Michiel Sikkes - Likes

That poor cat looks so confused. - Kendra <3 Three Lions

but it's so warm on top of the scanner! - DJF

Time for a cat scan! - Jemm

Iz I the right way up for printing? - Vicky

This is clearly not my cat. If this was my cat he's have one arm shoved down into the printer trying to tear up all the internal whirling bits with his bare claws. - Soup

LOL, Soup! - Kol Tregaskes

that is one adorable kitten! - Anna Lynn M.

<3 - Furkan Tunalı

Too Funny! Reminds me of the San Mateo Cat Shelter where one of the cats loves to sleep on top of the laster printer where the paper comes out... - Greg Lato

Kitty!!!! - Janice

keep trying! - Morgan Haley

FEED ME A CAT - teh Dork Knight aka Kenny

Kol, it is NOT impossible. And that's all I'm saying. - Steven Perez

Push harder - Josh Haley

LOL@Jemm - Merry Xmas FFeeders - AJ

آخی - یک بابک

Hehe, Steven. I won't ask. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Gosh, just noticed this post has nearly 150 likes! :-D - Kol Tregaskes

1 closer....hilarious! - Jeffrey Marsh

There we go 150 likes. :-D - Kol Tregaskes

I'm in ur faxx masheen -- sendin de faxxez.... - Stephanie Segel

I think you mean a LIVE cat… - Mistletoe Glen

thanks, i needed a laugh - chaz2b

FAXCAT IS NOT AMUSED - Karl Knechtel

iz dat some copycat? - bora "head" basman

LOL, now nearly 200 likes! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Thats no fax machine, thats my new patented kitty juicer! - Threepwood

Just one more like... please. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

it's over two huuunddreeeed - bora "head" basman

MOAR! - Pat Hawks

I need 9 copies please ! - Faraz Mullick

A cute cat :) - Mohammad Abdurraafay

Haha, Faráz. - Kol Tregaskes

Next target, 250 likes. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

اخي...گناهي - noonii

Friendfeed loev faxcat :o - Karl Knechtel

;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Pussy by fax. What will they think of next? - Mattb4rd

X)) - Nia

OMGosh, next up is the 300 likes mark. Anyone care to join in? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Honestly, i'm not generally a fan of the Cat memes... But that is classic. - Alistair (alpinefolk)

You know this is the 7th most liked entry on FriendFeed ever: http://beta.friendfeed.com/search... !!! - Kol Tregaskes

Kol, this thread is pure genius. - Alex Scoble

But only almost 50 comments.. :) - Simon Wicks

Simon, there's not much to comment regarding the picture :) But meta-comments are more than appropriate! - Ivan Zuzak

Simon, yeah we need 1500+ comments now, who wants to start? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

there we go then for the 1500+!! - Jaap Willem

1600+ to beat the FFundercats live chat thread. I think with this real time now on all threads we're going to see some truly epic comment numbers. - Simon Wicks

Ivan, no the picture speaks for itself. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

OK, now it's the 4th: http://beta.friendfeed.com/search... - it's gonna take a huge effort to break the record of 452+ likes here: http://beta.friendfeed.com/imified... - Kol Tregaskes

OK, now this is the 3rd most liked entry: http://beta.friendfeed.com/search... :-D Crazy! - Kol Tregaskes

Too bad I am fresh out of likes of I would do it again. - JSNFLMNG

¡Excelente! - Marcos Vicente

I'm using this photo in the latest chapter of can haz murder - anna sauce

Hehe, Anna. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

One more for 350 likes, LOL. This is mental! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Come on, 350 cats for a cat getting crushed? You guys are mean. :-P - Richard A.

I'd like again if I could :-) - Dobromir Hadzhiev

bump - Simon Wicks

Richard, LOL! - Kol Tregaskes

Awesomely funny! - Martha

Next target: 400 likes? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

theres one more for you Kol - Toby Graham

Toby, you're very kind. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Cute *_* - Sybelle

Hehe. - Kol Tregaskes

Just 6 more likes for the 400 then I'll leave you alone. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

can you spare a cat 6 likes? - JSNFLMNG

sweet - Eric Hofmann

Haha, Jason, wow 406 likes, madness! :-D - Kol Tregaskes

Madness? THIS. IS. FAX CAT. - Mike Nayyar

Well 452 likes is the record, hmm I think that is pushing it. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Awesome. - Alex Scoble

this is underfaksink at its worzt - Petr Buben

Petr, I have no idea what you mean, but thank you. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

@Kol .. :] that, partially, might have been the purpose.... I don't know it exactly either. :] .. was I reflecting on a cat under the fax, and that it is hard to fax that way ... /?:] ... "underfaxing at its worst" .. - Petr Buben

Ah, OK, Petr. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

there ya have me ! :] .... see, to be honest with you, i saw this pic couple days ago, but i let it go, without posting it ..... what does that make me? :] - Petr Buben

:-) - Kol Tregaskes

OMGosh, just 23 more likes to beat this: http://beta.friendfeed.com/imified... ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

433 Like ! Wow ! - Like

Freemor, yes very cute! :-D - Kol Tregaskes

cute~ - Chan Pen

that's why is called a cat scan and not a cat fax. - Phil Maxwell

oh ... a scan. not fax?! .... it looked to me like she was faxink - Petr Buben

Just 5 more likes needed. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Try rolling the cat through a press first. Flat cats fit into the fax easier. - Bob Blunk

Fax, Petr. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

even a flat cat... faxes just can't handle the hair. You'd have to shave the cat first, else the hair will burn and stick to the drum... a mess! (I am extrapolating from transparencies, mind, i don't have access to a cat to test) - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

Hehe, Joelle. This is now tied for the 'likes' top stop. One more then, hehe. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Ok, over the top now. - Greg Guitarbuster

Hehe, Greg. Blimey! Erm, is that not far from 500 likes now? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Bloody marvelous, Kol. Wish I could like it again... too cute (and help u to 500 likes). - Roberto Bonini

I couldn't believe it when I logged on from the morning over posting it and saw it was at something 200 likes! You all have a strange fetish with cats and fax machines, hehe. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Am I the only one who saw this and their first thought was - My goodness did someone break that cats neck? It still freaks me out a little - Steve C

Steve, it does look a little out of place, but cats are pretty bendy. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

They fax much better if you flatten them first. What? - Kevin Pedraja

LOL, Kevin. - Kol Tregaskes

i can also imagine the cat going there cause it is snug and warm - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

Ey, it would be a tad warm on there, especially after a long working day. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Caption which needs to be said aloud: Uh Ohz, I'm totally FAXED! - sofarsoShawn

Hehe, Shawn. 10 more for the big 5-0-0. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Countdown! 8 more now! - Mike Nayyar

bump for more likes - Josh Haley

bump - Roberto Bonini

One more!! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

I took mine away, too much pressure. - Steve C

Wow, there we go, 500 likes!! Thank you all!! :-D - Kol Tregaskes

I think Fax Kitty deserves a prize for that. - Kendra <3 Three Lions

меня, признаться, подзаебал этот кот - Парадокс Смейла

пиздец как! - getalifejerk

Kendra, absolutely. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

So we can put this post to rest now. :-) 505 likes final count, wow! :-D Good night all! - Kol Tregaskes

My like is the last one so far :) - 509 afaik - getalifejerk

did 3 people really un-like this? now at 506. wtf (edit: uh, oh, yeah, me and 2 + 506 others makes 509. dammit, jim, i'm an artist, not a mathematician) - ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ

wish I could double like! - metalerik

Wish I could just like it at all. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

This is also still on the Best of page. That must be the longest running best of post? :-) - Kol Tregaskes

But it's a cat being crushed... - Richard A.

برای چی این همه لایک خورده؟؟؟؟؟ - H.M.Nasrabadi

Hehe, Richard. - Kol Tregaskes

copy cat - gibilix

518 like! most liked post? - Lu Tao

ay yerim yaa çok tatlı kedicikk :)) - Arzu

Lu, yeah but a long way now. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

*bump* - Andre

Blew past 500 likes - LIKE!!!!! - Roberto Bonini

OMGosh, nearly heading to 550!! - Kol Tregaskes

So we know how many people use this site. - Richard A.

So that's what Paws Printing means. - Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)

Richard, we getting there. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Jack, hehe. - Kol Tregaskes

this thread is making history. - vijay

Indeed .. this is a most epic thread - Mattb4rd

Hehe. 9 more for 550! - Kol Tregaskes

8... - sofarsoShawn

7. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Actually only 5...cuz "You, Earl E Morningwood, yasin ghasemi and... 542 liked this" - sofarsoShawn

Who wants to bet how many likes this thead is going to get??? - Roberto Bonini

Gosh, no idea. - Kol Tregaskes

take some bets then come back in a year to check? - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

:) - SokooteDel

Holy smokes .. this pussy cat is approaching 600 likes! - Mattb4rd

552 now, so there are some unlikes going on, hehe, oh well. Still an amazing amount of likes. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

560! - sofarsoShawn

And back down to 559. Hehe. - Kol Tregaskes

And how could anyone not love kitties after seeing this photo? - Susan Beebe

I liked it without reading this discussion - evidentially we have a lot of people who like the idea of faxing a cat! - Rich

Rich, yes, worrying, hehe. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

564! - sofarsoShawn

I think we'll have to recruit more ffeeps before this record will ever be broken - JSNFLMNG

maybe a good way to clone cats :) - Roberto

Hehe, Roberto. - Kol Tregaskes

This surely couldn't hit 600 likes, could it!? - Kol Tregaskes

It could! Keep bumping it up! - imabonehead

It will :) - Roberto Bonini

My next cat post: http://beta.friendfeed.com/the-fun... - Kol Tregaskes

Wow, not even 600 Likes? Feh. ;-) - j1m

No yet. Close though. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Stuck on 581. - Kol Tregaskes

Most liked FF post ever? - Kristian Salonen

One of the best funny cat pictures I've seen! :-) - John Collis

Kristian, it appears to be. Hehe, John. - Kol Tregaskes

ای بابا این پیشول بی خیال نمی شود، بابا پاشو برو دنبال یه بازی دیگه ، از هفته پیش تا حالا تو فکس ولو شدی حوصله ات سر نرفته، پاشو اقلا بپر رو کیبوردی چیزی - Maryaminaa

11 more to 600. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

داداش كوتاه بيا، مي خواي ركورد بزني!؟ - Exir

هستم بره این کامنتتو ترجمه کنه اکسیر ! :))) داره از فضولی میمیره الان ! :D - Shayan

Hehe, 6 more likes. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Need 1 more like, by my calculation, to get to 600 - Josh Haley

Another unlike then, back down to 598. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

it's 598+3, at the moment ;-) - Andre

There we go, 601!! Wow, can't believe it. :-D Thanks everyone!! - Kol Tregaskes

3 people un liked :( - Roberto Bonini

I think there have been made unlikes over the last week, oh well. - Kol Tregaskes

too many likes, the kitteh is burning up..stop the madness...;) - JSNFLMNG

Haha, Jason. - Kol Tregaskes

614!!!!! - sofarsoShawn

Whoa! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

man! ..Kol is gaining ... and I saw that pic one day before Kol posted it :X ..and i let it go! :[)] - Petr Buben

Petr, who's he? - Kol Tregaskes

omg, this post passed 600 likes! - imabonehead

@Kol ..well the man .. Mr Photographer .. ok .. let me go there .. - Petr Buben

I see. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

631 likes, amazing stuff. :-D - Kol Tregaskes

Day 11 and this thing's still going! - Phil Maxwell

Why fax yourself when you can get famous via FriendFeed? :-) - Willem (@wim66) ☠

whereas a cat *scan* is totally feasible - Megan Craig

Kol, congratulations, you won the Friendfeed Award for the most likes entry! - Jérôme Flipo

Kol is this from your rival: Squashy Cat Photography? - sofarsoShawn

Haha, Shawn. Have you really bumped this one again? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

LOL I was actually looking at best of month and I thought I'm going to be clever :-) - sofarsoShawn

this makes me laugh every darn time I see it - Stephanie_Happy2010!

Who is this NShawnFW? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

kitties do like to find new spots to nap :) - Maryam

LOL, now over 650 likes. - Kol Tregaskes

این هنوز در نیومده از لای این دستگاه؟ - Maryaminaa

Wow. this is good..... pleased, Kol? - Roberto Bonini

Pleased? About the number of likes? I'm happy regardless. :-D - Kol Tregaskes

So do we think it will go to 700 likes? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

it will - Seltoon

what do you mean by "it" ? say "he" or "she". :) - Maryaminaa

Haha, I was referring to the entry. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

lol - Maryaminaa

I see someone already posted 'Copy Cat' !! LOL Great picture - Kevin J Hatton

:-) - Kol Tregaskes

O HAI! I IZ WATIN FR COOPONZ, KTHXBYE. - Kris Roley

Neksnapper 3000 Kitten Eradicator - Kills Kittehs Dead - Mattb4rd

Hehe. - Kol Tregaskes

10 more likes for 700! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

7 more by my count! - Bec Rowe @d0tski

Oops, yes you're right, Bec. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Isn't it illegal to fax a pussy? - aerobroken

It's really only social convention which regards it as inappropriate, same with Xeroxing it, like one does with their b__tocks. Wait are we still talking about cats cats here or... - sofarsoShawn

OMGosh 700+ likes now!! LOL. Thank you all 702 of you. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Wow, not so bad huh? \u) - ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,

try harder! ; )) - Didier Lahely

Before faxing it, you have to flatten it out a bit. You're going at it all wrong! :-) - Rick Cogley

Caturday is tommorow ... Fax Cat on Saturday .. - johnpiercy

Must try this at home! - Anthony K. Valley ©

Bumping some old great posts. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Now THAT is a classic! - Allan Besselink

you have to flatten it first!!! ;) - Neda S.

This is very good humor! - TrafficBug

Hey, we've hit the 700-like mark. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

just a couple thousand to go - JSNFLMNG

LOL - Smeerch

__awesome__ - Matteo Scotuzzi

and it got resurrected once again! - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

I managed to do it once, but I don't think I'm going to do it again. The results were a little fuzzy. - Seth Greenblatt

It's pretty slick on the BlackBerry as well. - Ken Bauer

8 more comments

I'm waiting for the FaceBook app for the Android phone. I thought I heard it was in the works. - Chris Jackson

This thing makes me think how much mobile app dev of soc net tools will drive (and, actually for someb is already driving) smartphone sales. It's obvious, but this makes it so clear. Thnx - Alberto D'Ottavi from fftogo

Yes, but when will we *get it*? - Brett Kelly

This is why I hate the app store so much. Cool app, massive delay in getting it to market. Why do I have to download this crap through Apple? Why can't I download through FB directly? Frankly, all developers of "free" apps should release through Cydia, so those of us with jailbroken phones don't have to put up with Apple's BS. - Otto

I hope Spotify release their app on Cydia if Apple rejects it. What a great reason for millions of people to jailbreak their phones. :) - Jamie Cansdale

Those admins from hell kicked me off of facebook. http://apps.facebook.com/causes... - James Michael Mike DuPont

Looking forward to this, three weeks until available? - Joe Dawson

Taking ages isn't it! I've been refreshing the app store a couple of times a day hoping for it to arrive. Dont even use Facebook that much, just wanna play with the update :) - Simon Wicks

The current app is just dreadful. - Derrick

Well done, Zee. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

18 more comments

congrats Zee! - Leandro Ardissone ⍨ from IM

congrats :) - alphaxion

Nicely done, Zee. I've watched you grow this site over the past year, and I'm very well impressed.. - Bradley McSpinn

thanks Bradley, much appreciated - Zee.

Congrats Zee. I've enjoyed being able to contribute a piece every now and again. Great progress! - Ken Camp

Well done! I must say I didn't really know about TNW until I subscribed to you on FriendFeed, and now I'm really impressed by your content. So congratulations :) - Jalada

congratulations Zee! - Jeroen De Miranda

We'll see. - Mike Butcher

Good work! They need competition. I hope Mike appreciates what you're doing for him. - Dave Winer

Congrat's. Well deserved! - Michael Fidler

Well done Zee - Amit Morson

nice one - Allen Stern

: ))) pushing that line up is a lotta work. way to go Zee. - vijay

I really enjoy TNW, so well done man! :) - Nick

Congratulations Zee! Doing great work! :-) - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/uk... - Mike Butcher

Congrats! - Kevin Mohr

:) They've caught up this month, we've all been on holiday - but its all good. No excuses, we'll step it up a gear :P - Zee.

congrulations zee, bc u have perfect content - Aykut Karaalioğlu

I agree with this fully. - Akiva Moskovitz

76 more comments

I can't imagine that the terms of the acquisition would permit this to happen. Oh, wait... Facebook take FriendFeed open source? Maybe in two or three years after they squeeze every bit of life out of it, ala Google/Jaiku - Ken Sheppardson

Would that mean there would be dozens of Friendfeeds all trying to get us to come to them? - Mark

I support this fully - Ryan

yes what about a free GAE - abdellah

Oh I agree. But with Facebook's record? HAHAH! Oh god, I need a mint. - ‘-.-’ Tutivillus Grift

I'll file this away under "Never Gonna Happen"... - Andrew Terry

Jaiku is not dead. It was bought for a reason, and yes, it will resurface soon. you just wait n see. - binmugahid

yes - andy brudtkuhl

I agree with Andrew... - Suril Amin

I don't think I'd pay, but I'd love to have it open source - Jake Anderson

Worked for AOL. We got Mozilla and they got a much improved Netscape. - Leo Laporte

Leo, I think you have a little too much "hope" on this. Maybe you're just thinking if Facebook was smart, then they'd do that. - Mark

Facebook is much smarter than you're giving them credit for. I think. - Leo Laporte

great idea Leo, i'm 'cautiously optimistic' at this point in time about the future of FriendFeed... lets hope for the best people - Chris Heath

There is no value in that to them. Why open source something that give them a competitive edge. - binmugahid

I do not agree. It destroyed netscape. let Facebook use the best features of FriendFeed in it. Keep the talent like the four ex-google founders. Open source is not the answer to everything. sometimes Closed Source is better for the users as well. Just keep the innovations coming and it will be fine - hasanahmad

They've got the Friendfeed team. That's probably what they really wanted. Getting the open source community working on the FF codebase and contributing it back to Facebook is a win for everyone. - Leo Laporte

On the other hand, I ike to see Laconica (identi.ca) getting more like ff. - Chanux

Wow did this just happen today? - bravestface

yesterday - Chris Heath

Open-sourcing Communicator may have ultimately destroyed Netscape as a brand but without that move, I suspect we'd all still be developing for IE6. Great call, Leo. - Jared Smith

Excellent idea Leo. - Adi

I just can't stand Facebook. To many people I let in from my youth that I don;t want to see - bravestface

Yes. - .LAG liked that

You're assuming that Facebook bought the company JUST to get the developers, and not because they want to integrate many/most of the features into their service. If they want the features, they don't want a bunch of clones competing with them. - Joel Bennett

I'll send you a hefty donation for that Leo. - jcunwired

bravestface: That's not FB's fault you let them in. sheesh. - Gus

when will twitter be back up any 1 know - daveccorey

There already is an open source clone of twitter - see identi.ca and laconia or whatever it's called - Doug Holton

True. very True Gus. My own fault. Perhaps I need to setup an Alias account that encompasses what i really want - bravestface

I already run a Laconica server at http://army.twit.tv - I don't think we need another Twitter clone. We need something more like Friendfeed. Or maybe Wave will be the answer. - Leo Laporte

hay hay hay, sin duda un tema un tanto escabrozo, pero entre Facebook y Google, esto no lleva a nada bueno.. i'ts a hard theme, no doubt about that, but between facebook and google we are going to hell !!!!!! - Đoи яамoη

Or Pushbutton? - bravestface

This would be amazing. - Adam Teece

The Wave *protocal* might be a part of the answer... or just giving yourself over to whatever Google wants you to use might work (i.e. Wave, Reader, Gtalk, etc.)... but I don't really see Wave asdirect 1-for-1 FF replacement. - Ken Sheppardson

Too many systems in place - bravestface

They open sourced the Facebook code base (fbopen)... the license is very restrictive, however. FB owns all code modifications. Probably be the same license for FF. - Kurt

In know people that have replaced their email with Twitter....that just isn't right...we need one locator that many systems can reach - bravestface

Great idea Leo. Now let's see what they do, if they're listening. - Kelly Mitchell

Leo - your last comment is why I think Facebook bought Friendfeed: "We need something more like Friendfeed. Or maybe Wave will be the answer." This is going to be a product they will launch in opposition of Google Wave. It will surface Q1 of 2010 and will have some of the same features that Wave has - but be closed sourced to Facebook. - Jeff Vreeland

I see what you mean. Facebook and Google though don't really open source their web apps - Doug Holton

Facebook doesn't seem to have a good reputation with those kind of thing. Facebook promised to open their chat/IM system via XMPP. More than a year has passed since they announced this XMPP system it still did not happen. We still have to rely on screen-scraping methods to implement Facebook chat on third-party IM systems (like the 3rd party Facebook chat plugin for pidgin called pidgin-facebook). - Gideon Guillen

I would love to see friendfeed become opensource. Mostly as a developer I would love to see the code. See how friendfeed works. - mikemcmullan

An "open FriendFeed" could be Facebook's chance to get something lined up to compete with Google Wave. Without it, Google and Twitter are going to own the real-time communication space. - Derek Gathright

Completly agree! - Jamie-Lee Mclean-Davis from Nambu

Open source is the way to so that "The poeple" can do what they want or to a program. E.I. www.Openssourcemaps.com - D Lets from iPhone

Absolutely. - Ian Littman

OS FF would be awesome, but making it a federated service is an entirely different ball of wax. Just ask the Wave guys. They said during the original IO presentation that federation was one of the harder parts (though FF would be easier w/o the real time editing piece, but still). - Patrick Sullivan

OS FF - Malcolm Bastien

I think a integrated RSS/FB/FF/GW/Twitter client will be an interesting real time inflection point - Jim Posner

I totally agree Leo. I can't help but think that this deal is going to be a massive success or a massive flop - nothing in the middle! It's simple things like opening the FF source that can help make it a massive success IMHO. - Chris Cathcart

correction: Http://www.openstreetmap.org - D Lets from iPhone

I would just like to see the real-time commenting open-sourced. - patrick

wow Leo you sure know how to get a topic started - Joe Geeting

I would. It is hard using Friendfeed now not knowing its fate. - Hunt from BuddyFeed

I actually was hoping Twitter would be the one to grab it up. Seems like a natural progression for Twitter to make. I just hope Facebook doesn't bury it and they actually use it. As far as open source it? Could be interesting. - Michael Bower

In a secure and closed environment it could be a powerful communication/collaboration tool for businesses. Features of a chat, but persistent. Ability to share photos & files... - Ken Bauer

definently - Ryan Peach

Right-o - Myrddin Emrys

I would love for this to happen. Federated Friendfeed servers would be quite fun and is the logical step for a great Internet service which aggregates disparate information from all over. - rob friedman

You know what, Jaiku was open sourced. And nobody uses it anymore. The fact that "it" (FB open sourcing FF) will happen or not is completely irrelevant. Because you will all be hopping on the next early adopter miracle train (read:service) anyway. So stop whining and move on. Federated this, federated that. identi.ca tried that. Again, no users. It's nice to talk the talk. Especially at times like this. You just gotta walk the darn walk afterwards. Which people usually forget to do. - Vlad Bobleanta

Whoa... you should enhance your calm. Communities are finicky things and sources like Microsoft that are poo-pooing Open Source IMHO is the real problem. Me thinks that a better source of education to dissipate the FUD floating in the global porcelain bowel instead of modern political tactics are are needed to solve real problems. - Myrddin Emrys

very good proposition, i'd pay - Brian Appleby

Leo, like this idea. - Kol Tregaskes

adoption of open standards such as OMB, which is used by laconica, would allow federation among servers - Mike Chelen

It will one hell of a start, I doubt it though... - Dobromir Hadzhiev

It would be a good thing, but not sure it it will ever happen - Thomas Lee

I support this as well. - Carlos Ayala

Now this is something I would fly out to support at the launch... - Johnny Worthington

Another reason why Leo kicks ass - Mo Kargas

If FriendFeed went open source identi.ca / lamonica would be dealt a serious blow. FriendFeed could become even more powerful if the people could tinker with the code and add many features that remain missing, or strengthen features that currently are weak. It will be interesting to se how FB utilizes their newest acquisition... - Randy Shapiro

FYI, there's already an open source alternative: http://www.fftogo.com/e... - Marcos Marado from fftogo

absolutley ;) - Kenneth Reitz

i would pay - cheapsuits

ive all ready got a amp for 5 bucks 4 twitter that was suspsose to help twitter run better guess what it dont - daveccorey

no definitely not. it would shift everything to Chinese government... Damn, millions would have their rest life in prisons. - xiawinter

http://kennethreitz.com/blog... - Kenneth Reitz

Social network implosion. - George Frink

4 more comments

Daily LOL :) - Berci Mesko, MD

Those spammers could take scoble's advice... - k00pa from iPod

Ha! - Mitchell Tsai

Ha ha! Tha'ts very funny, wish I had thought of that! - Sandra Large

Very good - Leigh Marriner

"There are increasingly sexy reasons to choose an Android phone over an iPhone but until now the iPhone 3GS has had the edge when it comes to fast and easy video recording, editing and uploading. Qik has changed that today with the launch of a new version of their video streaming app for Android." - Martin Bryant from Bookmarklet

12 more comments

Really liking the new app. Everyday I'm more tempted to switch from iPhone to Android. But the mytouch is not the phone to get me to switch - Edgar Rodríguez from iPhone

qik have been making apps for jailbroken phones for a while; does that place them in a bad position with apple? - Franz Sittampalam

I already have Qik on my jailbroken 3G S so I really don't have that much envy here - Tate DA FF MVP

the android one allows you to edit which is useful before uploading to the web - Franz Sittampalam from IM

I love qik. It is just hamstrung by the lousy video on the G1. I can't wait to try the editing features. - Mike Cassidy

This is pushing me to Android. - Robert Scoble

I still love Apple, they think of everything. I was runing with my new iphone strapped to my arm and I noticed I could use the Voice Control using the earphones - they have a built in microphone for this very reason. Love it. - Mark

Things like this are the reason why when my contract with AT&T is up. I'm going to Sprint or T-mobile and getting an Android device. - Chris Johnston

Beautiful. When I need a new cell, I will so go to Rogers and get the HTC Hero or Magic. - Zachary TG

More and more I think my next upgrade will be blackberry -> android. as soon as TMo lets me have the upgrade price, I'm ready to go MyTouch. - (dot)lizard kelly

Maybe someday they'll bring it to us poor old 3G users :P - Brad McCrorey

i have been banging on about the android since I got it, it is just cool - Azzam

Been playing with it yesterday and today on G1. Excellent app, but too bad the video quality on G1 is so limited. How is the video quality on jailbroken iPhones? - Adrian

O RLY - Opensource Obscure

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Robert, I think it depends on who you are following. Following, and being followed by a handful of the best of social media would probably be really cool. - Robert Freeze

I have to agree, in the mornings I sometimes struggle to wade through the overnight tweets from only 260 people. Being in the UK is a pain when you need to keep up with tweets from Americans! Maybe I should move to the Valley :) - Steve Farnworth

I follow less than 200 and it's funner still. i can actually read most of what people say. - Bill Kinney

Try http://friendfeed.com/search... It's also fun to watch the embedded search on the blog blog post (http://friendfeed.com/search...). You can see people discussing the blog post, from the blog post, in real time! - Paul Buchheit

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cooool - Dobromir Hadzhiev

coooool - zsafwan 

GREAT ! - Stanislas Jourdan

Eeee. Awesome. - Mark Trapp from iPhone

Impressive! Now you can save real time searches as embeddable widgets. That's just awesome! This is a massively POWERFUL feature. Thank you FF team! - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

Lol, you flipped the switch before the post came out as far as I can tell. I was searching for it and I couldn't see it. - Daniel J. Pritchett

Yowsa. Makes quick easy work out of social media monitoring, don't it? - Ian Wilker

YAY!!! FriendFeed staff rocks, that's all there is to it =) - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Congrats Paul to you and your team! Another one bites the dust! - Jorge Escobar

WAAAAAAAAA.. meta real time search.. love the concept of embed a real-time search !! Way to Team FF -- luv u guys !! :)- - Peter Dawson

Do you guys sleep? Honestly, love the constant output and attention you guys pay to user feedback. I know this highly requested and probably not easy to implement. - Frankie Warren

Twitter Killer! - David Schmidt

Thanks so much Paul & Co. Excellent work! - Leo Laporte

hey love they way they launched search.. espcially when its close to "Search Marketing Day 2009" !1 - Peter Dawson

Thanks Leo. Jim and Gary did most of the work on this one though. - Paul Buchheit

Track is back! This is a gamechanger. - Mike Doeff from iPhone

Track is back! - Christian Burns from iPhone

Excellent news. - LPH™ and his dog P™ from BuddyFeed

I think I'm going to scream if I hear "track" again - someone please define it for me - Jesse Stay

Wow, great work! - Meryn Stol

I stand in awe of your hackfullness. - Ted Gilchrist

Good work. Much-anticipated. - Louis Gray

@Jesse: It's a dead twitter command "track keyword" sends you realtime updates whenever the word is used. Think of it like realtime google alerts for friendfeed. - Daniel J. Pritchett

I'm pretty sure Gillmor et al kept calling it "track" because that's what Twitter called it back when they had it for a week. - Daniel J. Pritchett

On a related note, live embeddable searches mean that I can hack together my own FF embeds for the pages that don't have them yet, like say "comment:dpritchett" http://friendfeed.com/search... - Daniel J. Pritchett

Daniel, Twitter never had this - this isn't "track" - Jesse Stay

you guys rock. - Karoli

...wowsers! Very nice! - JA Castillo

The blogpost said they're working to implement "keyword notifications" Jesse, that will be "track" - Frankie Warren

Twitter's brought back track, it's just no one cares. You can now have updates by keyword on Twitter pushed to you, via XMPP, just like track used to. Gillmor says that's not track. - Jesse Stay

That's why I hate the term "track" - no one knows what it is. The way Paul is explaining it, as real-time search, is a much better way of explaining it. - Jesse Stay

I guess we're still missing the realtime notifications piece that folks want. You can shape the firehose to watch terms in realtime but you can't yet get it pushed outside of FF via email or IM? - Daniel J. Pritchett

Daniel, Twitter has that right now, but Gillmor says that's not track - Jesse Stay

/me prints up a few hundred "That's not track!" t-shirts - Daniel J. Pritchett

Killer feature. I'm watching news about Honduras scrolling by. Very useful. - Chris Baskind

Jesse: Oh, i'm with you... Real-Time Search is a better term :) - Frankie Warren

BTW, integrating this into my blog right now - Jesse Stay

Me too Jesse. Making a new static page for that comment:dpritchett search I mentioned - Daniel J. Pritchett

this is definitely cool and all, but what about API? We are falling way behind on feature sets :) - Tim Hoeck

It's like an alternative to watching TV, in a literary sort of way. - Ted Gilchrist

awesome!:) - m.0

kewl! - phil baumann

Yay! This is the killer feature (once it's in the API, of course ;) - Brandon Titus

I'd love to see a blog post about how this is implemented. Real-time search has some interesting problems. - Chris Lamprecht

I take it back - I can't integrate this into my blog until I can filter it to a single list. I really need an embed for "comment:dpritchett list:e20" except lists are still virtual in that no one other than me can see them unless I use the atom export. - Daniel J. Pritchett

Awesomeness! I'm loving this right now. - Anthony K. Valley ©

Wow you guys rock! - Alfredo

I am sloooooooooooow. But what/where is the template to make the embeddable widget. please? - Marg Uerite

You're right Jesse - it's not exactly Track but it's getting a lot closer. The old Twitter Track allowed you to set up multiple search terms (e.g. track iphone) and get those delivered to your IM with zero time lag. At any time you could type "track" to see what you're currently tracking and "untrack" to untrack something - e.g. "untrack iphone". There are some third party tools that... more... - Mike Doeff

Paul, is there a way to change the title of the embed? The long search string looks kinda bad. - Jesse Stay

Mike, Twitter offers that today. Gillmor says it's not Track. - Jesse Stay

Marg, after you do a search, click the "Share / embed search" link to get the embed code. - Dan Hsiao

Jesse, are you sure? Can you provide a URL describing this feature? I think you're referring to Twitter Search (and saved searches) which is totally different. - Mike Doeff

Mike, it's in beta and available to developers, but it's back, minus SMS support: http://staynalive.com/article... - Jesse Stay

Jesse, when / where did Gillmor say that isn't track? I'm pretty sure that Steve just wants the old track brought back, with some filtering capabilities added (the old Track didn't filter out blocked accounts). - Mike Doeff

Yay! Have been eagerly awaiting this. :) - Rick Turoczy

Mike, he's said in various comments. Looks like Track to me... Heck, it's even called "track". - Jesse Stay

BTW this is on staynalive.com now (look in the sidebar): http://staynalive.com/ - Jesse Stay

for my italian friends: stica... - Alberto D'Ottavi from fftogo

Jesse - you can hide the ugly search bar with a little quick CSS - it's <h1> under an easily identified class. - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

Daniel, good idea - I'd love to change the title more than that though. - Jesse Stay

just a few minutes work and I have a FriendFeed realtime search embedded in a blog http://www.amsterdam20.nl (web 2.0 event) - Jeroen De Miranda

Yeah - Brian Sullivan

FF guys: we like your style :) --- way to go!! - Harscoat

I think I'm going to cry - Bwana ☠

awesomesauce! - Simon Wicks

This is a really great innovation, congrats friendfeed team! - Garin Kilpatrick

Thanks, Jim and Gary! Lots of hard work for a very cool result! - Anne Bouey

HhhhhUuuuuuGggggEeeee !!! - Harold Cabezas

I want to 'Like' this *twice*! many thanks! - topo

The first step in a storystreaming platform! - Kevin Sablan

Whoa. Wow. And Yes! Fantastic work, FF team. - Micah Wittman

Good stuff although should support negative operators such as I should able to search my name in the all posts NOT coming from me. I've tried "from:-username" but it doesn't seem to work. - Ferruh Mavituna

OK, you guys are wicked talented! It's kind of scary, but I love it. So what's next? Just kidding:) - Michael Fidler

Ferruh: you just have it a bit backwards... try -from:username instead :) - Ross Miller

WOOOOOOOOOOW. Friendfeed is really pushing some cool features out :). Friendfeed is the best :) - alfred westerveld

How can we embed FriendFeed search? - Mike Reynolds

Mike - There's a link at the top of the search just beneath the red bar. - Mitch

A box will pop up, take the HTML code from the bottom of that box. - Mitch

Thanks Mitch! - Mike Reynolds

Nice the embedding code can be dynamic.... <iframe src="http://friendfeed.com/search..." frameborder="0" height="600" width="400" style="border:1px solid #aaa"></iframe> - Mike Reynolds

Thanks @Ross it works fine now, love the RSS output. - Ferruh Mavituna

tabbr likes this - tabbr

Woo! So: will this cause a FF server meltdown anytime soon? - Tim Tyler

very good! - standin

Highly addictive--great stuff! I did notice that if you do a search like [google] you'll see dupe stories streaming by quite a bit (e.g. the TechCrunch story about Google Voice shows up over and over right now). Not sure if it's possible to de-dupe based on destination url a little bit more? - Matt Cutts

two months after redesign, we have access to real-time search. good news bc my preferred search engine is friendfeed. ;) - 'Like' robot (frɐnc)

We are there, in the battle against Twitter - Michael_techie

Best search engine became better :) - Chirag Chamoli

I can't say enough how amazing this is. So, I ordered a bottle of real-time translation to go with this magnificent feast of real-time search :D http://friendfeed.com/friendf... - Micah Wittman

Just to show what is possible now with this feature, I've built SteroidFeed: Go here to see it as well as download the files: http://friendfeed.com/lph... Latest version is 1.01. - LPH™ and his dog P™

It's amazing! - Lizunlong

I've been waiting for this since the new UI, excellent, thank you Paul and FF! I'll give this a play later. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Micah, really looking forward to having your scripts work in Chrome. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

This is great. Well done, guys. - James Myatt

Awesome :D - Praveen Vasudev

great!! - Mike Chelen

As a loyal Windows ME user, I was vaguely insulted by the new FriendFeed Helvetica theme. I fixed it. - DeWitt Clinton

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I believe there is a Death to Comic Sans movement, which will be looking for you now. - DGentry

Also I find it amusing that you have 1337 likes in the screenshot. Did you purposefully stop liking items when you reached leet-hood? - DGentry

31337 comments/likes would be better - Chris Heath

Oh, that is so wrong! - Joe Gregorio

LOL - MikeAmundsen

This is a great injustice. When the themes came out, I made sure to request this in FriendFeed Feedback: http://friendfeed.com/friendf... - Mark Trapp

Barf. - jcunwired

DIE! DIE! DIE! - Gabe

31,415 subscribers, eh? Quite a lot. :) - Louis Gray

http://www.youtube.com/watch... re: Comic Sans - Matthew DeVries

[block] - Haggis (Sean Loyless)

*shudder*, but for those lost souls who actually LIKE comic sans, I'm sure it's, er, edifying. - Rick Cogley

Okay, subscriptions could be e, subscribers could be π, likes is leet, but what is 5003 comments about? - Amit Patel

Amit: I think 5003 is the number of comments he had at the time. - Gabe

I had thought blogging has been growing steadily, globally. Admittedly I don't have a good chart/stats for it. - Mark Essel

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I really like this statement - but will people return to blogging as we've known it? - Tony

Are you perhaps over estimating the allure of thinking? - Todd Hoff

Micro-blogging is good for idealets and infotainment, but it really is turning the web into a mindless medium like TV. Of course, there will always be the equivalent of PBS trying valiantly to raise the bar somewhat. Blogs will always have the possibility of transmitting real knowledge. - Paul W. Homer

The interesting thing for me is I think we have lost the definition of what a blog is. Everybody jumped up and down about what Steve Rubel did, but really I see his change as a shift of platform. If he posted that same content on wordpress, nobody would have said a word. Just because he did it on posterous and called it a lifestream, people took issue with it. So, what is our definition then? - Robert

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/whatmak... - Dave Winer

Dave - I read through the link you sent, thanks for the information. So, in what ways do you think posterous goes against this definition? - Robert from email

I think Steve still has a weblog, he's just submitting posts to it in a "different" way. Like Dave's link says a weblog is "... a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser." Pretty much sums it up, I think. Steve's post is going to generate attention, and debate, but in the end it's a weblog. - Rob Fahrni

Robert, I know you're asking Dave a question, but I don't think the Posterious way goes against the definition. If I'm not mistaken Radio could post via e-mail, and I know Blogger supports this feature. Maybe I need to dig into Posterious a bit more but isn't that what it does? - Rob Fahrni

Rob - That is my point. This in my mind is one of the major problems with looking for a "new name" for these social products. We see it as something different because it is called something different. Posterous, from what I can see so far, allows for the writer to interact with their "weblog" in a different way, just as you said... - Robert from email

Huh? - Dave Winer

Dave - I think your "huh?" was towards me... We call Posterous a "life stream", I say it is a blog, that we have given a different name to. That is what I am saying.Rob - I agree with you 100%, and that is my point exactly. I keep reading these post about blogging being dead, or blogging being alive... but those that say they are not "blogging" are still "blogging" Maybe I am not making sense, but I hope I am... - Robert from email

Robert - Precisely! I think Posterious is trying to find a why to differentiate their product, so they've coined a new phrase. It's still a weblog, how the data arrives may be different, but it's just a weblog all the same. When I read Steve's story last night, from his new site, I thought I was going to find a link on it to something "new and innovative", then I realized I was AT the actualy site, his "life stream." - Rob Fahrni

Rob - YES... That is what I am saying... Same with Tumblr in my view, it is a weblog... Blogging is not dead at all in my view... - Robert from email

Robert - Right on! - Rob Fahrni

Blogology is a still too young science, and definitio usually comes when plays are over. What I feel sad for is the lack of opportunity future literature and social behaviour experts will suffer not using post's content ( and graphics ) as sources for studying today's world zeitgeist. Borges prophecy is at work, few understands - too many doesn't even know what they're writing about: a... more... - valerio fiandra from iPhone

Robert, the photo sharing site you've used recently is structurally a blog too. It differs from normal blog software mainly in that the chronology is by date of occurrence, not date of posting. - Bruce Lewis from fftogo

It's funny that this sentence and a few lines from Anthony Trollope's autobiography should have crossed paths in my consciousness on the same day, since it's almost the same idea, thrown back two temporal orders of magnitude. Trollope tells of a correspondent, a vicar, who had enjoyed his clerical novels but was upset by Lady Glencors'a contemplation of adultery in the Pallisers series.... more... - Amyloo

Bruce - Very true! I'm glad that you are not working hard to call it something different. I'm loving it so far, even though I have not had a lot of time to put a bunch of pics up... - Robert from email

This is silly. Blogging isn't defined by the tool, it's defined by who's doing it. Read the piece I pointed to. I don't mean click on the link and hit the Back buttton, click the link and READ. - Dave Winer

Agreed, Dave. Heck, we blogged back in the day via FTP uploads; that's what moved you towards developing "Edit This Page", in fact (IIRC). - Ken Kennedy

Dave - I did read through it, and I agree that a blog is NOT defined by a tool, I think that is what we have been saying. I do not see where we are at odds on our viewpoints, please expound. - Robert from email

This subject keeps coming back - blogging will never die. - Jesse Stay

Before Web 1.0 we listened, conversed, collaborated and then we wrote. Writing was the synthesis of all the thinking that occurred in the first steps. In the new medium, the thinking process is the streams, both personal and community. Blogging is the synthesis of this new kind of community thought process. - Joolio

Dave - haha! - that is awesome :D - Susan Beebe

Pity there's no "Really, Really Like" button. - Chris Baskind

Of course bloggin won't die, but you better have compelling content, because people have little tolerance for long articles. - Todd Dewell

I think a large percentage of bloggers were really microbloggers, they just didn't have the correct apps to do that. The people that actually have something to say will keep blogging and those that just like to say something small or share something interesting will continue microblogging, or lifestreaming, or whatever variant you want to name it. Blogging is akin to publishing articles... more... - xero

This was known since the times of IRC: you can only have idle chatter or quick focused questions at that speed. - Michele Costabile

Michele, if that premise is true, then kids only absorb important life-long lessons from their parent(s) when they're sat down for a full length lecture. No? :) - Micah Wittman

The best food for thought always come in easily digestible chunks, however, sometimes you need to digest some larger/harder stuff to give you the ability to digest that chunk. - xero

Xero - That is an interesting thought... - Robert from email

Agreed, well said, Xero. - Micah Wittman

I thought completing a thought was the beauty of FriendFeed. - Alan Eggleston

Microblogging is very much a product of the times, very ADD, very video-game-ish; so I agree strongly with the idea of longer. - Rick Cogley

Just FYI, when I started Scripting News in 1997, it was entirely "microblogging" -- look in the archive. http://www.scripting.com/1997... - Dave Winer

Dave - I very much appreciate you keeping up this fight. When I heard this past weekend the term "Lifestreaming", and seeing it picking up momentum. No, this has to stop. Twittering is an aside to your thoughts, or a highlight to pull people to your thoughts, if it's you only thoughts, you need put your head below the surface of your lifestream while carrying a big pile of rocks and... more... - Matthew DeVries

LOL, unfortunately, I don't think this problem exists just for blogging :) - Armando & Cindee Edrosa from iPhone

This isn't a fight. I love all this stuff. I was just saying what I think. - Dave Winer

Even calling it a "Lifestream"? That's the creepiest sounding thing in tech, since Steve Balmer was threatening to "Squirt" his music onto my Zune. - Matthew DeVries

Who really quit blogging? Even the most active lifestream addicts never really quit. For me, the blog is and has always been home. Everything else is somewhat ancillary, even when it's the first place I go. Critical thinking sometimes requires the depth of a written post. - Ken Camp

Question: Of those of you out there who use posterous, do you use it as a replacement of your blog, a mirror of your blog or something different? - Curt Mercadante

Ken - Rubel quit blogging. - Matthew DeVries

One of the things I like about blogging is the ability to not finish a thought, not to try so hard to say all I have to say or say come to any definite conclusion in a single post. The unfinished thought is what encourages conversation. Let someone else add to your thought. Let others challenge your incomplete premise. I don't know everything, why pretend I do? My thoughts are never finished. - Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)

Wow, you're right Dave, scripting news was indeed VERY much a microblog. Interesting & thanks for pointing that out! - Rick Cogley

Just last night, my sister sent out a vague tweet that made no sense to me out of context: http://twitter.com/awarnoc... So I suggested she blog about the topic so that readers like me would understand the context. http://twitter.com/awarnoc... http://zelzega.blogspot.com/2009... - Peter Warnock

Just because you can finish a thought, doesn't mean people will read it. - Will Higgins™

Tell me about it. That happened earlier in this very thread. But at least you ca read it yourself. - Dave Winer

Just as your diary became your journal and then your log, your log has become your stream. The web has become your life..... AND SO IT WAS, that in the year naught-nine, the web-log was renamed to life-stream, dissected, and it's pieces scattered about the hundreds of "cloud" services, from which it could fall as raindrops of thought, pinging here and there in an attempt to spread ideas to where they were needed the most. - Joel Bennett

No time to read it. Can you give us the gist of it in 140 characters or less? Thanks. - Diego Barros 

Here's a picture, even easier than 140 chars. http://tr.im/qrBb - Dave Winer

Haha, love it! - Rick Cogley

Love the idea! - Sampad Swain

Come on, Dave. Where's your sense of humor? - Diego Barros 

Where's yours? - Dave Winer

If you were joking, that's cool. I can take it. :) (I was joking, honest) - Diego Barros 

Me too. :-) - Dave Winer

Blogging is still the platform of choice for sharing a clear/uninterrupted flow of thoughts from a single perspective. Then comments rapidly add value to the original post's material (most of the time). We're witnessing the link power of blogging decline because that functionality (which is monetizable) is moving to social media. We are left with the question, how best should bloggers monetize if they're losing link passing strength? I'm working that issue now by frankensteining several parts together - Mark Essel

Personalized/Customized ads based on public user status. Semantic tools (via API), memory (local user profile database), and the passing of information to an ad aggregator will help produce custom (dynamic web matched) advertisements. It should serve all parties involved (social media, bloggers/front ends, semantic processing houses, and advertising aggregators). - Mark Essel

What do you mean, I have always been able to finish a ... ooh a nice shiny object... - Marcel de Jong

Isn't it ironic that this post contained a clear and concise thesis, in under 140 characters? - Mike Chelen

Good point Mike... - Mark Harai

There's NOTHING wrong with brevity. There is a time and a place for discussion and lengthy discourse. - Will Higgins™

Mike Chelen - "a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning ... the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning." - Nope, not ironic - Matthew DeVries

Matthew DeVries: that covers definitions 1 and 2, yet the 3rd is an "incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result," where in this case the expected result was to explain how new platforms prevent thoughts from being finished, and the actual result was to the contrary :D - Mike Chelen

If you say so. I never saw that definition, but I have no reason to doubt you, or motivation to find the source myself, so, I'll allow it. - Matthew DeVries

aren't we all copying from the same online dictionary? http://www.merriam-webster.com/diction... - Mike Chelen

No, I rattled mine out of something I memorized years ago. - Matthew DeVries

wow, you got it perfectly word-for-word, remind me to pick you for my crossword puzzle team :) - Mike Chelen

The point I was making wasn't about my ego, though. It was that most followers on Twitter don't engage and don't take action. So they are useless. People who just want to collect useless followers are the ones who have the real ego. :-) - Robert Scoble

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take it easy on the new guy..lol - mohamedosman

Of course. I got your point, i was just giving you some ribbing about your ego. - Ryan Jones

Woah useless is a strong word Robert :) - Chris Saad

Chris: they are bots. Do you think bots are useful? - Robert Scoble

Well when you said followers I imagined people - but if you are talking about bots that's different - Chris Saad

The bot problem will go away as soon as the twitter sheeple stop blindly re-following everybody that follows them. - Ryan Jones

Deciding not to engage IS taking action. - Andrew Jordan

I don't think that the "Collect The Followers" issue is exclusive to Twitter though - and I'd expect FriendFeed to have exactly the same problem in the long run. I don't mind silent people following me, it's the uselessly-noisy ones that I don't care for. - Ian Betteridge

I love it! I have a huge ego, please discuss here. Bots are not useful, but are preventable. Bots couldn't take hold if we didn't autofollow them. ie: if we don't "bot" back - Chris Foley

That's not true! The Iranian election shows that people take action on Twitter. The point is that its less centralized because you can't have a single, collected repository for the actions taken/conversation. It's just more ad hoc and less engaged. But it also allows for more variety of responses because people aren't tied to a single conversation thread! - Steve Lynch from twhirl

If MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, etc took away the X has Y "followers, friends" number and removed the popularity competition too, it would help. - Ryan Jones

Note Scoble's profile... "I'm also the trouble maker..." Lol. - Nicole

To be fair, Ryan, I don't think Scoble's that interested in number of follows as an ego massage. I think from various conversations that it's more of an experiment in social media - he follows everyone and filters later. Others (like me) do it differently, but that's not to say his method isn't valid for him. - Ian Betteridge

Agreed, Ryan. I think the reality is that you don't really have 96,000 followers, Robert. A lot of those people are bots, spammers or people who don't use Twitter anymore. But why care so much about the numbers? - Steve Lynch from twhirl

The funny part is, as I type this.. at least 2 bots just re-tweeted scoble's last post with @RyanJones in it. - Ryan Jones

Chris: followers that don't "follow" aren't very useful. They also aren't really followers, are they? Maybe we need a new word "watchers" or "not fan, not follower, just want to watch the mess here." - Robert Scoble

As of 9:23 AM PST I have 1,846 Twitter followers. I am currently following 1,246 I receive DM's from about ten of these followers, and only one or two per day respond to my tweets. The rest are just "building their inventory", with an empty promise that this will give them some kind of credibility. So far, Twitter has been useful for contacting key participants in seminars, conferences and workshops. - Nicholas Chase

I think the word followers is MUCH MUCH better than 'Friends' - so is the async nature of Twitter and FF followers rather than Facebook 'Friends' - But i agree with your point that bots and spammers are not very 'useful' - Chris Saad

But then again, neither is a follower count to measure influence or engagement - a real influence metric is LONG overdue - Chris Saad

Steve: numbers are interesting because systems like WeFollow.com and many journalists use them. The world keeps forcing me to consider numbers. But I keep pushing back. Is having 50,000 unengaged followers really useful to anyone? - Robert Scoble

I think one of the more interesting numbers is how many people click the links you tweet. - Ryan Jones

Ryan: exactly. Engagement is interesting and engaged users are useful. I try to be useful to lots of other people. That's why I follow so many and I do what they tell me to do. That's how I ended up here, after all. Louis Gray told me to use friendfeed. It took me a while, but I did eventually listen. That's how you change the world. Having people who don't do anything following you isn't going to change anything. - Robert Scoble

Your ego exceeds the character limit for friendfeed comments LOL - KyleHase

The higher the number of people I follow the more difficult it is to weed out, information from noise, applications like Tweetdeck and Seesmic desktop help, but they require constant tweaking. When I see an interesting tweet with link, I often click on link, but it is unusually for me to do an @ reply, if I think what I read is interesting I will post a comment. - Kim Landwehr

How would you know if any of them did anything or not. Just because they don't 'engage' in conversations doesn't mean they don't act on or read any of your posts or follow any of your links. You could be educating the masses without knowing it. Just carry on, and stop worrying about numbers. - Gilbert Harding

Gilbert: I've been telling people for years to come to friendfeed and discuss hundreds of different things with me. 42,000 have joined me here. That's less than half of my Twitter numbers. So, that tells me that half of them aren't engaged with me. Why are they following me if they aren't there to engage at some level at some time over a year? - Robert Scoble

Because they are shy? :P - Adrian Scicluna

Robert, maybe you're like a newspaper to them. Most people read the newspaper but never engage. I know it's a dying media but a lot of people still consume passively. - KyleHase

I only follow people I find interesting, and because I'm a programmer, most of them are too. I don't want to follow people just to increase my numbers. - RobinDotNet

Robin: yes, most people are like you. But what about these other 50,000? :-) - Robert Scoble

Maybe they sign up and follow you and then never go on twitter again. Although I get follow requests from people who haven't tweeted ever. I don't understand it. I'm too busy to dick around and read tweets from thousands of people I don't have anything in common with. - RobinDotNet

I don't have a huge number of followers but over 60% of mine are people that I have met in real life and have a direct connection with. I don't go out of my way to follow someone unless I have had some previous contact with them. - Luke Kilpatrick

ego, I luv my ego! they r healthy ones - polou/indigo_bow

You know, I was kind of disappointed when FriendFeed added subscriber/subscribing counts to profiles in the new version. It was refreshing to have a service where numbers were underplayed. - Jared Smith

It really seems like the more followers I get on twitter, the less interaction. I'm almost to the point of not bothering following any more people - they rarely engage anyway. - Jannifer @wordsforliving

I just removed the auto-follow facility I was using. Got fed up of being re-followed by the same people over and again! - Adrian Scicluna

I just expanded on this conversation with a blog post: http://www.dotcult.com/why-twi... - Ryan Jones

Ryan: good blog on the topic. - Robert Scoble

Wow Robert I agree with ya... You challenge people and that's a good thing... Keep on doing what you do.. More people need to mix it up instead of trying to be the most popular eith followers... ha ha ha - Chris Henderson

Yes. Robert has an enormous one - WorldofHiglet

Robert, I don't think you have the extroverted ego, others have. I will repeat the example I was just giving at the other post - When you first came to Israel, everyone could have a direct talk with you free of charge and without any PR interference (although i'm sure you could ask money for that), but this year, when Brian Solis is about to arrive, people need to pay a lot of money to have a chat with him - and frankly, this guy cannot teach me a thing. - Nir Ben Yona

so do i and love it. - Carlos Ayala

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I'd say mac osx and 7 are tie - Tyler Gillies

Windows 7 is fantastic. I am waiting for the RTM to upgrade from XP - Kashif Khan

It works much better on my Mac than it does on my PC. It keeps crashing on my PC. Vista never crashed on my PC. - Jesse Stay

I haven't used Windows since, 2000. - Matt Ruiz

i still use win xp and content with that. will check out windows 7 when it launches - Raymond M. Kristiansen

as a Mac user I noticed a lot of Mac haters as well ;) - Khaled A

Windows 7 is definitely breathing new life into old PC's too. - Rodfather

Win7 is awesome. It runs on 512MB ram + 16MB video mem in a VirtualBox VM on a winXP (try doing that with even Ubuntu - Gnome) - Shivanand Velmurugan

I'd do the same (with virtual box), but I can't get W7 to download from the MS site. - Jason Miller

will Microsoft ever restructure the control panel so it could make sense? I'm tired of digging through countless windows just to change power settings. While they are at it, add network profiles :) - Khaled A

Jason: I got it when they released the first beta. Haven't done anything recently though - Shivanand Velmurugan

I run Win 7 in Boot Camp/VM Fusion, too, and it's rock solid. Great way for doing F# development. - Akiva Moskovitz

I wonder if MS are planning on win7 support for natal. If so, makes you wonder how game changing that would be in the consumer OS market. Could imagine natal embedded into laptops. It'll never fully replace keyboard and mouse, but could be an interesting compliment to them. - alphaxion

Can you run Windows 7 fully on your Mac? I tried installing via VMWare with my new 2009 iMac and it says it doesn't recognize the graphics card, so I have to run it in a dumbed down mode. No fancy Aero or anything. Hard to judge an OS like that. - Josh McConnell

Josh, Aero doesn't work for anyone in VMWare [yet]. - Akiva Moskovitz

It requires hardware virtualization so thats why it doesnt work in vmware . But according to this http://blogs.msdn.com/richard... it can run under virtual pc - Kashif Khan

I'd like to try W7 on my MacBookPro. Is it better to download W7 using Mac/Safari or Parrallels/Vista/Mac/Firefox from my Mac? Should it make any difference? - 1x29

its a multi GB iso file, make sure you use a download manager - Khaled A

It is not so much a matter of hating Windows as it is of prefering another OS. - Michael Tefft

Adrian: always prefered VirtualBox to VmWare. check out http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki.... It's free and is really fast (support 3D acceleration among other really neat features, also is scriptable). - Shivanand Velmurugan

The one thing I'd miss in VirtualBox is Unity mode. I can live without Aero. - Akiva Moskovitz

Shivanand: The problem I'm getting is that when I try and download the Microsoft TechNet page just hangs for ages. I'm not sure if it's because I'm trying to do it through non windows environment? - 1x29

Adrian: could be. I used IE to download it (it's crap, and cumbersome, but it works) :) - Shivanand Velmurugan

I'm trying at the moment but it's been hanging for a good 10 minutes. I'll boot up Vista via Parallels and try it with IE. - 1x29

I run it in VMWare on a Mac as well, and like it too. - Patrick Jordan

both mac and windows suck and I am not talking about GUIs installation etc. but the internals like no fork on windows or "broken" /dev/shm on macosx - marcin

Tired of the os wars. Why should anyone care what i use? - dthree

I love my windows 7. It is the only operating system on my computer at the moment. - John Ford

I'm a real OS whore, with XP installed in a VM on two of my Linux installations, Vista/Win7/Linux tri-boot on my main PC, OSX/Linux dual-boot on an older PC, and Win7 on my netbook (where previously I had been tri-booting Leopard/Win7/Linux Mint). OSX is probably my least favorite due to certain practices of Apple, but I still find much to recommend there. - Christopher A Carr

I just upgraded from XP to win7 RC Yesterday and holy crap, what a difference! I never used vista, so leapfrogging into a fully modern OS is quite an eye opener. My laptop's crappy 32mb directX8 video card can't do Aero, but even without the "pretty" it's still a great OS. - veo

69% of the way through downloading W7 and going strong. Mac/Parallels/Vista/IE seems to be working :) Thanks, Shivanand :) - 1x29

W7 is dreadfully slow on parallels on my mac... - Che Hodgins

I have run it on my Mac as well. I don't prefer it and don't really run any windows apps - but what I saw was fast, light and seemed really nice. - Tony

I love Windows, I just hate that Microsoft tries to dominate the entire PC experience instead of leaving it to smaller and more innovative companies. - Davis Freeberg

Che: Something isn't set up right, then... - Christopher A Carr

You couldn't just call it a night huh :) - Aviv

@Adrian try downloading it in Firefox with downthemall(a plugin/excellent download manager). I was able to download Win 7 x64(3.15 gb) in 2-3 hrs on 3 mbps connection. And no problem with Technet(atleast it worked for me). - Abhishek

I've got every box here using the RC now. Lots of hidden (and not so hidden) cool stuff (and improvements). - Charlie Anzman

I run Win7 on my Macbook and its great! - Spirit 2.0 from Viigo

For any1 on this thread who is mentioning the Aero Theme in Vista/Win7, it's a massive resource hog on ANY platform. It slowed a very workable Vista HP Laptop (2GB RAM) to a near crawl, when I finally figured out that it was Aero causing this and took it off, the machine easily ran 4 times faster. Imagine the extra video calculations wasted on that stupid glass effect. Once you take it... more... - Alex Schleber

Alex - Have you tried it on that same laptop in 7? I've been running it on a "Vista Capable" laptop with 1gb of RAM and its smooth, in windows 7. - Richard Lawler

Interesting that you say that, Shivanand. Last time I tried the Windows 7 beta in VirtualBox or VMware Player, it wouldn't even friggin' boot fully the first time round - it took an insane amount RAM assigned to the virtual machine (over 700MB, if I remember correctly), just to get as far as the "Install Now" screen with a cursor that moved a few pixels every 2 minutes. That's on a laptop with 1GB of RAM and a 2GHz Celeron 575... - Tyson Key

Windows 7 has been fantastic so far. Even got it running on an old P4 desktop with a half a gig of memory. - Adi

That last picture, omg!! - Mona Nomura

33 more comments

Mona, I know isn't it priceless? I originally saw that one first and then saw the sequence which somehow made the last one better. I think because I knew it wasn't really staged. I also love the third one where he is kind of hug/squishing the baby with the top of his body, butt in the air! - Rachel Lea Fox

WANT!!! What a beautiful mastiff mix! Now I have doggie envy =( - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

+1000 Mona - that last picture is AWESOME!! Frame it!! PURE WIN! :) BFF - Susan Beebe

Isn't it a neapolitan mastiff? The dog I mean :-) - Todd Hoff

film? what's that? - Gabe

Gabe, I think its an old slang term for digital photos. I can't imagine what else it would be. ;) - Rachel Lea Fox

The film I know comes when you mix water with oil. - Brent - Loving Life

Oh no Brent, the dog and baby are like two peas in a pod, not oil and water. It must be something else. (; - needed to wink the other eye and give the normal one a rest. doesn't look quite as right though. - Rachel Lea Fox

So cute - he loves that baby! :) - martha

The comments on the original post are also priceless... "Dog owners and lovers are THE WORLDS STUPIDEST LOT. It won’t harm the baby, oh how cute! One bite and that child is gone..how dare you endanger that childs’ life you freakin idiot!!" - ana

ana, I didn't read the comments. wow! yes that dog is such a danger to that baby. *sighs* - Rachel Lea Fox

if that baby's in danger, then i wouldn't mind being in danger meself - Felicia Yue

++Felicia - Rachel Lea Fox

very cute - obviously the person shooting the photos had seen this before or would have jumped in to grab the baby - mastiffs are gentle giants the ones i've known are confused when a child is afraid of them - that being said they were original breed to protect but seems its the look of them not the aggressive nature of them - my jrt once chased one down a trail so they can be funny that way (teagan is tough of course) - mike "glemak" dunn

Yes, mastiffs were bred to protect children. They're extremely gentle with kids but will fiercely protect their pack. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

I wouldn't let my Rottie do that -- he's mouthy -- but a mastiff? Sure. - Chris Baskind

Chris, I agree, you would have to know the dog before allowing this. But you can so tell this dog loves that baby. - Rachel Lea Fox

I had a co-worker who, when buying a new house, found that his current insurer wouldn't insure the new house, because he had a big dog and an infant. There might be a reason for that, or it might be the usual insurance company idiocy. At any rate, the last pic bowls me over. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

Really? My parents received a discount on their homeowners because they had a large breed dog, he was considered a security feature =) - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

They had a small child, too? - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

Some insurance companies aren't happy to insure those with "known dangerous breeds." - Chris Baskind

I also found that very odd BoringMage. Many of the large dogs I've met including St. Bernard's are the ones I am least afraid of. Where as smaller dogs including poodles bother me a lot. I have only ever been bitten by a poodle and snipped at by them too. I've been around a LOT of dogs too! - Rachel Lea Fox

I agree: I'm more comfortable around large dog breeds. I think they're more predictable, and some of the inbred little toy breeds are flat out crazy. My brother worked in a vet's office for three years. The #1 biting dog: Chihuahuas. Nobody wanted to work on them. - Chris Baskind

No small kids, Mage, but they got more hassle from the insurance company about the stupid pool than they did for the dog. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

I just love these pictures, and the last one is adorable. The dog obviously loves the baby! - Bonnie Foster

I don't think my co-worker's insurance company had a problem with the dog alone. It was the combination of the dog and the small kid. - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

My first, 100% original, 100% adorable discovery that i share with everyone around - Nitin Nanivadekar

that is pretty awesome - j1m

Heh, I can die happy now! - Rick Cogley

*laughs* Rick glad to help... but maybe stick around. There are lots of puppy hugs out there! :) - Rachel Lea Fox

I'm going to get me some when I get home from work today. *slobber* - Rick Cogley

OMG! That last picture especially - too much cuteness! Dogs are awesome! - Alex Hellstrom

I love this set. The baby and doggie are too much! <3 I love the smush photo. Squish the baby! - Carmen - Happy 2010!

Happy :) - Kamath (नमः)

This means that, if you use a service FeedBurner, your subscriber totals will include FriendFeed subscribers in addition to subscriber counts from Google Reader, Bloglines, etc. For a lot of people like me, this will be a pretty significant boost in your overall subscriber numbers. - Bret Taylor from Bookmarklet

92 more comments

This is great! Thanks! - Stephen Mack

Not sure why it is called "friendfeedagg" right now :) We will ask them to make the name a bit friendlier, but the stats are there nonetheless. - Bret Taylor

What service did Kevin use to make that pie chart in the example? - Stephen Mack

Thanks again to the FeedBurner team for working with us on this one - they were incredibly responsive and great to work with. - Bret Taylor

Stephen: the chart comes from FeedBurner ( http://feedburner.google.com/fb...) - Bret Taylor from email

Very interesting ! - Farzad

Great! - تنهاترین انجل

You can add your blog to your FriendFeed profile (if it isn't already there) at http://friendfeed.com/setting... - Bret Taylor

not sure if i like it... - Zio Bonino

There is a problem. My followers on FriendFeed follow all my feeds, not only my blog. So the "attention focus" is different between one user that follows directly my blog via RSS and an user that follows all about me. Two different counts in the main page of FeedBurner, RSS and FF, would be great. - Alessandro Di Nicola

and for the reach stats? it's crawled? - Felter Roberto

I'm not sure this was the right thing to do. Yes, there are 200 people subscribed to me on friendfeed, and my blog entries fly by in their feed. But from the Google Analytics stats, there are essentially no referrals from friendfeed to actually read the blog posts. Someone who subscribes to the blog RSS feed can be said to have an intent to actually read the blog, A subscriber on friendfeed doesn't necessarily have such an intent. - DGentry

Unfortunately I suspect we'll see a TechCrunch article soon about "How To Inflate Your Subscriber Numbers Using friendfeed.com!" Edit: like the one they wrote about netvibes http://www.techcrunch.com/2008... - DGentry

I agree with DGentry and Alessandro, this may not be a good idea. The problem could occur when Twitter and Facebook start reporting subscribers in the same way. This could start a very bad trend. - Rob Diana

Hmm, I'm not sure if I like that. It surely inflates the subscriber-stats for the Feedburner-Feeds. - Marcel Weiß

I think this is a disaster for feedburner. I publish a full feed from my blog so subscribers get the same content they would have if they visited the site. I can lump that into traffic as if they were a site visitor. But friendfeed merely publishes a headline so those friend feed subscribers have a very different experience than the ordinary RSS or email subscribers. In looking at recent traffic, only 10 referrals out of 7,000 came from friendfeed. - Doug Cornelius

I agree - I am not loving this for my feedburner stats, seems not quite right. To me it seems like FF subs are subscribing less to my blog feed and more to me and my general commentary/presence on FF. It seems a little inflationary for rss sub numbers. I prefer to keep them separate, rss subs and ff subs. - felix

but feedburner shown who "WANT" read our feed o who CAN read it? i think the second. And now it's the same. :) - Felter Roberto

I'm awaiting Louis Gray's opinion. I think he had 8,500 RSS subscribers before, and now has 13,814. Which is the more accurate representation of the number of regular readers of louisgray.com ? - DGentry

perhaps is better crawl blog's feed really show in FF. If i go out and my pc in off all the day, my google reader don't read any feed e my ff don't show me any message, Feedburner count me for FF and don't for google reader. And tomorrow, when i turn on my pc, my google reader download all the feed and i can read also the post of the day before, but FF show me only the last message and i lose all of the post. - Felter Roberto

Whoa, awesome!! FriendFeed rocks! :) My new blog at http://susanbeebe.com now has a huge potential for additional subscribers due to this great new feature FF just added, THANK YOU! :) - Susan Beebe

Wow my subscribers just jumped up 3000% - Ralph Whitbeck

What's done can not be theoretically undone - so if this is the way it is, it should stay, or our one-time blips will look odd, won't they? DGentry, I don't know if I am in love with it. I think Rob is right in terms of it rendering the number meaningless. I've been excited to see my numbers go from 5,000 to 8,000 naturally (I guess) in the last two months. This means I can't celebrate that jump. - Louis Gray

Doug said: "But friendfeed merely publishes a headline so those friend feed subscribers have a very different experience than the ordinary RSS or email subscribers." A lot of people use Google Reader in list view, which is *almost* the same thing as just seeing a title. There's no way to differentiate between those subscribers and ones which see the full content. Or subscribers that choose to mark all your items as read or just ignore them without even looking at the titles. - Tony Ruscoe

For Louis, I guess the saving grace here is that you can see the breakdown in FeedBurner and choose to ignore FriendFeed if you wish. That means you can still watch your "normal" subscriber numbers climb and celebrate hitting 8,000 subscribers naturally. (You just can't share that number in a chicklet...) - Tony Ruscoe

Tony: agreed these issues already exist for RSS subscription counts, and for web based readers such as gReader users could be counted even if completely inactive - Mike Chelen

If someone subscribes to me on FriendFeed but also subscribes via other means - are those deduped or do they essentially get counted twice? - AJ Kohn

AJ, I assume yes. - Louis Gray

They get double counted, naturally. - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

What if more than one user has the same feed, like Philipp and I do for the Google Blogoscoped blog feed? Does that add together both of our subscriber totals? And does it include all the subscribers for all the groups where it's been added too? (Cross-posted from http://ff.im/47QNJ.) - Tony Ruscoe

One clear flaw of this is that my wife's blog at http://www.thegrayeffect.com, says it now has more than 9,300 readers, up from 50 yesterday. That's clearly wrong. - Louis Gray

This is very bad! Of course I'd like higher numbers of RSS subscribers but this is a fake number. Please consider this again... - Marko Saric

Louis I think thats the general problem: when someone subscribes to you on ff, are they also a subscriber to you on every one of the services you import? You import thegrayeffect.com as an RSS feed, and you have 9270 subscribers here, therefore thegreyeffect.com has 9270 new readers. More broadly, does a subscriber to the aggregate feed also count as a subscriber to every individual component of that feed? Or is the sum greater than the individual parts? - DGentry

I saw a huge jump in subscribers today. I thought that Feedburner was broken. This explains it. - Gary

Tony and Louis, the multi-author blog is one of those feeds that causes problems. I did not like this to start, and I am beginning to think I like it even less. - Rob Diana

I hope Twitter and others don't get the same idea... - Marko Saric

Hummm. As much as I like the idea, it seems destined to provide incentive for people to beg for subscribers here on FriendFeed which is exactly the behavior that I seek to avoid, and has been generally devoid on FriendFeed to date. It rewards FriendFeed usage and - as such - helps FriendFeed grow but ... is it the *right* growth? - AJ Kohn

OK. Now I understood why my Feedburner count was inflated. I think, this is not a right thing to do. - Krishnamoorthy

I actually REALLY dislike this A LOT. My subscriber count was a great measuring stick for me and also a solid indication of how many people -might- actually be reading my content. The vast majority of my subscribers here aren't reading my blog. It's very misleading and makes the RSS subscriber count a lot more meaningless to me. - Ryan Stephens

Rob, one of the oddities here is that FriendFeed shows more than 9,000 adds to TheGrayEffect, but only about 5,000 to louisgray.com. That may be due to deduplication, but it is certainly odd. - Louis Gray

howtomakemyblog: Twitter and Friendfeed are in this regard completely different services and I therefor don't see any way in which Twitter could do something like this. But Jaiku might do it. - Horst Gutmann from IM

I'm wondering, though: are people who hide the blog feed substracted from the number of subscribers? - Horst Gutmann from IM

The easy fix is to disconnect my blog feed from FriendFeed. Otherwise the subscriber numbers are useless. --- So I did. That seems like a bad result for FriendFeed. - Doug Cornelius

Wow Doug, you chose Feedburner stat purity over FF conversations? That's pretty surprising to me. I suppose you can always tweet your posts into FF if you really want 'em to show up. - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

I just deleted my blog feed from FriendFeed... it's a stupid change really... fake, inflated numbers... it's much easier to get a FriendFeed subscriber than a real RSS subscriber. And also a real RSS subscriber is much more likely to take a look at your article than a FriendFeed one.... spammers that want to boost their RSS subscriber numbers will love this though! - Marko Saric

I can't help but notice that Marko and Doug have 350ish FF comments each. I suppose that shades your perception of this change in a different way than it might for someone who - like me - has orders of magnitude more FF comments than blog posts. - Daniel J. Pritchett

Daniel, the fact that they have a smaller comment count should be concerning to FriendFeed because those are the users they need to keep. People like myself and more active users are not going anywhere. - Rob Diana

HAHAH - now i see what happened - i don't use my feedburner feed here for CN - but for my other sites I do - so now I see I got about 2,000-2,500 bump for those feeds today - yea, like 2,500 people coming to insidetransit every day - i wish! as Rob says, these numbers are meaningless and shouldn't be reported this way. just like the other "defaults" on some of the other services like google reader. mystery solved. - Allen Stern

Oh yeah I'm not saying FF should keep the feature as is - it's misleading at best - just that I was surprised that anyone values their Feedburner count over their FF stream's purity. - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

So who's really at fault here? FF for taking advantage of Feedburner's poor implementation of subscriber counts or Feedburner for offering the possibility? - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

Do you think FriendFeed had any idea there would be this many people talking about it? - Rob Diana

So is it better to turn it off altogether or to make it a toggleable feature that users can choose to use or abuse at their discretion? - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

@Rob - Who knows what FF expected, but it's really cool to see discussion evolving around this in a live FF thread. People are being mostly civil and constructive and it's all happening right here on the FF thread. I guarantee you FF HQ is reading this and staying hands off for a few hours until they can figure out a solid response. - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

Instead of deleting your blog feed from FriendFeed, you could just provide FriendFeed with your actual feed URL instead of the FeedBurner one. (I don't think the feed URL actually gets published anywhere by FriendFeed, does it?) - Tony Ruscoe

daniel - you cant do that - then x blog says "we have y subs" while z blog says "we have a subs" and x gets the ad deal because they have more subs, etc. sadly advertisers and agencies still don't get that the number is meaningless. - Allen Stern

@Allen - Most of us here aren't directly making money off of subscriber counts, but I appreciate that this would be an issue of great importance to you. - Daniel J. Pritchett

Daniel: No matter how active you are on FriendFeed, if you think a FriendFeed subscriber is just as valuable to your blog as your RSS subscriber, you are fooling yourself. And I am talking about value to your blog as that is what RSS subscriber number represents, not about relationships / conversations etc. you might have wit hyour "subscriber" on FriendFeed... - Marko Saric

I think my Friendfeed network is more valuable to me than my blog's readership, but I still keep the blog around for the few unique things it can offer me: A well-developed body of work to point to in professional situations, google juice, and a place to share long-form ideas. - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

So if I could get Robert Scoble, Jason Calacanis and Leo Laporte to add my post-every-six months blog to their feeds, does that mean Feedburner would show I have 100K subscribers? - Ken Sheppardson

This will definitely be abused by spammers who will use it as an opportunity to inflate their RSS numbers and make their blogs seem more important to potential advertisers, readers, subscribers etc who are unaware of this FriendFeed change. - Marko Saric

Jason Calacanis To Pay Friendfeed $200,000 For Spot on Suggested Users List - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

+1 Daniel - Allen Stern

There's no reason Twitter couldn't turn around and do the same thing, right? Heck, they could set up a service to automatically tweet your RSS feed over to Twitter on your behalf, then just add the number of Twitter subscribers you have to their stats. I think this is more a Feedburner fail than a FriendFeed issue. - Ken Sheppardson

Seems like maybe somebody took all the "Have you ditched Google Reader for FriendFeed" threads the wrong way... hm. - Ken Sheppardson

What about making this optional per feed? - Horst Gutmann from IM

Ken, right now Twitter doesn't request any feeds though. Those numbers get into FeedBurner by FriendFeed providing a subscriber count in the USER_AGENT header when they request the feed. - Tony Ruscoe

It seems logical to me that you're counting people and not tools. - Mistletoe Glen

I'm surprised Feedburner agreed to this. Next Twitter will ask that followers on their service count as readership. - Aviv

Aviv - that presumes that FF and FB had a discussion about this. It reads to me like FB always allowed polling agents to specify a subscriber count via their API and that the FF team just decided to change the way they utilize that feature. - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

If someone subscribes to your blog feed using Google Reader, it doesn't mean they read it. Likewise, if someone subscribes to your FriendFeed, they may or may not read your blog posts. Subscriber numbers are all about reach. I see no difference between FriendFeed and Google Reader. Your subscribers see what you're posting and decide whether they want to read it. Using web analytics... more... - Tony Ruscoe

tony +1 - Horst Gutmann from IM

Tony, you're right about RSS subscribers being able to skip over your posts at will but there's still a disctinction to be made between subscribing directly to a blog feed (traditional) versus subscribing to the totality of a person's shared activity (friendfeed). The former implies an explicit interest in the blog, the latter does not. Moreover FF makes it trivial for a user to subscribe to a person and then perma-hide their blog posts if for example you like talking to Louis Gray but not about his blog. - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

Tony, you have to agree that subscribing on Google Reader means at the very least that right now, at the time of adding that subscription, you have the intention of reading future blog posts. But with FF, I don't think I'm even aware of blogs maintained by 90% of the people I'm subscribed to. - Aviv

VERY cool. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Daniel, Aviv, good points. But I think that by subscribing to a person, you're generally interested in them and what they have to say. Blogs are merely a subset of that person. The big problem for me is that there's no way to verify that you own a blog feed, so (I think) it will inflate your subscribers if it's added to multiple user accounts and groups even without your permission. - Tony Ruscoe

To put it another way, should anyone in your field care that your mom reads your blog? We all know she's just doing it because she loves you, not because your blog is so gosh darned wonderful. FF subscribers in FB stats are the same thing - people like *you* and while that might carry over to a limited interest in your blog it certainly doesn't imply that many of them have ever read it. - Daniel J. Pritchett from IM

I subscribe to blogs of people I know because of who they are (in addition to blogs which interest me) even if I'm not particularly interested in the subject they write about just in case they write something I like. The fact that I know them and like them as a person often means we've got at least one thing in common. And vice versa. I like reading lots of my FriendFeed subscriptions' blogs but I've never subscribed in Google Reader, so FriendFeed is currently the only way they can see me as a statistic. - Tony Ruscoe

Fb must count only the number of post link shown on FF, exactly how count how much feed google reader download from the blog. it's different that to use the contact number at all. it's possible? i don't know - Felter Roberto from twhirl

Innovative. I don't use FeedBurner on my blog, so not seeing the effect. Still relying on the Google Reader count of subscribers. - Hutch Carpenter

Yet another great reason for a blogger to invest time in the friendfeed community! - Garin Kilpatrick

So ... if I convince other people to use my blog as one of their fed items, then I pick up the amount of people who are subscribed to them as well? Or create a new account and put a few different blogs on it and get people to subscribe. Or 'trade' a feed for a feed with others to boost each other's counts? The more I think about this, the more I dislike it. - AJ Kohn

Hmm nice. Just jumped from about 5 to 148 with tobiasverhoog.com I do think though that friendfeeders may read my feed differently than subscribers via Google Reader or another feedreader. - TobiasVerhoog.com

Uh, maybe it's because I have not had my coffee but where do I see this shiny chart? Friendfeed? Feedburner? - Rick Cogley

Rick: you can see it in FeedBurner - Bret Taylor from email

Bret: thanks. Yes indeed it's there. :-) - Rick Cogley

and another thing to add onto what Daniel has been saying: hides. if I have 10 FF subscribers but 3 of them are hiding my blog entries, does it report the subscriber to Feedburner as 10, or 7? if it's the former, then the Feedburner stats become really inflated. - chrisofspades

also, there's nothing in FriendFeed that stops me from importing someone else's blog, which means I can artificially inflate their Feedburner stats without them even knowing I did it. seems ripe for gaming, to me. - chrisofspades

Right, Chris. As I have 9,000 potential to add to you, I'll start selling slots for $9k. - Louis Gray

as enticing as that is Louis, I don't have a blog ;) - chrisofspades

how does it know to link it to your feedburner? - Gary

Gary, first of all you need to be using FeedBurner for your blog feed. Each time FF requests your feed, they include the number of subscribers in the user agent string. FeedBurner then uses that number to include in the stats for your feed. (If you don't use FeedBurner, you'll still be able to see the stats in your web logs each time your feed is requested.) - Tony Ruscoe from fftogo

If people are being exposed to my blog headlines, no matter if it’s on an RSS reader or FriendFeed, they should be counted as potential audience. At the end of the day, the much more important metric to measure is the actual visits to your blog and how often they visit afer that. I've posted some thoughts about it here http://bit.ly/N0jQc - Jorge Escobar

So that's what happened.... - Spot us

Wonder what feature he was sharing? - Kate Foy

Probably the most wonderful new thing in the modern world: sms texting - Michiel Sikkes

Michiel - I have to agree that this new functionality is aces! Tried it yesterday. WIN! - Kate Foy

This is absolutely hilarious. - AJ Kohn from Bookmarklet

No really. Watch THIS VIDEO! - AJ Kohn

*DEAD* - Derrick

HHAHAHAHhahah! - Carmen - Happy 2010!

C-s-s-s-s-s-s-s TPAIN!!!! - anna sauce

Now, I'm listening to T-Pain. THANKS, AJ. - Derrick

@Derrick: Sorry about that but this amount of genius and comedy *might* be worth it. - AJ Kohn

Personally the bit about ... it'll be ready right quick *in about two weeks* is classic! - AJ Kohn

That is sooooo hillarious, there is an out take on there that is even better. http://vimeo.com/3610578 - Kenton

How did I just find this? HAHA - jamar78

@jamar: Thanks for bringing this back up to the top for me. It simply never fails to make me laugh. - AJ Kohn

LMAO - kurt

@AJ...I found it on accident this morning....was actually searching for the T-Pain Taylor Swift song. I've watched this vid about 5x today. Cracks me up everytime - jamar78

Haha - Barbara

Didn't O'Reilly also say that he doesn't use Twitter to promote his own products? (cf http://thenextweb.com/2009...) I guess all those tweets tagged #TwitterBook were serving the community, then? - Brian McNely

3 more comments

This has been the key to all worlds, past and present, and yes, it'll be the future too. - Patricia

Yet the ideal of most is to find/create a giant reservoir of resources and drain it for their own gain. Giving good for evil or "value production" isn't all that popular. - Todd Hoff

Yes. give more than you receive and it comes back 10 fold. - ClaudiaBroome

This should be told to the children in school from the very beginning :) - Ashalynd

you gotta be kidding. - Justin Long

32 more comments

Why hasn't Twitter fixed its problems yet? It's amazing how much downtime Twitter continues to have. @ev on Saturday told me they've hired some remarkable people from Google. I hope that these new employees are able to fix these problems. For a web service to be down with 90 minutes of planned downtime seems very poor. - Robert Scoble

Good call Robert. Hopefully you got my note. - Dean Kakridas

And this isn't the first time. They've had tons of these "planned outages." - Robert Scoble

that will kick off huge conspiracy theories, people are already wondering if youtube is pulling videos when they are simply getting overwhelmed. and they will pull the plug on all the people in iran using twitter to get information out. i cannot believe they would do that. - Justin Long

They need to put the Google people in management positions. IMO the problem is in management, not the developers themselves. - Jesse Stay

And who is Twitter's CTO? - Jesse Stay

These guys have been involved in high traffic websites before, they have the experience in scaling etc - Kashif Khan

although there have been loads of retweets with #iranelection - perhaps they have overloaded the system - Justin Long

Kashif they're not doing a very good job at it - Jesse Stay

Hire the Facebook guys - they got through the vanity URL thing without even slowness - Jesse Stay

@Jesse exactly, and double yes on the facebook event - Kashif Khan

and you never see Facebook or FriendFeed "going down for maintenance" - Jesse Stay

It was probably coordinated with Jeff Pulver's 140 conference, which take place tomorrow morning in NYC ;) - Nir Ben Yona

Nir: I wonder if they will ship some new features tomorrow? Hopefully they fix their technical problems for once. - Robert Scoble

Robert, I truly hope so, there are so many things to improve and for some reason I have this feeling that Twitter is about to change, only question is WHEN? - Nir Ben Yona

And hopefully, the Find People and Search problem will be fixed. And @atx will be searchable again! - Dean Kakridas from email

Nir: @ev says they are going to ship more new features in next few months than they've shipped in past two years. Hope they do well, love them or hate them Twitter has become an important piece of infrastructure that needs to be good. - Robert Scoble

Not just maintenance, but maintenance at 9:15am in Iran. If they're going to do it, they should do it now and disrupt us instead. - Jeremy Felt

Robert: Yup, I have to agree. But hey, don't you have Building 43 so you could interview @ev and pull some secret stuff out of him ;) - Nir Ben Yona

I doubt they would want to reveal their stuff earlier than they need to - Kashif Khan

Another time for Friendfeed to step up to the plate and replace Twitter while it is down. - Roberto Bonini

He and I will do an interview, yes. He said I'm welcome at Twitter's headquarters (another reason I kept my mouth shut about the SUL). - Robert Scoble

Roberto: unfortunately that will never happen. We've been through Twitter failures many times before and they never slow Twitter down. - Robert Scoble

but when would be a good time to take it down? 20 million users (most of whom dont follow the same stuff as us btw) is hard to handle... - Jeremy Toeman

jeremy: other systems handle far more users without going down at all. Seems that they still are taking the lazy way out of engineering choices. Anyway, we've learned (and they've learned) that being down all the time doesn't matter. We keep coming back. Which means their lazy engineering choices are probably correct ones. - Robert Scoble

And as long as they have the easy explanation - "it's our hosting company" - they don't have to feel responsible. - Jeremy Felt

Well they get away with it. Plus ppl dont know of alternatives and are just used to tweeting - Kashif Khan

Aren't they updating to announce something? - Michiel Sikkes

Michiel that has not been true in the past. - Robert Scoble

Hey, to Twitter's credit, I have not experienced even one TwitterFail since the Iranian election. I suggest that everyone write Twitter requesting they hold off a day or two on their maintenance. Of course, we cannot know what the news will be then. - Bettina Tizzy

Bettina: you're lucky, I have had two fail whales today. - Robert Scoble

We Twitter users have demonstrated that while we will bitch loudly, no matter what they do, we flock like lemmings right back to the service. As long as that trend continues, Scoble's correct in observing their lazy engineering choices are the right ones for them to make - Ken Camp

Wow, they might be listening a little this time - "al3x: Yes, we are communicating the importance of keeping the service running to our hosting provider. We'll see what we can do." - Jeremy Felt

"Google Italy’s country manager, Massimiliano Magrini has reportedly resigned and now plans to start a venture capital fund and a “startup incubator” (although these seem quite different)." - Luca Conti from Bookmarklet

More exciting stuff in Europe :) - Michiel Sikkes

A+++... I tweeted this. - Phil Essing

Want. - Joel Webber

i need to wear this to remind me of my own insignificance - Cee Bee

good. and maybe our g.o.v. also agree of this, so they just blocked the Twitter site. - yagami

Pretty funny! And in most cases, pretty true. - Colleen O'Donnell Pierce

I want a shirt that asks "if your followers are so loyal why don't you leave twitter?" - Noah David Simon

Gotta tweet this :) - Stephanie Segel

Two things strike me as amusing about this. 1) The fact that so many of us liked this entry (and, by extension, undoubtedly like the shirt). 2) The probability that many of us actually still use Twitter, conscious of the fact that practically no one really cares what we tweet :D - Adam Lasnik

is this a twit this shirt? - Andy from twhirl

it could've been funnier if there was an another line of text => 'about 1 minute ago from txt in reply to @aplusk' - Ozan Caglargil

Hi Jess, thank you for spreading the word about my cheeky t-shirt design ! If you'd like me to send you one just message me ! - Tweet Tees

WANT. - John (a.k.a. dendroica)

+10 Ozan!!! - guruvan (Rob Nelson) from PeopleBrowsr

yes, finally somebody says it! - Jacob

Michiel Sikkes › Likes