ng

Robert the real issues is that everything really only needs to exist once. Conversations don't neeed to exist in many different places. Your blog comments and the conversation here are all the same conversation. I'd love to explain the solution as i see it but it'd take too long. - Anton Mannering

Robert I am still lost- How can you profess to be be a convo aggregator , yet approve 88 comments on your blog ? @Anton, no Blog comments and these comments on FF, are two different sets of conversation happening on the same topic. Lets not confuse this fact !! There is a fork in the convosphere. - Peter Dawson

@ Anton: I sort of agree with you, but i don't think comment fragmentation is all bad. Sometimes well-written comments appearing somewhere else can draw attention to good ideas. If I don't subscribe to a particular blog but see the feed posted here on FF, I'll pick it up and then maybe I'll go straight to the blog. There's value in fragmentation along with the frustration. - phil baumann

I think a service like disqus should be used so that friendfeed comments on links to blog posts (with comments therein) will all show up no matter which medium you use to discuss them. Does this exist yet? I thought disqus would have this covered by now. - Derick Valadao

Great points as always Robert. We're with you on this. - Missionary Broadcasting

Peter: I approved about 40 that were being held in a moderation queue. I don't let newbies post a comment on my blog because then it'd be overrun with spam. FriendFeed has a much better system to protect against spam than my blog's comments. I think that it'd very cool if I could replace my blog's comments with FriendFeed, but that'd require an API that would make a URL, return it to my blog, and get it linked in, all really quickly. - Robert Scoble

I haven't read the comments here, but feel I can comment. Robert, as someone who as known you for five years now - just before the mania began - I am pleased to hear this. What got me into your blog in the first place was your ENTHUSIASM for technology, particularly GTD. Never let that go. You be you. I will be me. And everyone else will be everyone else. In the end, you gotta follow what you love. It works for everyone from Steve Jobs to the Pope. Your friend online and off - SR - Steve Rubel

@ phil bauman Ok 2 things. First of all I didn't say it shouldn't appear in many places. I'm saying that if you're in Roberts comments and I'm on Friendfeed then we should be able to see ALL the conversation from both. But it need not exist in a whole bunch of places only be visible from there. Second I think the argument that there is value in fragmentation is similar to saying there is value in using a ploughshare pulled by an ox. Ther is but not to most people. - Anton Mannering

@ Robert Scoble: Interesting you should mention your blog comments being friendfeed. I know a startup or two working on those problems. In reality though the issues become way bigger when such a service is subject to really large numbers (non-tech crowd). Solving those problems is where the fun and games are and I only know one startup with a real solution for that. - Anton Mannering

Ironic, isn't it--the influences (PR, marketing, big media) the original bloggers were trying to break away from are--surprise-- still here and the game hasn't changed as much as we thought. PR people still push their stories, tech and news blogs focus on a few big name co's and start looking like traditional media, etc. What's needed is more of the energy, enthusiasm and original thought that Scoble and others brought to the game earlier on--otherwise, we've only duplicated the old media on a new platform. - mark ivey

I send you a tweet also but I believe that I must also write here how spot-on was your post... I can't wait to see more real Tech news coming from you and I hope that this will force other bloggers to remember how they started back then... - Manos Matsakis

This is clearly your best post ever. Thank you for all of your hard work. I read your blog because it entertains me. I would love more posts "sharing geeky things." On the other hand, if you blog about news, technology, and a few pro-company biases, that's nothing to be ashamed of. Just because you (or any other blogger) do not provide a perfect balanced news experience does not mean that you have failed. People are responsible for finding their own news this day in age. - Brian Wilson

Great post and I totally agree. "What's needed is more of the energy, enthusiasm..." - Eric_T

Great stuff Robert. As blogging and social media continues to spread outside of tech and into other niche industries and verticals, those of us facilitating and evangelizing that spread should continue to look back at this post so history isn't repeated. See you at the Ritz tonight. - J.J. Toothman

"I think that it'd very cool if I could replace my blog's comments with FriendFeed, but that'd require an API that would make a URL" - yeah I second that motion. If I had a widget that could do that but with bi- directional flow , that would really be a convo aggregator. This will certainly be an interesting challenge to some of the geeks out here ! - Peter Dawson

You can, if you're willing to give up the content. Glenn developed a great plugin that allows for bi-directional flow. It works for Wordpress and (I think) Blogger http://blog.slaven.net.au/wordpre... - Steve Spalding

Great timing :) I got strange looks this weekend when I said that I don't review anything that has been 'pitched' to me - but rather things I discover that I think are cool. I discovered something this weekend at BlogHer that I will review. But no one sent me a press release. :) It's just a really neat gadget! - Lucretia Pruitt

I think you should watch the movie 'Resurrecting the Champ' - its about a Writer. Drew the analogy to your post and the movie (that I just happened to see yesterday) http://mrinal.vox.com/library... - Mrinal Desai

Enjoyed that rant, Robert. I'm not a tech geek, I don't read techmeme or techcrunch as the gist and trends can be followed here on FF, but I do read blogs like yours, Louis, Jeremiah and Hutch's, mainly to learn new things. Before FF I had never heard of Rescue Time, Jott, Evernote or TSheets for example, but hearing about new ideas and then experimenting with them myself, well that gets me interested and excited. The corporate enterprise stuff leaves me cold, it isn't nifty or flexible enough for users. - Sally Church

Nice post. The PR influence bit reminded me of this article by Paul Graham: http://www.paulgraham.com/submari.... Agree to the fact that Tech blogging has been less 'tech' than it was a couple of years ago. - Nikhil Dandekar

I loved the rant earlier yesterday, and even more impressed by the ff reaction. My take on your blogging, having followed you since MS days. Stay on what you think, not what others think. Avoid the whole Gillmor Gang bs, and associated groupthink. - Bankwatch

I think that every new medium matures as it becomes possible to make real money at it - this is inevitable. I don;t think it will be the death of blogging certainly but we are in a new phase. Older blogs will mature and still keep that flavor or they will stagnate and die. The personalities will decide that. One of the things I like about your work Robert is the enthusiasm. Sometimes it makes you a bit naive, others it makes you a little to fast to declare something game changing but it is always good input - Soulhuntre

Robert, just read your wonderful post now, and I'm still fascinated by it. I'm commenting here because I know you'll read here first. You know, this competition that you were taking about, almost cause me to stop blogging, but then I realized that I'm writing because I like it, so as far as I'm concern, I'm not trying to compete anyone, this is why I'm taking things easy and on my own... more... - Orli Yakuel

Orli: you know me too well! :-) Yup, agreed. Just do it because it's fun. The problem is that posts that make us all smarter don't stick around very long because of the flow. - Robert Scoble

Robert, maybe it's because 'blogs' are not so unique anymore. Lets take Friednfeed for example: everyone can get noticed here just because they favorite picture on Flickr or dugg story on digg (regardless if they writing a blog, or giving any other opinion in the subject) this and other massive content mixed up together on a daily basis is flowing so fast, it almost seem that if you'll... more... - Orli Yakuel

Jeremiah Owyang

USA Today covers Twitter, http://tinyurl.com/5m6kqr Not quite a household name. Do your parents understand what Twitter is? mine don't.

July 21, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Sarah Perez, Dave Dugal, Kishore Balakrishnan and 18 other people liked this

what's with all the pop-ups in USA Today -- they are really desperate for revenue I guess - Jorge Escobar

22 more comments

Not many people understand Twitter before diving in and experiencing it. - jcunwired

I just ran a reader survey on pcmech.com and a decent percentage don't know what Twitter is yet. Of course, my audience isn't exactly the early adopter crowd on that site. - David Risley

Mine do...after my Mom didn't hear from me in three weeks, she learned how to Twitter to follow me and get me to respond before she tweeted publicly! - Lauren Vargas

Of all my tech developers friends, none use Twitter and never will. They just don't see the value. - Jorge Escobar

My mom follows my Facebook status updates which come from Twitter - Nick O'Neill

Any volunteers to explain Twitter to John McCain? ;-) - Paul Denlinger

My mom kind of understands. She doesn't do Facebook or Twitter or anything, though. I think she thinks that we would think it's weird if she did. (Got that?) - Jordan Hofker

My parents read about the San Diego Union Tribune (local paper) so now they definitely get it more than used to & they've expressed interest in following my tweets :) - Jennifer Van Grove from twhirl

I dare say "Most" people I've talked to in their upper 30s-40s have no clue either. Sad.. sad - Lee Carlson

it's not about 'parents', it's about awareness of technology. fundamentally twitter, friendfeed, etc are still extremely edge tech - Jeremy Toeman

I've had a lot of non-techie people come up to me lately and ask me about Twitter, including my parents. Not sure it's getting to the tipping point yet, but there sure is a lot more mainstream awareness of Twitter out there thanks to articles like this one. - Frederic

You'd think USAToday.com would give twitter a direct link with http://twitter.com also how about linking to http://Zappos.com. They do have links to their own 'blogs' on twitter, but please... On the sidebar: "USATODAY.COM BLOGS ON TWITTER". I really like the video embed with an interview though. Very nice job. - Steve Garfield

Nice puff piece for @biz @jack. Too bad Twitter has been so wonky the last few days. - Barbara K. Baker

I don't think my parents understand but my Mom checks my twitter profile daily and catches up with me. It's weird when she knows stuff I didn't tell her. - Elsie from twhirl

Can any of you explain Twitter in one line? The REAL definition? - Jorge Escobar

I hate it when people like USA Today make those blanket generalizations. - Francine Hardaway

Interesting point are that most of the negative comments on their site are by "anonymous or pseudonym" users. - Mathew A. Koeneker

Paul: Actually, John McCain is aware of Twitter. - Alexander Carlill

Maybe the news article explains why Twitter seems constantly down today - the USA Today readers are trying it out. - Sally Church

Wonder how the FriendFeed guys feel about being labeled a "third party app" for twitter? - Stephen Winkler

My 82 year old mom uses twitter and told the world on ABC World News. Read her blog post about it. http://mymomsblog.blogspot.com/2008... - Steve Garfield

Steve Garfield: wow that's amazing....she might be one of twitter's oldest users - Susan Beebe

@susanbeebe My mom just @'d me on twitter about Jay Rosen! http://twitter.com/millieg... - Steve Garfield from twhirl

Bret Taylor

Recession-Plagued Nation Demands New Bubble To Invest In | The Onion - http://www.theonion.com/content...

July 16, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Chris Pounds, Thomas Brox Røst, .LAG liked that and 35 other people liked this

""What America needs right now is not more talk and long-term strategy, but a concrete way to create more imaginary wealth in the very immediate future," said Thomas Jenkins, CFO of the Boston-area Jenkins Financial Group, a bubble-based investment firm. "We are in a crisis, and that crisis demands an unviable short-term solution."" - Bret Taylor from Bookmarklet

6 more comments

Also, a new poll shows that most Americans don't know what they'd do in hypothetical situations. Thanks, Onion News Network! - Brian Johns

Although it's aimed for laughs, the statement is more true than most imagine. - Roney Smith

oil is the next bubble - Bryan Thatcher from twhirl

oil is the current bubble. I'd bet on euros, defense equipment, or alternative energy companies as the next one. - Jonathan Tang

Nationwide Infrastructure development, they should green light nationwide light rail and solar and wind farms. Make solar and wind power mandatory on ALL new construction projects. - Jason Lowe

how about corn? - Nathan Rein

Hello, cleantech - Andrei M. Marinescu from Alert Thingy

Erin @queenofspain

I'd like you to meet the newest contributor to BlogHer...Michelle Obama http://www.blogher.com/lets-ta...

July 17, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Sarah Perez, Nikpay, Rishabh Mishra (p248) and 42 other people liked this

Michelle Obama joins BlogHer.com as a contributor! - Erin @queenofspain

25 more comments

this is great. really. congrats to Michelle for stepping up and i look forward to reading her thoughts about the upcoming election and related issues. - Harrison Wise

Sadly, the inaugural post is pretty lame. Nothing but campaigning for her husband. - Alexei Tolkachev

One of the many reasons I'm such a fan of the Obamas - they are so ready and willing to engage on every possible level with voters. Can't wait to read more. - Carla Thompson

@Erin: Never heard of her... Who is she? - Chris Reed

Oh come on Alexei. It's her first post. Many more to come. I know I've changed from my first post-haven't you? - Erin @queenofspain

@alexei Beg to differ. Campaigning to get Obama elected is topic A. You don't have to be a kool aid drinker to know we need a regime change. - Michael Markman

I was just hoping it would be more personal and fresh than that. Could have talked about the New Yorker cover, what sights she expects to see in Europe, how the kids are coping with the pressures of the campaign, anything. I will wait for the follow-up patiently. - Alexei Tolkachev

She wrote it. She will also be chiming in on comments. She plans on being a real part of the community. - Erin @queenofspain

Might have been the other thread Vincent... - Erin @queenofspain

@alexei why talk about the new yorker cover? stirring mud is stirring mud. her post was a goo dintro if you didn't know anything about her, other than she's the wife of the democratic president nominee. - keif from twhirl

hmmm two threads - one by Aaron one by Erin - whose will receive more "likes" and comments? hehe - Marco(aureliusmaximus)

always a competition! (and ME, geez) - Erin @queenofspain

This is fantastic! BlogHer continues to be an amazing, positive event year after year. Good stuff! - Nathaniel Payne

I look forward to Michelle Obama's thoughts on the campaign/her life. She's a huge asset to Obama's campaign, and I hope her posts won't be too constrained by campaign needs. I'd really love to hear from *her*. - Ayşe E.

@Erin - I originally read as "Michell Malkin." Head nearly exploded. - James Joyner

i hope she will continue posting after her husband was elected :) - Timo Heuer

Let's not forget she is trying to get her husband elected. I suspect it will be a bit of both. I do believe she is committed to engaging though. Which excites me. I mean, you are the guys who went nuts over a few congressmen twittering. They were working on getting a message out too you know. - Erin @queenofspain

i've said it before but its worth repeating: its also a little unfair that people demand more impromptu expression for political figures but then jump all over the slightest error in phrasing that is bound to occur. I promise you that candidates are always looking for ways to express themselves more clearly but when anyone can take a 5 second sound bite with no context whatsoever and turn it into a salacious and viral you tube video it gives candidates a huge incentive to stay "on message" - Marco(aureliusmaximus)

@Erin: Which congresspeople are twittering? Any senators? - Alexei Tolkachev

@aaron and so is Michelle. So I'm excited...lol. #suckit - Erin @queenofspain

Sounds good but left me feeling they were not her own words. Like she was speaking what we wanted to hear rather than what she really feels. It's too bad Mrs. Obama hasn't been posting on her own blog regularly and instead chose to be a contributor at Blogher to share these messages. Too bad she couldn't reference past posts written on her own blog BEFORE she was on the campaign trail. That hurts her credibility somewhat in this instance, I'm afraid. - TDavid

@tdavid she wasn't a blogger before this. We approached her to become one. And now she is. So I am confident like many of us learned how to blog, she will as well. - Erin @queenofspain

Erin - I know, that's my point. She should have started her own blog first and she would sound a heckuva lot more believable. - TDavid

I trust you will point her in the direction of a perfect laptop :-) - Richard Binhammer

lol Richard - Erin @queenofspain

I'm glad to see this, Erin -- and congrats. But that first one read like a campaign pitch. She should be told that. - Chris Baskind

Chris Brogan

21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Website Sticky - http://www.problogger.net/archive...

July 17, 2008 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

Lee Kent, steve albers, Mike Fruchter and 7 other people liked this

Bill Vick

Twittelator on the iPhone really rocks :) Using it now.

July 10, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

James Hull, Bryan Landers, Lee Kent and 3 other people liked this

definitely, really elegant. - Zee.

Jeremiah Owyang

Why You Sometimes Don’t Need to Join the Conversation - http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r...

July 10, 2008 from Web Strategy by Jeremiah - Comment - Like - Share

Ton Wesseling, Sean Kelly, Lee Kent and 8 other people liked this

oh thank goodness, I was afraid I'd have to join ALL the conversations - Marc Canter

Isn't interacting, like digging, conversing in some sense? Perhaps this is what is often meant by 'joining the conversation". Of course I'm just talking semantics really, and- it's good to pick these things apart. Nice post J, keep picking :) - Michael M Bailey

Agree with Madhava. I thought only reading could be considered as out of conversation. Conversation doesn't need to be typed words. Any action such as "Like" could be part of it. - Jia Liu

MG Siegler

Twitter is slowly plugging the Fail Whale’s blowhole - http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r...

July 8, 2008 from VentureBeat - Comment - Like - Share

Benedikt Koehler, Steve Rubel, Stephen Collins and 25 other people liked this

Twitter appears to be making progress in slaying its white whale - MG Siegler

9 more comments

I'm not really feelin' the imagery invoked by this title... - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Waiting for countless Moby Dick references. Go. - Shawn Farner

@rahsheen - agreed. switched it to "Twitter draws closer to harpooning the Fail Whale" - MG Siegler

i've definitely enjoyed the increased uptime. but they shouldn't even announce progress until we can reliably go back say ten pages into older tweets. I'm also frustrated by the never ending error messages from my twitter clients (twhirl on my pc and twitterific on my mac) saying i've exceeded 70 requests per hour. nevertheless, i am a bit excited that constant downtime may be a thing of the past. - mike

@mike - yeah i thought it was a bit early to trumpet a success at first too (mission: accomplished anyone?) but then again those are some pretty solid numbers and twitter did kick ass yesterday with its 30 minute maintenance in a two hour window. - MG Siegler

All they need to do is move their offices to Nantucket. - Jonathan Beckett

Great title! Twitter does need to stop blowing so badly. - wrecks

Does this improvement correlate to the addition of Pivotal Labs to the Twitter team? - AJ Kohn

Tell me that headline is suppose to be ironic:-) What happens when you fill the blowhole on a whale?...think about it - Duncan Riley

It'll drown?! - Susan Beebe

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