siddman - Likes - FriendFeed

FriendFeed is the easiest way to share online. Learn more »

Robert Scoble

So, who is leaving FriendFeed?

August 10 - Comment - Like - Share

Internet Strategist, sofarsoShawn, Mitchell Tsai and 154 other people liked this

And go where? Back to Twitter or...Facebook? - Manuel Mas

525 more comments

no idea yet.... see what happens. - Rob Sellen :o)

I have nowhere else to go. No where else gives me the high level of interaction that FF does. - Mel Buckpitt

Same FriendFeed as before, I'll still use. - Ben Parr

Of course if Paul hands me a few hundred shares of stock ... just kidding. Sigh. - Robert Scoble

I was going to ask how you felt about the purchase, but now I see - acedanger

Depends how much it changes. - Andrew Leyden

Why leave? - Mike Shulman

+1 Mel - I am gutted and don't know what to do if the main FF site closes - Matt Hooper

Why would I leave friendfeed? This place works well enough for me. - Talon Lardner

Manuel: back to my blog and Twitter, probably. I'm playing around with Facebook but it doesn't quite do it for me. - Robert Scoble

I'm sticking around unless there's some sort of mass exodus which I don't see an immediate reason for. - Mike Elliott

Not leaving 'til it closes, and I'm certainly not going to facebook or twitter even then. - Jim Is Not Smart

I'm sad, but I'm sticking around. I'm hoping others do to. At some point, the fuss will die down. - Helen Sventitsky

Mike: because I expect it will get shut down eventually if it doesn't get invested in, and if it gets no new features it will fall behind Google Wave and other projects. - Robert Scoble

This feels like that HBO Documentary about Brooklyn Dodgers going to LA haha. - Manuel Mas

And, actually, Google Wave seems to be the most obvious thing for me to try out from now on. - Robert Scoble

I will stick around until they move the features I like from friendfeed onto facebook. - Bryan Lee

Isn't it a bit early to make decisions? Has there been an announcement that I missed that FF is going away? Even if it isn't where else is better at this point? - Chrimmus Tad

I'm not going anywhere Helen...When it goes it goes...I'm sitting tight on the ship - Bill Heslin

there used to be a kind of message board system ages back with FB. disppeared one day never to return, lets hope this will bring something of that back, who knows.. - Terry O'Fee

I can't wait to try out wave. ;o) - Rob Sellen :o)

Waiting and watching. Robert, I know you have a discussion tab on FB but its not the same. ;) - Melanie Reed

How soon before google wave becomes available to the early adopters/public? - Bryan Lee

Mashable just published a How To Take Advantage of FriendFeed's Unique Features. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. A little late for that, no? - Stephen Pickering

didn't you just just say "FriendFeed is dead. I will keep using it until Paul unplugs the last server, which could be years" ? or i'm missing something - Liviu Barbat

I'll stick around to the bitter end. - Dave Metzener

Robert: Earlier in the day you were excited for both FriendFeed & Facebook. It didn't sound like you were leaving FriendFeed. What changed? Why not stick around to see what happens? - Jill Elswick

Bryan: I heard they weren't handing out beta access to non-developers until September. Cold be wrong but that's what I heard - Mike Elliott

I'm in wait and see mode. It would have to be absolutely sucked in by FB for me to leave it completely. - pea

Robert, if you believe this is a good deal for both FF and FB - why are you leaving? - George F. Snell III

When should we cue in Titanic's last song by the band as FF sinks below leaving us all behind? - Manuel Mas

Why leave now? Until it is changed or killed, it still works just the same. - Jeff P. Henderson

Same assessment as you, I'll stick around but I need to find an option B now. I guess I'll go wherever Louis Gray recommends - Alberto Saavedra

I plan on sticking around for a little while longer. Not ready to jump ship yet. - David Finch

Melanie: yeah, real time really has me going. I will wait until I get a better sense from the FriendFeed team about what will be done here. I just am not getting the right signals from the team that there will be any investment in this. If that's the case, I'd rather invest my time somewhere else. Google Wave. Ning. Vanilla on Building43. Twitter, now that I got rid of the spammers. Etc. - Robert Scoble

I'll watch and see what happens. IF I feel that it would be useless to stay, I'll leave the site. - TeraDyne Azurepaw

I think the features of FF will be incorporated into FB (guilt free) and FB profiles will be more tied into FF. That's about all we'll see... - Gus

Scoble: Ning?!?! Really? - Manuel Mas

Manuel: hey, Pirillo is over there. :-) - Robert Scoble

I'm staying here until something else catches up. - Bruce Lewis

Robert, I can definitely see the value of your invested time on any service, but for the average user, what is the downside of sticking around here as long as the site still exists? - Jeff P. Henderson

hmm, ning. unexpected, but understandable - Alistair (alpinefolk)

@Scobleizer: The big crowd is not even at Friendfeed yet and you are already leaving? Someone will be by in a few minutes with a drink. Please help yourself and stick around for the conversation. You will be greatly missed should you choose to leave so soon. - David Damore

Social Media is a set of tools--I appreciate the connections I make, but I'm not getting too emotionally worked-up about the tools changing. FF probablywon't function as my Social Media hub much longer. - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

I like it here, so I'll hang out as long as possible. - sean percival

Not making any set plans yet, but keeping my eyes and ears open. - Martha

And when Google buys Twitter, won't that be interesting - Stephen Pickering

Bruce: have you played with Wave yet? I'm wondering how good that is? I gotta get an invite. Off to beg someone cooler than me. :-) - Robert Scoble

I will continue to use it until it closes down in its current form. - ashish

Google/Twitter vs. Facebook/FriendFeed - Stephen Pickering

+1 ashish - Liviu Barbat

I'm a little pissed that we haven't heard much from our other "rock stars". Where the hell are they? This concerns them, yet I can hear a pin drop. I think there secretly plotting. Roflmao - Jeunelle Foster

I don't want to but if it eventually goes down the way everybody's predicting it will then i'll have to look for alternatives :( .......by the way where do i beg for Wave invites :) - Bhowmik Shah

I'd bet Microsoft buys Twitter before Google does. - Gus

I haven't played with wave yet, but from what I've seen it's got potential. FriendFeed's got polish. - Bruce Lewis

I wasn't planning on going anywhere, but I guess I'll be spending more time on Social Median. Perhaps someone should start putting together a decent buddypress site? - Aram Zucker-Scharff

I might leave only because I quit facebook - I hate the mindset, the shallowness, and am afraid (make that certain) those people will come here - Aaman (Clone of FF)

Gus: Microsoft and Twitter deserve each other. They are both somewhat buggy and don't come up with new features very often. ;-) - Robert Scoble

I think I'll be heading back to Twitter until Google Wave is publicly available - Aaman (Clone of FF)

Robert: Since at the end of the day all these platforms are businesses and have to eventually make money does it make sense to keep investing time and effort into building communities on them when they can sell/merge at any time and dismantle the tools that keep the community in place? it seems like the portable community concept of something like Google FriendConnect now makes more... more... - Mike Elliott

The other rock stars are drinking. :-) - Robert Scoble

If Facebook had an easier way of connecting with people but not showing them all the personal stuff I'm willing to show to my close friends (and the stuff my friends post about me), I don't think I'd need anything like FriendFeed or Twitter. - Edward Coffey

Robert: I've played with Wave and I wouldn't really put it in the same category as FriendFeed at the moment. It's not really about sharing and conversing in mass form IMO. Its really conversation with maybe 20 people or so but its much more difficult to focus conversations about shared content. Let everybody know when you get an invite and your address so we can add you! :) - Brandon Titus

I'll stick around until the end. - Mathew™ one of a kind

It kinda proves a theory I have about us all being reduced (if I can use that word) to channels. I don't think social networking will go away, but as the internet and deals increase, so does the noise. Don't worry Scobe, you still show up in our Google reader every morning!! - professor daddyo

Man, what are we going to do without these discussions like this? - Stephen Pickering

Mike: No community is permanent. It's worthwhile to participate even if it's temporary. - Bruce Lewis

@Gus, Well MS has large stake in FB so I'm not sure about that. I'll stick around here till it peters out. The tech news rooms here are top notch. - Adi

I don't use FF much other than for private rooms, so I'll stay for those. Whatever other activity I have (which is sporadic and generally not personal) will also remain. - Cheryl

I'll stick around until they pull the plug. - Morton Fox

Leave friendfeed? what's the alternative I'd really like to know. Is it facebook? - Tate DA FF MVP

I'll stick with it as long as it's here and people are still active. FF4L!! - Cassidy

What is the next thing? Where do we go now? Not FB! But where? - Michael Liss

I heard it's MySpace - sean percival

I'm staying until the end as well. - Mitch

I won't be deleting my account, but signing in and commenting? No. No real point to continue putting data into a service that is gonna get unplugged anyway. Guess we just have to return to blogs and twitter. - BCK

quick! everybody back to MySpace!!! - acedanger

what? leave and create a better version of Twitter? or start FriendsterFeed? - Andy Sternberg

The downside for me? I invest time in things that WILL BE not that are. That's always been what keeps my interest and now that I know that FriendFeed probably will not be, even if it takes five years to totally die, I've lost a great deal of interest in it. - Robert Scoble

Michael: I don't think anyone knows today where to go next, because there's no good substitute out there. We can only hope that the next destination will be obvious before they pull the plug. - Bruce Lewis

With the price of bandwith/computing halving every year, there will be a new one of these popping up pretty quick - Stephen Pickering

I'll just go to twitter. I have a facebook account but I hate it. Facebook is the walmart of the web. - Darrel Davis

Should we move to where?? haha - harri78son

I'll be here until something actually changes for the worse - Dennis O'Neil

harri78son you could come back over to my blog and we could setup JS-Kit Echo. :-) - Robert Scoble

Damn now I need a drink :) - Jeunelle Foster

I hate fb. Don't like tweeting. Guess I'll be keeping up with my feeds without the fun ff distractions :( - BEX from iPhone

That's right, Scoble is the catalyst for these longer threads anyway, so it might as well move to his JS-Kit - Stephen Pickering

Robert, that's a pity. I'm lucky to deal in things that only get more interesting as they get older. - Bruce Lewis

I'm torn. What are our options? - Kelly Mitchell

yeah~ definitly! @Jeunelle foster please come down, - harri78son

I see now...This whole thing was a ploy to get everyone visiting Robert's blog! I am outraged! :P - Brandon Titus

Brandon: OK, we can go over to YOUR blog. Got Echo? :-) - Robert Scoble

Bruce: Very true. I've tried to get into FaceBook but it's hard to get the clean conversation feed along with lifestreaming content. It just seems to be full of distracting noise even with the ability to filter with lists. - Mike Elliott

I'm here till the end. - Nolan Alston

Robert, the same could be said about Flickr, they haven't had much inovation since Yahoo bought them, but people still use the service in droves. - Jeff P. Henderson

Don't worry Kelly, a new one of these will pop quickly, if they kill this - Stephen Pickering

Kelly: we don't need to leave tonight. Let's trash the house first! :-) - Robert Scoble

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - Stephen Pickering

Brandon, that's funny. At the Boston FriendFeed meetup, everybody else had learned about FriendFeed through Scobleizer. I was the only one who found him through FriendFeed. - Bruce Lewis

I'm leaving my account here for now but I'll be removing all my feeds. - Got80s

I have no idea where to go... - Johnny

Let's make the longest thread in FF history - Stephen Pickering

Anyway, for the rest of today at-least I reckon I'll be off FriendFeed - real conversation is being drowned out by the echoes of this deal. - Edward Coffey

Damn it. Why is Arrington always right! - Stephen Pickering

Jeff P. Flickr is different Yahoo bought them for their user base. Facebook bought Friendfeed for their features. - Bryan Lee

Got80: why do that? Who cares if your feeds are going in here? - Robert Scoble

Edward: that is true. It caught us all off guard and we're still processing it. - Robert Scoble

Kind of huge things in this time,.hmmm - harri78son

Facebook bought FF for Paul Bucheit - Stephen Pickering

I'm staying here until there is a reason to leave. Though I don't hold out hope they'll keep the service alive forever... obviously, I'm always enjoysthin.gs too, but it's not quite the same. I REALLY can't see myself using facebook as much as FF though. - Ted Roden

I need an adult beverage. then I'll trash the place... - Kelly Mitchell

I despise FB. Please let them not just trash FF. - Adam Webb

Considering the free Google Wave protocol implementation and ejabbered work together, it shouldn't be too hard to quickly build a FF type service that's scalable. Combine that with EC2 and S3 and you could probably get a lot of runway before funding is needed. Robert, I think the next service you switch to should be part owned by you, considering I bet a lot of the traffic here was originated from you evangelizing. - Chip Ramsey

Bryan: it's worse than that. I'm hearing that Facebook bought FriendFeed for its team. Google Superstars. Makes Zuckerberg get out his wallet. - Robert Scoble

Where will be the next pasture Mr. Scoble? - Rami Taibah

Stephen: lol. Yes, the 50 million dollar man. But seriously, there's no doubt what they really want is the tallent. - Brandon Titus

I'm gutted about this, but I knew that Virb account would come in handy eventually... sorta... maybe... - Linda Mills

Holden, yeah, but it doesn't make sense to invest energy here when its eventually going to die anyway - Stephen Pickering

I'm new on FF so I wonder, are people leaving FF because you'll have to use FB to participate? - Christopher Doiron

Stephen: not only for Paul. The guy who started Google Talk is at FriendFeed. So is the guy who started Google Maps. - Robert Scoble

Among other ex-Google superstars. - Robert Scoble

Robert your not processing anything from what I see..Your just gonna dump it...thanks...makes us All feel so much better....Salt in a wound? - Bill Heslin

Christopher, it's that the FriendFeed team's new bosses will turn priorities away from the site we love. - Bruce Lewis

They'll probably cannibalize FriendFeed... nom nom - Kelly Mitchell

funny how many people are joining friend feed on the news of this acquisition. i'm seeing lots of my twitter followers starting to join. - mark silva

Go where, do what? - frankiecarl

I say its WAAAYYY too early to speculate what will happen to friendfeed next. Let the drama of today die down. - Bryan Lee

Yeah lets all get drunk and start a fight. This whole thing is hilarious to me. Funny how media can start a panic. I ain't goin no where, I like to coloring. - Jeunelle Foster

Bill: I said I won't leave until I hear more from the team. Why must you always be a drama queen? - Robert Scoble

Kelly, I wish they would absorb FriendFeed, but despite the talk I don't think openness and Facebook are compatible. - Bruce Lewis

Robert, Ex-Google Superstars is how I see it too. I don't see big plans for FF the sense was we were the last thing on their minds. - Melanie Reed

Can't help being an attention whore, its what I'm good at :) - Jeunelle Foster

Okay so we sit tight and wait and drink. lol - Kelly Mitchell

but there is no time to wait a special direction on internet, It's too fast!! - harri78son

Kelly: My analogy for this is like the female praying mantis luring the male for sex, then it bites its head off. You can see the pic in my story http://bryansays.com - Bryan Lee

I'm in the eyewear business and so I always know how to make a spectacle of myself :) - Jeunelle Foster

Bruce: I agree. Wouldn't it be feasible for them to simply keep the two properties separate then? FriendFeed would be the open/public portion of Facebook and Facebook could stay closed and keep its current private user base. - Brandon Titus

Bryan, pretty graphic and right on the money. - Kelly Mitchell

Why shouldn't he pull out his wallet. FB needs to monetize. The ex Google Rockstars know just how to do that - Stephen Pickering

I'll stick around and see what happens, but might not bother so much with another 'social' web site again. - Grant Bierman

:) I am what I am Robert...I'm A DRAMA QUEEN? LOL that's funny....even though I'm a much better queen than you I still wuvs ya...Still processing all this as everyone else is...Sorry...might be shooting from the hip and I shouldn't - Bill Heslin

Am I the only one excited to see how Facebook integrates FF? I have hundreds of FB friends that I know personally, yet know nobody that I am "friends" with on FF or Twitter. FB has my friends but I'd love FF's functionality. - Chris Nunz

There's this optimistic talk about keeping FriendFeed around as R&D. I'm skeptical about it. - Bruce Lewis

I'll leave FriendFeed as soon as there's somewhere to go to; currently, I'm not convinced there is. - Tristan Seligmann

Also when you are hanging with the Master of the Universe for four hours, its sort of like Bill Clinton going to Korea. Kind of influences you. - Stephen Pickering

Rami: I don't know. That's why I'm talking with you. I just know I won't continue to invest my time in something that will soon get no more investment. That's not who I am. I will hang out with Louis Gray until he finds something cool. By the way, someone gave me Google Wave already, thanks! - Robert Scoble

This should be a reality television show. This is where the real drama queens will come out to play. - Jeunelle Foster

Leo's going to need a new show, TWIF - Stephen Pickering

This week in Facebook - Stephen Pickering

Anyone here ever feel like we're just being tossed around from website to website by the big players? - Christopher Doiron

Thanks Kelly :) - Bryan Lee

Chris, Yep - Stephen Pickering

Bruce: I disagree with you about Facebook and openness. They are a lot more open than they used to be and are MUCH more professional and friendly than, say, Twitter is. - Robert Scoble

Robert, I look forward to your review of Wave. - Bruce Lewis

Openness and Facebook are not one and the same.... polar opposites. Bah humbug. - Kelly Mitchell

Yup the big dogs are sitting back laughing at this whole thing - Jeunelle Foster

It doesn't necessarily have to be "R&D" but really a completely separate product. Something like YouTube is to Google. Although that's a terrible analogy...I guess the products are too similar to keep separate. - Brandon Titus

I'd pay-per-view to see Scoble and Sebastian Bach fight - Mattb4rd

The Chinese government is much more open than it used to be. It still doesn't meet my standards. - Bruce Lewis

Bruce: also, Zuckerberg is seeing the real money is in search. So he HAS to be open to really do great there. - Robert Scoble

Robert: Any chance you could share your Wave address? - Brandon Titus

Did anyone get a chance to see Youtube HTML 5 Demo? - Stephen Pickering

Brandon: I don't have my own address. Someone gave me theirs so can't share. - Robert Scoble

Zuckerberg doesn't make money from other companies' search engines, so he's still limiting what data can go out. I see FB getting more open about what data they take in. - Bruce Lewis

Bruce: Wave is very geeky. I think the UI has a lot of FriendFeed's problems x10. We'll see how that first impression sticks. - Robert Scoble

And Wave will only be as good as how many users it has - Stephen Pickering

I guess what I'm trying to say is even if you don't think your time here is an not an investment ;anymore in anything Robert...We still, or at least I do, consider your input valuable. And if you were to jump ship too soon, I think we would all lose something. So, even if things don't look good...please hang around..That's what I meant to say... - Bill Heslin

Where will I go? Probably no where. Friendfeed was the first time I really got to feel like I found a home. Other places don't interact and blend multiple social services like Friendfeed does/did. Just as plenty of other people have said, I'm waiting for Google Wave at this point. I'm already a Google whore, might as well wait for the Wave to come through. - Matthew Horton

Bruce: data that goes out can be embedded on blogs and websites and interact with things. Also, if you get into Google's search engine you can get a LOT of traffic, which then you can monetize on your own service. - Robert Scoble

Not necessarily nailing the coffin shut yet here. Going to hang around and see what develops....what seems likely at the moment may be a totally different thing tommorow :O) - Jack Wilson, K4SAC

I am leaving at midnight. 2 accounts will be deleted, mine and one I manage for another site. - April Russo (app103)

Robert: Hope you enjoy Wave! The UI is definitely way off for content sharing (at least in my first impression) and more suited for group communication for the very scenarios they threw out in the demos. Get much beyond that, or have too many people and the system starts to break down. Obviously, the underlying Wave infrastructure could be used to create something similar to and better than Friendfeed. - Brandon Titus

Yeah, the cool thing about Wave is the problem they solved with the protocol. Not really their UI implementation. I think there are huge opportunities with both Open Social and the Wave protocol. - Chip Ramsey

OK, I have been out of touch and I guess I missed something. I see nothing wrong with staying with all the feeds I am tied to! - Dave Sickmeier

April, please don't delete your account. We lose interesting history when people do that. - Bruce Lewis

I'm sticking around. - Nation Hahn

There is no Facebook and no FriendFeed, it is now called TwoFacedFriend... - Kelly Mitchell

Bill: I'll be around but probably a lot less. Actually I was thinking that this was good timing. We have a new baby due in September and my other son is just starting to learn to talk, so want to spend more time hanging around with the family. - Robert Scoble

I am gonna wait it out. If the community as a whole migrates I will go with them, but I don't want to overreact. - Neal Jansons

it's time to have another serious look at Plaxo. There are some very clever people there too, I believe?! - Matt Hooper

Truth is, being addicted to FriendFeed isn't a good lifestyle. - Robert Scoble

Well said Robert - Kelly Mitchell

April: why so sudden and why delete accounts? I don't get that. - Robert Scoble

As you should. Family is much more important than any of this. And now I have to go fix my wig! LOL - Bill Heslin

depends what they do with the service - I like friendfeed and facebook so I think it will probably work okay for me - Nick Stone

Brandon: oh, oh. You said it "Wave doesn't scale." Not good. - Robert Scoble

FF also has good tools for using it in moderation -- best of day, week, which you can get by email. Lists help. - Bruce Lewis

I have been spending most of my time on Brightkite. It's a smaller community and more fun. A better alternative than twitter or facebook. - John C Ferron

Robert, and yes when he does that (Money in Search), it will change the playing field in lateral ways across the Internet, especially in ePortfolios and other like applications that don't need to be walled gardens - Melanie Reed

Your right, Robert, but you would eventually learn to moderate your use, and a service like this is going to be needed - Stephen Pickering

so much DRAMA - Kevin Pruett

Kevin, the Drama is warranted - Stephen Pickering

And Leo and Dick Debartolo are on the wine train, missing all this...I envy them...lol - Bill Heslin

Will there ever be an app that just leaves facebook out of the equation - we could only dream - Ryan Gerritsen

i'm leaving, watching from twitter would be a better option for me. - rama mamuaya

I am not likely to invest time in another community that I don't have a stake in. If I contribute it will be because I have a personal interest and am part of the team that runs the show. That is the only way I will feel comfortable investing my time & energy into it. - April Russo (app103)

If we could get the other "Rock Stars" who are obviously having a "virtual prayer meeting" somewhere to get together and talk about what changes they wish to see and what they would like to see develop for social media, Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed and now this Google Wave, we would probably all feel a little better as we might be able to see down the dark cold tunnel but they're out... more... - Jeunelle Foster

i think that I'll keep posting to friendfeed until it fully integrates with facebook - Carlos Leiva Burotto

Did you guys see Dave Winer's URL shortner, http://rp.ly? Genius. - Stephen Pickering

Jeunelle: Rizzn and Louis Gray and I did a podcast earlier where we talked through some of our feelings. It was very, um, theraputic. - Robert Scoble

hahaha I must of missed it, I'll dig it up. A bit quiet still though. Haven't heard peep from Chris Brogan and all them other STARS - Jeunelle Foster

Louis's blog post was classic. - Bruce Lewis

Man, I can understand Louis' feelings. Look how much he and Scoble have put into this - Stephen Pickering

I'll continue to use FF until there's reason not to. I'm patient enough to see what happens to it. What's the hurry? - Cathryn Hrudicka

I just started on Friendfeed. It can't go away! - Paul McElligott

Lets start FeedFriend - the Bizaro friendfeed minus Facebook integration - Ryan Gerritsen

Well, I was rather hoping for some sort of joint deal between Twitter & FF... I'm not sure if I'll stick around in FF or not. I'm definitely not a fan of Facebook - Tim Bergman

Paul, that's what so frustrating. Just given time, we know it would have caught on - Stephen Pickering

I'm staying... - Luis

Thanks for feeding the flames, there, Scoble. *WHAT* on earth is so scary about all this? - Brad McCrorey

Brad, FF has died. Scoble made this thing. And what does he get out of it? Nuttin - Stephen Pickering

Was this the Exit Strategy? I don't see how FF makes money right now? - Keith Rowland

Stephen: I got you all as friends. - Robert Scoble

:-) - Stephen Pickering

This really SUCKS because when you don't have great "developers" to put something together like FriendFeed, you're really just gonna have to either take it up the ass or commit suicide. I'll hang myself 1st with all my clothes on :) - Jeunelle Foster

Jeunelle HAHAHAHAHHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH - Stephen Pickering

I'm wherever good, smart peeps are ('cuz I'm not smart enough). I don't invest much in tools - it's the people I care for. I'm not gonna abandon FF now but I understand that we'll need a way to foster the kind of community that got fostered here. Nothing lasts forever - and that's mostly a good thing in the long run. - phil baumann from Android

i'll be here until either the bitter end or something else comes along ... i'm really hoping that the ff-team will turn facebook into more of what it was before the apps came along... i think that's when FB really took a downward turn for me - Chris Heath

I follow the Cheese! - Rich Weaver

Venues like this will come and go, the whole social media landscape is in a constant state of flux I don't see why so many are up in arms. The life cycle of all the current venues are short and most of the leaders are nearing the end of their lives as we know it. But fear not, many new shiny toys will be bestowed upon us to play with. Now let's be social again! (ps. I'm sure we've seen NOTHING yet!) - Paul Monaco

Tweet: the cheese is in Zuckerberg's office! :-) - Robert Scoble

And for anyone that wants to know why I am deleting my account and not just moving away and leaving it to rot like i would normally do...just read the policies of facebook. Anywhere I have an account with data I don't want to be exploited commercially, in a way that exploits me personally, I'd delete it just as fast if the service were bought by facebook. - April Russo (app103)

Zuckerberg is Master of the Universe. He spent 4 hours with Paul Friday. That would have an effect on anyone - Stephen Pickering

I know I am able to post status updates in Facebook to "Everyone" now, but when will we be able to search these open status updates? - Kevin Whalen from iPhone

I can't wait till my mom gets one of my "Queenie" updates....that's gonna b fun...lol.. - Bill Heslin

Kevin, when God, ie Mark Zuckerberg, says you can - Stephen Pickering

I love FF but I think this is a great move. If FB takes the best ideas from FF and they open it up theres is so much potential for a great community. - Gary Gannon

Definitely see what happens... Not looking forward to Facebook turning this into a free-for-all like Facebook :-) - Maria Reyes-McDavis

Gary a potential for $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ - Stephen Pickering

Not going anywhere for the time being. I'm not a big Twitter fan, and unless FB makes some big time changes, it just doesn't do it for me. Will be listening for any other social media that might come round the bend. - Bonnie Foster

We are getting tired of all those constant platform changes, aren't we? - Harald Felgner

Harald Yes! - Stephen Pickering

I say we all leave Facebook instead. - Larry Roth

Herald and Stephen, Yes! More and different is not always better, just more and different. - Melanie Reed

I can't leave Facebook. I have too much built up there. And that won't do anything anways. It will just be a small blip to them. - Mathew™ one of a kind

so what content aggregator in the absence of FF? - WarLord

My apologies if this has already been asked, but Robert you are very close the FF team. You had no idea this was coming? - Ben Hanten

I'm not leaving. I like FriendFeed and Facebook. - Kimber Scott

Ben: not one iota. I did sense that they were struggling to figure out how to compete, but didn't think they would sell. Paul always told me he didn't want to sell. - Robert Scoble

Robert - I'm confused - on the one hand you've said this is such a great thing for FF as well as FB - but on the other hand you also say you're leaving FF because of of it. Why - if this is such a great thing for FF? - Matthew Blaisdell

WarLord: there isn't a good aggregator. That's why it's stupid to delete your feeds. - Robert Scoble

OK, a friend talked me down. He told me I'd be saying sorry for starting this post by the 400th comment. He's usually right. So, instead of saying sorry, I'm going drinking. See ya in the lobby in 10 minutes! - Robert Scoble

I may be dense about this, but why would you leave until you saw which way it was going? - Jerry Kidd

Good question, Jerry. I wanna know this, too. - Brad Williamson

Robert, I think he struggled with it, but 4 Hours with Mark is a big persuasion - Stephen Pickering

Matthew: I expect that the engineers will get put onto Facebook. So, if the smartest people are working on Facebook and not on FriendFeed, why would I stay here? Why wouldn't I start moving my work and social graph and all that over to Facebook? - Robert Scoble

LOL...there ya go Robert...I knew you would come around...Drink Drink!!! have a really nice cocktail... - Bill Heslin

The people I've come to know on FriendFeed are what I'd miss though, so I'd like to take my social graph with me wherever I might end up next. There's a business opportunity right there. - Aaman (Clone of FF)

Dunno if I'll leave the ship... - Wario

When I think about it - I found your post as well as the TechCrunch article via Google Friend Connect. So maybe it is time to join that Wave!? - Harald Felgner

Jerry: I said I was going to wait until I talk with the team more, but the things I'm hearing tell me they've already been bought to work on Facebook proper. So, unless someone tells me that's wrong, that tells me I should spend more and more of my time over on Facebook and not here. But my friend convinced me I'm being hasty and emotional. :-O - Robert Scoble

Mathew: Scoble said early on in this thread that he invests his time into emerging networks, not things that "are already here" I think thats why he will be moving on to the next big thing, like google wave or watchever new social network emerges out of this. I suspect that another startup will emerge to try and fill the shoes left behind by friendfeed. This is always the case. When napster left, you had morpheus and kazaa, then bit torrents. - Bryan Lee

Robert - Makes sense - except that it still doesn't seem like a great day for Friendfeed - if it just gets abandoned (by FB as well as by leaders like you...) - Matthew Blaisdell

Matthew: FriendFeed=Facebook. It's a great day for both. Cause I'll end up at Facebook either way! :-) - Robert Scoble

Anyway, these are just the emotional ramblings of someone trying to figure out how the world shifted today. Have fun! - Robert Scoble

clue to the denouement: where is the most valuable processing of this event. Right here. - Steve Gillmor

I'm just curious what new startup will roll into the limelight because of this announcement? - Bryan Lee

Robert, FriendFeed != Facebook - look at the quality of commentary/people here - Aaman (Clone of FF)

FriendFeed can stop improving right now, and I'll still stick around until something else catches up. Maybe that something else will be Facebook. I'll wait and see. - Bruce Lewis

I'm probably out. Back to open source for me at this point. Time to take another look and see how things have progressed with Laconica, JaikuEngine, NoseRub, and some of the other secondary options. I may also go crawling back to Twitter. Given a choice between Twitter and Facebook... sigh... - Ken Sheppardson

++Steve Gillmor - Bruce Lewis

Ken you'll be back. - Steve Gillmor

I don't think FB will change it all so quickly. But I do like Laconica, too. - Monique Hodgkinson

Steve you're making it hurt worse! ;-( - Stephen Pickering

Monique: It's not about rapid change, it's about where to invest effort. I don't really have any interest in investing my time and energy on Facebook... so why wait? - Ken Sheppardson

stephen how so - Steve Gillmor

I don't know where to go :( - K.D.

I'll make up my mind when I figure out what better alternative there is to Friend Feed. - Anthony Teegarden

Because we know FF has died - Stephen Pickering

Steve: Yeah, you're probably right. I appreciate the work Bret, Paul, Benjamin, et al have done, and I was really looking forward to where they were taking things... before they were taking it to Facebook. - Ken Sheppardson

I think I will just stay on twitter, because I can't stand facebook. - Tomy Thomson

Stephen: FF has died? Well, then, how am I typing to you? - Robert Scoble

Tomy, why change? You can listen to the Beatles and the Stones! - Stephen Pickering

Ken: it's all good. they're moving to a radically larger playground, and they can't afford to abandon those who appreciate them - Steve Gillmor

They will keep FF just will make it better - Johni Fisher

Choose I meant - Stephen Pickering

Please stop with FF has died chatter! - Bryan Lee

I'll wait to learn more before making any decisions - Herb Hernandez

Robert, well, metaphorically. Whether its a few months or a year - Stephen Pickering

Tomy: Twitter is like Facebook but without likes and comments. Oh, wait, Facebook is a lot like FriendFeed already. I just commented on Louis Gray's item there. Oh, and there's applications. We can play games! :-) Herb: I'll try to go see the team next week. I'm also interviewing Yelp. - Robert Scoble

But Steve, what if the larger "playground" turns out to be very different from the one pitched to them? What if the FF team finds that their vision isn't shared after all? - Bruce Lewis

Robert, ok maybe you are right. Maybe it will be like the R&D. That would be great! - Stephen Pickering

Stephen: are you trying to get on the Gillmor Gang? We seem to kill things before they are really dead there too. - Robert Scoble

Hey Robert , you make friendfeed slower ! I guess you should leave here really x) - Melissa Taylor

Anyway, I'm going drinking. For real this time. - Robert Scoble

Robert, HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHA - Stephen Pickering

they can go build it again. but zuckerberg has been wanting this for some time - Steve Gillmor

need to wait what will happen to FF - Toni @ NavinoT

I'm planning on easing out of Friendfeed in the next couple of days, so I can get the contacts of people I know on here and who's opinions I value. - Jon, the Chilled Beartato

Pickering: RSS is dead, not FF - Steve Gillmor

Steve, oh yes, If I were him, I would pull out all stops to get this team. I totally understand from a business perspective, all perspectives - Stephen Pickering

business is design - Steve Gillmor

HAHAHA great comeback Steve. On that note I think I'll have a beer. :) - Bryan Lee

Steve, OK, I'll keep the faith that maybe Scoble's idea that this could be a Facebook R&D could happen. That would be great!!!! - Stephen Pickering

Steve, did you see the post about this being an opportunity for Google Reader? I think it was by Jorge Escobar. - Bruce Lewis

Reading through all this is hilarious. We really should have a social media reality show Robert - Jeunelle Foster

no bruce, how so - Steve Gillmor

Jeunelle, Robert went drinking :) - Stephen Pickering

So he ain't all that. Just kidding hehehehe :) - Jeunelle Foster

He was saying Reader has most of the features of FF, and this could be their chance to expand and fill the niche FF filled: http://friendfeed.com/social-... - Bruce Lewis

disagree bruce GR has no explicit contract with users - Steve Gillmor

Contract or contact? - Bryan Lee

Wave might be boosted, but has similar immaturity at the social graph level - Steve Gillmor

I don't understand the part about the contract. - Bruce Lewis

If Ning is 750m why FF is just 50m ? - Johni Fisher

users consciously contribute metadata to FF - Steve Gillmor

Do we want Google to buy Twitter? - Stephen Pickering

@Steve @Bruce, here's the post http://jungleg.com/2009... -- it's a crazy idea but GR could make an extra effort and put up a better web experience - Jorge Escobar

I like FriendFeed, a lot, but too few of my friends use the service to make it really useful. So I guess I'll leave. - Adam Washington

Adam, stay, if even only for the aggregating features - Stephen Pickering

You are testing us Scoble. - Özer (Wrzl) Dölekoğlu

YES he's sitting in the back laughing while drinking Peppermint Schnaps - Jeunelle Foster

Scobles outta here. He went to get a life! hehehehehehehe - Stephen Pickering

totally staying....this really is just the beginning....and, i just built FF into all of my Intro to Soc sections!!!! - Chad Gesser

I thought you said you'd hand in there until they turn the last server off. What changed your mind? - Paul Chaney

Speaking of Google. What was the point of them buying Jaiku and doing nothing with it? - Bryan Lee

I'll at least stay for aggregation and extending 140 character tweets, and pray maybe it will become Facebooks R&D, but I know that's a longshot - Stephen Pickering

I should get a life too but alas the temptation is too great for "attention whoring" - Jeunelle Foster

Jeunelle HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH - Stephen Pickering

hehehe lol - Jeunelle Foster

Regarding the "team's plans", I really don't expect to hear anything from Bret, Paul, et al. At this point I'm happy to let the Facebook (i.e. the non-FriendFeed) folks try to convince me that they're ready to do things differently. That involves more than just hiring a team. - Ken Sheppardson

Well, maybe Paul can influence Mark not "to be evil" - Stephen Pickering

those who think FB has any choice but to go down the FF road are not thinking this through - Steve Gillmor

@Stephen, I was alternating between friendfeed and twitter (stones and beatles, respectively :P) but I don't see the point in staying with a dying technology, which unfortunately is where friendfeed is headed. The tech of friendfeed itself will hopefully live on in facebook. I really think facebook has become a slightly less obnoxious version of myspace, and that's being nice. - Tomy Thomson

Steve, Oh, I totally understand. It was genius of them. Proves how Mark is indeed Master of the Universe - Stephen Pickering

Steve, self-interest does not guarantee anything. People and companies can act irrationally. - Bruce Lewis

So Steve, do you see two separate properties indefinitely? Or does Facebook just slowly start too look more FF-like, then one day they redirect friendfeed.com to facebook.com? - Ken Sheppardson

yes bruce take twitter for example - Steve Gillmor

But Paul could end up being a great influence on Mark - Stephen Pickering

not indefinitely Ken, but long enough to transfer enough value to avoid making twitter look like the good guys - Steve Gillmor

Steve, will Google buy Twitter? - Stephen Pickering

you're "VERY excited" about the deal, but plan to leave friendfeed? why, exactly? i don't get it... - Shawn C. Reed

dunno, don't really care - Steve Gillmor

*eye roll* thread is getting to the point where it's too long and people are now asking questions that have been answered thrice.....Lock down time. - Matthew DeVries

ff was the important value, not twitter - Steve Gillmor

Steve, why didn't Ff take over FB? Yeah Facebook has the money, but it's the inferior product. - Matthew DeVries

Oh sure, who do you want in your office, Ev or Paul Bucheit? Paulllllll! - Stephen Pickering

Stephen, didn't the TechCrunch article say that the FF team would be split between two bosses, neither of which was Mark? - Bruce Lewis

matthew who says they didn't - Steve Gillmor

That's right. Paul may end up running that thing, or at least be No.2 - Stephen Pickering

@ Robert: The majority of apps on FB are useless imo. Every time I log on I get bombarded by 'add your relative' and 'blackjack' app requests. And don't get my started on the quizzes and other BS. Ah well, I will join your fan page on facebook! - Tomy Thomson

ff has been running dev for a year - Steve Gillmor

Wow - isn't this jumping to conclusions? No one has said anything's going away, nor do we know what they're doing to do with it. Stick around, wait to see what happens, then jump. Nothing's happened yet - I think it will all be for the better in the end and you'll know where to go when the FF Team says Jump. - Jesse Stay

Kurt, he's gonna sit on it for a while, see what shakes out - Stephen Pickering

jesse skip to the bottom for the apology - Steve Gillmor

The FF Team hasn't let us down yet, have they? I still trust them - only when they break that trust do we jump. - Jesse Stay

@Scobleizer I've been on Google Wave for about a week working on an interesting idea I have for it. It's very promising but its very alpha right now. You won't find it worth your time just yet. - Noah White

jumping is bullshit, no place to go - Steve Gillmor

Ah - sorry Robert - didn't see the clarification towards the bottom. Thanks Steve. - Jesse Stay

Jesse, you still in the Boston area? - Bruce Lewis

Why rush to judgment? Even if the "team's plans" are off-base, what's the base? And what's off? Experience, resourcefulness, respect for users and smarts under fire all matter more than "plans." Wait & keep seeing. - Doc

What the hell? Just because someone buys FriendFeed everyone has to ditch it? ABORT SHIP, ABORT SHIP! Doesn't really make sense so soon. Has anything changed yet? Is it the end of the world? Don't just leave because everyone says they will either. Stick around, the ship is still afloat. - Nick Humphries

the doctor is in the house - Steve Gillmor

But, if they did pull the plug, with bandwidth and computing halving every year, there would be another one of these pop up in no time - Stephen Pickering

I don't see a point in leaving Friendfeed until the doors close on us... if and when that happens. - Alex Knight

Actually facebook is the most popular rss reader of all time :) - Christian Burns from iPhone

Bruce, we just left today. I'm actually in Niagara Falls, NY right now. Just finished watching a beautiful view of the Falls at night. - Jesse Stay

There's a house? - Doc

Steve, is that Doc Searls? - Stephen Pickering

of cards - Steve Gillmor

hover over the name stephen - Steve Gillmor

Jesse, if anybody can persuade me (us?) that Facebook is going to be good for the FF team it's you. Maybe write a blog post or something. - Bruce Lewis

Don't get so close. - Doc

unfollow please sidney - Steve Gillmor

Doc, Calacanis recommended your book to his audience on THis Week in Startups. Can't wait to read it! - Stephen Pickering

I just left facebook a couple weeks ago - hope friendfeed doesn't devolve into quizzes and walled gardens - Doug Holton

It's the Gillmor Gang in a perpendicular universe. - Doc

yes it is - Steve Gillmor

and about fucking time - Steve Gillmor

Stephen, make sure it's the *new* 10th anniversary edition of Cluetrain. Both it and the old one are being sold. 8 extra chapters in the new. - Doc

No doubt, Steve - Christian Burns from iPhone

I'm in it to win it. FF isn't shutting down tomorrow or next week. But it's funny to me that so many dicuss the content... It's the connections made with others that are in jeopardy, not the LOLCat photos... - MVB (Grinch of FF) from fftogo

Because of Quantum Wave effects there are an infinite number of Universes, some of which The Gillmor Gang is still broadcasting - Stephen Pickering

Bruce, I'll be working on a post really soon. Also, Louis Gray and I are going to record a phone call about it tomorrow, which I think should prove useful. I've got a lot of knowledge about Facebook, and he does about FriendFeed. - Jesse Stay

we never stopped stephen - Steve Gillmor

Heheheheheheheheh - Stephen Pickering

JFC, I was gonna go to bed, and here we are. Wherever this is. Do we all really live in Scoble's butt? - Doc

Doc comes through with yet another metonym: the perpendicular universe (= FF). - Nick in Manila

I would have had something out sooner but I've been driving a car all day. :-) - Jesse Stay

no it's Marshall McLuhan's butt - Steve Gillmor

Is this SRC? - Doc

Kurt, oh yeah, I totally get that and so does Scoble, but you've got to understand his short term hurt. Look at how much energy he put into this thing, and what did he get? Nuttin - Stephen Pickering

You mean McLuhan is in Scoble's body? He's in the movie Being Robert Scoble? - Doc

Nonsense Stephen he gets paid in attention every single time - Steve Gillmor

Social relay chat? - Christian Burns from iPhone

No who's on first - Steve Gillmor

Scoble Relay Chat. - Doc

the medium is the message - Steve Gillmor

OK, OK, Steve. I admit, I listened to Dave Winer's chat this evening about it - Stephen Pickering

yeah I read the liner notes instead - Steve Gillmor

Confessions of Stephen and Steve - Jeunelle Foster

And the medium is the network? - Stephen Pickering

Are we paying Scoble now? Are we his excreta and are those a form of currency? - Doc

as richard manuel used to say the check's in yr mouth - Steve Gillmor

Doc, HAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - Stephen Pickering

I thought it was "the check is coming in your mouth." Just looking for accuracy here. - Doc

no, doc it's a contraction of 2 of the 3 promises - Steve Gillmor

I forget what the 3rd is - Steve Gillmor

I'll love you in the morning? - Doc

could be - Steve Gillmor

Well, it's almost morning here. I'll tape this show and watch later. G'night or g'morning, all. - Doc

Goodnight, Doc! - Stephen Pickering

I was wondering how long this would take to happen. Soon as I saw FF being purchased by Facebook I knew you would bolt. Not 100% surprising. - Christopher Mercer

Part of beauty of FF: all their shows are taped. And yet open ended. - Nick in Manila

It depends how much FF changes. No reason to leave until and unless it gets annoying. - Igor Goldkind

It's "I'll respect you in the morning." - Sean Gallagher

Oh, I'm not leaving. Hell, I even still have a myspace account. It's just a question of engagement - Stephen Pickering

Good night all. Tip for Jeunelle: You get more attention if you make your feed public. Make a group for your private stuff. - Bruce Lewis

they'll have to scrub this one pretty good before they shut it down - Steve Gillmor

Maybe Jeunelle doesn't want attention. - Sean Gallagher

Hell, they keep Orkut going. Storage and bandwidth keep getting cheaper. Might as well keep this going - Stephen Pickering

Orkut! The favorite social network of 9 out of 10 Brazilians. - Sean Gallagher

And 9 out 10 of the best looking women! - Stephen Pickering

True. - Sean Gallagher

@scobleizer that means half of the total activity on friendfeed will be reduced - Sidharth Dassani

Maybe if Facebook hadn't stolen all Scoble's data, he'd stop worrying and learn to love them. - Sean Gallagher

Actually even os Brasileiros are coming over to FB - Stephen Pickering

My mother is on Facebook. The end is nigh. - Sean Gallagher

"Maybe Jeunelle doesn't want attention" - says who? I only stepped away to pour me a nice glass of Sauvengion Blanc", and thank you Bruce for the advice I'll look into that tomorrow. After all tomorrow is another day. Twiddly Dee - Jeunelle Foster

there is no reason to leave. I seriously doubt facebook will kill it. - Logan Lindquist

What's the record number of comments? - Stephen Pickering

Logan, I hope your right - Stephen Pickering

Maybe if I blog my twitter of Scoble's FriendFeed and then link it from Facebook via a Digg of a del.icio.us bookmark, it will create a singularity and this thread will have never happened. - Sean Gallagher

What about Identi.ca? - Jerry Heiselman

Sean, you may even create a time machine! - Stephen Pickering

Can someone comment on what April Russo said about Facebook content policy? Seems like a very important piece of the puzzle. - metalerik

I wouldn't worry about it. The markets will take care of it. If Facebook becomes evil, the masses will fork somewhere else. We're in the age of Openness - Stephen Pickering

I will only leave friend feed if it becomes a facebook clone. I can't stand facebook but I still use it cause my friends and family use it, but if friendfeed becomes annoying like face book then I see no point in staying here. - Colide81 (James) from iPhone

James, Touche - Stephen Pickering

You know Sean maybe smarter than he looks....hmmmmm :) and what's with that bird head? - Jeunelle Foster

Quote of the Day: "Microsoft and Twitter deserve each other. They are both somewhat buggy and don't come up with new features very often. ;-)" - Robert Scoble - Diego Barros 

It's a starling fledgeling. The perfect symbol for social networking-- it eats whatever you give it, then poops on you. - Sean Gallagher

That's what I want to reincarnate as....an angry poopin bird - Jeunelle Foster

Just reading all the news about FF and FB. Disapoints me personally, biz wise nice job. Um not a huge FB user so I don't know what my plans are yet. Like you wait a bit and see.... - Bryan Thatcher from iPhone

I hope FF doesn't go away and fold in to FB. I don't need FB. It's like bringing a machine gun to a knife fight. - Diego Barros 

I won't leave FF until they make me or there's no community left. Whichever comes first. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

We'll never get to talk to Robert Scoble again. :-( - Jannifer @wordsforliving

Well, it's made me think twice about vesting too much into any one service (so has the demise of tr.im). I use Facebook, Twitter, Livejournal, and FF all pretty equally, so I guess I'm not feeling this as much as some. - Bill Kinney

on to Google Wave. - Jason Wilson from BuddyFeed

Jannifer, Yes we will on his JS-Kit Echo commenting system he will put on his blog. It's real time like this - Stephen Pickering

I'm leaving. Google Wave, Twitter, Reader will plenty suffice now. Farewell, former friend. - Californian

Oh Stephen - I'm not sure what that is... but it won't be like Friendfeed. :-( - Jannifer @wordsforliving

At some point I imagine I will. I have no interest in joining facebook. When I do depends on what facebook does with ff. - Quasar

I'm sticking around till FB screws it up. But I was keeping FF separate from FB because most of my FB friends are my born-again Christian relatives who won't like the controversial stuff of mine that makes it onto FF's news feed. Still, I'm going to look for other similar sites. Posterous is one. - Dennis Jernberg

I really want a Google Wave invite now.. - Peter

I'm not leaving but I'm not moving to Facebook. The main thing for me is to keep the contacts I've gained from FriendFeed and hope we all can meet on another similar service somewhere somehow. - Kol Tregaskes

Ditto what Kol just said. - LogEx

ditto on the Google wave invite - Kim

you hit the nail on the head there Kol - Kim

Maybe. But i really want Google Wave invite. - ★ Soner Gönül

It's hard to say at this point. The only thing that's changed is who pays the server bill. Ask me in a week. And yes, a Google Wave invite would sure go a long way to make this better for me. - Dale

Joined Posterous. http://jbug.posterous.com Wouldn't mind a Google Wave invite, though... - Dennis Jernberg

Me too, Dennis. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

I don't leave if Facebook doesn't make something dramamatic to FF - Kristian Salonen

I will wait and see. - Matt G

Leaving a favorite site isn't always a conscious decision for me. The cool site loses its cool and you just kind of drift off. - Dale from email

Oh yeah, and I added my Posterous blog to my FriendFeed feed, so you'll be seeing whatever I post there in your home feed here. That is, if you subscribe to me here, or if one of your subscribers likes or comments. Me, leave? Not yet! ;) - Dennis Jernberg

I'll be sticking around just a little while longer. - April Russo (app103)

I'm here for the duration - Charlie Anzman

I'm loyal until they make it worth me leaving. - Jesse Stay

I'm here until they slam the gates shut. But I am hiding all your BS posts about it being a good thing :) - jcunwired

If you want to be sure that I quit Friendfeed you have to see my burial. I will never quit while being alive! :-) - Kolja

I'm staying but it's like when you know that the company you work for has been bought by someone else and might close it, you lose motivation and start looking for another job, it's hard to invest time and energy if there might be no future. Not that the future of FF was guaranteed before but now it does not look good at all. - M F

I'm heading to Plurk! who's with me? *tumbleweed* - Iain Baker

Like I said before, I'm staying here until the end. - Mathew™ one of a kind

Friendfeed is two totally different things: the original RSS aggregation service, and a social network service/community. Lifestream.fm is a reasonable replacement for the former. As to the latter, it's the people, not the tech they're using, that makes FF special. I've benefited greatly as a 'consumer' here, reading posts - if that continues on Facebook, it will probably get me to... more... - SteamCentral

i'll be around until it becomes unbearable, probly until it's been damaged badly by FB style feature creep and riddled with ads and spammers. oh, and absolutely stupid censorship policies. that'll be a real killer. - Joe Silence is not Santa

not leaving. NEVER hoho I haven't left FB nor friendser. - 'Like' robot (frɐnc)

The CloneFeed group has given me some interest. It gives some hope in case FF really goes away or merges badly with FB. I like FB but just don't want to fully mix the two activities/audiences. - manielse (Mark Nielsen)

Go to posterous. Here is mine: http://pingmicro.com/ - Svartling from iPhone

I'd rather keep my Friendfeed as my "professional aggregation" and Facebook as personal stuff. I blog, tweet, etc. stuff that a lot of my friends could care less about. And I post stuff to Facebook that isn't interesting or relevant to clients / followers. - Gregg Le Blanc

Google Wave is what I am looking for. The problem with moving to Facebook is that I use it for close friends and family so things like comments and pics etc that I post to it I would not want to have available to all of the contacts I have on FF at the moment. Mainly because I like to separate those I know from those that I converse with if that makes sense. I loved that on FF I could... more... - Travis Koger

Whilst I am not 'leaving' FF, I will not be investing anywhere near the type of interaction I have done previous to yesterday's announcement as I just see it as wasted time. - Travis Koger

I have to wait & see what, I don't want to lose the community; where do I go? This feels like Pownce all over! - clarke thomas

not me. - Edward Barnieh

Nope, not yet. I still dream about FF and FB to coexist. I think Facebook is even more boring now, after this announcement. Anyone else feels this way? - Patrik Johansson

Not me. I will be glad when all the people who say they are leaving do so my feed won't be full of people saying they are leaving. - Alan Simpson

What becomes of the broken hearted? - Joe Dawson

I'm staying on! - Charles Lau

FF is my first big social networking investment (or time) - I'll stay and then move, if forced. I'll certainly investigate other tools in an effort to fill any gap left by FaceFeed. - Jason Miller

I just saw that a woman's twittering her childbirth made the front page of BBC's world news webpage. I don't know to make of it, but I don't want to hang out at Twitter much anymore. - Mitch

Mitch: we Twittered our childbirth in 2007 and we will again in September, but probably not on our main account. - Robert Scoble

won´t leave!!! i LOVE friendfeed. @Mitch i know what you mean. So many stories and this is the one they picked? - Flynn (Michael A. Volz)

i think i'm stayin, and wait what's goin on facebook. i will feel upset if they dont allow the users to make their choice of using one or other site, but looks like they gonna force to use FB instead of FF :( - Dani Martínez

Not sure how on board with FriendFeed I ever was to begin with to be honest... - Gurpreet

FriendFeed will be fine - FaceBook is fine - and so is Twitter - I might check out AmpliFeeder, I suspect quite a few FriendFeeders will migrate there as the days go by. - Chris Loft

Not leaving FF but I can't wait till it's properly integrated with Facebook. Interesting thing: Wave's API is open so there's nothing to stop Facebook creating an app to make Facebook & Wave work great together. Not so much either/or as and... and..! - Matt Moran

Has anyone tried amplifeeder? edit: so far don't see any friending abilities though - metalerik

Why leave? But will be open to see other options - facebook doesn't (currently) provide to me what I get here. - amygeek

Facebook bought friendfeed http://adage.com/digital... - Rob Johnson

OH NO, I just finish moving all my stuff HERE! - Terence

Robert: I closed down my embeds today. Sad for my blog. - Mark Essel

I stay on FriendFeed, on Twitter, on Facebook, etc. - Emmanuel Gadenne

I won't delete my account, but as FF morphs into the ball of confusion that is Facebook, I won't be very active. - Jeremy Brooks

I will. No point sticking around when you know it is going to die sooner or later. With twitter you still have the hope.... - Davide D'Incau

I'll leave Facebook if FF gets harmed. And go back to Identi.ca... ;-) - Torrid Luna

Yeah, I'll probably leave Facebook too. If they're going to "steal" the FriendFeed functions and just let FF die, I will not have any sympathies left for Facebook. I'll go "all Google" or something. - Patrik Johansson

I'll stay on FF, FB and T, and BK, and other, BrightKite is not well utilised, is good even on beta. - Andy Ghozali

I joined posterous for blogging/lifestreaming and will continue to use twitter. I might go on facebook once in a while, which is what I was doing anyway. - Tomy Thomson

Robert: If you're looking for an awesome real-time discussion platform, you should migrate to Fluther. http://www.fluther.com - Ben

I'm staying put and watching the ship sink. I'd really like to believe that FriendFeed will have some longevity, but I won't hedge my bets. - Tyson Key

Steve Gillmor said "clue to the denouement: where is the most valuable processing of this event. Right here." so for now, FF looks like the space. - Barbara K. Iverson

I intend to stick around to see what Facebook have planned. I think the takeover has everything to do with the direction FB's been heading in lately, what with their open challenge to Twitter - Dennis Jernberg

I don't see it as leaving, but rather seeing the possibility that it might leave us. FF was and still is just about my favorite site and uberaggregatorthing that I ever saw.... - Rob Schieber

+100 Rob Schieber - Tyson Key

I will stay. Facebook will not Win. - TheHenry

Nope... I'll stay, even if I ride it to a bitter end. - Mark "DerBingle" J

depends. if they stay seperate services, i wont like the acquisition,but i'll stay. if they become 1 service, i'm out. and where is every1 going from friend feed anyhow. what else is there? - echostreamer

Will wait and see what happens with FB - Ted Kinzer

fb ruins everything. Have the Privacy policy "not "changed since fb came into the pic? Can they not build their own ideas instead of buying everyone else's? leave us geeks to play in our playground and stay in yours. greedy buggers. The second they pull a skanky fb move i'm out. bitches. - seastarerrin

I'm here till the ship goes down. - Lee Watters

Leaving no. Checking out other venues yes. - Martha

Just maybe Facebook will listen to the Friendfeed engineers in charge of user interface/usability starting with the type size and fonts. Not all marriages are made in heaven. Culture clashes are sure to pop up. - Alan Morris

I am leaving Web - Back to Telnet - Dominique Rabeuf

Dominique, too late. The web already assimilated it with the telnet: url schema. - Bruce Lewis

OK so only snmp/ssh - Dominique Rabeuf

Hell no, not leaving. Best service on the web. - Christopher Galtenberg from iPhone

gonna ride this one out to shore. - Sean Oliver

keep using FriendFeed till they pull the plug. Leaving the service will make it more likely that it will go away. - Cassidy from IM

hu? - Dries Grobler

back to blogs :-) - Mostafa Lameei

I was about to focus a little more on FF but since I heard about the purchase and read rumors about FF being integrated in FB and being shutdown and all this, I'm getting a little ... well.. undecided.. Just checked Streamy, didn't like it. If a.tinythread.com get's more development, this might be the next thing to migrate to. I'm sure not moving to FaceBook. I have my account, I have... more... - Dan van Moll

Minitel 3815 (?) - Dominique Rabeuf

Not interested in being part of Facebook. Goodbye, FriendFeed. :-( - TranceMist

I wish more folks would see the big picture. We need to focus on independent projects that are NOT part of the Google-Yahoo-Microsoft borg. As soon as a site gets absorbed it is time to find another independent site. Yes, I do realize that some may have actually been part all along and only pretending they were independent in the first place - especially if they were founded by... more... - Internet Strategist

MG Siegler

Google Launches A Major Offensive Against Microsoft With “Going Google” - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009...

August 2 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Cem Ozkaynak, ashish, PierG and 55 other people liked this

That billboard was the best thing they could come up with? - Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)

17 more comments

I'm ahead of the curve on this one. - Jason Huebel

Yeah. Courier is going to send them scurrying. - Akiva Moskovitz

no idea if that's what they'll really look like. that's just a demo in the video they sent - MG Siegler

I'm consistently impressed with the value delivered by Google Apps. I expect the acquired Postini base to be more aggressively mined for Google Apps converts as well. - Jay Cuthrell

I have alternative text: Day #3 - our Google App based corp mail is bouncing and we don't know why. No one responds in Google. :( - Kfir Pravda

Kfir: Whatever. I've documented in video where Google Apps Support answers the -phone- when you call them. If you're running "corp" mail with a free account, you should not expect a paid support experience and you won't have access to the phone number of course. Here's the video I did a year ago for example: http://video.seesmic.com/threads... and it's gotten even better since then btw... - Jay Cuthrell

Go google, go! - Lakshman Prasad

Google is developing a brand that says "we want our design to look like it was created by engineers. Oh wait, let's hire engineers to design it!" - Paula W

Errrr what? Developing a brand? Pretty sure Goog has had a brand for a good while now. - EricaJoy

Google is developing a VAR and integrator channel. - Jay Cuthrell

Check blogoscoped take on this http://blogoscoped.com/archive... - Varun Mahajan

Can you do pivot tables with google spreadsheets? - Matt Soreco

Matt - you'll have to create them yourself or use gadgets like Panorama - Jay Cuthrell

Thanks Jay. I think your average excel user (like me) would just want to work without extra gadgets. For me, it'll be a wait and see. - Matt Soreco

Google is taking over the world...one piece of the enterprise at a time. - Don Martelli

(Just speaking for myself here) It's worth pointing out that Google is *itself* a huge user of Apps, and it works very well for just about everything we do. Sure, there are cases that aren't covered yet -- I suspect some sophisticated spreadsheet users aren't going to have all the features they need, but it seldom matters for day-to-day users. And I suspect the teams are working hard to close those gaps as fast as they can. - Joel Webber

And from a "cloud security" perspective (one concern I see coming up a lot), it's also worth considering that Google is as susceptible to this issue with its own apps as anyone else, so the company has an extremely strong incentive to get security right. - Joel Webber

Jay: in recent cases that I've witnessed and documented in my blog, Google apps showed that in some cases they suffer from performance issues. When I published it, I received several comments from others suffering from the same issue, including corp accounts. That's why I mentioned the fact that bouncing emails occur on this platform, and other issues exist, that are not necessarily reported/covered. I am happy that you received great customer service. - Kfir Pravda

Christopher Price

Free Cone Day gives unemployed stockbrokers just one more day of their lives before they starve to death. It's nothing but false hope, guys.

April 21 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

siddman, Yolanda and edythe liked this

Appetite: LouCypher

imo.im - https://imo.im/

December 3, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Kol Tregaskes, ozgur koca, Seth Greenblatt and 12 other people liked this

imo.im is a web-based multi-network instant messaging service. It lets users chat on AIM, Google Talk, MSN, MySpace, Skype, and Yahoo. [via http://friendfeed.com/e...] - LouCypher

7 more comments

So it's like Meebo? - Shawn Farner

it's a much better interface, plus it's the only supporting Skype. They are also working to support the Facebook chat. - Flavio

are all their users emo? - Glenn Batuyong from twhirl

It seems like you can only sign on one service at a time - Meebo lets you connect to all of them simultaneously. Meebo has my heart. - Shawn Farner

I use TokBox for the same function. I was using Pidgin, but it kept crashing and deleting my contacts. - Admiral Anika

imo.im actually does let you simultaneously connect to as many IM services at a time as you want, and you can link them to any IM account for single sign on. - gloria

it has a desktop app as well https://imo.im/download.html (requires .NET 2.0 or newer) - LouCypher

.NET app? Well, that certainly excludes a wide swath of the community. Hasn't Microsoft learned that Web 2.0 was supposed to end the exclusivity of data portability? - Glenn Batuyong from twhirl

Appetite: Yuval Atzmon

Sysinternals Process Explorer (by Mark Russinovich) - every once in a while this little app saves the day. Can't imagine life without it. #win - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us...

February 25 - Comment - Like - Share

Jason R. Hunter, Ted Louie, Henrik Söderlund and 7 other people liked this

This time it was the "search handle by substring" feature to find which process is holding a file on a specific drive. - Yuval Atzmon

4 more comments

I am going to kill my GoogleUpdate.exe and MDM.exe using this - TrafficBug

TrafficBug - go ahead, but I'll save you some time and tell you that killing GoogleUpdate.exe won't help. You need to disable the scheduled task called GoogleUpdatetaskuser. And be advised that the next time you run Chrome it will re-enable this scheduled task. - Yuval Atzmon

One of my musthaves. It speaks for itself. - Neurario

@Yuval : unlocker could do it, and it allows you to unlock the file. I use it often with firefox & gmail when I add a file, I noticed that firefox keeps a handle on the file, even if I close the gmail tab - Olivier

thanks yuval, i noticed sometimes there is more than 1 GoogleUpdate.exe in task mgr - I have chrome installed but I dont use it - only IE7 I am going to try the killing of the scheduled task now - TrafficBug

Julia Allison

Birthday Gangstas. - http://juliaallison.tumblr.com/post...

February 26 from Tumblr - Comment - Like - Share

siddman liked this

Appetite: Jauder Ho

Lovely Charts | Free online diagramming application - http://lovelycharts.com/

February 9 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Peter van Teeseling, Barry Deutsch, Carolyn Chan and 7 other people liked this

Also check out Gliffy.com - TrafficBug

4 more comments

bump due to duplicate - Zee.

bump due to duplicate - lets please search before or after posting guys - Zee.

Zee, aaaah bad me, wanted to share this badly, forgot to check :) - Sasha Kovaliov(.com)

np's - Zee. from IM

this is great. so easy to use. - Carolyn Chan

Robert Scoble

Scobleizer TV: Search interface done better than Google - http://www.fastcompany.tv/video...

February 19 - Comment - Like - Share

Damian Holmes, Nestor, paul mooney and 22 other people liked this

http://www.leapfish.com is a new meta search engine. Type something in and results from Google and other places instantly appear. Here the founder of Leapfish demos the new search and explains what they are trying to do. - Robert Scoble

23 more comments

Like it so far! - Paul Wade

Search interface done better than Google? Robert did you miss a question mark at the end of the title? - Vlad Zabblotskyy

Vlad: I like it better, so there. :-) - Robert Scoble

Well, I am not the one to be objective here. I think though if I was interviewed I would make sure "Scobleizer" was worth at least several thousands.... $700??? ..... By the way most of the videos I watched on Fastcompany footage tops after about 2 minutes and only audio continues... Not sure if other people get the same. - Vlad Zabblotskyy

Scoble's right: this is a superior search interface to Google. Incremental search rocks. Aggregating search results by document type rocks. Leapfish is very zippy in clicking from one tab/category to the next. But it needs tabs/categories for Books and Music. If you don't like incremental search you can use the Leapfish Classic interface. - Sean McBride

Hrm....I covered this here, interesting. http://sheenonline.biz/2009... - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Something really cool here: click on "see more" for videos: you can play any video in the collection of thumbnails simply by placing the cursor on the video. - Sean McBride

Not feeling it at all. Besides UI has a low barrier to entry, and a high potential to piss off mainstream users. This is akin to an app for Twitter or FB, where Leapfish is standing on the shoulder's of giants. - coldbrew

coldbrew: I wish I could understand what you just said. :) I read it three times carefully and its not computing. - Sean McBride

I typed in a query and it showed me google results. Eh? - Todd Hoff

Todd -- look carefully. Leapfish is aggregating search results from multiple sources. - Sean McBride

The results all say X by Google. I didn't go past a few pages. - Todd Hoff

Look at the right column. Look at the options at the top of the page. And it's incredibly fast. - Sean McBride

It is certainly very fast. - Todd Hoff

The home page looks rather amateurish but it does seem to be very fast. - Brian Sullivan

The search engines' primary value is derived from their web index, and their ranking of individual pages. Leapfish utilizes those technologies and builds on top of them. GYM could always add an alternative UI for their respective search properties. - coldbrew

Is it actually faster than google, or does it just seem that way because of the visual activity? When I try a side by side comparison (from typing the last character of the search on leapfish - with hitting return on google) they seem pretty similar. - Robin Barooah

The problem with big changes for a well-used product is that most people do not like change. If Google decided to cut off access to their search API by Leapfish, they would be much less useful (similar to Twitter restricting API calls, or FB developing birthday reminder functionality). Better? - coldbrew

Not convinced by this implementation incremental search - refreshing the whole screen is distracting - whereas say - http://www.inquisitorx.com/safari... is pretty helpful. However more than one of my friends has said that they are using site specific searches other than google recently, so they may be onto something. Perhaps once you have the relevance of google, there is room for more than one size-fits-all. - Robin Barooah

Coldbrew -- haven't quite a few meta search engines been using results from Google, Yahoo and other sources for years? - Sean McBride

Sure. I suppose my point was there is not a business to be built here, and this will have very little impact. Definitely a good side project though. - coldbrew

Yawn! Did they even look into a decent UI? Why don't I just go to Google or Yahoo or MSN if you are going to limit where I search.. why not bring them ALL to me instead of just one. If I just wanted Google, I would hang out at Google. Show me where the product makes sense on my FIRST search not after I need to read and change things and deal with the everchanging UI. - RAD Moose

"New LeapFish No-Click Search Engine Triples Early Adopter Traffic; Thousands of Advertisers Snap up Keywords" http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id... - Sean McBride

I would like to watch this video, by the way, but it is impossible: it keeps massively stalling. (I don't have this problem with Youtube or other video sites.) - Sean McBride

Robert Scoble

Posterous Continues to Simplify Blogging with Facebook Support [feedly] - http://www.allfacebook.com/2009...

February 19 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

You., Garry Tan, Kol Tregaskes and 8 other people liked this

Why are you such a fan of Posterous? Curious. - Jeff "RESPRES" Turner from BuddyFeed

Its quick and easy to use maybe????? I think the service is really good for creating a quick simple blog of stuff you like - Benno

Appetite: Zee.

Gmail now lets you create your own custom theme! - http://thenextweb.com/2009...

February 19 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Nicholas James, LouCypher, Morton Fox and 19 other people liked this

Very cool, now I just need to find a few minutes to create my own custom theme. - Jennifer Van Grove

Robert Scoble

What a real startup looks like: - http://ourdoings.com/roberts...

February 18 from Robert Scoble - Comment - Like - Share

Arvind, Peter Efland, David Cook and 49 other people liked this

This is Gist.com -- the best computers, smart people, crammed into small Seattle office and two more employees joining tomorrow. I love real startups. This is how our economy will come back. - Robert Scoble

22 more comments

what camera as you useing - walterh

Wow, they got tables! At my first startup, I had the packing crate from a Sun workstation for more than a month. - Mistletoe Glen

Impressive. Looks like the formula is equal parts coffee:coke:water. I'm assuming it's water in those squeeze bottles! :) - Salim Virani

Haha, I want the shot of them fighting over the last Snicker bar. - Sajan Parikh

Still looking for start-ups to meet with here, Robert? If so, I've got a suggestion for ya... - Kevin Pedraja

Hehe ++Salim/Sajan - ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,

I see the Diet Coke but where's the empty pizza boxes? p.s. my first startup was launched on top of an old door held up with cinder blocks and a file cabinet as a 'desk' - Andrew Leyden

Kevin: I might have time in the morning. How about email scobleizer@gmail.com or call +1-425-205-1921 - Robert Scoble

Cool. I'll send you the deets. - Kevin Pedraja

At my first start up we worked in a cave that we dug with our own hands. We used free AOL CDs glued together for desks. It was crazy!! ;-) - Todd Pringle

Cave? You were lucky to have a cave! We used to work in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of falling! ;) - dario

looks like my idea of fun ! - Adam Singer

Gnip looks a lot like this. - Louis Gray

Inconsistently consistent! - Sampad Swain

Seriously, however, startups are where the true "job creation" occurs. Most of what happens in the so-called stimulus package is merely job transfers from one industry to another. - Mistletoe Glen

I worked at a tech startup here in LA, were 4 of us were crammed into a storage room filled with desks from a school that no longer existed. FF 3 years, I temped at another internet startup, that had this huge swanky spot next door to MTV. My cubicle had about $6K worth of stuff in it. There were a couple hundred people there doing the work of 20. They went belly up in 9 mos. - Admiral Anika

so glamorous in its 3rd world working conditions. - anna sauce

I would like to have an internal team like this to work with. Bootstrapping can get lonely from time to time. - Jeremy Campbell from twhirl

Pfft. That's what gratuitous VC funding looks like. REAL startups are bootstrapped by founders on their own with no paid employees at all. - Paul Montgomery

I think I will Go with Paul - Prakash

Robert: How does the small number of startups and smaller number of founders/employees even begin to help the US economy? You'd be lucky if the numbers at startups came to 200,000. Plus it takes them 5+ years to get to anything like meaningful revenue in a good market, like the late 90s. If there is a recovery, it will have to come from science research, then manufacturing, not startups. - Paul Denlinger

You should stop by the school and say Hello. :-) Not quite a startup, but technology and education, well Ok, I think it is interesting. LOL! And I'll totally understand if you can't. r/d - Dan Morrill AKA Techwag

Go Seattle! - Ryan

Appetite: Cee Bee

21 Free & Paid Alternatives to Adobe Photoshop - http://www.cartridgesave.co.uk/news...

January 26 - Comment - Like - Share

Ralph, Kol Tregaskes, Tom Parish and 58 other people liked this

There are so many features packed into Photoshop that many people get overwhelmed at the very thought of Photoshop’s extensive photo editing power. However, if all you need to do is retouch photos, create designs, or even design a website template, then there is life beyond Photoshop. They may not be as powerful, but they may just be the answer that you’re looking for. Apart from having so many features that most ordinary users will never take advantage of, Photoshop’s other big downfall is its high price tag. Adobe Photoshop CS3 is currently priced at over £330, and the Photoshop CS3 Extended version is priced over £500. If you’re looking for an application for basic image editing and design, then Photoshop may be a waste of your hard earned money. On the other hand, if you’re into more advanced graphic design, then Photoshop may the right software for your specific needs, but make sure to check out Photoshop alternatives first to see if there’s another less expensive software out there that will suit your - Cee Bee

12 more comments

I've been using pixlr for work and it's great, mostly because I don't have to wait for Photoshop to load up. - Admiral Anika

i really like sumo paint and aviary though there's lot to choose from - Cee Bee

Yes, there are a lot now. I'm looking for a more sophisticated online photo editor to integrate with OurDoings -- currently just using Snipshot. What I do like about Snipshot is that users don't have to think about keeping the aspect ratio the same when cropping -- that's the way the corner drags by default. What other online photo editing sites have that sort of default crop behavior? - Bruce Lewis from fftogo

I'm wayyy to used to Adobe now to swtich - sofarsoShawn

sofarsoshawn: agreed. I've also gotten used to GIMP on those computers that I haven't installed Adobe on. It's gotten much better about adhering to Adobe's (the de facto standard) keystrokes and things like that, though there are still some oddities. - Chieze Okoye

Paint.NET is the win for the Win - Jemm

Paint.NET is good. I'm also using Photoshop Elements, a cheaper version of Photoshop. - Morton Fox

I belive that this is called a monopol - the apps listed arent really alternatives. Gimp f.e. is not really usable. - Jean-Paul Hinz

Picnik is an awesome application, but it has the achilles heel of being an online app. It's really fun to toy around with especially as it's integrated with so many photo , but really hard to fit into any kind of workflow. - Eric P

...nothing goes over irfanview ; maybe polyvore gets more advanced in the future. the rest is about video [editor], mashup sills and coming up more MR integration ; - ewing2001akaNicomedy2010

Anyone here have an opinion about the Photo Impact Pro series vs. Photoshop? My boyfriend swears by it, but I keep trying to tell him that it's lacking some really basic features that Photoshop users take for granted. He says PI 15 is only just now about to finally get layers, and the selection tools on it look primitive to me. I did graduate from art school, where yes, Photoshop was the gospel. I mean, do I know what I'm talking about here? BF is on here, too, so maybe he'll chime in with his perspective. - Kamilah Gill

Karmilah - my whole theory with software is if it gets the job done for you then it is worth having. Different flavors for different people - Rob Cairns

Well, he was kind of fighting with it to get it to do what he wanted it to do, i.e. make detailed cutouts of photos to make collages. He did just buy Photoshop Elements, but that seems to be lacking some stuff and doesn't quite work the way I expect for it to. But I guess you're right, if it really does get the job done for someone, it's not too big of a deal. - Kamilah Gill

Appetite: Sasha Kovaliov(.com)

Email, Task and Time Management with PIFEM. A must read for a web-worker. - http://blogs.msdn.com/ianpal...

January 15, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

denise, Marco(aureliusmaximus), Kol Tregaskes and 6 other people liked this

Well, for my first blog post I'd better cover PIFEM - which is an email management system that Angus Logan, Johann Kruse and I have been using with Outlook 2007. It is loosely based on Getting Things Done (GTD) and the 4 D's of email processing. PIFEM uses the out of the box Outlook 2007 features of flagging and categories to manage emails that you don't want to action/complete immediately. Once you date/time flag an item it is no longer clogging up your brain with secondary thoughts. If you manage it well... you can eliminate a lot of distractions from email, and focus on your highest priority items with laser focus. - Sasha Kovaliov(.com)

I have been using ClearContext to manage email and drive my workflow. I think the context based dashboards are a great feature for focusing on a particular project at a time. - Chris Patterson

Appetite: Sasha Kovaliov(.com)

3 Simple Ways To Send Huge Files Over The Web - http://www.makeuseof.com/tag...

January 14, 2009 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

denise, Kol Tregaskes, Khader Shameer and 22 other people liked this

This is a really good article. What people do not realize is sending large files via email protocol is very slow. I personally use yousend it for sending large files around and find it very helpful. - Rob Cairns

2 more comments

I also like senduit.com - Sasha Kovaliov(.com)

I like firedropper and drop.io for sending large files...Although when i share files among geeks, i'd rather create a torrent and send to everyone :P - Keshav Khera

yousendit is also good - Joseph Ferrara.Sellsius

Dare Obasanjo

Hotmail Quick Add - Windows Live - http://jamiethomson.spaces.live.com/blog...

January 13, 2009 from StumbleUpon - Comment - Like - Share

Daniel Rowley, siddman, Emmanuel Anumonwo and 2 other people liked this

The next release of Hotmail is gonna have some hot stuff in it. - Dare Obasanjo

2 more comments

Dare, can we get hotmail.com to recognize Chrome as a browser yet? - Matt Cutts

P.S. Here's a link you can forward to the Hotmail team http://bit.ly/12vu6 - Matt Cutts

I've passed the link along. - Dare Obasanjo

Robert Scoble

If you are laid off, here’s how to socially network - http://scobleizer.com/2009...

January 12, 2009 from Scobleizer -- Tech geek... - Comment - Like - Share

Carlos Lorenzo, Amani, David Feng and 96 other people liked this

I've found a good rule of thumb to be that unless you are absolutely sure you will never need the Internet to help get you a job, act as though you may be laid off next week. What would you want attached to your name? Like I said on your tweet, probably the biggest faux pas I see is people bitching about their job. It's unprofessional. - Mark Trapp

20 more comments

Robert I think this advice is for even when you have a job. I can't recall where but I remember reading that it's essential to network when you _have_ a job. Not only will it help you get a job when you don't have one, it'll help you move upward and diagonally across the proverbial ladder. - Bhavishya Kanjhan

These are some very sound and actually wise principles to adhere to. Thanks, I'm definitely marking this as a favorite, and will refer to it many more times in the future! - Carlton Hackett

This is one of my favorite Scoble posts so far. Great social networking and networking tips whether or not you've been laid off. - Bill Romanos

@scobleizer This is a terrific post that just oozes common sense. Key though is, do this 2 years before you are laid off. - Bankwatch

Great post. And I finally realized I was subscribed to a partial feed of scobleizer.com this entire time (which I thought was the only feed available); that has been rectified. - Tamar Weinberg

@bankwatch - how so very true, but there are ways of speeding up the process. - Dan Morrill AKA Techwag

Awesome post. Seriously. Thanks! - Phil G

Really appreciate this timely post. Just had a very talented friend in publishing who was laid off and am hoping your post can make a difference for her. - Kirsten Hamstra

Great stuff you are really helping people - Thomas Power

Love it! I'm embarrassed to say I've been freelancing and wanting work in the social media space and have completely neglected my blog. I have incorporated links to the various social media tools/sites in my email signature (thanks AK for pointing this out!) and have received questions and comments about them. Thanks for the very timely post and opportunity for a very helpful discussion. - Jill Howard Allen

If one follows all of the advice in this post, they might not need a job...they could become self employed. - April Russo (app103)

Great advice. Thanks for posting it. - Kenneth Chu

That's a great post, Robert! An aside: I had to look up LOLCats, just to make sure I knew what those were. I guess I'm not looking for a job in entertainment or in working with children, eh? :-) I think my inner Capricorn ages me! - Yule Heibel

when i started contributing info to the online world, i realized that i was no longer anonymous. i try to follow these simple rules: 1) be professional with everything posted (images, text, vids, etc), 2) dont associate with unprofessional folks (i.e. those who post with disregard), 3) add value. The sooner you start networking and building a quality online presence the sooner it can be utilized for career gain. - TJ Trapp

Some good advice, some complete yawn-able BS. Be yourself, build enough social capital that your boss is scared of what YOU can do when you talk shit. Thats why I did :) - sean percival

also i doubled my salary twice last year :) #whatrecession - sean percival

So who should I be taking to lunch so I can get my story in the right ears in order to get the right next job? - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

Joelle: what do you want to do with the rest of your life? - Robert Scoble

Enjoyed this post a lot, Robert. You've made a good point for me that I need to "marry" a couple of my blogs into one that states how I bring technology to ministry. I tend to keep these separate. And I also tend to do less blogging while I'm in school. I'll try and make more effort on the blogging. I'm in math courses right now as I'm finishing my degrees and I tend to get my head buried with those.;) - Melanie Reed

Hmm... do LOLTads count? http://friendfeed.com/e... - Fa La La La Lindsay

Very nice post. I like the helping others part especially. What is your feeling about virtual business cards? Networking is still crucial. - Amani

Robert Scoble

Deep inside the Windows 7 public beta - http://arstechnica.com/article...

January 12, 2009 from Digg - Comment - Like - Share

amygeek, Yusuf Yıldız, Bill Romanos and 5 other people liked this

Robert, thanks for posting this Win7 stuff, would be interested to hear your opinion, so far it doesn't sound too promising for Microsoft as far as driving upgrades in a recessionary environment (read especially page 6 for the summary run-down on System Reqs and Performance). - Alex Schleber

Jemm

Windows 7 Features IT pros will like - http://blogs.technet.com/mniehau...

January 13, 2009 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Kenton, edythe, Alan Le and 24 other people liked this

"There are lots of new features in Windows 7, but here are a few that are more “IT pro”-ish" - Jemm from Bookmarklet

10 more comments

If only it would install so I can have some fun with it - Outsanity

Hmm. So on my Mac, the only 'feature' that I'm missing is Paint. I can live with that :) - Paul Grav

there's nothing really there for IT pros.. we wouldn't use the "new deployment tool" because any half decent sysadmin would be using roaming profiles and WDS/RIS to help users move from machine to machine and create new client machines. - alphaxion

My favorite new thing is the Resource Monitor like the ones in Linux. - Will Higgins™

7 is faster than vista. i'wouldnt expect that really. good for ms. - Yusuf Yıldız

a calculator? - Bryce Roney

but it's the funnest calculator! ;) - alphaxion

...now with geek-support! :) - Jemm

the iso feature is a big one.....It should have been in Windows a long time ago - Rob Cairns

@Rob: Unfortunately no iso-mounting yet, but the VHD-support is cool (create, mount, boot and full backup into virtual disk) - Jemm

The energy usage report? (at elevated command line, "powercfg /energy") Although certainly useful for OEMs, it could be used by IT to make sure computers are able to deep-sleep overnight. It isn't always the computer; it can be the connected devices. - Wade Dorrell

Robert Scoble

Palm is a lot nicer than iPhone. I want one. The web and social networking features are killer. #ces09

January 8, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

thegeniusfiles, Nicholas James, David HC Soul and 76 other people liked this

perhaps that's why Bono invested £100m in Palm smartphones ... ? - Jim Sparrow

87 more comments

More details? Do Tell :-) - Stephen Smyth

buy palm stock now! - Elijah Nicolas

check out gdgt live blog: http://live.gdgt.com/2009... - Davide D'Incau

Tech Specs? It looks neat (due to te live stream), but Windows was a no-go! I hope it's Linux-based. - masa media - Martin

@Scobleizer Do you like whatever Palm you saw at #ces09 more than the n95? Either way, there's one major drawback: PalmOS. Nova or not, I haven't seen anything ever from Palm to make me want to even try to get excited. - Matt Albiniak

Betamax=Palm. Will they have the library of Apps to make it sell? - Andrew Leyden

For a long time, Palm's weakest spot has been their support. It sucks. Until they improve their customer relations philosophy and stop outsourcing support, I doubt anything is going to change for Palm. - andrei_c

I agree. Poor support was why i left after buying at least half a dozen Palm products. But I wish them well, and this phone looks sweet. - Chris Baskind

wow i need to look into this. that's saying a lot. - rab from twhirl

How well will it work with my Mac? That's why I own an iPhone :-) Lock-in - Jesse Stay

Robert: Oh yeah? Does Palm have an App Store? - Rutger Blom

Palm App store: http://appstore.pocketgear.com/palm... - Ken Sheppardson

I don´t get it. Sure it´s not just because it´s new and shiny ? - Thomas Bøhm

Palm is dead, man. Dig him, dig him. - Robert W. Anderson from twhirl

@ Robert A.: he's not dead yet. He's getting better. He thjinks he'll go for a walk. - John Craft

if it doesn't have multitouch - its completely useless. People underestimate just what a killer feature this is. Also does it have an app store? Remember the Apple app store adds "killer" social networking features - Anthony Feint

Anthony: It has multitouch, as shown in the Engadget hands-on video. http://www.engadget.com/2009... - Ken Sheppardson

I love these Day 1 predictions. They are almost always wrong :) - Bwana ☠

So .. when does pricing come out for this baby? - Tyler (Chacha)

The thing that's killing me here is Engadget says "The keyboard is Centro-esque, with shallow presses and cramped spacing." which is consistent with the photos. I'm a 755p owner and lifelong Palm users, but the Centro-sized keyboard is just utterly useless to me. Sigh. - Ken Sheppardson

Robert is a serial new concept/product fawner. Give him a few days to catch his breathe, read what others say, then I am sure he will have an altered opinion. - Brian Sullivan

you got to be kidding me - mal

Can't wait to see one of these in the real world. The flexibility and openness of the Palm OS puts Apple to shame. Was considering the iTouch to replace my trusty TX, but I'll wait to see if this flies. - Chuck

Completely agree. Can't wait to see it in the wild. Competition ftw - Dean Clark

We have to give Robert a couple of weeks before his true opinion comes out. He gets excited a little too quickly - but that's him. Everything new is the best there ever was ;). - Kamath (नमः)

FatOracle: sorry, this one is the real deal. I played with it more this afternoon. I do love new stuff, but this one is worth looking at. - Robert Scoble

not sure about "lot nicer than" iPhone, but at first glance, it looks a lot nicer than the G1 or Storm. wasn't expecting much from Palm, but they have pulled a rabbit from the hat here. - Karim

Karim: if you saw the iPhone next to the Palm Pre, I think you'd agree that the Palm beats it overall except in applications. - Robert Scoble

Robert - I've been reading first hand accounts all over the web, and the general consensus seems the same: everyone was blown away. It's too bad it doesn't translate via images and video for those who haven't physically seen it. I can't wait to see it with my own two eyes. Thank you so much for checking back in to update us! - Mona Nomura

Robert: Thanks for the stream(s). Most appreciated. - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

Mona: I'm uploading more video. Nokia and Microsoft are the losers here. - Robert Scoble

Can the Palm fart yet? - Matthew DeVries

Robert, do you know if Tmobile is going to support the Pre? - Matthew DeVries

I keep hearing the new palm is better, I deal in facts, how, why is it better? - James Ostheimer

@matthew devries I think initially Palm Pre will only be on Sprint. - Rajiv Doshi

OH! You probably missed it, but the FastCompany chat was hilarious! If it's logged and you have time, skim through it. I think it'll make you laugh haha But quickly: Palm. thugs. taking one for the team. LOL - Mona Nomura

+1 Matthew - Chris, Taskerrific Guy

Rajiv, thanks - Matthew DeVries

The Pre might be different, but Palm has historically rolled out devices on multiple carriers within 6mo or so after the initial rollout. For example, most recently the Centro was launched on Sprint in Oct 2007, then rolled out on AT&T in Feb 08 and Verizon in June 2008. - Ken Sheppardson

Ken, let's hope that's the extent of which history will repeat itself. I still have a bad taste in my mouth because of Palm - Bwana ☠

Wow the new handset is really impressive. Not sure about their OS roadmap, will developers follow? *always had a Palm before switching to iPhone* - Paul Papadimitriou from Nambu

Does it sync with outlook out of the box? - Matthew DeVries

"The Palm Pre will gather all of your information from your Exchange account, your Gmail account and your Facebook account and display them in a single, unduplicated format." http://is.gd/eWXA - Ken Sheppardson

Bwana--what was your bad Palm experience? - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

Unstable UX on Tungsten W and Treo 600 platforms. - Bwana ☠

Watched robert's movie, still don't get it, looks like the iphone with a keyboard, I have gotten pretty darn good with the iphone keyboard, not sure that tiny thing will help. The scroll not on the screen is kinda cool, but really not such a big deal to me. What else is so great? - James Ostheimer

Bwana: I've lived with a Pilot 1000, Pilot Pro, III, V, VII, m500, 650, and 755p, so I feel your pain RE instability (i.e. random lockups and resets). Good news is this really doesn't sound like just an incremental PalmOS upgrade, so it might be a fresh start/set of expectations. - Ken Sheppardson

James - it's not the formfactor, it's the software and usability. Did you see how the OS multi tasks? - Mona Nomura

While this may not be the fabled "iPhone Killer"---Judging from the info. @ Palm.com this looks like it will keep Palm in the game. - Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)

I just hope they didn't lay off too many of the minds who came up with the OS. Recall they had another round of layoffs in November (but who didn't). Granted, they did say it was primarily sales & marketing in the announcement, I'm still extremely skeptical. http://www.palminfocenter.com/news... - Bwana ☠

Bwana - they just got funding. BRB w/ the link. Back http://news.cnet.com/8301-10... - Mona Nomura

Looking forward to seeing if the browser on the Pre is more stable than the iPhone's. - Loren Heiny

Loren - since the whole OS is based on the browser I hope so! - invariant - farewell FF

Boggles the mind, the iPhone got *reamed* for only supporting Web apps. Palm does it and they're embraced. Am I missing something? - Bwana ☠

Bwana: Everyone hates a winner? :p - Chris, Taskerrific Guy

Progression, Bwana. Progression. :) - Mona Nomura

Bwana: revolutionary products change our expectations. - Robert Scoble

+1 Bwana - I was wondering the same thing earlier today. - ronin

I'm not convinced :) I'll have to wait until I can use one myself. - Bwana ☠

Bwana, the difference is that the Palm does not require you to be net connected to use the app. They just use "web technologies" for their API. I still think it's the biggest flaw in the system. They'll never get the games ecosystem that iPhone has without native apps, that's for sure. - invariant - farewell FF

So the multi-tasking is multiple browser windows/tabs? Are you kidding? - Bwana ☠

@invariant it depends on what the API actually gives you the ability to do, let's wait and see, I'll agree with you that it's unlikely given what they have announced that you'll be able to build super rich apps, but who knows what the API allows - Justin Yost

i go by new york's subway. noone has a palm any longer for months ; - ewing2001akaNicomedy2010

Bwana: Yes, and no. Justin: Some incredible things have been done in Javascript so I won't count it out completely, but you're seeing great games on iPhone because companies and individuals can leverage the wealth of game code and experienced engineers using C/C++. - invariant - farewell FF

Palm Pre, better or not... It's more a question of giving iPhone some substantial competition in the social/mobile space. - Brad Kligerman

innovation promotes innovation. this is all great for consumers. - Davide D'Incau

Will you stand in line 24 hours to get it? - Oudi Antebi

The iPhone was presented with an emphasis on not allowing general multitasking (like WinMo) because of battery life issue. Apple design decision (it *is* a unix derived os after all), not Palm innovation. Besides, what I see from comments here it may not be native app multitasking? Then it looks like the "multitasking allowing part of the API" is just like the first iPhone SDK which was also just based on web technologies. - Thomas Bøhm

Thomas, the key difference you're missing is that applications on the first generation iPhone could only run inside the browser, and were entirely server-based. Basically, the first iPhone "API" was nothing of the sort - it was simply a set of guidelines for developing optimal web apps. - Ian Betteridge

I love all these iPhone fans who simply cannot believe anyone might make a phone which is better than theirs. Particularly those who don't understand that using Javascript and HTML as the core of your developer environment does not mean you're "just building web apps which run in a browser." - Ian Betteridge

Perhaps we should wait until these are available for sale, maybe use one for a while, then form an opinion? - Sam from twhirl

Oh Sam, that would be far too rational ;) - Ian Betteridge

I don't see any GPS and A-GPS in it ? - Olivier Castets

Just checked the palm site about Pre. There is GPS in it. - Olivier Castets

Ian: Oh well, aside from your belittling comment to me, I think the only later publicized iphone feature (not publ b/c of user/media push for native sdk?) which allow web apps to start up in only the webkit engine (own process without safari gui) and the later possibility to add web apps to home screen just like other apps, is a very similar idea. Whether it was an SDK or a mobile webkit feature is debateable of course, but later native sdk added local containers too. - Thomas Bøhm

If this is Roberts reactions, apple execs must be having kittens. - Roberto Bonini

@Ian you are not Of The Body. Landru Jobs will deal with you ;) - John Craft

A blog post is coming for me that is to the effect of: "Palm, why did you go and announce the Pre right after I bought the iPhone? Why, Santa Claus, Why?" I am a longstanding Palm fan. - Martha

yea i want it too. but IMO iPhone still got the look - snydez

Technologywise palm doesn't have much new, but implementation is everything, so it will be interesting to see full-on-reviews. They *may* have something interesting for me at least, since I wish Apple had followed the "webOS" idea through too. Maybe with a Ruby, or at least Javascript, compatible API on board as well. (Which is available from third-party container generators, only not from Apple themselves). The "gemstone" keyboard on the other hand, I don't know. - Thomas Bøhm

It seems wonderful, shiny and new. But signs are that it'll be more expensive than iPhone, perhaps significantly so, and tied to a horrible network I will never, ever, ever, ever use. - Fred Ochsenhirt

I badly want a N97 :D - PaperDoll

I wouldn't say it's nicer, but the UI definitely has some innovation, and attention to detail... the rounded corners and gesturing are nicely done - probably the first communications device since the iPhone 3G to garner any unique praise - Nathan Chase

What'd they put in the Palm koolaid to make Scoble say that?! iPhone not as cool now? heresy! - Susan Beebe

It sounds great, the Pre has got some awesome press already. Palm OS has been falling way behind when it comes to their products, but this looks like it may catapult them back into the running against RIM and Apple. - Aram Zucker-Scharff

Hmm, I can't decide, although the N97 looks great tech-wise. I'll look forward to seeing both hit the shores of the UK soon, though. - Tyson Key

palm stock up 39% - mal

Like I said last night, I think Palm jumped into this game way too late. And I say this despite being a Palm loyalist since 1999. I still have a Treo, but my next phone will likely NOT be Palm. - Tamar Weinberg

Appetite: lelapin

Windows Featured Download: Downloadr Backs Up Your Flickr Pics - http://lifehacker.com/5125257...

January 9, 2009 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Outsanity, Nasser Hasani, Sepehr Lajevardi and 5 other people liked this

"Windows only: Downloadr is a small application that allows you to completely back up the photos from your Flickr account. You can grab everything in one bulk swoop or use a series of filters to drill down to just the photos you want to grab. It automatically grabs the highest quality image and preserves the EXIF and IPTC data. In addition to searching grabbing images from your own account, you can search creative commons works on Flickr and use Downloadr as a tool for bulk grabbing them also. For another Flickr tool check out Flickr Backup. Downloadr is freeware, Windows only." - lelapin from Bookmarklet

Appetite: Anthony Farrior

Free Windows 7 Beta Download Friday Jan.9th - Aug.1st 2009 | MyPhillyNetwork - http://myphillynetwork.com/archive...

January 8, 2009 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

siddman, Paul Whitaker, Matthew Freeman and 4 other people liked this

Interesting news for many. - Daniel Schildt

Steven Hodson

Windows 7 doesn’t need to dazzle - http://www.winextra.com/index...

January 2, 2009 from WinExtra - Comment - Like - Share

Roberto Bonini, Nicholas James, Marcus Beagley and 14 other people liked this

Well said :) - Spencer

7 more comments

thanks Spencer :) - Steven Hodson

I really like the beta so far and I don't think they need any BIG pizzazz, but I do think they need something that will break the poor perception caused by Vista and pull users to Windows 7 - Chris Brakebill

I am REALLY excited for Windows 7. Not investing in a netbook until it launches. - Mona Nomura

exactly right - I've made it my home for the last month or so and it dazzles me by simply working and not getting in my way - that's all I need from an operating system - and the new explorer alone is worth the money - Frederic

I like your article Steven, but for me... it does need to dazzle. I was so disappointed in Vista, as was most (hence the re-upping of the availability of XP) - I am increasingly not liking what MS is doing with its UI.. overall and the ribbon.. I already dislike what I see with the task bar. They've made promises that never came (hopefully will this time). I am worried, because not only... more... - Steven Hodson

Yeah, but it's kind of pointless to produce a new version buf free(ish) and on time if it's seen as a(nother) load of crap... From the MS point of view, I'd imagine that it's critically important for Windows7 to be *accepted by users* regardless of whether delivery is this year or early in 2010. (comment via Disqus by HeavyLight) - Steven Hodson

PC consumers "upgrade" their OS when they purchase a new system -- they take what the OEMs provide, which explains the current Vista adoption numbers. Microsoft needs to be concerned with enterprise customers who have delayed upgrading to Vista. Windows 7 is scheduled to roll out at about the time of XP End of Life, so it needs to be a compelling proposition for the wave of corporate... more... - Steven Hodson

l0ckergn0me

How to piss off a geek: http://www.youtube.com/watch... - I am not amused.

How to piss off a geek: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4UCFh93qfA&fmt=22 - I am not amused.

January 6, 2009 from Ping.fm - Comment - Like - Share

siddman liked this

I'll have to record the driver software getting up to its activities that is pissing me off big time right now. - alphaxion

NOT OK! That is frickin' annoying! It's exactly what Comcast is doing! - thecolor

Robert Scoble

30-year mortgages hit 5.1%, lowest since '71 - http://www.sacbee.com/busines...

January 1, 2009 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

Mitchell Tsai, Thom Allen, Chris Lamprecht and 28 other people liked this

Just refinanced at exactly that rate. Recommended if you can pull it off. - Jason Shellen

26 more comments

Jason, the problem is our house is now worth a lot less than we paid for it. Did your refinance company care about that? - Robert Scoble

Robert, not every area in the country is seeing the depreciation that California is. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Few of my friends re-financed for 4.875% for 30 year fixed but they had less than 80% LTV and below the 417K limit - Kiran Patchigolla

Our place luckily held it's value but I have a guy if you care to explore. - Jason Shellen

ive heard from a super solid source in financial industry that we can expect 4.75% maybe hold for a little further drop? - andrew

That's what I'm hoping, Andrew. We're going to refi in the next 6 months with about a 70% LTV. We might be able to convert our 30 yr note to a 15 and still have a lower monthly payment. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Jason: absolutely. scobleizer@gmail.com -- thanks for the help! So far we haven't been hit too badly. - Robert Scoble

4 1/2% in the cards near term....30 year fixed..http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/. Won't be an option for anyone with negative equity. all appraisals will be reviewed and adjusted before a final collateral value for the mortgage is approved, fwiw. - Gregg

as a first time homebuyer we are getting locked in at 5.5% its crazy - Christian Burns

We locked in also as first time buyers this summer at 5.375% - Charlieray

Our house is worth much more than we paid for it (at least according to the tax assessor), but I'll have very good luck if I can sell it anywhere near what it's worth. My problem on refinancing is, as an entrepreneur, I'm still working to establish a steady income, so it may be awhile before we can refi ourselves. - Jesse Stay

Let's see: your official cash rate is 0.25% and the banks are charging 5.1%. Something very wrong with that. - Duncan Riley

That is amazing.... I think I have to redo my mortgage! Duncan: i think the fed rate and the mortgage rate are different because one is wholesale and one is retail--the banks have to make some money too. also, i think the time horizon is part of the issue. - Jason Calacanis

Just posted a question on Mahalo answers about this http://www.mahalo.com/answers... - Jason Calacanis

was quoted at 4.75% through wfc - cjmart

Gotta call the bank tomorrow. Wish there was some assistance for people with multiple properties who need loan modifications. - Amani

@duncan @jason the fed rate drives short-term debt (credit cards, lines of credit, etc.). mortgage rates are driven by the MBS (mortgage backed securities) markets. rates go up on inflationary fears due to the devaluing of the return over the life of the contract. but, with a flight to quality and the overall tanking of our economy you'll see 4.5% in no time. - Morgan

@amani - ask for the loss mitigation department as soon as you get someone in customer service. don't waste your time with cs people. also, start with your primary residence. trying to get a loan modification on an investment property is nearly impossible right now. - Morgan

Morgan, I was always under the belief that the cash rate was the price the banks obtained cash at, the difference is the profit. The usual gap, least in Australia has been around the 2-3% range. Certainly mortgage rates move in line with the cash rates...so there should be some correspondence between the two. My understanding was MBS's are after market sells, banks still can borrow money from the fed. - Duncan Riley

@Morgan - Thanks for the advice. The issue is that my investment properties are the ones hurting me at the current moment. But I will heed your advice and ask for the loss mitigation department. See what they can do for me. If you discover any tips for investment properties, please let me know. - Amani

@duncan, sorry for losing the thread. banks certainly borrow money from the fed which should lower their overall lending rate but a couple of things put more weight on this 1) banks don't hold mortgage notes, they're sold in to the secondary market (for the most part) the secondary market is a much bigger influence on the mortgage market than the fed rate (a restating of my point earlier) 2) banks are hoarding cash right now which drives up interbank rates which push loan rates up. - Morgan

... the long-term cash value of the note in the secondary MBS market though is really the driver here. - Morgan

@Morgan - Talked to three of my banks (mortgages) today and it seems like the special programs enacted by congress, etc. only help people who are really behind on their payments. Someone like me who is current ,but bleeding badly and wants to lower the payments can't get any help until I fall behind. Not really fair and you even have to claim a 'hardship' ... The person said they doubt a hardship would be "I am losing money every month" ... sigh. - Amani

@Amani - yeah, they mostly deal with distressed homeowners, but you should remember two things 1) the first person you talk to is like a customer service rep, a screener, they're basically going from a script 2) the banks are overwhemled with requests and can't staff up enough to handle it - they're trying to turn down edge cases 3) the best thing to do is tell them "even though i'm current default is imminent - if i don't do something i will default" 4) if they say no ask them for the loan... - Morgan

...modification paperwork and get their name and number and fax number. 5) write a letter to the bank explaining your situation and the imminent default that awaits if they don't work with you. 6) follow up in a week and if you still get resistance ask to talk to a supervisor. polite assertiveness is your best bet. - Morgan

@amani...whether primary or investment property, the lender servicer or investor will require a NPV (net present value) analysis of modification vs. foreclosure bottom-lines. If NPV favors modification, then it's likely the investors will bite. A moving target here, and each day they become more willing to deal..... - Gregg

@morgan - good points. I filled out the paperwork for one companies loan modification a few weeks ago so it is time to follow up. I need to start the process with another company. My principal residence is actually at the lowest rate they can give me now due to the fact that I have an 80/10/10 loan and I am not below that 85% level. I will keep pushing ahead and trying. - Amani

Scot Mcphee

Twitter VS FriendFeed. I've only been on FriendFeed for a few days - since Scobleizer posted the video showing the features. I gotta say it's starting to prove to me how much better it is than Twitter. Twitter is too constrained for true conversations. There's def'ly more interesting content on FF.

January 2, 2009 - Comment - Like - Share

Nicholas James, Web20Critic, Allen Blair and 18 other people liked this

And in recent days I've started seeing the twitter over-capacity message again - the reason I dropped my first account on it earlier in 2008. - Scot Mcphee

10 more comments

Welcome, glad I could help but it has actually been quiet lately. - Robert Scoble

Friendfeed is different then Twitter. Why is everyone trying to compare them, Friendfeed is made for discussions that doesn't mean Twitter is any less of a service. Twitter is not made for large discussions just quick messages. - Alex Carpenter

I'm experiencing the same thing. Only problem is taking the time to subscribe to all the people I follow in Twitter. - Jeff

To me Friendfeed and Twitter are two different things - Adriana

Alex, I would say that they are similar in terms of short content items, with pointers to external content, about which people have conversations, or data interchanges. - Scot Mcphee

The other thing is, FF just seems to present more "use value" for me. Twitter is just *status*, and Facebook already has that as it's *least* valuable feature. - Scot Mcphee

Scot - Twitter is much more than just status'ing to me. Have you used it for a long period of time? At first I thought the same but over time saw differently. - Jeff

I like FF much better than twitter because it is threaded and you can have an actual conversation on a single topic. - Jeff P. Henderson

FF is definitely much better. - Nation Hahn

Jeff Hilimire, I used Twitter a lot last year, but when they had their performance issues, I deleted my account 'cos I got sick of it being down. I re-added the new account maybe two months ago. The FF threading is *the* killer feature. - Scot Mcphee

I was all about twitter until I checked out friendfeed the second time. The first time I looked and thought, "ack there's too much stuff." And I didn't know what feeds were. Now, I love the stuff and feel like twitter is missing a lot. - BEX

Bill Romanos

Psychology Today: The New Rules of Social Networking - http://www.psychologytoday.com/rss...

January 2, 2009 from StumbleUpon - Comment - Like - Share

Nicholas James, siddman, Gale Stafford and 6 other people liked this

Chris Messina

JPG Magazine Says Goodbye - http://jpgmag.com/blog...

January 2, 2009 from Mento - Comment - Like - Share

Daniel W. Crompton, Shane Grant, siddman and 12 other people liked this

And then it was gone. Meanwhile, check out Fray, now in Issue 2: http://fray.com/issue2 - Chris Messina from Mento

4 more comments

Sorry to see JPG go. - Vinko

Well, the founding editors and creators were forced out in 2007. - Phillip Stewart

Not surprised after what happened with Derek and Heather getting forced out. I unsubscribed when that happened. Meanwhile, Fray is terrific. Maybe it could expand to accept photography now that JPG's gone. - Josh Bancroft

Sucks... - Sergey

sad to see it go - Anthony Feint

Appetite: Andrew Badera

SkyDrive - Windows Live - 25GB free file storage - http://skydrive.live.com/

December 29, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Kol Tregaskes, LPH™ and his dog P™, siggimus and 21 other people liked this

"25 GB of free storage on Windows Live With SkyDrive, it's easy to store and share your files and photos with almost anyone." - Andrew Badera from Bookmarklet

3 more comments

This is a nice service. I only wish they offered a desktop application to upload and download files. The web interface is limited. Even with the IE only plugin, you can't upload folders. - Rahul Das

@Rahul: I agree! Something like XDrive had, and that allows automated backups, too. - April Russo (app103)

Gladinet offers a desktop app that gives you a virtual drive for skydrive - Nigel Chadbourne

Recommend Dropbox if you want a solution with a uploader. - Shawn aka ringking

DeWitt Clinton

Kogan launches Agora, the first Aussie Google Android mobile phone | News | News.com.au - http://www.news.com.au/technol...

December 3, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Daniel Rowley, Amund Tveit, R. Alexander Spoerer and 13 other people liked this

I know nothing about whether this is true, false, vapor, whatever. But I'd love to think that this is a company with no formal relationship with Google whatsoever. That they just took the source code and off they went. How cool would that be? - DeWitt Clinton from Bookmarklet

2 more comments

whoa that looks hawt!! - Susan Beebe

Kogan's already accepting pre-orders for it - Mo Kargas

Yea, more Android phones! - Joel Webber

Robert Scoble

10 Great Free Apps for Blackberry - http://www.lifehack.org/article...

December 2, 2008 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

Brian, Susan Beebe, Bertrand Doux and 9 other people liked this

I am going to try Google Mobile for using Reader. Hope it works. - Stewart Rogers

3 more comments

Google Reader on Blackberry is only a link to the mobile version of the GR site - which is fine, but it's not really an application in the same vein as the Google Mail for Blackberry - which is a genuinely useful application. - Luke Robinson

There is a difference. The application self-refreshes (and burns the battery). I just bookmark the GR site in the BB browser and use it to keep my battery from dying. - Karoli

so I found out... likely will not use the mobile version of the reader - Stewart Rogers

I used that when i still had my curve... sorta basic, not impressive - Susan Beebe

siddman › Likes