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Twitter
Leo Laporte posted a message on Twitter
Twitter
Robert Scoble posted a message on Twitter
Blog
Robert Scoble posted an entry on Scobleizer's Recent Qik Videos
Why I am not leaving Twitter
Thursday at 5:05 pm - Link
The quality of the post from the people... BINGO! - Rom Feria
Good vid / reasoning Robert, but one question. You put a high value on the "real time" nature of Twitter (for good reason), but are you really highlighting the real time nature of Twitter via Google Talk? i.e.: is the "client" adding some of that value? If so, could FF in GT be of equal value? - Kevin C. Tofel
Show 12 more comments
The client is certainly adding some of the value and, yes, I'd LOVE to see XMPP in FriendFeed so I could do the same thing here. - Robert Scoble
cheers to that! Need a client for FF, Ping.FM, etc. - just ONE client please. :D - Rom Feria
I am talking XMPP to identi.ca via pidgin/gtalk - Bob Ngu via twhirl
Agreed. At the end of the day, I don't care about the network or the protocol used. I just want a real-time conversation aggregator. - Kevin C. Tofel
"FriendFeed...Twitter...they go to-ge-ther". Damn you Robert I can't get that jingle out of my head now. - Mark Krynsky
thank you... easier just to point people to this qik :) - Lucretia Pruitt
Funny that I was listening to Gillmor Gang when I started this video. - Robert Scoble
no, Twitter is leaving you, that's the problem. Even if you want to stay, they don't let us play :-) - Duncan Riley
Now I have Scoble singing in my head. - Bec
I agree Twitter is leaving Scoble - Fred Grott
Hmmm... interesting timing for this. But, I agree! - Barbara K. Baker
Here's my response to you Scoble - http://qik.com/video/120649 - Corvida
Won't TWEET just become a protocol and google create a clearing house or collection place fro tweets? Is Twitter the Right answer? - JMac of Earth
Funny that the IM feature you value is unavailable and down so often... - Jeff Davis, KE9V
my guess is that you already have a lot of followers on twitter and will stay there to the bitter end because it is the path of least resistance. Eventually the features that make twitter so great will be available on other platforms, plurk for example, and while it's easy to stop a spammer on Plurk (as soon as the first person exposes the spammer/bot no one will follow them unlike twitter where scrape bots have the same juice as anyone else. - Darren Daz Cox
Blog
dan farber posted an entry on Outside the Lines
Twitter's weakening pulse
June 28 at 2:09 pm - Link
A nicely balanced piece. My crystal ball is notoriously crappy, but I like the Twitter interface. But I'm trying to adapt. - Mike McCallister via NoiseRiver
I like the twitter interface as well, I wonder if we should invest in using the FF api to create a twitter-like interface - Steve Eichert
It's already been outdone by this site in terms of usefulness for the average person. - Jacob
Google Reader
Eric Berlin shared an item on Google Reader
Obama’s Wealthy, Educated Supporters
Tuesday at 7:06 am - Link
As an outsider, my only problem with Obama is his anti-free trade stance. This will impact alot of exporters around the world and could lead to higher tariffs on US imports in retaliation. With a weak US dollar, it doesn't seem a smart move. *NB I'm a staunch free trade advocate - Cains
Google Reader
Doug Petch shared an item on Google Reader
Why Haven’t You Organized Your Passwords?
Tuesday at 7:06 am - Link
FriendFeed
Thomas Hawk posted a link
First Fav100 Shot on Zooomr
First Fav100 Shot on Zooomr
Tuesday at 6:53 am - via Bookmarklet - Link
Recently Zooomr started autotagging photos with awards based on faves. This is the first photo on Zooomr to get an award for 100 faves. It's taken by Henrikj: http://www.zooomr.com/photos/h... You can see all of the photos with the fav10 award here: http://www.zooomr.com/search/p..., you'll see some pretty good photos. - Thomas Hawk via Bookmarklet
Zooomr is finally releasing some real innovative features. :) - Wolfman-K via twhirl
Show 5 more comments
Thanks Tom! It's not the first fav100 on Zooomr, but the first one since the awards was introduced. - Henrik Johansson
It's a great shot Henrik. Yes, there are a few other photos with 100 faves on Zooomr but this is the first one since we launched awards. Well done, Pal! - Thomas Hawk
wow!! - Arjun
That's a very nice photo! congratulations! - Juan Pablo González
It's a beautiful shot and well deserving of the award, congrats Henrik - Eric
Such beautiful use of light and contrast! And such a wistful tone. Wow. - Abby Martin
Mucho gracias Thomas on the Zoomr update. I might have to open a Zoomr account! - Mitchell Tsai
Congrats Henrik, A beautiful shot! - Andrew Moore
Flickr
Thomas Hawk published photos on Flickr
Understand
Credibility
Just Wait
Talking Bout a Revolution
You and All Your Uptown Friends
Like the Dickens
Accomplish
 Show all
Tuesday at 7:20 am - Link
FriendFeed
Thomas Hawk posted a link
Prediction: FriendFeed Will Pass Twitter in Traffic Within One Year
Prediction: FriendFeed Will Pass Twitter in Traffic Within One Year
June 29 at 7:40 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link
According to Compete, last month Twitter grew at a 14.7% rate and FriendFeed grew at a 45.6% rate. If these growth rates remained static, FF would surpass Twitter using Compete's metrics in a little under 9 months time. I predict that within one year FF will show more users on Compete than Twitter. You might not be able to imagine it now, but exponential growth is a powerful thing. - Thomas Hawk via Bookmarklet
I can totally see FF overtaking twitter within 6 months. This past week was an excellent indication of that trend. - Susan Beebe
Show 44 more comments
The numbers don't say that. FF is great, but if Twitter is a mallet, FriendFeed is a hammer. Similar tools, but not the same. There aren't directly in competition, and I don't necessarily see one overtaking the other any time soon. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
It could certainly happen earlier than a year Susan, a year is just a safe bet. FF's momentum could propel and increase the growth rate beyond what it has been in the past month, which could make this happen in as early as 6 months. - Thomas Hawk
You look at a graph like the one above and it's hard to see it. But if you graph the actual monthly month over month growth rates from last month into the future they intersect actually in just a little under 9 months. - Thomas Hawk
Maybe sooner if Twitter continues to ride the Fail Whale and FF continues to be the all night stud. - Tad Donaghe
That assumes two things: 1) Twitter never gets fixed and 2) out of the vast amount of users, twitter doesn't suddenly bounce into the mainstream. It's far more likely to happen to Twitter than FriendFeed at this juncture. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
Mark, doesn't matter if Twitter is a mallet and FF is a hammer or not -- the numbers do *absolutely* say that. Do the math yourself with a spreadsheet. According to compete Twitter = 1.7 million users vs. FF's 300k. Run 1.7k at 14.7% and 300k at 45.6% and FF surpasses Twitter in a little under 9 months. It's pretty simple math. - Thomas Hawk
@Thomas: Which points are you extrapolating on the FF numbers to reach that conclusion? Are you taking 14.7% and 45.6% to be constant from t = now? - Kirk Kittell
(I'm going to actually RTFA now) - Kirk Kittell
Kirk, yes, per my statement I'm assuming static growth rates based on last month over month growth numbers provided by Compete. - Thomas Hawk
I doubt that FriendFeed will overtake Twitter. FriendFeed's simplicity doesn't match Twitter. FriendFeed has a lot of simplicity compared to other web services, but Twitter is just so simple, easy, and fun. I'm pretty sure that the Twitter guys will eventually get a stable Twitter. - possible248
I guess I don't understand those numbers. Didn't FriendFeed launch in October 2007? How is it beating Twitter and pulling away before that? (Sorry to bludgeon you to death, Thomas, my job is basically to be a professional skeptic. I was never liked anyway...) - Kirk Kittell
Kirk just plug the numbers into a spreadsheet. 300k X 1.456 and repeat that equation for 9 months. Do the same thing with Twitter at 1.7 million x 1.147 and you'll see what I'm talking about. You are right to be skeptical. But if you assume the growth rates from the last month were accurate and continue it will happen within 9 months. - Thomas Hawk
No, I meant: how does FriendFeed have any stats pre-October 2007? I must be making a really bad assumption somewhere along the line. - Kirk Kittell
Only problem Thomas is that I remember seeing similar stats several years ago "proving" that that Linux would become the dominant OS by 2006 or something by looking at it's growth rate. Good new things tend to grow a lot faster than older good things. Just as Twitter's growth rate has slowed, I'm guessing FF's will as well, especially if Twitter gets "fixed." I'm rooting for FF too, but it's not really a level competition. - Tad Donaghe
possible248, you're assuming that 1. A site needs to be simple to grow. I don't think FF is any more complicated than Facebook or MySpace. And 2. That Twitter will stabilize. Some of the hardcore programming geeks that I know are saying the opposite. That Twitter's architecture is flawed from the ground up and what we are seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg, that it will be incredibly difficult, if not impossible for Twitter to scale. - Thomas Hawk
I don't think growth rates will stay the same. Twitter is just beginning to hit "normal" people, the early adopters having moved to FF. Growth rates at FF will be fast now and then slow like Twitters I think. Plus, they feel different some people just wont like one or the other - Daltonsbriefs
And that's a fair guess Tad. But even as FF's growth were to slow, so would Twitter's. I think that the current numbers though don't reflect the power of momentum which I think will be coming in the next 6 months. Momentum that we've only just begun to see this weekend. - Thomas Hawk
Kirk, I'm only using a one month number, which is a big assumption, I know, but again, I don't think we've begun to see the real momentum with FF yet. - Thomas Hawk
These guys have shown how twitter should be built to scale. http://www.nurdz.net/2008/06/1... - Ross Maguire
Thomas, personally I don't think FriendFeed has the mass appeal that Twitter has outside of the tech crowd. Twitter is simple, uncluttered, and very easy to use. With FriendFeed it's easy to be overwhelmed by the volume of information. Besides, average Joe or Mary on Twitter doesn't know anything about RSS feeds, Disqus, Diigo, etc. For them (and this is where the mass appeal comes in), Twitter is a simple group chat service, which FriendFeed will never be. - Dewald Pretorius
Daltonsbriefs, don't underestimate the impact of a site's power users on growth. 20% of the users are responsible for 80% of the traffic. These important 20% are in the process of jumping from Twitter to FF now, this weekend was a groundswell. - Thomas Hawk
Point taken, Thomas. I suppose that plenty of people would be interested in FriendFeed. While Twitter's architecture may be deeply flawed, I don't see Twitter dying completely. A redesign might be necessary. - possible248
Nevermind, Thomas. I thought about it for a second and better see what you're saying. Anyway, I'm not against FriendFeed -- I mean, I'm here, eh? -- just trying to think about where it's going. I should stick to my day job, so to speak. - Kirk Kittell
Yes, but what statistical model are they using to project? Hmmm. - Kathleen Crane
My guess is that Twitter users will move to friendfeed eventually cause it "does Twitter". For the others that don't use either, it's telling them that everything I do is on friendfeed but Twitter is where you find one just what I'm doing. friendfeed surpassed Twitter in 7.48 months in my calculation :) - Andrew Smith
possible248, I don't see Twitter dying completely at all -- in fact they will continue to grow. A 14.5% monthly growth rate is actually awesome. FF is just growing faster is all and has momentum on their side. Combine that with a vastly superior underlying architecture and you've got all the ingredients for FF to surpass Twitter. - Thomas Hawk
Kathleen, a *very* good question indeed and something that only a handful of people will ever get to see. I seriously doubt it's my wayyyy oversimplified back of the napkin figure here. - Thomas Hawk
Two presumptions: Twitter will still be alive this time next year, secondly, that if they are that they will stay where they are with traffic. If you look at Alexa (I know, not brilliant, but timely) you'll see Twitter contracting in traffic rapidly (it's back to March levels). FriendFeed will definitely pass Twitter, but I'm betting it will be in 6mths on a combination of FF growing and Twitter shrinking. - Duncan Riley
Perhaps another way to put this would be that at one time Yahoo! was Twitter and Google was FF. Yahoo was *huge* back then compared to Google, 5x as big. Yahoo! had explosive growth, but Google had a superior product and even bigger growth. Eventually a bigger growth rate and better superior product surpasses a slower growth rate and an inferior product. - Thomas Hawk
Duncan, six months is a very good guess indeed. - Thomas Hawk
Totally agree. I don't buy into the "Twitter-killer" mentality but FriendFeed has certainly supplanted Twitter for me. - Ray Grieselhuber
But one of the best parts of FriendFeed is responding to someone's original tweet. So the two are not mutually exclusive... - Rachel Rubin
Rachel, they don't have to be mutually exclusive. In fact Twitter can still prod along at a very healthy 14.5% monthly growth rate. But as long as FF's growth rate is bigger, they will surpass them. But I don't think FF "needs" Twitter to grow or to go where it needs to go. - Thomas Hawk
Same for me. My twitter time has slowed down to a craw. I use it for updates about 3-4 times a day and sometimes when I reply to a twitter message here, I check the box so that the reply gets posted to twitter as well. On the other hand, Friendfeed has really peeked my interest in the past few weeks. The amount/level of discovery that takes place here can't be match by any other site, twitter included. - Tsega D
I am still finding it hard to follow a particular conversation on FF - Robert
FriendFeed won't drink Twitter's milkshake until it adds two features: input from IM (you can tweet from your AIM client) and input from SMS messages (a lot of people tweet via SMS on their phones). - Adam Turetzky
I remember feeling that I couldn't rely on email anymore during AOL's problems in 1996. Twitter feels the same today. DMs getting overlooked, etc. - sage brennan via twhirl
I also agree with other that Friendfeed doesn't (yet) appear to have the mojo to tackle the mainstream audience. Twitter could make this jump despite pissing off the digerati, because it has the "obviousness of purpose" that many popular services have... like the telephone. Pick it up and talk. With Friendfeed, people will be put off by the confusing, geek-chic subtlety of the service. - sage brennan via twhirl
Does this Compete.com graph measure just the Twitter.com web site? If so, then I think this is under-reporting the actual usage of Twitter. What about all of the Twitter updates that are made from cell phones, IM clients, AIR clients, not to mention people who are consuming Twitter content through services like Summize, TweetScan, Quatably, and .... FriendFeed? I know that FriendFeed can also be accessed through other channels such as FFtoGo, Mail2FF, Twhirl, etc. but compared to Twitter it's a low %. - Mike Doeff
@Thomas: context absolutely matters. FriendFeed does a different thing entirely than Twitter. if context didn't matter at all, Twitter wouldn't exist and we'd be having this conversation on a phpBB, because that's essentially the same function as FriendFeed. What the tool is designed/mostly used for determines who will use it. For that matter... - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
... it isn't an issue of a percentage point multiplied out over months. Growth/shrinkage changes. Velocity of growth changes daily. Given that Twitter has a very huge audience compared to FF, there's a much greater chance that their numbers could catapult. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
Yea,Twitter should wake up:) - Igor Poltavskiy
I'm not surprised. I have absolutely no use for Twitter while I'm getting addicted to FF pretty quickly :) - Mirko Zorz
if you really believe that, go register your bet at http://www.longbets.org/ - Bruce Williams
Big prediction!!! - Joe Dawson
Asking again, does Compete.com measure traffic coming in from the API? If not then this comparison doesn't mean much to me. - Mike Doeff
Submit that one to The Industry Standard, will you? http://www.standard.com. I'll take that bet. - Cyndy
FriendFeed
Steve Rubel posted a link
Eggnyte the World of Web 2.0
Eggnyte the World of Web 2.0
June 29 at 9:36 am - via Bookmarklet - Link
"The hi-res JPG file (4500x3000 pixels) of the World of Web 2.0 logo collage poster (screenshots below) can be yours if you want to print it on your own." - Steve Rubel via Bookmarklet
Thanks for the kind offer! - Richard Bradshaw
Show 3 more comments
That is freaking incredible - Chacha via twhirl
That's incredible, Steve. And overwhelming! "It's growing too big! We can't control it!" - Brian Carter
I am going to make that my background ... somehow - Chacha via twhirl
cool share, thanks!! - Susan Beebe
Very cool! Hope you guys like it. ;-) - AJ Batac
You should have mentioned it was taken from @orli website. - Nir Ben Yona via twhirl
Twitter
Gabe Rivera posted a message on Twitter
FriendFeed
Robert Scoble posted a message
“Taxi driver has my iPhone. He is returning it. But, I learned my FriendFeed behavior is WAY DOWN because I don't have my iPhone (I interact with FriendFeed a LOT from my iPhone when I'm away from my computer). I hate my Nokia phone for doing the same thing. The Web sucks on other phones. ”
June 28 at 3:24 pm - Link
Yay for the taxi driver! - Diane Ensey
Big honnest Taxi driver! - directeur via NoiseRiver
Show 34 more comments
Maybe just one sentence explanation why Taxi Driver has your iphone??? - Cody Heitschmidt
You got lucky... that's a good taxi driver. - Bill Sodeman via fftogo
I lost my iPhone on Tuesday in a Taxi. The driver was cleaning out his cab and found it under his seat and called me a few minutes ago. Made me feel a lot better about humanity. I'll be sending him a nice reward. - Robert Scoble
You can say that again. Unfortunately for a lot of Europeans iPhone will be unaffordable. European operators and their scandalous subscription plans go straight against Apple's philosophy in my opinion. Maybe you could write about that Robert. - Rutger Blom
:) I like this. - directeur via NoiseRiver
Rutger: I was talking with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. She said she's getting rid of her iPhone as soon as Google's Android comes out. Think about that for a second and you have your answer right there. Apple is repeating the same mistakes that it made in 1989. - Robert Scoble
Have to agree. Even using the regular FF site (not the mobile version) is pretty sweet. - Jonathon
Yay! Taxi driver! I left my wallet in a Taxi in Brazil. He had a friend call me in the US (since he didn't speak English), and mailed me back my wallet. Some great people in this world... - Mitchell Tsai
cool on the ethical driver - i find myself using my iphone to access friendfeed a ton - mike "glemak" dunn
More often than not people do the good thing. We just hear about the bad more cause thats what TMZ likes to cover. Ha first time I ever referenced TMX please dont hate me \ - Cody Heitschmidt
NY cabbies are the best! - Larry Heim
Glad to hear there are some honest people left in this world. Wonder if he would have contacted Robert if there was not a reward? Or maybe he knew nothing about the reward and was just being a good person. - Jeff P. Henderson
How did he figure out it was yours? - Andrew Feinberg
Good on the driver! - Kevin C. Tofel
Jeff: he didn't know there was a reward. Andrew: I had texted to that phone to please call me. That text was on the screen when he found it. - Robert Scoble
My taxi driver contacted me with no reward (in Brazil). On the other hand, my first camera was pick-pocketed in Brussels, Belgium. My friends are surprised it wasn't the other way around. :0) I say "give people the benefit of the doubt". Most are wonderful people. .... and the other 5% rob you blind. - Mitchell Tsai
Great news Robert. The world is full of honest and honorable folks. - Tsega D
It's always nice when people do the right thing, like returning a lost phone. Good story! - Niall Connellan
Glad to hear all is well, Robert. Expect my photos soon, there are some great ones! - Andrew Feinberg
HOORAY! - James via Alert Thingy
wow that's great that he was stand up enough to get it back to you, +1 that taxi driver. - Chris Jones
Glad you have your phone back! I totally ditched my bb after I got my iPhone. Personally, I think its mostly the real estate and the touchscreen. What do you believe are your reasons? - simonpure
I love it when people find things and try to find who it belongs to and give it back. The positive feelings from that are worth more than even the cost of the product. - Thomas Hawk
@ Scoble I think Jobs may know just a little more about the tech business than either Lofgren or you. My money is still on Apple and the iPhone. It's obvious that it has already influenced the entire mobile industry including Android. - James
Way to go taxi driver! - Britney Mason
How wonderful that you're getting it back. And how neat that the taxi driver did the right thing! - Abby Martin
It's slightly sad that the fact the taxi driver is honestly returning the phone is so laudable, isn't it? It means one of 2 things - either we assume the worst as a matter of course, or the world really is full of horrible people and anything good stands out starkly. - John Samuelson
I think we are all pessimists. I've found that most people are *much* nicer than I expect them to be. - Diane Ensey
Robert what Nokia do you have? - Joe Dawson
i agree the nokia sucks for browsing the web, especially because it's hard as hell to type, but windows mobile powered smartphones ain't all that bad. glad you're getting your phone back. - Lynne d Johnson
Joe: I have three phones. Nokia N95; Nokia N82; and Samsung Blackjack II (Windows Mobile Phone). Lynne: I agree, but I still like the iPhone a lot more than Windows Mobile powered smartphones. - Robert Scoble
Tell him to take a pic of himself on your iPhone and then ship it back to you .Then post /blog his pic and your/his story on the web. This will at least give him some j"honesty" juice for which ever city he is on .. methinks that a nice way to promote his services and his honesty and also that city :)- make him mini hero !! - Peter Dawson
FriendFeed works incredibly well on mobile safari, readable and easy to use. I'nm not sure they need a special version for mobile. - fbrunel
Yeah for good karma and decent people. - Mark Forman
Nice to know there are honest people left in the world. - Kevin Shannon
Awesome story! BTW, I love using Benjamin Golub's http://FFtogo.com mobile version of FriendFeed on my BlackBerry 8830 Curve. Excellent 3G service and Ben's app is improving at light speed. Remember, he also created http://RSSmeme.com - so that's where my money's at! - Susan Beebe
Glad you're getting it back. - Alex Hammer
FriendFeed
Robert Scoble posted a message
“I block people who beg for followers. I don't need that noise here like happened over on Twitter.”
June 28 at 2:49 pm - Link
If you want to be followed, do something interesting! - Richard Bradshaw
participate and they will follow! - Fu_
Show 32 more comments
I liked this just for Richard Bradshaws comment. Excellent! - Chris Rodgers
I remember you saying here that perhaps you had a different definition of noise robert - what is the difference between friendfeed noise and twitter noise? - jeremy ettinghausen
Sorry, Robert. You follow 21,087 people on Twitter. You're not allowed to start whinging about noise now. ;-) - Ken Sheppardson
I agree with Ken... Scoble you had to know that all those auto follows was gonna lead to noise. Twitter cna be controlled. - Cody Heitschmidt
I don't get it. He merely made a proclamation to people who beg for followers of what he's going to do. Are you telling Robert he's not allowed to block people who beg for followers? - Mark Trapp
I agree with your stance!! - Joe Dawson
I don't mind noise, but seeing everyone beg for followers gets old. It's not followers that matter anyway. Especially here in FriendFeed, where "Friend of a Friend" gets you seen by tons of people. - Robert Scoble
And Richard is right. - Robert Scoble
Beg for followers? What a crazy idea. If you have something to say they will follow... - Hakan Dahlstrom
Yes he's right! My mailbox is getting full with followers because of NoiseRiver (not that there's something to brag of) but if I follow someone it's to be informed by his product or by his life, health and family - directeur via NoiseRiver
I just read your blog Robert and it is mind-boggling how much content you produced today. That is why I follow. Someone has to teach me something, not beg me. - Francine Hardaway
Sometimes I follow complete unknown people, because smart dosen't obligatory means popular - directeur via NoiseRiver
I dont think anyone is telling Scoble he can't do anything, my point was the instant follow on Twitter lead to people going after followers by following everyone possible. Not only do you have a responsibility (if you want to be considered legit) to do something interesting to be followed. You have same responsibility (again, if you want legitimacy) to only follow people who interest you or, you are in fact phishing for followers. Not telling anyone what to do. Just sayin is Scoble created his twitter noise - Cody Heitschmidt
@directeur we are all the "unknown people" of someone, even the Scoble is. and rhymes are sometimes misleading. see, smart rhymes well with both art and fart. - Myriam
following thousands of ppl is one thing, "begging" for followers is another. - Fu_
Cody: you're right. Every single person I've added here on FriendFeed has interested me in some way. If you stop interesting me I unfollow. If you are rude, or you beg for followers, or you spam, you'll get blocked. I don't need you reading me, and I don't need to read you if you are such a person. - Robert Scoble
@Myriam: VERY well-said! You're very right! :) - directeur via NoiseRiver
You finally wised up? - Fred Grott
Fred: nah, I've been saying for months that it's not who follows you that's important, but who you follow. I just saw the same trend start here again as some people move from Twitter to FriendFeed (of collecting followers by begging for them) and wanted to stop that trend. - Robert Scoble
Thats very cool Scoble.. and exactly how it should be. You are right on. I guess if you have time Iwant to ask you Do you think if you werent following so many on twitter that you would still enjoy it like you did when you first launched over there. I am not being an ass i promise.. you were a pioneer over there and I think I learned from you and controlled my follows. My rule is I have to have more followers than I follow. Anyhow if you have time... I still love twitter (when it works) - Cody Heitschmidt
Robert I understand you :) and if it gets worse... well you can always call Rocky --the guy that has dolls ;-) - directeur via NoiseRiver
The people I follow add a great deal of joy to my life. I can't imagine not following people on these services, or following, say, only 50 people. That would be very limiting and like eating only steak and potatoes every night. Diversity of people who you listen to makes your life richer (and you smarter). - Robert Scoble
and I wonder if you would too if you were following 2000 instead of 20000. I also feel that if everybody had controlled it and not abuse it and gone out scoping for followers the growth would have been controlled better and the sytem would work better. It's spam... Its all spam and we will lose every cool app to it if someone doesnt do something different. Sorry for rambling - Cody Heitschmidt
Cody: oh, I see where you're going. You are wrong there. Systems CAN be built to keep up with infinite scale. Blaming the users for a system's troubles is simply wrong. Note that I am following thousands already and FF has very few problems. - Robert Scoble
Cody, that wouldn't matter. Twitter would collapse sooner or later. Don't blame the users, blame the system. - Rutger Blom
I'm hoping for the "imaginary tree of groups" or some kind of directory structure for the people we follow (rather than just filters). I wouldn't mind following 2,000 people, if I could easily look at sub-groups. I'd love a Unix-like directory structure on the people we follow. RAPatton chooses to follow 20 people. Scoble follows 2,915. Likewise, some of my LinkedIn friends use it like an address book, and others only connect with people they can recommend. Just a style difference. - Mitchell Tsai
Yeha I am not blaming users I still blame twitter... Just wondering if all the folks that follow. 25,000 and have 6 followers maybe .... shit I dont know I just really like twitter and learned alot about alot over there and wish they would fix it. Is there no way to get my current twitter stream into Friendfeed? - Cody Heitschmidt
I watch the Everyone stream for pictures, but I'd love to make a favorite-picture-people stream for myself. Also science-people, food-people, fitness-people, tech-people, business-people, personal-friends streams. Not rooms, those are community/administrator affairs, because I'd like to pick the people (ala spock.com) in each stream - Mitchell Tsai
Opportunately I don't speak Chinese, Japanese or Farsi. As a convinced Dunbar Girl (I mean Robin Dunbar, not william), plus being a female knowing the size of her tiny neocortex, I don't allow me to follow more than 200 people, more so when the list includes some Scobles. So that I can theorically focuse on the choice I made. - Myriam
This tension in deciding what-is-my-strategy-for-following-people might be helped when FriendFeed develops better stream-making and stream-following algorithms and procedures. The old directories/topics idea is TOO-siloed, but the one Friend stream (now one Friend and one Rooms stream) is not siloed enough - especially for the non-kool-aid-drinking public (not used to managing 20+ social networking sites). - Mitchell Tsai
I understand the urge to ask for followers -- people want their voices to resonate -- but actually executing on that urge is kind of unfortunate. As a side note, I'd love to see a professional investigation of what makes people follow others. - Dan Kaplan
@dan kaplan What is wrong is first the wording "follow". with that terminology what happens on the web is contrary to what should be, if you understand french there is a very nice motto that says "'sois celui qui est, pas celui qui suit" (you lost the pun intented with the translation "be the one who exists, not the one who follows") - Myriam
I look at you all on the Internet as people who'll teach me something. So, I follow people in hopes I'll get smarter. If you do make me smarter, I "like" the post and probably "Comment." If you don't make me smarter, or worse, make me stupider, I unfollow, "Hide" or, in the worst of cases, "Block." - Robert Scoble
I don't mind one way or another if someone follows me. If they do, great. If they don't, well then they miss out on what I'm doing. But then again, if they aren't a close friend or someone in Chicago, then they probably don't care what I'm doing! But don't get me wrong, I love to make new friends all over!! Hope everyone is having a great day. It's actually really nice here Cubs land!! - Niall Connellan
Agreed. People shouldn't 'beg for followers'. When someone follows me on Twitter - I first check out their profile and last page or so (actually I can only see the last page on twitter lately as pagination is still broken) just to see what kind of poster they are. Are they selling something, are they simply trying to drive traffic to another site, do they interact at all? I also look at the following-to-follower ratio. When I moved to FF, few people followed me there from twitter - that's cool though. I'll just make new connections on FF. I find myself using both frequently and learning a great deal from the collective knowledge that they bring to bear. - Bryan Hunter via twhirl
FriendFeed
Dave Winer posted a message
“A big lesson we should be learning from the Twitter experience: Putting all our eggs in one basket is a bad idea. Twitter has too much power and it's just a corporation, with limited abilities and lots of interests that aren't aligned with those of users. The web is not like that. More in comments..”
June 28 at 8:40 am - Link
What Twitter gave us is wonderful, but we should strive to re-create the experience outside, in the wilds of the web, where no one but the government controls what we do (that's bad enough). I see a lot of people rushing to FriendFeed to replace Twitter, I find myself wanting to do it too, but it has the same danger. It's not just about keeping the servers up. Centralization is inherently dangerous. Not saying we should do anything other than think and keep our eyes and ears open. - Dave Winer
You can say limited abilities again. - Andrew
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as someone who's twitter account is currently entirely broke, and feels like she's been put on mute, I'd have to agree. - Erin Kotecki Vest
I don't get why people put all of their messages into one service. I have most of my Tweets linked up through ping.fm that posts them to multiple services, not just twitter - Chacha via twhirl
chacha it's a time issue for me. twitter was the fastest and easiest. was looking at others, but didn't have the time, like a real early adopter might, to get into a bunch of other things. - Erin Kotecki Vest
I agree. its annoying when you know about all these services, or might not know, and then if you don't have enough time to figure out if it is a waste of time or soemthing acctually useful, kind of just stops you from trying the beta stuff. - Chacha via twhirl
Erin, I think you're missing a bit of Chacha's point. While it's true that keeping up with every new service is difficult/impossible, Chacha was speaking more to the fact that services like ping.fm allow you to "spread your bets", so to speak. If you post at a site that posts to other sites for you, you can focus on the site you like, but still have a presence at others. That way, if you have to switch, you're not completely starting from scratch. There's still network disruption, but it's lessened. - Ken Kennedy
Dave, "Centralization is inherently dangerous." tell that to the honey bee !! But seriously its not bad, if all users in utopia mode :)-. I believe that the expectations of society in and by itself needs to change. The greed for materials and money is the shortcoming of humanity. As you walk thru The Corridors of Time o you will certainly see that humanity comes together and then breaks down b'coz of ego and greed. Technology hives are no different. I agree, FF, Jaiku, Pownce all have the same dilemma !! - Peter Dawson
I wonder whether it is not possible to establish an open format for microblogging and especially commenting. Subscription and specialized search engines should be enough to follow conversations. is that too naive? - Heinz Wittenbrink via twhirl
centralization is very bad. Vote Republican... we aren't for the single government corporation. Put your vote where your mouth is and don't support the brown shirt Palestine supporting National Socialists. - Noah David Simon
if you think internet tyranny is bad for your comments... just wait for the reality tyranny to come knocking on your door. It is called Obama and it smacks of internationalist tyranny. - Noah David Simon
Here is the funny part. All the Comments in Friend Feed are all in a Single Basket. I like the fact that FriendFeed Aggregates all of your content so that the acctually sharing is decentralized (You have a list of your shared stuff on Google Reader and Delicious, etc) But all of the comments you post up are completely on FriendFeed. Is that going to be the next step? Maybe allow all of your comments to be hosted on your blog and then aggregated? - Chacha via twhirl
If we allow "the government" to control what we (or corporations) do, there will never be a "bigger and better" version of Twitter. - Craig Eddy
I'm sorry, but this is crap. One poorly designed application architecture isn't a call for large-scale revolt. Blah, blah, blah. I'm so beyond tired of the whining and bellyaching. If you have a better idea, then build it. If not, then quit complaining about it. It doesn't accomplish a thing to sit and bitch. - Cyndy
Twitter down doesn't bother me much since I only use Twitter a few times per day, and I use it for different reasons and with a subset of people that don't -- and I suspect won't -- use FriendFeed. So, my messages are strung across services: friends from high school use MySpace; friends from university use Facebook; friends from India use Orkut; other friends use Twitter; strangers I talk to use FriendFeed; etc. That's why I scoff at the "email is dead" notions -- email doesn't feel fragmented to me. - Kirk Kittell
Yeah, his brand of "IT" = "Internationalist Tyranny". Got that right. - William, CPU Media
Well this really isn't a big revolt. It a bunch of people coming to realise that keeping all of your content in a single area prone to crashes is really a bad idea. - Chacha via twhirl
Chache -- that's exactly what I'm saying. - Dave Winer
I wish I could string those services together... - Kirk Kittell
@Kirk I doubt email will ever really be dead. Kind of like Postal Mail Today. Its the backbone communication system that you know is almost always reliable, aand for the most part private - Chacha via twhirl
BTW, since you use twhirl, I'd like to point out another way we can get safer. If our clients create an archive of everything you do, but not on Twitter or FriendFeed, that's a good way to: 1. Recover if the system you're using fails and 2. Encourage the development of parallel systems to do innovative stuff with our tweets and FFs, etc. If you think it's a good idea -- send Loic a message. He likes video messages, I hear. :-) - Dave Winer
My last comment is a big one guys. If we can get users to ask Loic for this feature, I promise -- developers will be able to do cool stuff with it, and not just guys who can keep huge honkin servers running. You'll see an explosion of new creativity. - Dave Winer
I'm always amazed when I read comments like this. Twitter is a free web service that no one forces you to use. The original premise was "What are you doing ?" so it was just a bit of fun. If you base your business/web presence/your indentity on Twitter then you are in trouble. A decently hosted website and email are the most important things for your activity on the web. - Paul Nash
I hear ya Ken. I guess what I'm saying is I didn't know about Ping or others until well...now. - Erin Kotecki Vest
"A decently hosted website and email are the most important things for your activity on the web." Yup. And make sure you have an office with a pretty receptionist. And take out some ads in the Yellow Pages and the local TV stations, too. And hang a shingle. ;-) - Josh Bancroft
Dave has an important point regarding archiving (no matter how you define it). Tweets and FF shares and comments now contain interesting info and pointers to more of the same. So keeping a record of these could be important. - Bill Anderson via twhirl
"so keeping a record of these could be important. " - yeah google knows everything :)- - Peter Dawson
I agree on the concept, definitely. Jon Udell has been evangelizing these concepts as well for awhile; a good overview here, called "Hosted Lifebits": http://blog.jonudell.net/2007/... - Ken Kennedy
@Paul Nash I understand your point but i still disagree. web 1.0 was about one person on an island sending out bottles via email lists. Web 2.0 is about a NET of networks intertwined and dependent on each other for communication. p2p is the backbone for today's successful technology and even though twitter is centralized, it also plays a huge part in a how to business model. the discussion here is amongst content publishers and we need twitter or something like it to function properly, imho - Anthony Farrior
I'm not sure there was some huge downside to embracing Twitter. The conversation has moved to FF almost instantly given their reply problem over the past week. It seems to me that the zero switching cost of the interwebs is in full effect here. - Jason Calacanis
Jason: I agree that Twitter's failure isn't the right metric of FF's success because I feel that FF is simply a better, more granular tool. It does a lot more things than Twitter does (though Twitter did what it well when it was working). For me, this tool offers most of the features and functionality I'm looking for. I cannot say this about most other YASNs out there. - melmcbride
Hey so what the hell? Peer to Peer twitter. let's code. - bugtank@gmail.com
FriendFeed
Dave Winer posted a message
“Ever notice how new products almost never make it on TechMeme these days. They don't even appear. This is loop back to why I started blogging. The industry press was ignoring the interesting stuff and only paying attention to what the BigCos were doing. Time for a new route-around coming soon?”
June 27 at 11:24 pm - Link
FriendFeed, for now, seems to working well as long as you don't only follow the a-list. - Ray Grieselhuber
There is a risk in Friendfeed that you will only ever see the comments of a small subset of the FF population - interspersed with the odd Friend of... who may make it "In" - Rooms has the potential to widen the gene pool but sticking to the friends tab can definitely limit the number of names you will see... - David W
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I don't feel a need to reinvent the web inside of F