"Can the skateboarding English bulldog Tillman outperform the giant schnauzer Kenji and avoid expulsion from the Canine Academy?
That Mr. Cutler has gone from the White House to the Dog House with his coming CBS reality show, “Greatest American Dog,” should not signal the decline of his career" - Robert Seidman via Bookmarklet
"Their latest project, and their first set outside of Baltimore, is “Generation Kill,” a seven-part mini-series that will have its premiere next Sunday. Based on the 2004 book of the same name by Evan Wright, a Rolling Stone reporter embedded with a Marine battalion, the series follows a group of marines as they race, crawl, shoot and wisecrack their way north through Iraq. The show’s portrayal of the marines and the invasion, as seen from Mr. Wright’s seat in a bullet-riddled Humvee, was spot-on to me, a reporter who had been embedded with a different Marine unit during the same weeks in March 2003." - Robert Seidman via Bookmarklet
"Felt it was our duty to give you a quick update on the struggles of the San Francisco Giants' starting pitcher Barry Zito -- he of the 3-12 record for the 2008 season and the seven-year, $126 million dollar contract.
[Wince.]" - Robert Seidman via Bookmarklet
UPDATE! = Holy crap, Zito recovered from his rocky start to strikeout 10 (his highest amount as a Giant), and last seven innings. Then the Giants ground out some actual run support (I know!!!), keyed by a Randy Winn 2-out 2-strike chopper that scurried through the center of the Dodger infield. In the 8th/9th, tattooed Giants closer Brian Wilson slammed the door, reaching 100 MPH on his fastball in the process. Well, hell-yeah! What do y' know! A rousing win. And to think that the game started so ickily... it feels good to be proven wrong! - Robert Seidman
“I was curious how Google ranked various sites, so very unscientifically I did a search for my Piedmont 4th of July parade photos yesterday. My blog showed up first, then FriendFeed, then Pownce, then Flickr, Twitter has yet to be indexed by Google. http://tinyurl.com/59nckt ”
If Google indexed Twitter, it would get overloaded. There's a shitload of Tweets already...that's why I have a tweet digest posted each day on my blog. - J.T Dabbagian
I think Google still gives enormous rank to blogs compared to social networks. It still amazes me how easily a blogger can simply include someone's name in a headline and unless that person is famous or has a common name, easily get that post listed on the first page Google search results for their name. That's pretty powerful. It also seems like FF content is getting very highly ranked by Google. - Thomas Hawk
but J.T. Google *does* index Twitter, at least theoretically. - Thomas Hawk
Google absolutely does index Twitter. http://www.google.com/search?s... (over 6 million pages indexed!) This is the main reason that spammers have targeted Twitter. - Mike Doeff
@Thomas Yes, but I think only in the Blogs, anyway. - J.T Dabbagian
Thomas - "seems like FF content is getting very highly ranked by Google." - why would it not ?? the whole system has been built by ex-googlers and they know the in-nerds of goog's pigeons holes and s/be knowing some of the core algo's too !! Anyhoot, back 2 da pint - the search within FF , gets better quality results then on google.. not sure the reasons, but I can get /gather/verfify content better with FF then with google. - Peter Dawson
Peter, I'd posit that FriendFeed is building the world's first true socially ranked search engine, albeit kinda stealthy and masquerading as a social content aggregation toy for the time being. FriendFeed is doing what Yahoo was never able to hobble together in social search. You just watch, the "by product" of search will be the most valuable component of FriendFeed in the end. This is why I'm totally surprised that MSFT is screwing around with $100mm on Powerset when they really should be watching FF. - Thomas Hawk
FF could build a better search engine than Google in the end. Google of course is very likely paying attention to what FF is doing. But what FF is doing flies in the face of what Google holds to be true, sacred, etc, that humans might produce better search results than algorithms and machines. Flickr's already proven proof of concept though with image search. FF's just taking the next step that Yahoo never could and that isn't politically defensible inside the walls of Google. - Thomas Hawk
Thomas - "why I'm totally surprised that MSFT is screwing around with $100mm on Powerset when they really should be watching FF." - After being part of a team of M&A in an F50 arena, I can't agree more. However, I am not privy to the MSFT Fund deployment strategies, so I can't say a yea or nay to your comments. However, MSFT with FF ./ bad karma.. will not work out. With the rest, I believe we are on same page status wrt "world's first true socially ranked search engine, " - Peter Dawson
@Thomas - Bold statements. I always find a mix works best. You need the human element and you need the objective computer element. The FF Founders have taken the lessons they've learned from Google and poured them into the FriendFeed machine. Now they're taking those lessons a few steps further. - Ben Parr
Peter, MSFT would rather try to buy FF for $500mm when *everyone* realizes what they've got. MSFT is horrible at getting into interesting social technology early. They should have bought Flickr when Scoble told them to before Yahoo did. Flickr was one of the great steals of the decade. Nobody with any authority inside of MSFT is even watching or paying attention to FF and likely won't be until they are huge. - Thomas Hawk
Powerset can't even produce interesting wikipedia search returns, obviously insiders know more about the deal than I do, but I'm flabbergasted by it. Here very early on FF already has very powerful *real* search here and now today. Just you wait until a year of content is under the belt at FF. Search will be damn impressive here. - Thomas Hawk
Thomas if I know MSFT they might have considered it but some engineer probably killed it by saying "I could build that in a week." Or, Dare might have blogged that small acquisitions won't do anything. - Robert Scoble
Thomas, I'd submit Google is quite scientific in this. FriendFeed doesn't even need to use "insider-ish" info to do good SEO. The "title" of a page is a very high priority to Google (common knowledge). The title of your page on FriendFeed is "Thomas Hawk - FriendFeed". The title of your page on Flickr is "Flickr: Thomas Hawk's Photostream". Both FriendFeed and Flickr prioritize both user AND brand, but FriendFeed puts your name first. - Robert Seidman
Ben, yes, a mix. Social search can't be a complete solution. But where it has content it can be vastly superior and this represents a *huge* chunk of the search market still. The more obscure something is the more difficult it is for social search. And actually while FF founders know Google very very well. The lesson on social search first came from Flickr, therein lies the proof of concept and potential to go beyond images. - Thomas Hawk
Robert, you are exactly right. MSFT just doesn't get early tech. They never have. If they were smart they'd set up their own venture fund with about $500 million and hire someone like you to help them find interesting things to buy -- the problem is MSFT won't think like a VC and nobody at MSFT wants to take responsibility for the ones that don't work out in order to get the winners. Everybody's playing CYA as career corporate executives. - Thomas Hawk
helps when you worked at google and know all the secret juice , - fotographic
Thomas, "Everybody's playing CYA" , oh yeah dude, that's a part of the protocol of engagement regardless of YHOO,/ MSFT. GOOGs or another ticker symbol. The Coriporate world is fragmented within i's 4 walls itself. RIight hand know'th not what the left hand'th doe'th. syndrome. The cohesive of culture that transcends wealth in $$ value is just not there. Da business silo's are not geared towards the outside and to the customer. This is saddness within these large corporations,{.. cont'ed..] - Peter Dawson
"[cont'ed..].."This is saddness within these large corporations, they have much to offer in terms of really giving to their users. However the greed of wealth transcends that givingness.. and its rather what it for me , rather what's in it for my userland !! - Peter Dawson
Yes, socnets do get massive SEO power. Now Google your blog title, name, etc. and see all the Twitter, YouTube, Pownce, etc. links come up, whatever you have a profile on. - Steven E. Streight
"“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem,” Albert Camus wrote, “and that is suicide.” How to explain why, among the only species capable of pondering its own demise, whose desperate attempts to forestall mortality have spawned both armies and branches of medicine in a perpetual search for the Fountain of Youth, there are those who, by their own hand, would choose death over life?" - Robert Seidman via Bookmarklet
I just watched this great movie... "He Was a Quiet Man" with Christian Slater and William h. Macy. made me think of it. Unfortunately this article is another argument against gun ownership. What the article fails to understand is free will. Perhaps the writer should be reading Fyodor M Dostoevsky's "Grand Inquisitor". Free Will is a burden and I'll take it - Noah David Simon
"“At the risk of stating the obvious,” Seiden said, “people who attempt suicide aren’t thinking clearly. They might have a Plan A, but there’s no Plan B. They get fixated. They don’t say, ‘Well, I can’t jump, so now I’m going to go shoot myself.’ And that fixation extends to whatever method they’ve chosen. They decide they’re going to jump off a particular spot on a particular bridge, or maybe they decide that when they get there, but if they discover the bridge is closed for renovations or the railing is higher than they thought, most of them don’t look around for another place to do it. They just retreat.” " - RAPatton
"She remembers feeling a moment of intense pain and then nothing else for a long time. Her next memory is of her husband, standing over her and screaming, “What have you done?” and the sound of an approaching ambulance. She found she could speak, but all she kept saying over and over was: “I don’t want to die. Please, I don’t want to die.”
" - RAPatton
"“What was immediately apparent,” Rosen recounted, “was that none of them had truly wanted to die. They had wanted their inner pain to stop; they wanted some measure of relief; and this was the only answer they could find. They were in spiritual agony, and they sought a physical solution.” " - RAPatton
i do believe some people truly want to die. - edythe
In a given moment I am certain many do, and all it takes is one moment and the means. I think the article showed if the mean were not there during those moments people did not seek out new means, and instead let the moment pass. - RAPatton
just to be precise I think the article illustrated that if the means were not there only a small minority sought out other means. Also the article seemed to exclude cases like Hunter S. Thompson's. - Robert Seidman
whatever your opinion is... some of us will fluctuate on issues of life and it is important that we are given as many options of freedom as possible. Finding statistical reasons to restrict freedom is a VERY SLIPPERY SLOPE! - Noah David Simon
“does anyone know where the post from fred wilson is where he discusses startups getting acquired and basically become stagnant after that? i cant find it! thx”
Thanks Robert - I think it's newer than that. - Allen Stern
Bjorn you don't think that Youtube and Flickr have become stagnant after being acquired? Esp. flickr. - Allen Stern
Nah, they (Flickr) added video, and their photo management tools are great. They have decent desktop tools, and a great API. A lot of this happened after being acquired I imagine. - Bjorn Tipling
Youtube is constantly improving their viewer, and their api is pretty awesome also. - Bjorn Tipling
Allen, I read Fred religously and that's the only one I could come up with. From the post: "Except I am also a user of these services. I see what happens when a company gets purchased. The service languishes. The team leaves. It stops getting better. And often gets worse. And so even though I am happy to take the money, I am left wondering, frankly wishing, if there is a better way." - Robert Seidman
dangit - i need that link for a post im about to post - oh well - i will add it as soon as i find it or someone shoots it over - crap :) - Allen Stern
YouTube seems to be a classic example.. suddenly it looks dead. - Muthu Ramadoss
ok robert, i will use that link but im not sure its it but maybe it is it - thanks - Allen Stern
"Feeling a little bored during this long weekend? Fireworks, barbecue and HD TV shopping trips haven’t left you satisfied? Then how about a few juicy statistics about file sharing, video streaming and one click hosters? Sounds exciting? Well, you’re definitely a geek, but a lucky one too: The German traffic management company Ipoque just made it’s Internet Study 2007, which previously cost around 300 USD, available as a free download." - Robert Seidman via Bookmarklet
"Everybody loves the Pirate Bay. There are few things that bring people from all around the world together, and the Pirate Bay’s BitTorrent tracker server seems to be one of them. It’s by far the most popular in all regions monitored by Ipoque." - Robert Seidman
"“One to Nine” offers a different model for teaching math — discursive rather than linear, topical rather than abstract and remote, and, above all, manically energetic rather than repetitive and plodding. The book is composed of nine chapters, each focused — very, very softly focused — on one of the first nine natural numbers." - Robert Seidman via Bookmarklet
from article: "I recently sat on a panel where a big topic of discussion was: Can we reach television-sized audiences using online video? The answer is, unequivocally, yes" - Robert Seidman via Bookmarklet
"AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France -- Renault SA Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said Saturday the company is getting ready to mass produce electric cars to offset rising energy prices." - Robert Seidman via Bookmarklet
Susan Harmon, his wife of 29 years, indicated Harmon was the perfect fit for Bozo.
"He was the most optimistic man I ever met. He always saw a bright side; he always had something good to say about everybody. He was the love of my life," she said Thursday. - Robert Seidman via Bookmarklet
100% agree. I struggled over whether to share the pic or not and having done so regretted it! - Robert Seidman
Our local station Bozo looked much less... cannibalistic and Itish - Michael W. May via twhirl
Dang you Michael - you caused me to Google Pennywise since i couldn't quite remember what he looked like in the miniseries version of It. Bozo is much happier and doesn't have the sharp teeth. Don't click this link unless you're clown nightmare proof: http://www.razorapple.com/wp-c... - Robert Seidman
My wife thinks I'm a perfect Bozo, too. ;-) - Tom Landini
murder I say! anyone ever see, "Meet the Friedmans"? - Noah David Simon
Jason if you haven't already you need to get the friendfeed bookmarklet: http://friendfeed.com/share/bo... that way you can include a thumbnail of the image on FriendFeed when you share items like this. - Robert Seidman
Thanks, RS! I just grabbed the FF bookmarklet - Cheryl Allin
"As for us, we successfully argued in our MPAA case that we don't need to turn over your IP addresses as it is a violation of user privacy with no evidentiary value, and only turned over .torrent access logs in anonymized form. You may not like to hear that .torrent logs are being turned over, but the truth is we were ordered to do so and that the MPAA does need anonymous logs to prove their frivolous lawsuit." - Louis Gray via Bookmarklet
Another interesting view on the Google/Viacom case. - Louis Gray
::sigh: From Podtropolis (sister site of isoHunt): Note that tracker.podtropolis.com has blocked access from US visitors, until further notice. This is due to the US's hostility towards P2P technologies, and we feel with our current lawsuit brought by the MPAA, we can no longer ensure your security and privacy in the US. - Robert Seidman
That's exactly right. This is why it annoys me to see people blame the Viacom thing on Google. The problem is that our legal system does not respect privacy and is controlled by the MPAA and pals. Google not storing IP addresses won't help you one bit when they scan your laptop or iPod at the airport. - Paul Buchheit
@Paul, encryption is for my laptop, and using it is my choice. It doesn't mean Google should be oblivious when it comes to things that they can control. There are at least two sources of data that should be private, and I can take care of my end on my own. Google not storing IP addresses helps keep the other source of data private. Helping is better than not doing anything, even though it may not prevent someone from getting the information they desire. - nadim
Paul, I definitely don't blame the Viacom thing on Google and think that people who do are missing the point. I might blame Google for not seeing this coming from 1000 miles away though and still buying YouTube anyway. - Robert Seidman
"As for us, we successfully argued in our MPAA case that we don't need to turn over your IP addresses as it is a violation of user privacy with no evidentiary value, and only turned over .torrent access logs in anonymized form." Why doesn't Google just do this? Maybe they could use this case as a precedent if the Judge doesn't get it. - nadim
Google can't just do whatever they want here nadim -- court orders are generally pretty serious things. The same thing goes for you and your encryption -- you may think that it makes you safe, but they can put you in a jail cell and keep you there until you unlock the encryption. A corrupt government is very dangerous, and the solution is to fight/fix it, not hide from it. - Paul Buchheit
I stand corrected. Steve, your right. Safari does NOT sync History. - Shane Robinson via twhirl
I use LaterLoop. I added the LaterLoop bookmarklet to Safari. When you sync the iPhone that bookmarklet still works for your LaterLoop account. When following gReader links to source sites, I LaterLoop them for easier reading on my desktop or even offline on my MBAir via FF and Gears. - Shane Robinson via twhirl
I use opera mini on my W610i in sync with my opera account. Shame i cant use the bookmarklet, sometimes i wonder why there is so much hype about this 3G Iphone,when most other phone at least in europe are all 3G,i'll wait for some cute android phone to move somewhere else ;-) - Ben Borges via fftogo
I use opera mini on my W610i in sync with my opera account. Shame i cant use the bookmarklet, sometimes i wonder why there is so much hype about this 3G Iphone,when most other phone at least in europe are all 3G,i'll wait for some cute android phone to move somewhere else ;-) - Ben Borges via fftogo
@SteveRubel, can you share the link? I can't find one that works... - David Weiner
One of the best things about using Safari. Everything syncs across multiples Macs & iPhone. - Tom Wentworth
Thanks, Steve. Try searching for it and see how much junk pops up! - David Weiner
Steve, is your iPhone jailbroken? If not, I failed the bookmarklet on the iPhone IQ test. How do I drag it to the iPhone safari browser's toolbar? And once I pass that test, how do I highlight text to share? - Robert Seidman
I can't get it to work on the iphone yet ... trying to do it manually. - David Weiner
Hopefully one day Mozilla will make this possible with Weave. - Aaron Myers
Add it to the non-iPhone Safari (my pc version) then sync. The toolbar shortcuts show up in a bookmark folder - mcwflint
@Robert @David My iPhone is not jailbroken, I bookmarked it first on my Mac then sync'ed it to my iPhone. Can't select text to include however images work fine. - Steve Rubel
Steve, do you use Google History? If you are logged into Google on both iphone safari and your desktop (or any browser), it tracks both. - Rex Hammock
That makes sense ... trying it now ... I was baffled for a second... - David Weiner
Testing that functionality now on my BB curve with Opera Mini 4.1 and the full browser - Christian Anderson
I can't get into Evernote. Reason - my life is centralized with Google. - Steve Rubel
selective photographic memory. Strangely, I can never find my keys - Robert Seidman
OneNote at work and when I'm in Vista. - Pete Gilbert
I put pretty much everything into Yojimbo for storage and retrieval and use OmniFocus for GTD. - Shane Robinson via twhirl
textedit on the mac. KISS (keep it simple stupid) and link to things on web - Noah David Simon
Evernote is really awesome for its ability to read words in photos. But my digital life over the past few years is already in Yojimbo. Trying to integrate Evernote slowly. - Shane Robinson via twhirl
I mainly use Google Docs for my notes, which is extremely handy. - possible248
Switched to Evernote for note-taking on my mac last year and never looked back. It's really an incredible app. Would love to see them take the image-recognition capability to the next level though and actually add the ability to output text from images AS text. (Right now you can only search terms that appear in business card snaps etc.) - Daniel Smith via twhirl
Textpad, simple text files, and dtSearch or Examine32 to instantly find and retrieve old notes. - Sean McBride
Seriously, pads of graph paper then xfer to OneNote if it's critical - Cheryl Allin
I use evernote as well. I like how I can sync with my phone. - Devin Anderson via fftogo
I use Notepad or good old pen and paper. I like writing things down. I have a work journal of sorts - putting pen to paper helps me commit items to memory. Just checked out evernote though, gonna try that one... - Sonciary Honnoll
Tinderbox for general note taking. MindManager for brainstorming and meeting notes. Evernote for collecting things from other sources. - Jack Baty
I used tiddlywiki for a while - in the process of switching to Evernote. - David Worrell
Mike - agree that Facebook has more... but FriendFeed doesn't need that stuff. Photos, discussions, blogs, events, etc all are "in" FriendFeed in the sense that you can see them and then go interact with the direct source (Upcoming, Flickr, etc). I prefer the distributed model myself, since the individual apps are of higher quality. - Patrick Lightbody
And...FriendFeed doesn't need those things because FriendFeed shouldn't be trying to *be Facebook*! :) - Mike Keliher via twhirl
Facebook without the embarassing pics. Well, unless you have them in Flickr... - Mark Dykeman
Good question Steve - it's emerging as my favorite social network. And I like geeks...hmmm. - Hutch Carpenter
I'd say info-junkies or convo-junkies over geek - Marco
still having difficulties moving people over to ff but once they do... they stay. info over visual- startling to some. - Nice Fish Films
Facebook is not an information mediium, Friendfeed is, so comparing the two doesn't make any sense - Deepak
I'm surprised that when people talk about FF, they don't mention Digg should be afraid. Right now FF provides more relevant links & info than Digg does and the comments are much better too. I would much rather spend my time here than Facebook or Digg. - Otto R. Radke
@Deepak - I guess it depends on how you are defining "information" - I think you could argue that both Facebook and FriendFeed are information mediums but Facebook is a parking lot to FriendFeed's freeway (or Nascar track I suppose, depending on your perspective on noise) - Marco
Two are for the most part different vehicles, just like FF and Twitter - Charlie Anzman
I would call FriendFeed IRC for Web 2.0 - J. Phil via fftogo
Nah, its kind of like Google Reader on Steroids with Twitter for comments???? - Roberto Bonini
Marco, if the information is people's birthday's yes Facebook is information, but I only use it to communicate (almost entirely with people I know), never to find new or interesting material. Friendfeed on the other hand is all about information. - Deepak
Great insight, Steve. I've been thinking for some time that FriendFeed is the stripped-down-for-performance version of Facebook. The Facebook news feed is, for me, its most appealing feature, and FriendFeed is a turbocharged news feed. However, I like facebook too -- it puts me in touch with a different group of people than Friendfeed does. - Mitch Wagner
Oooh! Yes it is!! The valley of links, the river of comments, the gathering services, etc makes FF Our blended Facebook... - George The Writer
we always want it to be black and white but it almost never is. Deepak, you're engaged enough here to communicate with people you don't know (as am I) so it can't be 100% about the information. I agree with both you and Marco because I think you both can be right in this case. - Robert Seidman
Tough for me to say. I could never stand Facebook. - Chris Baskind
That'll be more or less true until (if & when) it get's broader based adoption at which point all the geeks will bitch about it being too mainstream ... of course that assumes they haven't already jumped ship to some other service. - Clay Newton
geeks, nurds they can feel home with friendfeed, facebook is for the masses - Dobromir Hadzhiev
I am disappointed I have never been poked on FF. - Russellreno
If we can't separate ourselves from the proles with technology then what is the point? - Andy Wibbels
Robert, of course. Primary use would be a better choice of words. Of course, that's how I use it. I still can't see how anyone would use Facebook as a primary information resource - Deepak
FB is good for entertainement. FF not. We're not poked on FF. I think they are very different. On FB you see what people write on their superwall, on FF you see what people doing on the web. And what they doing for us is much interesting than what they want to show of us. - Hubert Guillaud via Alert Thingy
Facebook is heading in the direction of FriendFeed, slowly but surely. In combining the Wall and Mini-Feed with the tabbed profile update it will be a definite clone. Increase the number of stories/comments from ten and also the amount of imports and what have you got... - Joe Dawson
That presumes that FF content is all geek related, I'm finding that it's not, but I'm also following 1000+ people from a diverse range of backgrounds - Duncan Riley
FF is for geeks who sit all day with browser tabs open - the TechCrunch 53651 - Sean Kelly
I dont understand people who are saying they are using FF as their Main News Source...I tried hard..for weeks....and realized that 90% of the stuff really hapenning in the world is no covered in FF. FF is really completely focused on geek stuff. Take FF and social network related content out...you get 90% of the content out. - PF Thaler
For further clarification, geeks come in many flavors, I'd say these are social media geeks - Jeremiah Owyang
i want to block threads with the word facebook in it! - Dieter Schwarz
Dieter behave yourself or I will exercise my rights to being an Elitist and Block you! lol - Igor The Troll
FriendFeed has it's own element of virality that Facebook can't provide - I'd consider it an additional outlet - Jesse Stay via twhirl
I think FF is a Killer Application as long as they do not force Authority! We are all bunch of crazy nuts, who like to express ourselves! ;-) - Igor The Troll
There are some Twitter alternatives coming that use Google's App Engine - Louis Gray
agreed with the post as it applies to Twitter but maybe I am hung up on the multipurpose use of the term "microblogging". Are tumblr and posterus microblogs? FriendFeed? Are the architectures for those "wrong"? - Robert Seidman
It seems that the most difficult part about these new messaging services is that the architecture has to accommodate the ability to slice and dice the messages to create a unique stream based on friends. - Caleb Elston
Doesn't Jaiku use App Engine now? They seem to be having issues architecturally - Jesse Stay
"People weren't resting up, they were out having a good time with a known day off ahead of them! Even SYTYCD? lost 2+ million viewers (over 20%) over last week and those eyes will surely be back next week.
Nothing can be concluded from last night's numbers save perhaps that the networks could hardly be concerned with optimizing scheduling of fresh episodes of summer shows for a better night. The networks had to know viewing would be down, and clearly in the case of the 10pm hour the networks' response across the board was "meh"." - Robert Seidman
The only disappointing thing about these is that they're not available for delivery. If I want some, I should be able to call a number and have them delivered directly to my couch. - Louis Gray
That seems to hover somewhere between incredibly wonderful and incredibly nasty. - Trish Robinson
I just came up with a name for these: the Devil's Breakfast - Rubin
Louis, i'm not sure how well the donut buns will hold up after sitting in a bag for 30 minutes and saturating with hamburger grease. But like you, I wish I could find out! - Robert Seidman
I can eat whatever I want on fridays since I eat healthy the other 6 days. I'll eat these! - Bjorn Tipling
Does it come in a veggie burger alternative? - Tom Landini
+1 Broken, but I guess I just share Alexander's world view. Not quite directly on point, but IMHO nothing has done more to fragment the conversation more quickly than FriendFeed's current work flow of adding a top level item every time someone diggs, shares, bookmarks, or posts a direct link to somebody elses content. Take this post, for example. I think the original article should be the anchor point for the conversation in FF. Not the fact that Louis shared it. - Ken Sheppardson
Ken, but I would never have even seen the post had Louis not shared it. The web is fine, it's the people using it who are broken. :-) - Robert Seidman
That all depends on how FF "fixed" it, Robert. FF can certainly connect subsequent mentions of/links to the same URL back to the original item. The fact that Louis shared it is really no different than him commenting on it, and either action could raise the item in your stream. UI mockup here :-) http://www.flickr.com/photos/k... - Ken Sheppardson
I think there is a desire to control conversation that is a hold over from MSM media ideas from the 20th century. It seems to pop up all over even occasionally in people like Scoble that claim to have fully embraced social media (to be fair to Robert though his dalliances in control need seem short lived) - Brian Sullivan
The fact is, I saw it because of Louis. The fact is, busted as you may think it is, Ken, more people saw the post because of a "busted system". My conclusion is that the busted system is therefore better. That is not to say FriendFeed can't (and won't) improve how it presents the information. - Robert Seidman
Agreed, Robert. I just think we have a long way to go. For me it's not a matter of controlling the conversation so much as bringing together people with a common interest. Sure, it's nice to have 50 little conversations between three or four folks, but the technology could be used to 150 people together in one well structured exchange of ideas. To me the latter seems much more significant than the former. - Ken Sheppardson
Ken, these are definitely still very early days not just for friendfeed. That said I don't agree with your contention that more is better. If you get 150 people aligned around a goal and are actually looking to get "results" I agree with you. The results most bloggers seem to be looking for, however, is traffic. - Robert Seidman
Robert: I'm not looking for more traffic. I'm looking to have interesting conversations with interesting people. Personally, smaller conversations are usually more interesting. - Robert Scoble
Heh. Traffic. Yep. Like I said. Broken. ;-) - Ken Sheppardson
Robert Scoble: you are definitely NOT "most bloggers" :-) I agree with you 100% and don't find anything broken about it. - Robert Seidman
I disagree with the premise that comments were once centralized. Conversations happen all over the place -and always have: newsgroups, blogs, forums, etc. twitter and others simply added one more place. - LPH
the main ff page is the watering hole, and the other comments elsewhere are like the copy machine chatter.. :)- nada thing wrong with both.. just need to keep ears close to the ground to hear which calvary is coming :)- - Peter Dawson
LPH: Twitter may add one more place, but FF adds another discussion every time someone makes note of something on another site. If both Louis and Robert, for example, bookmark this article, there are going to be at least two parallel conversations. The larger your following, the more people you'lll have in your conversation about somebody elses idea. I don't really see anything evil or wrong with that, I'm just somewhat disappointed in the paradigm. - Ken Sheppardson
For years one of the main areas of development on the web has been the search engine technology. Tracking down all the "conversations", so to speak. I know, I know, entropy's going to increase. That doesn't mean I have to like it. :-) - Ken Sheppardson
it's not broken, it just reforms and reorganises around human bahaviour - we have known this for many years and we see it again and again and again: human behaviour routes around problems and keeps going, not broken! - Ivan Pope via twhirl
"There's a reason that Google has had some trouble turning it's search deal with News Corp.'s MySpace into a major revenue generator: Google's not serving the right ads, according to a report issued by Pali Research.
Pali Analyst Richard Greenfield said that Google needs to develop a new search algorithm for MySpace, one that is better suited to the types of searches that social networking users regularly conduct, if it wants the performance of its MySpace ad deal to yield dividends." - Robert Seidman via Bookmarklet
The analyst doesn't appear to know the difference between 'search algorithms' and ad targeting systems.Sometimes I wonder what the interview process must be like for these analysts. - Adewale Oshineye
"JM: They all go complete gaga about him and say he McDreamy. Hello! He not McDreamy. He can't make up his mind about anything. First go one way. Then go another. He complete confuse. I can't believe he brain surgeon. [...] Who going to let such confuse person operate their brain? Why anybody think he so-call good catch? Plus he have rat face. I don't like it." - David Vasileff via Bookmarklet
JM: I don't like watch that show Bones. That girl, she have funny eyes. She have the crazy coyote eyes. Such ugly. I can't stand it. - Robert Seidman
