Unless I'm missing something -- Hope the API gets this feature as well. We had to convert NewsJunk to us the API because their polling was too slow and they didn't pick up the descriptions through the feed. We have podcasts in NewsJunk, for the big Sunday shows, and for FreshAir when they cover politics. Shame you won't be getting those right away. Unless of course I'm missing something. - Dave Winer
@Thomas It has to use media enclosure in the RSS feed, I'm not sure it will work with Blogger, but maybe with Blogger + Feedburner? - cmiper
Friendfeed introducing podcasting into the stream, interesting! I would like to see customizable ways to take parts of the audio and place them into the discussion so that people can make a comment against someone else's comment made on a podcast! - Josh Chandler
I really think FF is the new Google - they're just approaching it with social instead of search, and building on that, piece by piece, the same way Google did. - Jesse Stay
@jessestay maybe you are on to something there, FF is offering a lot more then it's competitors such as Socialthing are. But can we realistically look at this company as the next equivalent in social to Google. What about Google's social movement with "OpenSocial", does that count for anything? - Josh Chandler
Is this their first Flash dependent feature? - Phil Whelan
Jim, are you using Blogger or another blogging package? If you are using Blogger you have to click on the "Add enclosure link" button before you publish your post. - Thomas Hawk
Thanks for the reply. I am using wordpress.com. I got it too work. Thanks. - Jim Williams
I love the minimal design of it. Great job ff! - Alan Le
Jim, how did you make it work on wordpress? - James Williams
seems like some gr8 talent is aggregating itself around FF.. is it a culture thing or just b'coz its a kewl project to be working on ? What the true EQ data points for talent attraction at FF ? - Peter Dawson
Wish you a good career with FriendFeed. Any specific thing Gary will work on? - seman
Welcome aboard Gary! Happy FriendFeeding! :*) Hey i LOVE your Mail2FF app! totally cool concept! - Susan Beebe
Cool! (BTW, looks like you folks don't need to buy chairs any time soon) - Ken Sheppardson
Very cool. Nice to see FF growing. Hi Gary...<subscribe> - Mark Krynsky
WOW... a BABY Buchheit entered the world while I wasn't looking...amazing! great secret there Paul!! Congratulations on your new addition to your family!! :-) - Susan Beebe
"I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues.
Let me give you my experience from yesterday.
I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack ... so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.
The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.
This site is so slow it is unusable.
It wasn't in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45..." - Paul Buchheit via Bookmarklet
This email nails it. So I wonder, if Bill Gates knew and experience the flaws of his own product in 2003, why no action has been taken to improve it? The Microsoft website is still a mess and Windows is still Windows. - fbrunel
Christian, I noticed that, too. But it's strange. I never reboot XP, just put it to sleep at night and it works perfectly. - Sprague D
This is real? I can't believe this is real. This is like every user experience with Windows ever: if the Chairman of the company who makes the software has the problems (and is pissed off about it), and most of the issues he's talking about haven't been fixed after five years, 1) how much power did Gates really wield, and 2) what the hell? - Mark Trapp
http://www.betterdesktop.org/ - If Bill Gates actually sent mail like that every day, there is no way Windows would work the way it does now. Want some cool insight on usability - check the link out. - Tim Hoeck
I'm sure it's real, this is classic BillG. But getting flamed by the CEO is one thing, actually making a giant complicated mess of an organization and a giant complicated mess of an operating system work in a nice simple way is hard. - ⓞnor
If he truely sends emails like this every they, then I think they are falling on deaf ears. - Ryan McCutchen via twhirl
And Gates should be praised for actually USING his products. Some executives don't. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo
I respect Bill Gates a lot more for reading this. Now all they have to do is do something about it. - Stuart Woodward
@stuart: They did fix some. Try going to microsoft.com and downloading movie maker via downloads. My main annoyance was two pop-ups, one for silverlight and another for a survey. The e-mail is from 5 years ago. - nadim
You see I wouldn't call that a 'rant' or even as Gates titles it, a 'flame'. It is simply honest, constructive criticism echoing the valid concerns of thousands of end users. More power to Gates. What concerns me is that Microsoft have senior people in place who are unable to discern that. This quote is just brilliant 'So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.' You simply could not make it up. - Andy C
I wonder what he thinks of Windows usability in general. I feel it's getting worse. - Philipp Lenssen
@Stuart Woodward I completely agree with you. I'm a Microsoft solutions architect and my respect for MS has just leapt ten-fold - Jonathan Nguyen
it is good to know that Gates has similar issues as me... to bad for him he can't ditch MS for Linux or Mac like I did. - nick carrasco
I'm not entirely sure this email is genuine - but even if it is almost every issue raised has been dealt with... if it was even true in 2003. As someone who uses and supports Linux, OSX and Windows Vista systems both personally and for clients the simple reality is that Vista is a good desktop OS and Server 2008 is a SUPERB server OS. - Soulhuntre
I am not sure how Linux and OSX have better usability than windows.. not the case for me and a lot of people I know.. - Adriano Gonçalves
@Soulhuntre - It's real. What people don't understand is that it's his *job* (okay it _was_ his job) to send emails like that all day. - Jordan Hofker
Zapp Brannigan: "Oh and have the boy lay out my formal shorts." Kif Kroker: "The boy, sir?" Zapp Brannigan: "You! You lay out my formal shorts." - April Buchheit
"Religious architecture and art were to medieval feudalism what advertising and commercialism are to modern capitalism: A rather effective way to build support for the status quo using aesthetics instead of argument. My claim, in short, is that Notre Dame played the same role during the Middle Ages that fashion magazines play today. Notre Dame was not an argument for feudalism, and Elle is not an argument for capitalism. But both are powerful ways to make regular people buy into the system." - Bret Taylor
I don't now remember the book I read some time ago, but it had quite a feasible point that large cathedrals of middle ages that took several generations to build were not as much a way to praise lord as it was a huge communal investment into tourism and therefore prosperity of local community (more traffic means more fairs, closer trade routes, more pilgrims coming from other places etc.). If your place had a track record of miracles it was perfect since it meant that you get LOTS of free word of mouth promotion. Even in the books! - 59mm
I just remember having to read "Pillars of the Earth" for AP European History in high school. Learned a lot about building cathedrals, as well as deviant medieval noblemen, wise monks, as well as the first explicit sex scene(s) I'd read in a book. I think Oprah picked it as her book club book a while back... - Jennie Lin
This is exactly why I generally don't like fancy modern churches (neon bible, anyone?) -- it many times becomes about the money and the glory, not the message. If anyone is interested in more of this kind of stuff, I recommend The Medieval Imagination: http://www.google.com/books?id... - Ginger Makela
Growing up, I always took a somewhat negative view towards the social conditions that must have contributed to the building of those churches (and of the conditions, I still do). But after traveling a good bit in the European countryside, I could also see how the church became the center of life in the village, the one place where everything worked, lights were always on, and there was a feeling of mystery, maybe a place to escape to. Could be an overly romantic reaction but it's what struck me most (on this subject) during my travels. - Ray Grieselhuber
I look at "Like" as "I would like you to pay attention to this article." - Robert Scoble
A seemingly simple question with a huge range of interesting answers ranging from creating local identity and a religious center, a status symbol, a center for trade, making money from people going on pilgrimage (if you're lucky and you invent some popular relics, you might just get your investment back). Medieval folks are motivated by the same things we are - part of investing in a cathedral is definitely religious, but at the same time, donors surely also saw it as a way of creating a worldly legacy. - Frederic
There wasn't much on telly back then thus creating the urge to build stuff. - John Samuelson
There were probably many reasons and selective cultural pressures that went went into these structures. I don't think it was either/or. Feudalism was a backdrop in a religiously intense time. Fear also was a major tool back then (my, I guess some things don't change). But this raises a lot of considerations for modern times. Cathedrals are great metaphors for economic prowess. - phil baumann
When you say "ours too" which country are you speaking for? - niniane
Algeria, Niniane. But IMHO that applies for everywhere... - directeur
Hmmm....I understand, agree to some degree. - Pokai
The Romanian way is much like the Chinese way, and bothered the hell out of me while I was living there, too. I'd rather have yes mean yes and no mean no (and risk being offended at times) than have to try to guess at what the other person would want me to say. - Tudor Bosman
ever been to an Indian's house for dinner ? I call it suffocating hospitality - viki saigal
Congrats! Now how about Google Translate & babelfish? ;-) - Stuart Grimshaw
Victory at least? WTF? I obviously meant, "Victory at last!" :-) - Tony Ruscoe
Which brings us to the problem you can't edit a shared message in Friendfeed. - Philipp Lenssen
The school I go to for robotics and orchestra blocks FriendFeed, SourceForge, and even PortableApps (YouTube is a given). I can't get my FTP client, even. - Voyagerfan5761
Pajamas are entirely acceptable going-out wear in Shanghai summers, where the temperature and humidity drive residents out in their sleepwear best. - Jennie Lin
Super duper like. Wait, can I double or triple like this? Can I pin it to the top of my screen? Should I make a room dedicated to this? - Vince DeGeorge
I believe several trademarks are reserved: things like Google and Flickr are missing, has anyone tried Apple or Microsoft? - Mark Trapp
like 'Microsoft' or 'MSFT' - I work there and thought it would be cool to claim the rooms - but no dice. - Bruce Williams
We're going to improve the error message -- we don't allow rooms to have the same name as a user (might be confusing). - Sanjeev Singh
tho if you wanted to call it 're: apple' or 'about apple' it does allow the room to be created - viki saigal
I opened a bunch of registered trademark groups. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Flickr, etc. all seemed to be taken. I still was able to get things like Chevron and Exxon, Ars Technica etc. FF needs to create a way to transfer administration in a group though. Like I don't really want Ars Technica and would happily give administration over to them. Just wanted to see what I could register. - Thomas Hawk
"It started when we wanted a better way to share feature ideas and product plans with each other here at FriendFeed, but not the rest of the world -- a mini FriendFeed of our own. We could have set this up on its own machine in the office, but we knew that we weren't alone in our desire and that the right way to go was to extend FriendFeed's capabilities for everyone. And so FriendFeed rooms were born." - Paul Buchheit
I really dig on features I didn't know I needed or wanted until I saw them. Excellent work! - Akiva Moskovitz
This is just.... I'm at a loss for words. I can't wait to see how people use this. - Mark Trapp
Agreed - there's a lot of potential here. I can see this becoming useful for business as well. Which is how the FriendFeed guys were using it. - Hutch Carpenter
very cool! awesome work paul and team. can't wait to start building my friendfeed house of rooms! - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
this is so slick! Congrats. Really cool! - Thomas Hawk
Oh thank goodness... Twitter moaning? Get a room! - Vince DeGeorge
can't wait to geek out on the UI, but extra happy that a mainstream feature is making friendfeed less geeky for the masses. bravo. - Karl
Blew my mind a little bit. It is such a fantastic 'App' for friendfeed data and the friendfeed collection methods. Really excited about this. Maybe one of the first real community groups I use. - Caleb Elston
Question: How can i integrate a rss to my room? I plan to use it for my blip.fm feed. - Selim Yörük
API request: authenticated Profile fetches should list the rooms the user manages or is a member of - Aviv
Sounds pretty good. Though as a corollary, would it be possible to simply divide feeds without having to invite people into something? Is there a way to do that already and I just don't know? Make literally a "friend feed" plus a "stranger feed"... because, regardless of titular function of this site, I've ended up following a number of people I don't know. (Which has turned out to be one of the great bonus parts of this awesome service!) - Nick
Damn.....This made me remember the discussion about the new web been all about more "private" interactions between groups of friends. - Gadiel Rivera
After playing with it for a few minutes, I really hope Friendfeed doesn't shift from being about who you follow to what rooms you belong to. I'd hate to miss out on an interesting discussion in Social_Media4122 when I joined SocialMedia1231. I think that's one of the worst features of Facebook. Here's hoping that Friendfeed doesn't go that way! - Mark Trapp
Mark, I doubt that. Many times I've found myself wanting to share things that would only be interesting to, say, my wife. I don't want to clutter up everyone's FF with that. I see rooms as ways of helping shape the noise. - Akiva Moskovitz
@Mark Trapp - that thought occurred to me as well. Maybe I can make sure public rooms feed into my Friends tab? - Hutch Carpenter
Mark, interesting concern... in a way this means FF is no longer "flat" - and elite groups are inevitable, and it'll be interesting to see how it plays out and if users begin to feel "left out". - Aviv
This is exactly what this service needed. Awesome. Curious though... Cannot create a room with my user name? - Andrew Smith
Hutch, yeah maybe: or if you're part of a public room, and you comment or like something, that item now appears in your feed just like Mark Trapp (friend of Yogi Bear) posted a Link (Yogi Bear liked this) does. As this gains more traction, I think I'm going to be more and more looking for the "Join every public room available, but only show me posts that my friends posted" option, which is just Friendfeed without rooms. I'm sure there's some sort of happy medium. - Mark Trapp
Was there a specific reason for not listing public rooms on the main page? - Mark Krynsky
@Mark Trapp - the rooms do show up in your regular feed. Just saw this with the Post Twit-Out Room. - Hutch Carpenter
Cool Hutch, looks like they already did what I mentioned :) The only other thing I think what would make rooms even more killer is some sort of content discovery, which i mentioned in my other comment about handling it like friends of friends. I'm definitely sipping the kool-aid on this now. - Mark Trapp
Another question - where's the list of public rooms? I'll hunt around, but someone may already know. - Hutch Carpenter
it won't let me create 'Microsoft' or 'MSFT' - if these already exist how do I get to them? - Bruce Williams
I'm worried about the namespace problem and how fractured conversations on particular topics might get. - Sam Pullara
Sam, I think it's one of those things you have to try and see how it plays out. More thoughts: will we be seeing too many overlapping rooms? What happens when our friends ask us to join "Funny Stuff", then "Funny stuff on YouTube", then "Funny emails", then "Funny videos". Would I want to post a link to all those rooms? Will duplicates be a bigger issue now that the same item can be found in many rooms? I think the key will be for each of us to be somewhat picky as to which rooms we join. - Aviv
@Friendfeed Team: Please add a 'hide'ing option for -only- room posts for users. - Erhan Erdogan
Friendfeed rooms will be killer. Friendfeed has already shown much better interaction than facebook. This could be *the* final groups platform. - Meryn Stol
do rooms persist forever? Can they be destroyed? - J. Phil
ff rooms: "mahalo guide pages for the l337" ? - Deva Hazarika
Please add ability to auto-invite all friends to a new room you create or allow friends list with checkboxes. Current invite method is cumbersome. - Mark Krynsky
Now what we need is "automatic resharing". I'd like to send anything that says "Fast Company" to my FastCompany.tv room, for instance. Right now I have to manually "reshare" each item. - Robert Scoble
Oooh Automatic resharing feature: multiple post to multiple groups...oh my God it is going to get exponentially noisy in here! *dizzzzzy* - Susan Beebe
@Aviv: then you get friendfeed houses.. - Amund Tveit
“Is there a way to search for public rooms? For instance, I was curious to see if someone had created a room to talk about social dancing / Lindy Hop / etc.”
![Pyjamas as outdoor wear in Shanghai [pictureyear.blogspot.com]](http://friendfeed.s3.amazonaws.com/old-5d77587429d811dd92fc003048343a40.jpg "Pyjamas as outdoor wear in Shanghai [pictureyear.blogspot.com]")
![Pyjamas as outdoor wear in Shanghai [pictureyear.blogspot.com]](http://friendfeed.s3.amazonaws.com/old-5d81a9a029d811dd92fc003048343a40.jpg "Pyjamas as outdoor wear in Shanghai [pictureyear.blogspot.com]")
![Pyjamas as outdoor wear in Shanghai [pictureyear.blogspot.com]](http://friendfeed.s3.amazonaws.com/old-5d8487ce29d811dd92fc003048343a40.jpg "Pyjamas as outdoor wear in Shanghai [pictureyear.blogspot.com]")
