I have spent more than 2,000 hours in friendfeed. I have clicked "like" on 15,822 items. I have commented on 8,048 items. That is a HUGE investment in time (I've been blogging a lot less over the past year). These new search features bring HUGE benefits. I will discuss why here. - Robert Scoble

Clearly the main reason is to find things that you posted/liked in the last. - David Wilson

First, the new search features are discussed over on friendfeed blog here: http://blog.friendfeed.com/2009... - Robert Scoble

1. Now you can search based on number of comments an item got. So, I can search for all items that contain the word "Obama," for instance, but I can tell it to only show me items with 10 likes or more. THIS IS HUGE because it shows which items got HUGE engagement. Here is that search: http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

Wow, I didn't even notice that. Very useful. - David Wilson

Ability to refine searches for comments is a killer app. - Mike Nayyar

Hmm, does it actually let you search for a user's name/handle in the comments/content of an item, without giving you a load of "$PERSON liked this" results, even when their name/handle don't appear in the content or any attached comments? - Tyson Key

How close are we to being able to hide based on the criteria? - Brian Sullivan

Close... so... close. If we could create that search and have it form a real-time feed... that would do it for me. Historical search with the ability to follow the search in real time. - Brian Roy

2. Now you can search based on numbers of "likes" an item got. For instance, now I can say show me all items with "netbooks" in the title that have 10 or more likes. This is HUGE because it removes all noise and shows only items that got a lot of interest from the community. Here's that search: http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

Awesome! Makes Friendfeed less noisy to me. I agree some search fine-tuning would be nice. Still, this helps a lot. - Pam Baker

2,000 hours jeez they should pay you - andy brudtkuhl

Brian: yeah, I want real-time views into this data. That is a prerequisite to "track." Also, I need RSS feeds from these searches that I can shove into a room. I can't figure out how to do either of those two things. - Robert Scoble

I must be a dummy. I can't find how to do that on the site. However, I did read on the blog that it exists. How do I get to it? - Francine Hardaway

This can really cut down the noise in a search. For example, here's a search for items that mention the Steelers and only contain comments with the word towel. And you could also do the reverse. Cool. http://friendfeed.com/search... - Tom Landini

Andy: I'm pretty sure it is actually a lot more than 2,000 hours. I'm on friendfeed almost every minute I'm awake and not doing something else. - Robert Scoble

I didn't see it anywhere... sadly. I'm also looking to see if these advanced searches are supported by the API... if they are it is a boon for applications that swarm to subjects/topics. - Brian Roy

OK, I'm totally liking the new search features...Now I can finally see who's shouted out to me in posts without getting a lot of "Robert Scoble" noise in the results. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

Aah, to answer my own question, the intitle: attribute seems to do the trick, cool. - Tyson Key

i still dont like "likes", but its an interesting idea to search what you want.. - Terry O'Fee

3. You can search for times a specific person has written something. For instance, I can now see how many times Bret Taylor has written the word "bacon" in one of his titles: http://friendfeed.com/search... By doing this I learned that Bret wrote the word "sex" twice as often as he wrote "bacon." :-) http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

Francine - just hit search with nothing in the box... that takes you to advanced search. - Brian Roy

robert - just don't type "mona" and "bacon" - the search will take days,,, - Terry O'Fee

The other day I was trying to search for your video on how to use ff. I wanted to share it with someone who is new here. But, I couldn't find it. I had to go to your site to find it. When I saw the title of your post, I realized why my search might have missed it. I don't know if these changes would have made a difference, but any improvement is welcomed in my book! I'm going to try it again and see if the changes help. - Michael Fidler

You get to the advanced search here: http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

Terry: Here's a search for "bacon" but from Mona's feed with two or more likes: http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

I love it, you can search just specific services, too. Like JUST TWITTER!! Check this out, these are all my tweets that have 20 or more likes: http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

very cool thanks for sharing Robert... Also of note you can grab the RSS feed from the search results (via Firefox addr bar only so far) - this is cool for those of you like me who use search subscriptions for research - andy brudtkuhl

and FF is so well indexed in google. yesterday I talked about backtype in italian and after few hours was already the 5th result searching "backtype" in that language - ezekiel

Terry: likes are metadata that you can use to improve your searches. Now you can see why people who are noisy on "liking" things are only hurting themselves. - Robert Scoble

Michael F makes a good point. I struggle with finding stuff I have liked or commented on before. I hope the new search function helps with that. - Amani

On a search for SEO if this was useful, I would end up with a list of posts similar to the Semmys finalists (though those are still personal preference). However I get http://friendfeed.com/search... which isn't exactly useful unless I wanted every conversation on FF that included the acronym - probably worse results than a potential Scobleizer post about lawnmowers ending up ranking in Google - Andy Beard

Here's a cool search. It shows you ALL items from EVERYONE that has gotten five likes and two comments (or more): http://friendfeed.com/search... - Robert Scoble

Robert: to get an RSS feed, append &format=atom to the end of the url after doing a search - Daniel Sims

Andy, to search for a term in only the entry title, use "intitle:", e.g. – http://friendfeed.com/search... - Dan Hsiao

Dan - so that means the API works too... hmmm wonder if that URL is rate limited. - Brian Roy

frienfeed is the next (social) search engine and these new features are a new big step to the right direction... - Simone Lovati

robert - ive noticed that the people who get "likes" are usually the ones who mass spam likes to everyone else... - Terry O'Fee

It worked! I can see what your talking about Robert. You have a lot of content here, but I found the post of yours I was looking for with relative ease:-) http://is.gd/ihXV - Michael Fidler

Terry: if you use a combination of "likes" and "comments" you can dramatically filter out a lot of noise. - Robert Scoble

you have a lot more people though, robert.... - Terry O'Fee

My first comment ever on FriendFeed. I cannot figure this place out yet. I'm sure it is wonderful though. - Hummie

Stick with it Hummie! - andy brudtkuhl

Once you can create a feed from the search results and make an imaginary friend for that feed then search will become useful for me. Of if you could search on a certain criteria and get the results sent to gtalk in realtime (aka track) will it be useful for me. Right now it is helpful but not of great use for me. - J Allen

Wow, I have more comments made than you? Wouldn't have guessed that. Yes, it is indeed an investment and this is very good news, Robert. - Josh Haley

"Also, I need RSS feeds from these searches that I can shove into a room." This would be a huge feature. It would really up the ante in creating useful rooms. - Doug Hudiburg

To get an RSS feed of any FriendFeed search result, just append "&format=atom" (without the quotes) to the end of the URL. Violå! :-) - Josh Bancroft

wow ! @Josh Bancroft, youre the man !!! just what i need !! it works !! - Rocky

@Josh thank you! - Alfredo 亜瑠布れっど

This is just so cool. FF rocked before, now it's just plain awesome :) - Nicola Quinn

I thought of you when I read FF blog yesterday: that's what you were asking when we met in Barcelona! - Jordi Soler