There was a lot of chatter about the future of FriendFeed this weekend. The short answer is that the team is working on a couple of longer-term projects that will help bring FriendFeedy goodness to the larger world. Transformation is not the end. Consider this the chrysalis stage -- if all goes well, a beautiful butterfly will emerge :)
Noticed the "leaked" Facebook UI screenshots and the groups blog post today, and both seem FriendFeed inspired: nice to see Facebook trying to bring the stuff we like about FriendFeed to a larger audience.
- Mark Trapp
Devil is in the details: "couple of longer-term projects that will help bring FriendFeedy goodness to the larger world" == Facebook projects with FriendFeed-like elements == no work on FriendFeed itself.
- EricaJoy
Paul, FriendFeed rocks as Gmail does ;)
- Orlando Pozo
Thanks for the update, the more you communicate, the less we have to speculate.
- Peter Hoffmann
The fact that these improvements are coming to Facebook and not friendfeed will not sway those who like friendfeed but dislike Facebook.
- Alex Scoble
Thank you Paul for bringing "FriendFeed goodness to the larger world" -- THAT sounds awesome!!
- Susan Beebe
But we knew this was the deal the moment the full details of the purchase of friendfeed by Facebook became public.
- Alex Scoble
Yeah, I don't give a crap about Facebook. I want to know about FriendFeed.
- Rochelle
Is it the interface people dislike about Facebook or the people they're friends with on Facebook? I can imagine being able to import all your subscribers from FriendFeed and have them in a separate group that doesn't interact with other groups you may have on Facebook.
- Cristo
I'm glad to hear this. I prefer FriendFeed to Facebook any day of the week.
- Nathan Clayton
And the answer for me would be some of both. I have real life friends and family that I don't necessarily want to get into the same discussions with as I do with people here.
- Cristo
And there's your answer, Rochelle. friendwho? friendwhat now? Oh, you mean Facebook! (No I mean friendfeed) friendwho? (rinse, lather, repeat)
- Alex Scoble
there are some ui differences (and i tend to prefer friendfeed in those cases) but i have friended quite a few FF people in FB and the experience is remarkably similar in many ways.
- Jason Wehmhoener
Another big difference is I don't think you get the same FOAF interaction on Facebook as on FriendFeed.
- Cristo
I like the "chrysalis stage" analogy - sounds cool.... goes an looks for FF goodness butterfly!
- Susan Beebe
Good to know that FriendFeed still has some fight left; hope that translates into a viable and sustainable platform/utility for the masses (though I quite enjoy the close-knit, uber-geek community that it's become).
- Christian
I don't like the chrysalis analogy. The butterfly emerges from the chrysalis and buggers off leaving the shell. Of course, it might then also get eaten by a bird. Tweet, tweet.
- Mark H
Note that he didn't say that FriendFeed.com was going away, only that they're diverted to bringing it to a much larger audience
- Jesse Stay
The problem is Scoble (Robert) and MG both just sent half of FriendFeed away so most of those that would benefit from this announcement won't even see it.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, I didn't get that from Paul's comment. I read that some of the friendfeed ideas will be going into FB. I like that idea, but I still prefer FF to FB because of the different conversations here that I don't have with friends and family.
- Travis Koger
from iPhone
Yeah, Paul's statement won't help friendfeed. This will just either give people more reason to go to Facebook or find another service entirely.
- Alex Scoble
What Alex and Rochelle said. This sounds like a "we're bringing FF to Facebook" announcement, and I don't give a damn about Facebook. I want to know what's happening HERE. And Cristo, both, but more the interface. I care about the friends I've made here, and I'm connected with many of them now on Facebook as well, but I prefer to interact with them here, because I like it better.
- Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
Travis, he didn't say that - you read that, but he didn't say that. I'm willing to bet FriendFeed.com will not go away.
- Jesse Stay
As much as I agree about Scoble and MG driving people away, they have also effectively flush out some comment from the FF team.
- Travis Koger
from iPhone
Travis, there are better ways of getting the FF team to comment
- Jesse Stay
I think it's the opposite, the butterfly is becoming this crawling caterpillar :)
- Jorge Escobar
Oh I don't think FF will go away, and damn will hope it doesn't either!
- Travis Koger
from iPhone
What I do see is more Facebook integrated into the FriendFeed environment - I think that's a good thing
- Jesse Stay
The critical difference between Facebook and FriendFeed is the social model. With Facebook as it is today, you need to be mutual friends to see each others content. There is a "fan page" model but it is oriented toward "publishing/celebrity" rather than information sharing. FriendFeed has an asymmetric model like Twitter, where you can easily discover someone's content without any "friend" gesture whatsoever, and you can follow without friending. This makes the converation more discoverable, and useful..
- Adina Levin
If the integration is bringing public/asymmetric to Facebook, then it will be very useful indeed. If the integration is to add FriendFeed-style service integration into the symmetric/private Facebook model, it will be much less useful - it's more of the same - I'll be able to more easily share updates from youtube or last.fm or delicious to my friend network, but be unable to discover new people and infomation.
- Adina Levin
Adina: And unless Facebook goes radically toward that model, it won't suffice for me. I could not care less about their upcoming redesigns.
- Christopher A Carr
@Jesse - I can't see any sign that they are working on FriendFeed at all. All the indications are that the FF team is now working on Facebook, and only Facebook. That's great for Facebook, and I'm sure they will do wonderful work there. But don't delude yourself that FriendFeed is going to get anything more than critical fixes, and maybe the occasional thing done in someone's spare time.
- Nick Lothian
Butterflies look totally different than caterpillars and they also fly away
- Melanie Reed
+100 Adina. The things I like best about FriendFeed (easy content/people discovery, FoaF, asymmetrical following and being followed) are completely opposite to Facebook's core model. That's why as much as people keep talking about Facebook adding FF-like features, I don't see the REAL FF core features making it over, because the mindset is different.
- Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
I don't see this announcement as anything new, or as reassuring. We knew from the time of the acquisition that there would be would be some movement of FF capabilities into FB. The real question is whether this means absorption of FF into FB or attracting the FB user base into FF. The comment about "bring[ing] FriendFeedy goodness to the larger world" still leaves that question open.
- John (a.k.a. dendroica)
+1 everything Alex Scoble has said. Friendwhat? What's a feed? Who uses RSS anymore? We've got PubSubWTFOMGBBQ now!
- Mr. Gunn
Nick, Paul just said they're working on other projects right now. That still doesn't mean FriendFeed is going away. I'm not deluding myself at all. I'm telling everyone else they're deluding themselves by assuming it's going away. All the FriendFeed team is still using FriendFeed, and Paul just tried to give us comfort not to worry. For some reason we all don't want to believe him. It's actually kind of amusing.
- Jesse Stay
I wonder what the powers that be mean by "FriendFeedy goodness"? Is it understood what WE like about it vs. FB?
- Amy℠
Paul - Wishing you all the best as you tend your new butterfly garden :) I'll be here to enjoy them!
- Susan Beebe
Jesse: "For some reason we all don't want to believe him." <-- Don't want to believe what? He didn't really say anything.
- Christopher A Carr
This is not the news that Friendfeed fans were looking for.
- Raphael, Raphael
The issue isn't belief that they are going to do something. The question is what they are going to do, and whether that will continue the core value of FriendFeed, which is not just information aggregation but discoverability.
- Adina Levin
I know more about the "Last Days" and heaven than I know about what's going to happen to FriendFeed as we have come to know it than was given in your rather cryptic answer, Paul. :) And while that may not be a fair comparison (God actually gave details and signs), there is something definitely not forthcoming about your response. A person usually withholds details that affect another...
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- Melanie Reed
Melanie, in other words, Paul works for a technology company in Silicon Valley that doesn't disclose future features, products, and services until they are ready.
- Cristo
Hopefully this helps to quiet all of the "friendfeed is dying" talk. Because this thread proves ff is alive and well.
- Garin Kilpatrick
@Jesse - I read it differently to you. To me, Paul is saying "We are taking what we were working towards on FriendFeed, and trying to bring that goodness to a bigger audience". No one is claiming they are going to shut down FF.
- Nick Lothian
@Jesse - Want to make a bet on the number of new features added to FF before the end of the year?
- Nick Lothian
You read my mind. Having seen a few acquisitions, I am wondering if FF staff was told to put the site in bugfix mode.
- EricaJoy
from IM
Cristo, to deliver some straightforward talk is not about giving away company details. If you have a product that is original and stands on its own, you don't need to refer to it as a "butterfly". Many companies even promote something new and upcoming especially to their loyal user base. It gives a signal. A proper one. It tells your users and future users enough so that they can make an informed decision about what they want to do instead of keeping them on tenderhooks
- Melanie Reed
"the chrysalis stage in most butterflies is one in which there is little movement" (via wikipedia) So if you follow that metaphor then eventually FriendFeed will go through a metamorphosis -- that means it's not dead... really how hard can it be to get what he's saying?
- Chris Heath
Its pretty hard :) The burning question is if they are putting FF goodness in to the walled gardens that are Facebook or are they bringing FF openness to FB too. I think the people here want the open forums that are FF not the closed ones that are FB. If FB is going hybrid with both walled gardens and open forums that would be OK too. People on FF want open forums... like Twitter and FF... without the crude interface that is Twitter and without the uncertainty that is FF now.
- Ed Millard
Facebook is gonna have to rip off much of the privacy to maximize their product in the real-time web world. I am going to assume FF goodness is going to be applied to FB :) *crosses fingers*
- Susan Beebe
Just a thought... why does "longer-term projects that will help bring FriendFeedy goodness to the larger world" JUST mean facebook.com? What I get from this is that they are working on a range of things, maybe bringing the FriendFeed sauce to a range of sites, powered by the Facebook back end. Who knows what that means. A FriendFeed service powered by FacebookConnect? Also to......
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- Johnny Worthington
FB needs to leave the privacy for the walled garden and the inner circle. Their current user base likes that. They just need a second feed that is an open forum and you can talk there without it bleeding in to your inner circle feed.
- Ed Millard
Seems like the inner circle is breaking down some now, what with parents and other relatives friending teenagers. I'm guessing the information posted on the walls these days is not as private. Is there a way on FriendFeed to limit what on your wall can be seen by particular people and groups?
- Cristo
Yes, but blocking doesn't work so well since you can just use Chrome's Incognito mode to get around it.
- Alex Scoble
Translation: if you haven't switche to Facebook yet, you better do it now so you can get a good vanity URL.
- David Chartier
from iPhone
I don't know what all the fuss is about. But could we have the long answer too, please?
- Laura Norvig
Although I'm interested, FB != FF. I don't see how the two mix in a way that makes me feel otherwise. Mixing audiences is not a good thing for me (with a few exceptions) and I know others share the same thought.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
Did anyone notice that Robert Scoble didn't comment on this thread? What does this mean? Does it mean Robert Scoble won't exist soon? He must be working on a Monday afternoon, no? ;)
- Cristo
Paul, will FF be here in 1 year, 5 years?
- Robert Higgins
Robert, will you and I be alive in 5 years?
- Cristo
Cristo I am funking nobody, I would like Paul to quantify his post. Simple. Will FF be here in 1 year? Will FF be here in 5 years?
- Robert Higgins
Robert, I was trying to make the point that he might not know and can't predict what will happen over time.
- Cristo
IMO friendfeed shoud attract more general audience... Facebook and twitter are having more general users. Most of the FF users are tech bloggers or those who needs aggregation services... I dont know it's just my feeling or not . but this is my impression on FF. but it's great service.. the features are too good... but we will roam were we meet our friends... thats most of the people are into twitter and FB.
- Sarath
Sarath, is there a place you can get away from tech bloggers? :)
- Cristo
Ohhhh a perrrttty butterfly, I'm moist with anticipation.
- sofarsoShawn
Cristo: i almost made the same observation an hour or two ago when i first read through this posting and its comments. I was skimming and kept seeing alex, alex, alex... and thinking to myself... where's Robert!?!
- Chris Heath
@Sarath - I have a lot more in common with the people I've met here on FriendFeed than FB or Twitter. Twitter is too hard to search, and FB (and Twitter to a good extent) is driven by the people you know in RL (and unfortunately I don't have nearly as much in common in RL with my family, co-workers and acquaintences as I do with people scattered all over the world who I have met on FF)....
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- Fa La La La Lindsay
I think that in his cryptic statement he means, and a lot of people here agree with me, that more Facebook's going to get more FriendFeedy. Which doesn't mean that FF still isn't dead or doomed. After all, he works for Facebook now. FriendFeed=open forum, Facebook=walled garden, totally opposite master metaphors; but I don't think Zuckerberg gets it, and FF belongs to Zuckerberg now. So this is really about FB; FF's still in limbo. Still, some FF people friended me at FB, and I put them in a special list.
- Dennis Jernberg
@FF-team keep on rocking :). BTW I also think it's really cool you guys open-sourced tornado.
- alfred westerveld
+1 what alfred said, and good to hear words like "longer-term" & "beautiful" coming straight from The Walrus - keep that vision strong. Hope all goes well for FF team doing some good re-inventing the Octopus Garden of FB - seems you've got your work cut out for you there! It would be so nice if any way to keep a "simple & pure" form of FriendFeed alive (maintained and developed - more open source?) for us to enjoy, but no worries .... you've simultaneously raised the bar and paved the way for the rest!
- Dan Freeman
Good luck with the development Paul! Hopefully Zuck has some positive insight.
- Garin Kilpatrick
Paul: If someone offered me a bag of money to do what you guys did, I would have done exactly the same (probably a lot faster too). However, it would be nice if you spent an hour answering some of the questions here. It might also give people like me a little more faith, in what used to be your primary project; Friendfeed. You made the best platform on the planet - why not use it to let us know what the heck's going on?
- Jim Connolly
I'm assuming that Facebook wants to keep their roadmap quiet. I respect that but leaving you community in the dark for a brand that the applications stand for community building is rather ironic.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
SUPER!! I don't Blame ya 1 Darn bit fer Dumpin' FacePOOP Paul!! ;PPP Wait FacePOOP is the Maggot Stage!! ;))
- Billy Warhol
If I can still have all my friends that I have here on friendfeed and share things with them the exact same way, I don't care what "www" address I have to type in to get it. I just hope i don't have to give up any of FF's awesome features! Thanks for the update Paul!
- David Cook
The problem is I don't know whether to wrote an app on your API or not because i'm not sure whether it will all be dropped in the "transformation". Imagine speding late nights and weekends coding something up only for it to be dropped suddenly. Need a decent long term picture. Looking at Cliqset.
- Steven Livingstone-Pérez
Good point Steven - and one of the reasons many of us are spending so little time developing our networks here.
- Jim Connolly
This is a truly disappointing/concerning post and I think it would have been much better to hold comment until something more tangible could be discussed. Thanks for adding to the confusion/drama Paul.
- Nicholas Kreidberg
I do care about what happens next, but this is the best news of the day nonetheless ! thanks for giving us updates at last ! and I do hope FF will awaken again ! such a great tool, but letdown since the announcement of the buyback by FB
- laetSgo
will I see this post in my "best of week" email from FF?
- Kirill Bolgarov
If Facebook is going to get fixed, please remember that it needs fixing politically, not just technically. It needs to give people the option to open their data to Google - for instance. A walled garden where the walls are fixed in place sucks.
- Tim Tyler
@Paul, or perhaps an Alien will erupt forth from its stomach? (kidding, kidding!)
- j1m
From The New York Times: ARTSBEAT: Dan Brown's 'Lost Symbol' Sells 1 Million Copies in the First Day In its first day on sale, "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown sold more than 1 million copies in hardcover and e-book versions in the United States, Britain and Canada. http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009... Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes Regards, Sarath
- Sarath
from email
It's simply works great as we use our mail at office. Also setup was pretty easy!
- Sarath
from iPod
mm i'm addin the product to my wishlist... :)
- Ragesh C
Why wishlist go for it. But remember if you need all these in phone iPhone is an option but what I heard htc and others having windows mobile variants at lower cost. Milia seems sucks I'm the matter of smart phones. Nokia n series and 5800 is sluggish and heaviest smart phone I ever came across!
- Sarath
from iPod
I'm struggling here. Do all my friends need to now subscribe to friendfeed so I can see their posts? That's a lot to ask. I want to pull my existing Facebook and Twitter contacts together here by default.
They can subscribe through friendfeed by taking your profile and subscribe. Also FF supports RSS, Facebook application and Google Gadget. (You can see this at the end of the page).
- Sarath
twitter, facebook and facebook links are supported in friendfeed. It's listed in the "Add/Edit Service under your settings link (See @ Right Top of your page)
- Sarath
ivide kanji kudiyanu :) its too costly to buy food from outside also only Japanese food. the other obvious choice are the international thattukadas like McDonald's and KFC :)
- Sarath
I am facing issues with cross posting to twitter. I removed and added my twitter service again to sort out the issue. I think it's the problem with twitter authentication to friendfeed. I have enabled posting friendfeed entries to twitter by default. Is there anything missing?
@Coach Rahsheen - I updated it. sorry it was a typo.
- Sarath
Um, I've shared how to fix this to Kol. Let me search for the link.
- Pandu ● IT Optimizer
Darn, can't find it. I'll try to recall it from memory. Here goes:
- Pandu ● IT Optimizer
(1) From Settings > Twitter publishing preferences, click Sign Out. (2) Sign out from FF *and* Twitter. (3) Clear cache. (4) Sign in to Twitter. (5) Sign in to FF. (6) Sign in to Twitter from FF (you may be asked to click Allow). (7) Re-check the settings in Settings > Twitter publishing preferences
- Pandu ● IT Optimizer
( Oh... how I wish I had linebreak and basic formatting when I typed the above :-/ )
- Pandu ● IT Optimizer
Same problem here, thanks Pandu for listing steps to get thanks back to working again. Now there seems to have been problems refreshing several other feeds. Has anybody else encountered this issue?
- lelapin
Pandu thx ,i made that and I got a msg that my account cant be validate
- Johni Fisher
I made it again and now all went well but I am not getting the twitter feed
- Johni Fisher
@lelapin: Other feeds? You mean, FF is not pulling in updates from e.g., a blog?
- Pandu ● IT Optimizer
@Johni: Ah, that's something new. I think you have to (1) Sign out of Twitter from within FF, (2) delete your Twitter account from within FF, (3) Sign out of FF, (4) Clear cache, (5) Sign in to Twitter, (6) Sign in to FF, (7) Add your Twitter account, then steps (6) & (7) above
- Pandu ● IT Optimizer
I made it all in few versions but FF is not working well ----- its not all the users but some are not getting feeds ,more over where is FF ppl ? WHY NO ONE IS HERE ?
- Johni Fisher
"Why would you want touch when you could get some perfectly capable, $99 piece of crap running Windows from Motorola that does web, music, and email?"
- Sarath
from Bookmarklet
better google takes up firefox development. we dont need firefox and chrome. a Firefox with chromes simplicity, lightweight and security
- Sarath
from Bookmarklet
I'm using Facebook in these days for Microblogging. So my updates will be properly received to all my social network through - friendfeed-twitter etc. without friends feed it's really hard do these cross posting.
- Sarath
Hahahah! Posting to Facebook caused a new thread to start. Duplication. I am evil. Here's the original thread, it'd be better to post/like/share/comment/hate/hide/edit this one: http://friendfeed.com/scoblei...
- Robert Scoble
Ok, this is priceless Robert. I am getting a screenshot.
- Sid Burgess
Happy birthday to the most wittiest, engaging, empathic and helpful kid I know. You're the best daughter anyone could ever hope for and we are proud of all of your accomplishments. We can't wait to see what surprises you'll give us in the coming year. We love you.
- Admiral Anika
from Bookmarklet
Many many happy return of the day, Ilia! :)
- vijay
She's so sweet. I went to make breakfast and see we only have 2 eggs left. I was going to make her a birthday omelet. She said, 'You can have the eggs mama since you're bigger. I'll have birthday cereal." Awwww.
- Admiral Anika
Pretty Girl! Ya'll should come back to Jamaica soon, Happy Birthday Llia!
- Gordon Swaby
Gordon, I would love to take her to Jamaica. I show her photos and since she's a big Elephant Man & Bob Marley fan (don't ask), she would be thrilled to go to the birthday place of reggae.
- Admiral Anika
This little girl's charm and charisma oozes from pictures and her eyes are so wise, kind, and breathtaking. Annika - she's going to change the world!
- Mona Nomura
from fftogo
I showed her this entry on my phone earlier today. She asked me about the blue (links to your names) under the photo. I said, "Those are the people wishing you happy birthday." And she said, "Aw, FriendFeed is so friendly. That's probably why they picked that name. We should invite them all over for my birthday party. "
- Admiral Anika
She sounds so amazing. And how proud you must be! But don't forget, children are reflections of their parents, too. ;)
- Mona Nomura
from fftogo
Mona believe me when I say, she didn't get any of those traits from me. Well, except the witty part. ;) She reminds me more of my grandmother who was awesome.
- Admiral Anika
Anika - as much you may deny or roll your eyes at my cheese, you are (or can be) open, warm, and welcoming. You pay attention to and interact with anyone and everyone that interacts with you. Thatmakes me think she's picked up a lot of her amazingness from you, dude. Now don't EVEN get me started on the flaws! (had to toss that in to counter the mush. Ha)
- Mona Nomura
from fftogo
"The vmToolkit web site provides you with tools and utilities to make managing virtualization platforms easier. Our tools are targeted at the IT worker, administrator or developer who is using or experimenting with virtualization technologies day to day."
- Sarath
from Bookmarklet
"The Countermove: when told “We don’t have time” by a project manager or co-worker, the best questions to ask are: What is (your) time being used for? How was this decided? What were the goals of this use of time? Can I explain why my idea is a better use of time towards those goals?"
- Sarath
from Bookmarklet
Tuesday marked the official unveiling of Bluetooth Core Specification Version 3.0 + High Speed (HS), the next iteration of the personal area networking technology.
- Sarath
from Bookmarklet
In the summer of 2006, I upgraded about 80% of my company's computers to Macs; we're a design agency, and so most people wanted Macs anyway. I kept hearing about their strengths - how the OS never crashed, how it just worked, how you don't need to reboot every day - and dismissed them as blind lust from googly-eyed Apple enthusiasts.
- Sarath
from Bookmarklet
"Why would Google want Twitter? We’ve been arguing for some time that Twitter’s real value is in search. It holds the keys to the best real time database and search engine on the Internet, and Google doesn’t even have a horse in the game"
- Sarath
from Bookmarklet