This is a great theme, super clean and nice, one of the wordpress.com built-ins or a variation correct? I used this for a while on a different blog and I really liked it. - J. Phil
1. Design is great. 2. Content is more important. 3. Disqus is mandatory. - Louis Gray
The only thing I'd suggest would be, if you could, move the content to the far left. And yes, Disqus. - Mark Trapp
I changed the Theme 'coz the old one wasn't something I liked too much, and more importantly perhaps, messed with the Disqus plugin. - Yuvi
@Phil - yep, this theme is pretty popular, but I figured that a custom header design (by me! yay!) will make it not-one-of-the-masses. - Yuvi
You people don't find disqus slow? Atleast it's slow on my 256kbps connection - but I'll enable it anyway (most of my readers sure aren't on 256kbps connections:)) - Yuvi
Allen, it isn't mandatory for everyone. It's not mandatory for Arrington, or Huffington, or Perez Hilton. But for you, me and the rest of us, it's probably cutting off your nose to spite your face not to use it. But some people love to cut off their noses to spite their faces. : ) - Robert Seidman
Yuvi, you can mess with the Disqus API if you don't want to load the Disqus javascript. You will need to have some extended server rights .. but being hosted locally means you can cache it better than the JS - J. Phil
@Phil - I would, if I knew PHP, JS (which I don't, yet). Besides, their server side WP plugin should be made workable sooner - for SEO stuff & faster loading speeds. - Yuvi
Great new site design, hoping for more stats soon. - Gavin
I think one of my problems with low content output is that I was expecting myself to produce a 2500 word article with 25 charts every single time. I must teach myself to break it up a bit more - Yuvi
Yuvi - Sorry, that's what I meant, their API-based wordpress plugin, versus the Javascript-based one. Not writing your own client, no no. - J. Phil
@Phil - yep, but they "actively" discourage the use of the API based one :( Oh well, I guess I gotta wait - till then, JS it is :) - Yuvi
They discourage it because they don't want to support it, I'm guessing. I'm seriously thinking about using it myself, just to see how different it feels. - J. Phil
I wonder why Daniel Ha isn't popping up here to comment? - Yuvi
robert - i dont cut off nose to spite face, i don't believe its a product im interested in using. its moved the discussion about comments forward which is great - Allen Stern
Sorta generic theme but I like the header. I would probably install Disqus. It is a little bit slow but the features make up for it. You should also integrate the RSSmeme API with it to show how popular your posts are on Google Reader. Check out one use: http://bit.ly/rssmemeSharedSto... - Brandon Titus
@Brandon - good call 'bout the RSSMeme api. Will integrate with it too. This is an "extremely" generic theme - I can't afford a specifically designed theme (yet). So I did all I could - design a custom Header :) - Yuvi
Agreed with Brandon.. I have one 'o those too, and it survived the last sidebar edit I did yesterday. - J. Phil
This thread is motivating - It's 2:30 AM here, and I'm not sleeping without posting atleast a single post :D Loving it! - Yuvi
Very good post and video. You said pretty much what I think about the issue. To me..its not good business. With this new medium of media, people are able to pick and choose who sponsors them. So..someone pays you to use their service. Great! I'm glad you're making a buck but, tell people that you are being paid. I used to do a live radio show and, if we didn't disclose that we were being paid to talk about certain things, we would have been in huge hot water..not only with the company but with our audience as well. This whole fiasco with Pop17/TC is going to reflect badly on them in one major way..their audience. On this medium of media, if you lose your audience and/or lose their respect...you could lose a job. Not to mention how badly this reflects on both of those companies with others who are involved in the industry. - Candace Holly
this is why I never liked Pay Per Post. They never forced per-item disclosure. Disclosing conflicts on your blog only is not enough. - Robert Scoble
yeah if they get in to Full discloure mode, then they wont be making any $$$ , simple as that. As for integrity, does that exist in the web2.0 space ? - Peter Dawson
"..Here we see a video with a "popular" video blogger who pimps Techcrunch." , where the linky to this.I wann to know who you are refering in terms of popular - Peter Dawson
Allen, should you disclose that you have a working relationship with Sarah over Sponsorship contacts? If you were to call her up to ask her questions for a story, that's one thing which you have done, but you were looking to do business with her sponsors and asked her for contacts and that business relationship that you have with Sarah is still open. - Andrew Baron
Andrew , but he does just that "Let me disclose that I am friendly with both Sarah and her boyfriend Andrew Baron, Rocketboom founder." - Being friends means having drinks together, passing swag around and also getting your friend to be pass sponsership contracts to you if need be. I dont' see any conflicts of interest on what Allen has written about. - Peter Dawson
I wouldn't call ripping on Sarah's work very friendly, Allen is not a friend of Sarah's. But it is clear that Allen does have a business relationship with Sarah. It may be of a lesser degree but they having a working business relationship and according to Allen's argument, he should of disclosed that information. Otherwise, it seems like he is competing by trying to get her contacts and then cutting her down. I'm not suggesting that he is doing that, but it does look like this. - Andrew Baron
Andrew, here's the email I sent to Sarah a week ago, "Hey Sarah - do you by any chance have a contact at Virgin America that you could pass me along to? I'd love to have a conversation with someone in the marketing/pr/promos group. Thanks!" I get these type of requests every day with every company I've written about or are sponsors of the site. Sarah and I have absolutely no business relationship. - Allen Stern
Alan, I find this topic extremely interesting. I got the impression from your video that your statements regarding disclosure of sponcers intext blogs were based on community standards and not actual legislation. Is that the case? If not then I would think any relationship between a blogger or vlogger regarding payment is private buisness between the parties involved. And as long as both are happy that the other is standing to there agreement then no foul. Its up to the consumer to determine if they are - Chris Conway
Allen! So controversial! Wait till I'll interview you buddy with my flip. Put the Internets a blaze my friend. - sean percival
This disclosure crap is starting to get ridiculous. Seriously. Why is this only demanded of blogs and rarely any other sort of media? - Andru Edwards
one note, i did update the video to remove a comment that I don't get Sarah's videos since this really has nothing to do with the actual disclosure topic at hand. - Allen Stern
As the medium grows it will become even more complex. Take for example tv talk shows. They have advertisers and the relationship is obvious. But what about when an actor appears to promote a movie etc. The show can sell more adds directly because of the appearance of a big star and the movie gets added exposure as well. This is an indirect form of payment for both parties and I'm sure there are a thousand different variety's of this relationship' some being more direct and others more obscure.Greattopic - Chris Conway
@Allen When you contacted Sarah, did u disclose the fact that you were not contacting her asa journalist? Its pretty intimidating to get an email like that from a journalist. What if she says no, will you write a bad story about her? After she said yes, you put out this video saying publicly that you dont like her work and that you think her sponsor should drop her. So you are confusing the hell out of Sarah because she doesn't know if you are a journalist, a business partner or a business competitor. - Andrew Baron
sean im just looking forward to meeting you! - Allen Stern
Andrew, I think you need to step back a little, its clear you have a personal interest in this as its your partner and its in peoples nature to protect. But Allens post was not attacking Sarah in anyway he was just using her as an example of the difference. He said he was friendly with her not friends and I have to say your attempts to make Allen sinster are childish. - Darren Stuart
I'll also add that if someone from the New York Times who did a story in the past on Sarah called her up and asked her for her business contacts, I think that would be a much worse offense than what Sarah and Techcrunch has done. Techcrunch and Sarah have both been transparent, they were honest in their activity & we know what they intended and they both intend integrity, just like Im sure you do Allen. Even though you completely crossed the line of integrity on being journalistic in this case. - Andrew Baron
Chris is right. This is not forced by any law, just by treating your reader/viewer with respect. That is why I disclose. As a consumer of info I want to know when someone is saying or doing something for financial gain instead of just doing it because they believe in it. - Robert Scoble
One thing's for sure. I didn't know what the hell Flixwagon even was until all of this. So, I think as a marketing strategy, not disclosing and then subsequently and obviously whoring the products, and subsequently being criticized for it is a much more effective than just disclosing and having no one care. - Sean-Michael Robinson
@darren Im just saying it seems kinda harsh of Allen to ask for her sponsors and then leave this post where he cuts her down and says her sponsors should drop her. - Andrew Baron
Andru, every form of media practices disclosure standards. When NBC does a story about anything GE owns, they disclose that GE owns NBC. Same thing with CNN and Time Warner. The fact that most bloggers have a hard time disclosing is peculiar to blogging, not journalistic media. - Mark Trapp
Chris, yea there's always a gray space with regards to disclosure. Andru, you too make a good point. So much of what we do online differs from how the "real world" does things. - Allen Stern
Sean: what is even more ironic is that Techcrunch didn't give Flixwagon a good review. Which is probably why they had to pay Sarah to use their service and why Qik or Kyte don't need to pay me to use theirs. - Robert Scoble
This entire thing is a question of personal integrity..and, that's what I think a lot of people are trying to weed out. There is no legislation in new media on disclosures etc. However, a lot of people listen to podcasts, vlogs (and what have you) because they know the person is going to back the products they use and talk about. Case in point- TWiT and Audible. When someone does something like this, the way people view them goes down the tube. - Candace Holly
Candace, the one thing I've noticed is that even when someone breaks this so called integrity-principle, if they are big enough, traffic/rep/income rarely seems to suffer. And this is not just video, but text, audio, whatever. Ok I have to leave now for dinner, i dont have an iphone so i will reply when i get home :) - Allen Stern
Andru: I think that we are trying to build a media and community that is better than the others, but you really should do more homework here. I know journalists who have been fired for not disclosing their conflicts. Most professional media take these things very seriously. - Robert Scoble
@Robert, and that is respectable, I think it should be up to the individual to determine themselves how much integrity they are willing to compromise. ha ha - Chris Conway
Chris, and it should be up to the audience and other journalists or bloggers to identify people who compromise their integrity and call them out on it. Liberty goes both ways. - Mark Trapp
Full disclosure is the only correct answer. To be nebulous about it is not only poor practice but a dubious decision as well. - Morgan
Robert: You are absolutely correct. I have had to sign letters affirming that I don't own stock in companies I cover, can't "consult" for them w/o clearing it. Then, anything anyone writes about them has to include a disclosure about me even if I don't write the article. Bloggers need to do more. Best practice? Kara Swisher links to her disclosure page whenever she writes about google. AT THE TOP. Arrington's are buried, and one of his writers "has no intention to disclose." Michael should fire him. - Andrew Feinberg
Robert writes: "which is probably why they had to pay Sarah to use their service and why Qik or Kyte don't need to pay me to use theirs." But Seagate does. Though thats not what is important here. Whats important is the issue of disclosure. When someone makes an error though in excluding it, we dont always assume they are dishonest or lacking integrity, we are just saying that they need to make it more clear for those people who do not already know their intentions & relationships. - Andrew Baron
I might add that there should be ZERO difference for online and traditional media when it comes to disclosures and conflicts. Lawyers have even higher standards. - Andrew Feinberg
In reading Andrew Feinbergs comment I think its important to distinguish the difference between Journalism and Entertainment. The lines can be crossed as Mainstream new organizations prove on a daily basis. I think if someone is strictly a journalist then disclosure should not be an issue. They should not be taking money period unless its an obvious sponsored add. Personally I think Sarah's show is still defining itself but is leaning more toward the entertainment genre - Chris Conway
@Chris this is another important point. Wall-E for instance has product placement galore in it. Many YouTubers are starting to use that as well. I am very, very worried about product placement, even in entertainment - I can only imagine how enraged an audience would feel if they found out that their favorite show was playing psychological tricks on them. - Andrew Baron
Chris, what value is it, for people acting in good faith, to not disclose? What you're suggesting provides a great loophole for people: "Oh I'm not a journalist. This is entertainment! You can't expect me to disclose!" Imagine if MSM did that. - Mark Trapp
@ andrew,and@mark I agree with you. Even entertainers have a responsibility to there viewers. Its really a personal choice on what they want to do and to what level they are compromising. Its not so black and white. I would say that if you absolutly don't agree with a certain product then do not do buisness with that perspective client but at the same time, the bills must be paid. So its really up to you. - Chris Conway
the topic reminds me of payolla with radio stations. Its a fact that stuff like this still goes on. You are all to commended for your efforts to keep this medium free of corruption like that. You pass the test! ha ha we will have to work out some indirect form of payment. ha haJ.K. - Chris Conway
Chris, it's a personal choice for a content producer not to disclose, but it's also a personal choice of their industry and their audience to not take them seriously for not practicing basic disclosure standards, and to call them out on it. There is no good faith reason to intentionally not disclose. - Mark Trapp
Just watched the vid. There is much to be written, a feast of perspective. I will say this: It certainly taints the information once you know that the informer is being PAID to promote a certain company, etc. Once you learn the speaker is being paid to lead in a certain direction, it isn't as pure as voluntary, opinionated discussion. Just as we take in advertising and commercials, etc, we also take in information from paid sources. There is financial benefit in speaking up certain aspects that one might, otherwise, not divulge about. Of course, because of this benefit, the individual being paid is not going against that paycheck, so perhaps all aspects are not fully contained in the subject matter. It very much influences the stream, and knowing of this influence helps the viewers/listeners take in the information with a grain of salt. "Of course, there is financial gain for this perspective, so I will absorb it differently...naturally." ~Audra - Audra Nicole
I would add that in my oppinion after watching Allens video again that in this particular context, it was tec crunches responsibility to there viewers to acknowledge the relationships invoved. - Chris Conway
@Mark , I think the only reason I can think of for not disclosing in an entertainment setting is that it breaks the flow of a show and the audience really does not want to be bombarded with that. But lets be real here for a minute. - Chris Conway
artists and art are promoted all the time via payolla or some sort of indirect payment. Consumers are usually naive to this fact and unless its a life or death or scam type of situation, what they know will not hurt them. In fact they may be exposed to a good product or entertainment that they genuinly like because the producer of the show took a chance. - Chris Conway
On the other hand, often involvement with a company, even financially, is because one believes in what they're advertising. Just as one finds work that they're being paid for, that income doesn't always desecrate what they believe to be a meaningful cause. People are frequently involved in their work by choice. Although they're paid, it still remains something they've found to be helpful to society, the coming age, etc. Perhaps it is our right to withhold the relationship, for sake of being heard and not being written off. I can easily see both perspectives. ~Audra - Audra Nicole
Watched this escalating yesterday. Glad YOU wrote it :) - Charlie Anzman
Ultimately, we, as consumers, like what we like or hate what we hate...and our decision is made from what appeals to us and what does not. Much of our opinion is obtained from what we're told, but we cannot strictly blame the output or the promotions. Promoters have their own causes in a dog-eat-dog world. At the end of the day, there are intellegent consumers, and otherwise. We ultimately have to research for our own cause of enlightenment and make up our individual minds according to that research. Advertising will continue in its path, not always honestly (mostly not honestly), but we cannot point the finger, for our ignorance, to the advertisements. One time-tested phrase I've adopted from my Army days: "I didn't know" isn't an excuse. ~Audra - Audra Nicole
@audra Brilliant summation. The producer of the content should know his audience and be aware that certain product placement is going to be shunned and others accepted. The audience really has to make up there own mind so my final opinion is that serious journalists. Full disclosure, entertainment. Grey - Chris Conway
"So we're trying something new: we're going to list some of the ideas we've been waiting to see, but only describe them in general terms. It may be that recipes for ideas are the most useful form anyway, because imaginative people will take them in directions we didn't anticipate." - Paul Buchheit via Bookmarklet
Good ideas, mostly. Of course, as always, the devil is in the details (and to some extent, I think that's the point). - Paul Buchheit
interesting list, surprised to see photo/video sharing sites on there. - Adam Kazwell
From pg's comment "Most people who read that one [search engine that concentrates on design] will think "huh?" But if someone reads it and thinks "Damn, how did he hear about what we're working on?" that's someone we'd really love to hear from." - seman
"More open alternatives to Wikipedia." Wonder whatever happened to Google Knol... - Philipp Lenssen
They should start FF rooms for each of these. I'd contribute to a few. - Amir Gharaat
I think most of these are *great* ideas. This post isn't food for thought, it's a banquet :-) - Karim
Seems a little like bait? Some of the ideas are excellent reading and should be interesting to a few thinking about 'what they can do better'. Some of the other mentions (and wording in particular) leads me to wonder why go public with the list. - Charlie Anzman
Related problem: Using your inbox as a to-do list. The solution is probably to acknowledge this rather than prevent it. --- :-) - Kishore Balakrishnan
Oh boy. Y Combinator funding. That might cover a couple of laptops. - Steve Weis
Jesus, this single page has more original content and ideas than the last 1000 ff and blog posts I read. Inspiring. - John Murray
Google continues to send more than 90% of all search engine visits to
my blog, dwarfing Yahoo!. And interestingly, FriendFeed remains a #1
or #2 driver of traffic, depending on the month. TechMeme, Hacker News, StumbleUpon and Twitter figure as well. Referrals from
blog posts remain small. (No doubt also due to them being masked as
part of the Google Reader traffic) - Louis Gray via mail2ff
Allen, focus on writing interesting content instead of focusing so much on why Arrington is better than you. - Robert Seidman
Allen, as always, on full disclosure, that's 30 days, so not a big #. I am still small. Also, as we know, StumbleUpon traffic is very transient. - Louis Gray
Louis, you can humble it up all you want, and while you're no CenterNetworks, 7000+ SU is still nothing to sneeze at! - Robert Seidman
Were you looking at your Google Analytics via Safari btw? Much cooler than how FF displays it. - Roney Smith
@Roney, yes, that was Safari. I've never tried in Firefox. - Louis Gray
Not sure what period of time you've got here Louis, but (very) similar to mine as far as traffic sources. FF can drive traffic despite what has been written by a lot of people :) - Charlie Anzman
Charlie, more traffic yes. Enough traffic to make you money? Please, let's frame it properly.... - Robert Seidman
I'm really shocked by the SU number. Interesting to read the bottom of the list. Lots of sources that I thought would've brought you more more traffic given your prominence. Thank you for sharing this data, nice to see someone is so open. - Nice Fish Films
I actually agree with some of what he is saying. Twitter is an infrastructure component to get messages across. Of course, in its raw form, it can be used for micro-blogging, location sharing, link exchange and other data amongst pre-established relationships, but in its true form, it is just a messaging system and there is nothing wrong with that. I am yet to see anyone use it purely as a publishing system - Shivanand Velmurugan
Somehow microblogging is not blogging anyway, so why bother? - Nikos Anagnostou
Linkbait as well as shoddy conclusion reaching. Hmnnn the word I am looking for is either biased or just extremely grumpy. - Mathew A. Koeneker
Lewis - I am trusting you to filter those items out for me. ;) - Mathew A. Koeneker
Like I said on his blog. It is a tool and used as such. - Mathew A. Koeneker
This whole "microblogging and/or Twitter is somehow less pure than the pearls of wisdom that litter every 'real' blog" is getting ridiculous. Some people tweet boring nonsense. Some people blog boring nonsense. Some people tweet interesting things that start discussion. Some people blog interesting things that start discussion. Twitter has not brought down the quality of blogging, and this disdain for it baffles me. - Evangeline
If Mashable pays traffic bonuses, that guy is going to Disneyworld. - Chris Baskind
@Evangeline I think Steven makes a few really valid points, but you're right. I've seen my share of really insightful tweetversations. I have also seen the prattle he describes. Twitter is just a platform, and it becomes whatever you make of it. If you want to do mini-posts to your followers all day long, then for you it's a "micro-blogging tool" (whatever that means). If you want to use it as an IRC channel, so be it. - Steve Spalding
@Louis I couldn't agree more. I'm never seen Twitter as more than a glorified IM service. In fact, it's always reminded me of chatrooms from back in the day because we use it mostly to communicate with complete strangers, whereas IM services typically are for conversations with friends (i.e. people who you've actually been in the physical presence of, and spend time with in the real world). - Jasmin Smith
Disagree. It's a tool, if you fill it with inane garbage, that's the bloggers fault. If you pull twitters into a blog (as I'm contemplating doing) or load it into FriendFeed where it garners comments, it becomes very close to blogging. The only difference is giving up the increasingly antiquated idea of driving traffic to a website you own, and the lengths of the "tweets". Pull the tweets out of the contextual prattle on Twitter and it's a whole new ball game. - Jason Kaneshiro
@Jason Twitter is obviously a very useful tool (when it's working) but based on the way it is predominantly used, it falls more in the category of IM than Microblog. For example, it's a great tool for broadcasting a new blog post, or getting advice re social media, or generating feedback in general... in other words, it's a great way to drive traffic to your blog, but twitter as a blog, or microblog is give it more credit than it deserves. - Jasmin Smith
I refrained from commenting on this thread, but the core of twitter is related to "what are you doing?" within 140 chars. I was not designed for blogging, or IM or any such stuff.. it was meant to help users , let other users what they were doing. However, community in and by itself have found fancier ways to leverage twitter for bloggin, some for IM (If you use DM), or spamming. - Peter Dawson
@Jasmin We may have to return to the definition of a blog. Is it a website with content that's meant to garner traffic, RSS subscribers, and pageviews for ad purposes? Or is it a conversation starter, communication tool, idea generator? I'm more focused on the latter, and therefore Twitter is just another communication mechanism that supplements and could even supercede a blog. - Jason Kaneshiro
This is interesting. I guess the problem is that there is no one true definition of the term blogging. If you believe that blogging is a way to update your status, then it makes sense that twitter is a micro-blogging service. But if you believe that blogging is a way to publish content online, then Twitter can in no way be micro-blogging. I think that the Mashable author is viewing blogging as the later. That is, a way to publish content online and not an online "public diary". - Jay Cruz
I refer to Twitter as a social instant messenger. - Andrew Dobrow
Oh, look, someone else that wants to tell me that what he's doing is cool and what I'm doing is crap. Where the only difference is -- well, there really isn't any. I remember when we invented writing, there was this guy who was all "That's garbage! How are you expected to capture nuance with some simple figures like that! This is wall-painting, this is expressive! How dare you call yourself communicating!" Of course, back then we could just beat him to a stinking, bloody pulp and after stomping around in the mush of his decapitated head scrawl, "Ha ha, I'm gay!" with an arrow pointing down the wall at his body before walking off, whistling a jaunty tune. Man, I miss the old days. - Alexander Williams via NoiseRiver
actually, alex, the guy ranting about the lack of subtlety in writing was quite right, he also didn't mention how addicting it would be, and that it would take millenia to recall that there is meaning beyond words, in fact more than is found in words ... - gregory lent
@Gabriel - thanks for that very asute observation and it did a termendous amount to add to the conversation - please keep it up I appreciate it. - Steven Hodson
@Chris Baskin - no trip for me unfortunately - Steven Hodson
@Alexander Williams - chill out bud .. no where did I suggest that how anyone is using Twitter as being crap. I only talked about how I don't like the idea of calling it a microblogging tool. If you feel justified is calling it such a thing all the more power to you but I neither suggested what I was doing as being cool and Twitter as being crap. If anything I have written many time on winExtra where I believe that Twitter actually holds out great promise so instead of trying to slap me around to justify how you use it take a deep breath and chill out - Steven Hodson
@Steven Hodson (stevenhodson): What you may or may not like really doesn't have a bearing on the facts, though. If there are people using Twitter for microblogging (and there are), then it's a microblogging tool. Period. That's not really an issue for debate; it is what it is. As for not suggesting what folks who microblog on Twitter are producing crap, well, I quote: "If anything, as a blogger I find it insulting that Twitter is even considered to be in the same field as blogs or even micro-blogs." You're insulted they're considered in the same field? We have a word for that: pretentious, elitist crap. I cop to it when I engage in it, you should at least have the same cojones. - Alexander Williams via NoiseRiver
A-MEN Most of the people I'm following are still utilizing it as a micro-blogging tool but there are a few who feel the need to let the entire world know they get out of the house. What're you trying to prove? Btw, Tweeting inside movie theaters = TACKY - Mona N
@Alexander - how is what I said insinuating that what people are using Twitter for as being crap. in fact I have sad exactly the opposite in the past - http://www.winextra.com/2008/0... - just because I don't see how Twitter is being used as being on par with many of the blogs out there is not being elitist it is expressing a person opinion. As to copping to when I have been wrong about something I am not afraid to do that either - http://www.winextra.com/2008/0... - Steven Hodson
Not if the Fail Whale's net breaks for good... - J.T Dabbagian
I agree with Hutch and Scoble, FF is growing fast and is getting some great people behind the scene. It's just going to grow. Plus, it's a great compliment to Fail Whale and an awesome aggregator. I'll happily be here for awhile. - Chris via twhirl
But I can't see how in it's present state, how they will monetize this service/site. Anyone have any idea how they are planning on generating a revenue stream from this? - Jeff P. Henderson
Nothing to worry about. We're here to stay. - Julian Baldwin
I'm not sure advertising would bring in revenue.... has anyone here ever sold it? most media companies view advertising as spare change. friendfeed shouldn't compromise itself with advertising. - Noah David Simon
Noah FF can put advertising on FF whenever they want! But it does become obtrusive. The longer they wait not to put it the better it is for FF. I do not see FF running out of money! Their will be VCs scrambling to invest here because of the type of users the FF attracts! We are hard core, so as long as we hang around FF thrives! I just hope FF does not start playing politics and authority like Twitter has begun. If it does it is going Face Book and MySpace and real users will leave! - Igor The Troll
I would not classify the ff user as upper income either. that puts a damper on things in advertising. not all of us are billionaires. most of us are just nerds - Noah David Simon
identi.ca is a nice idea, but it still feels a bit boring to use.. - Tomas Nihlen via Alert Thingy
free version: ads. paid version: no ads? And @Noah: "most media companies view advertising as spare change"? um, I don't even know where to begin on that, not this late anyway. - Anthony Citrano
I worked in marketing. I seen the books. advertising is not the root of profit. PR and manipulating the masses are a more valuable commodity. Why would GE own NBC? - Noah David Simon
there is a reason on the good TV is on HBO Anthony Citrano - Noah David Simon
Oh Noah wow - you worked in marketing and saw the books? Then I guess it must be as you say: most media companies make their money - through some version of Bizarro - from PR instead of advertising. And they view advertising revenue as "spare change." - Anthony Citrano
I agree with Noah! "Advertising is not the root of profit. PR and manipulating the masses are a more valuable commodity. Why would GE own NBC" Adsense is a short term phenomenal! Ads do make money but they rarely cover the cost of medium there is subliminal marketing if that can be moneterized than you have a working model. Hence explode Robert Scoble! Fastcompany.com will rock! LMAO - Igor The Troll
Haha.. We'll have to go to Kiva.org to donate! - Muthu Ramadoss
All god thing come to and end. WE have already seen a trickle of spammers in FF. When the bots hit thru the API and begin an avalanche, I wonder how many you will be around to keep discussing Revenue streams of FF !! Right now I don't if FF has money or not.. for the time being their service rocks , but like I said .... - Peter Dawson
I bet you if Robert Scoble would get fired from Fast Company, Fast Company would explode in viewership! Scoble would go ballistic attacking Fast Company! Would love to see Scoble in action! Will be fun! LMAO Best viral advertising money can buy! - Igor The Troll
Interesting how none of you considered a user fee. if this truely adds value to your day, providing content, idea exchange, would you pay? - Lorraine Ball
Adds value? You got to be kidding, I became so unproductive since coming here! This is such a waste of time! FF should pay us to stick around! LOL - Igor The Troll
Google will run out of money before FriendFeed does. - Louis Gray
Are you kidding? Google's gonna buy it of course :) It's called a "spin-out-spin-back-in" move. - Vincent van Wylick
Oh, yeah, the people on the team will definitely matter on the bottom line. People will line up for miles to lay money at their feet. Seriously, do you people listen to yourselves? Why would someone line up to fund a VERY niche market tool with no revenue model? Out of the goodness of their heart? - Jason Carreira
@Jeff P. Henderson - there will be a number of ways for FriendFeed to monetize. Ads will be the biggest. I can also see some possibilities in e-commerce: http://bhc3.wordpress.com/2008... - Hutch Carpenter
@Vincent it's the latest craze is the institutional investing world. ha! - Steve Spalding
Perhaps FriendFeed could demand payment from web apps that want FriendFeed to use the web app's API. But by the time money could actually be made that way, FriendFeed would have to be huge. Another way FriendFeed could make money is to charge money for early adopters to see FriendFeed features that are still in testing. - possible248
Shey: this week's Fortune conference is practically at my house. - Robert Scoble
I'm not sure monetizing via advertising INTRODUCING GATORADE G2. LOW-CALORIE, OFF-THE-FIELD HYDRATION. GATORADE. IS IT IN YOU? would work. It might seem too THIS SENTENCE BROUGHT TO YOU BY NIKE intrusive. - Karim
Ff is slowly becoming a personalized information discovery tool... To an advertiser that provides valuable data to "really" personalize ads to the user or to a search company that wants to know more about its users - Krishna Gade
I know exactaly how much. I downloaded the MeeTimer plugin for FF. - Sonciary Honnoll
i moved almost completely off of twitter. i still set off a tweet here and there when the subject is not FF worthy; like "I'm drinking my protein shake by the pool". All in all its alot more interesting on FF. - Carlos Ayala
I tried Twitter and didn't like it. Since starting FF, I hate to admit it, I actually like FF. It is sort of like a group instant messaging utility. - Herschel
Since I used RescueTime for a week, I have reduced all my soc net time down drastically. - Sally Church
I don't waste my time on twitter anymore. I spend all my time on FF; that's where the conversations are. - John Budnik
Well, most of the people I follow on twitter are here, so I turned off device updates on twitter. And as for the rest, twitter has not been sending me IM's for a few weeks now. So outside a short twit now and then, or my script posting what I'm listing... I'm not wasting much time on twitter. - Grant Bierman
None at all. Just FF. Anyone worth talking tech with on the internet is here on FF. We could use a bigger crowd, but for now this is where it's at. - Tad Donaghe
Wasting time? What? Twitter and FF don't qualify as "research"... - Anthony K Valley
not enough, although most of my time is wasted on Friendfeed these days - Bjorn Tipling
better question should be how much time are you wasting on the internet - Dan Rockwell via twhirl
I don't consider any of it wasted. I get a lot of great links and information from Twitter/FF posts, and I've seen/participated in a lot of interesting discussions as a result of those links. That's never a waste. - Evangeline
Well, I used to waste a lot of time. But since I got Twhirl, no time gets wasted. It is a marvelous tool. - Rodrigo Leme via twhirl
I think an interesting related question is, "what are you accomplishing on Twitter? " - Brian Wilson
I use little twitter, more FF and fftogo lately. I'm not a techie so I hope to not bore folks as I try to broaden my geekish horizons :) - kbourke
I use Twitter for communcating with some clients, and also now use Twhirl. - Ian May via twhirl
"gmail expects the same respect as outlook" - tell that to the Corporate IT .. and see what the response is !! - Peter Dawson
I wrote about RescueTime when they first launched, but I never dared to try it myself for what it might find :-) To answer the headline question: hardly any at all now. - Duncan Riley
I mostly use Twitter in bits of time between more meaningful tasks. Standing in line, waiting, switching between tasks, etc. - Jack Collins
I have a blackberry and I live in Canada. There is no easy way now to read/follow twitter since the IM feature is gone; I used to read twitter via google talk. I find that twitterberry and m.twitter don't allow me to read more than a page or the past hour and using SMS is painful. Every 250 messages I need to delete my mobile number online and re-add it or I would have to wait a week for new messages. I read it when I'm on the go or need a break from my writing. - Phillip Jeffrey
I waste more time on friendfeed a lot more than twitter because of how much more content is available - Justin
I use time very wisely on Twitter - no more than 30 mins/day actively. Scans messages while it runs in background on Twhirl. - Jim Turner via twhirl
i rarely use twitter, but i wouldn't say that it's because of ff. necessarily. it's just become unreliable as well as "spammy" - Cee Bee
Next to none since friendfeed. Loving me some friendfeed! - joshua fouts
None. I'm wasting my time on friendfeed instead :) - Ryo
I would love to use Twitter and Friendfeed more - if only they were more mainstream here in Australia. - Jim Yiapanis
Isn't Twitter like breathing? I don't stop breathing. - Carolyn via twhirl
I think I'll be wasting a lot of time on FF, only because it offers you more real estate than twitter. That and the fact that I never know when, and if, twitter will be online! - Dukeswharf via twhirl
