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Let's talk on friendfeed about my wacky idea to combine techmeme, friendfeed, google news, twitter search into 1 site:

Dan Brickley, Enrique Gutierrez, Rob Diana and 73 other people liked this

I tweeted this: http://twitter.com/Scoblei... and it got a big discussion going about what I was looking for. Here's more details: - Robert Scoble

90 more comments

I was looking at the "Everyone" page here on friendfeed and realized what I wanted was the "everyone" page, but filtered to show items that were already on Techmeme. - Robert Scoble

Then I thought about all the other sites I visit every morning. Google News. Google Blog Search. Twitter search. And wondered why no one had built a "meta news" site that uses all of these. http://www.techfuga.com/ is one idea. http://www.feedly.com is another. http://www.alltop.com is another. - Robert Scoble

As I said on Twitter, you're looking to solve a problem VERY few people have + are going to have in the future. - Robin Wauters

But none of those satisfy. None have done a good job for me alone. - Robert Scoble

I want the same thing. All my RSS feeds in one client, with the ability to tweet them, and have a conversation thread that you can actually follow (which for one reason or another Twitter doesn't enable very well). Add to that search capabilities that span several social networks and then you'd have a winner. - Josue Fontanez

Robert, seems like it's already a pretty doable idea using Yahoo pipes and dupe removal... - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Robin: I really don't give a shit. Why does everything have to be for billions of people? - Robert Scoble

Your wacky idea should have an algorithm to combine similar posts (links to articles, mainly). FF doesn't seem to do this very well. - You.

Robin: a great meal happens four people at a time. No one complains that no one else can experience it. - Robert Scoble

Everyone: There's millions to be made here. Pay attention! - Meryn Stol

Tina: I need to learn Yahoo Pipes. Has anyone created a Pipe that does something close to this? - Robert Scoble

@RobinWauters maybe it's a problem that people just aren't aware that they have. - Landon

I have no capital to invest in your plan Robert, but I would like to subscribe to your newsletter, and support this idea in a non-money sort of way. - Matthew DeVries

Robin: great technologies get built to scratch an itch all the time. Even Twitter. When they built it they had no clue that it would be popular. - Robert Scoble

I'm not sure they should join such a site even if it were cool. Twitter search is destined for greatness. Imagine Live.com was the only search engine to display real-time results from Twitter.com together with their normal results? People would search for something, and not only get the usual results, but what people are saying about that right now. It would be a killer combo, something... more... - Odi Kosmatos

Scoble, why don't you quickly break down what specific value each service brings to the table? ie why do you bother going there in the first place? - Landon

I've played around with Pipes and it's a very powerful (and not surprisingly user-unfriendly) technology. - You.

Landon: sure. Techmeme shows me the biggest stories in Tech in a way that's unique and shows me lots of blogs that are talking about each story. Friendfeed has the best community and best "live web" search engine. Google News shows me all the news from around the world. Sports. Finance. Big city stuff. Etc. Just like your newspaper.Twitter search shows me what people are talking about right now. - Robert Scoble

Pipes seem too complicated for my musician mind. I should have digged it more, but I don't have much time to find a perfect solution for myself. I wish I could just login to one account and everyone I'm interested in would be there. - ilter

I'd like to be able to subscribe to notifications on a post's comments. Like FB, I guess. - You.

Take a look at Streamy. I'm finding it to be very useful for this type of thing. Saved FF and Twitter searches like TweetDeck. Across the board service seraches. The service itself is similar to FF (with discussions, etc) but a much better RSS reader than FF. Development is ongoing with new features very few days right now it seems. http://www.streamy.com - Kevin Kuphal

This morning I started out on friendfeed and noticed it was very slow. Then I went over to TechMeme and found lots of interesting stories and wondered if I was missing people talking about those stories over on friendfeed. So I went to the Everyone page here and started doing some searches. But was very frustrated with what came back (mostly non-English sites). - Robert Scoble

Robert: I've made a couple of pipes. The main ones grab info from 7-15 different feeds, remove dupes based on a couple of criteria and filters out keywords I don't want (which is a HUGE plus IMO). It's not perfect, and some dupes still get through because different sites put information in different places in their markup, but that's because I use so many sources. If you're using Google... more... - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

I wanted a friendfeed search that showed me news that was being discussed on Techmeme. That's what got me thinking about all this. - Robert Scoble

Tina: I'd like to smoke your pipe! :-) I have a Yahoo account. You can email me at scobleizer@gmail.com - Robert Scoble

I would want just one more element: authority. i'd like to know who submitted it and if they know their shit. - Landon

They are integrated in my eyes, and for me. - Richard A.

Sounds like a sort of info/comms nirvana...maybe it's an Air app, adding windows for these other services into something like what Yahoo just released which is a modest gas - Sideline. - Thom Kennon

Robert: Would tapping into RSS be fast enough for what you want though or are you thinking more of a real time thing? - Landon

friendfeed combines techmem, googlenew, yahoo , twitter and a lot more other sites, including itself , that is, if you sub to a room into another pvt room: !! This is a self ecusive space much like a Mandelbrot set , if you can handle it !! - Peter Dawson

Landon: http://www.peoplebrowsr.com/ gives you some of authority because I can tag people. Someone else recommended http://oursignal.com/ - Robert Scoble

Landon: RSS isn't enough. It's not fast enough, for one, and it won't include friendfeed items for two. I'm not sure if you can even do what I want. Peter: I'm an advanced private room user here on friendfeed and it doesn't do what I want. - Robert Scoble

Peter: I want the ranking to come along with Techmeme too. What's at the top of the page is more important than what's at the bottom. That's why RSS isn't very satisfying since that forces everything into reverse chronilogical order unless you do some wacky tricks with RSS. - Robert Scoble

Well, I don´t know the details, but the people want to talk about popular things... other sites like Friendfeed offer this, your site must be different... what would be the difference (exactly)? I suposse the site offer the popular themes on Techmeme or Google News as topics for conversation - HECTOR ARTURO

Robert, wouldn't it be a good idea to take the feedback and your thoughts to your blog, so you can elaborate a bit on what it is you want? You can explain in more detail and the feedback will be even more valuable. - Robin Wauters

Hector: yup. I wish I could see conversations on friendfeed that match up to what's on Google News or on Techmeme or on Twitter search. That would be cool. - Robert Scoble

Robert -- what is the problem you are trying to solve? It seems to me you posted a solution and people are madly discussing other solutions. I don't see any clear statement of the problem. - Brian Sullivan

Robin: yup, after I think about it some more. This was mostly a brain fart I had and I like being interactive when I'm brainstorming ideas like this. Seems to have at least a few other people interested too. - Robert Scoble

Brian: the problem is that on friendfeed it's hard to find the really good tech conversations. If you are over on Google News, it's hard to find the blogs and tweets and friendfeed conversations that are happening around the news. If you are over on Techmeme it's hard to find the stuff that's happening on Twitter or friendfeed. That tells me there's opportunity for something new to glue all of these together to make all of them more useful. - Robert Scoble

Robert: I think this is a great idea...I'm swimming in all the details of trying to sift the news and see whats really happening and what people really think about it. I also don't have as much time to go through each and every site to discover the gems-This idea certainly has the potential of being VERY useful to a good number of people. Meryn points out there are millions to be made w/ this - Correct. Directly possibly, and Indirectly FOR SURE. - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

It's an interesting train of thought, but I'm still left wondering what you want - Robin Wauters

Robert: I can dm or email you something I'm working on that you might like. Private - trying to launch at TC50. - Landon

Robin: let's just take it from friendfeed for a second, to answer what I want. I want to have a site that uses the "Everyone" feed and shows me everyone who is discussing an item that's currently on Techmeme. I'd love it if it were displayed like Techmeme too. Is that understandable as to what I want? Now, that we got that, let's add Twitter search's trending topics. Cool? Now let's add Google News. - Robert Scoble

the question is does FF support any RSS feed? if so then integrate what you want, integrating service is interesting, filtering by interest even more interesting. - abdellah

Landon: please do. I'll keep to embargoes. scobleizer@gmail.com or you can call me at +1-425-205-1921 - Robert Scoble

Here is a search that shows all of the most engaged items on friendfeed right now. (This search shows all items on the Everyone feed that have 5 comments AND five "likes."). http://friendfeed.com/search... Note how noisy it is and how unfocused it is. I'd love it if I could say "filter by Techmeme." Or "filter by what's currently on Google News." - Robert Scoble

love that idea filtering by service :) - abdellah

abdellah: Friendfeed can pull in any RSS feed (or most of them, anyway) but that's not what I want. I want it to display items that are already on Techmeme. RSS might play a role in that, but it isn't enough. I'd need an engine to go through the Everyone feed looking for discussions already taking place and then I'd need to display those. Techmeme's value is in its display, which isn't easy to communicate via RSS. It's a tough problem. - Robert Scoble

Robert. Here's a quick screenshot I did from Streamy. Took seconds to create a search widget added to my FF page that shows techmeme conversations. http://img504.imageshack.us/img504.... Works the same for searching twitter as well as your RSS feeds. - Kevin Kuphal

Well, casually. some minutes ago, I was talking about the tendences on Twitter users & those tendences can fix on your project (if is a project): http://twitter.com/hectora... http://twitter.com/hectora... http://twitter.com/hectora... http://twitter.com/leugimf... - HECTOR ARTURO

Robert: i'll buzz you now if that's cool. - Landon

Fallon's Skimmer - http://www.fallon.com/skimmer - does a good job of the more media-centric social networks (FB, YT, etc) - maybe an AIR app is the way to tackle this as opposed to burying it in a tab that can easily lose its session/context/settings etc... - Ben Watson from twhirl

Tina: you have the right idea here with your pipe setup & de-duping- It would be great if something could then point out where all the dupes are at the end of each entry, rate/rank by # reads (of article and originating sites), and have "authority" rating via tags perhaps imported from the likes of peoplebrowsr. - guruvan (Rob Nelson)

Kevin: but that shows all items that discuss Techmeme. I don't want that. Too noisy. I only want to see items that actually are ON Techmeme. - Robert Scoble

sounds like my stream, thankyou, lol :) - chaz2b

Heavens me, Robert. I would love to have 'problems' like this. For someone whose on the interent non-stop, what would you do with all the free time you'd have If you just had one "single stop" for meta-everything? (conversations, feeds etc, etc) /tounge-slightly-in-cheek, of course ;) - Chris Duffy

I think Pipes are probably the way to go then. You really need some logic behind the filtering. More than a typical search will give. - Kevin Kuphal

Robert - how would you relate or tag the conversations as being on "Techmeme" or "Google News". I don't think it works if it is a mechanical connection (url referenced for instance). That kind of connection misses so much is an generally unsatisfying. It seems the connecting requires intelligence, personal involvement -- difficult to do in real time -- maybe you could pay people to do it (like Mahalo?). - Brian Sullivan

robert, I understand yes, it is a kind a a big puzzle where all the "related" "related by what" items a cross diverse services. - abdellah

Doesn't BackType do this? Just pump a Techmeme link through BackType's API to get everyone's comments. Example: http://www.backtype.com/connect... - Daniel Sims

Chris: if I had this, I'd find something else to complain about. :-) Kevin: I must learn to use Pipes. Marshall Kirkpatrick showed me that last year and it looked useful, but I never had a big enough need. This is it. - Robert Scoble

Daniel: that is very close to what I want, but not there. Backtype is mostly about federating comments, I thought. At least that's how I use it, although the link you gave me shows that it can be used in other ways. Interesting. - Robert Scoble

brian, you are brilliant, there are 2 sort of connection "words" and "social graph", without going in AI level algorithm this may be done by investigating those 2 direction : "related words" , "related peoples" - abdellah

as brian says it is hard if we try to make it real time , pipes are useless if we have to make it real time :) - abdellah

Brian: you might be right that it needs to have some human involvement. Even Techmeme is learning that it's better to have atul working for them (for free, I might add!) than to have just algorithms doing the work. - Robert Scoble

I think the issue is that the controls necessary to fine tune the conversation would look like you are flying a plane. If you want to just see everything based on a keyword at a point in time there are really easy tools but if you want to archive everything, like I do in Google Reader, have curation like Techmeme, and let friends play like friendfeed it would be a very complex interface. That's why we are talking pipes, tweetdeck, http://tradeshowmetrics.com/Default... or maybe tinker.com - Tom

I've been advocating for integration between TechMeme and FF in terms of comments and links. Twitter threads also need to be preserved in FF. I don't use GoogleReader. Lora and I have been talking about the opposite though and things getting too connected. Hotmail, for instance, shows "what's new in your network" (Twitter, Live status, etc) by default and to me this just doesn't seem... more... - Loren Heiny

I can almost guarantee you there are at least 10 people reading this who are part of teams trying to build such a service/app. I'd guess 50% are building a web site, expecting people will add yet another site to their daily workflow or just drop some other combination of sites to use theirs. 40% are probably building Air apps, and 10% are building Mac apps. And I'd guess none of them are talking to each other, because everybody wants to be the next big thing. I wonder... - Ken Sheppardson

...what would it take to get them all in the same room, and convince them to pool resources? - Ken Sheppardson

Isn't it far easier to just ignore it all and serendipitously skim the occasional bit or piece of it, rather than bulk it all up and eat it whole? Use the lack of integration to your advantage. Blimey, you're probably reading every single comment on here, too! - Ian Tindale

Ian: I am! :-) - Robert Scoble

Robert (or anyone else for that matter): here's an example pipe http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes... This takes a Google Blogs search for Techmeme, a FF search for Techmeme (items with > 5 likes & 5 comments), and a news.Google.com search for Techmeme. Filters out any from Scoble's site, and then permits any that are a link to Techmeme, Google News, or have... more... - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Tina: that's cool, but it's not satisfying. For one, it doesn't look like either Techmeme or Friendfeed. I think I need to do a video of what I want to explain it better, but I'm off to attend the Web 2.0 expo so will noodle on that this weekend. Thanks everyone, interesting times we live in! - Robert Scoble

Robert: this kind of pipe creates a feed that you can bring directly into FF, say into a room that you create. Just a thought. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Let's combine the whole internet into one site.... ooh wait, Google already done that. - Amit Morson

Robert: We (BackType) certainly federate comments, but around more than their authors -- we federate around keywords (search) and content (connect) like the example Daniel showed you, which connects the conversational graph for a particular blog post. I e-mailed you about what we're doing w/ the latter. But more generally, I think FriendFeed for news is a basis for what you're... more... - Christopher Golda

@Scoble: i agree with your initial assertion that Feedly is pretty close...they've done an AMAZING job with it so far... - .LAG liked that

I hate to pimp my own service (not really) but with our last update at justSignal.com we now have support for Twitter, Google Blog Search and Backtype - you get each as a widget that can be fully customized via CSS and incorporated into your site. You also get the DATA... which is great if you want to learn something from what you collect. FriendFeed is next on our list... Link: http://briantroy.com/blog... - Brian Roy

@BrianRoy... everyone knows: pimpin' aint easy! i'm heading over for a look at justSignal. thx. - .LAG liked that

LAG - love to hear your feedback/thoughts brian dot roy at cosinity dot com - Brian Roy

@Scoble +1 for Feedly. It is FriendFeed aware. - Ahsan Ali aka. Slick

Feedly is the service which is best on track to pull all this together. - Sean McBride

I thought the whole point of FriendFeed was to aggregate other sources. Wouldn't it just make sense to lobby FF to add those additional things? - Kevin Elliott

@Kevin Ah, but here's the question. Should FriendFeed be used as a 'Friend' aggregator or a 'Web Feed' aggregator ? I would prefer to use Feedly/GReader for the latter. - Ahsan Ali aka. Slick

In a very general sense I see things headed in that direction, aggregation of news/blog/social media sources with tools for users to interact with the content. FF already does an amazing job with much of that, of course :-) - Eric Berlin

I am working on a site like this. Will send you invite in few days - Niraj

I'd like to be in the beta too Niraj - Matthew DeVries

And for your next magic trick, figure out some way to deal with all of the duplicate posts... :) - Steve Lynch from twhirl

and Digg? - HECTOR ARTURO

I like this idea of yours Robert. Portal of goodness :) - Susan Beebe

Check out http://www.memereview.com - James Payne

Chris Messina

Review of Great New Premium Wordpress Theme Designed for Lifestreamers | Lifestream Blog - http://lifestreamblog.com/review-...

March 10 from Mento - Comment - Like - Share

Ruben Sanchez, Roman Busyghin, Stephen Edgar and 21 other people liked this

Just wish this kind of themes would use a Friendfeed plugin instead of "reinventing" it on your personal blog. - Thomas Bøhm

21 more comments

This theme looks great. Definitely gives me some ideas. Just wish I had grapics skills EDIT: graphics, too - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

I agree that a FF plugin is easier, and that you'd be hard pressed to find a better aggregator. But not everyone wants another script running on their site, or to learn a new service. - Chris Baskind

FF is lifestreaming though, yeah, with others - sofarsoShawn

As much as I love FF, I'm not sure if I actually want it on my blog as my lifestream. For instance, I don't import Twitter here for FriendFeed-specific reasons, but people looking at my lifestream on my blog would probably wonder where my Twitter is... - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

The Lifestream plugin is pretty good and offers some specific features and support for services that you couldn't get simply embedding a FF widget. As Rah pointed out there are situations when you may want more flexibility from a Lifestream on your personal blog. Another issue is that you may want a true reverse chronological Lifestream not affected by likes & comments, or even display those on your blog in the first place. That being said I can see using the FF embed as well. Depends on what you want. - Mark Krynsky

That being said, I may create a hacked version of this and release it using FF instead of the Lifestream plugin and several other changes. - Mark Krynsky

If you do that, Mark, let me know. I'd be all over it. :) - Shawn Farner

I like the L&F, but the element positioning isn't great all over the place like that. The photo's take a fair bit of precedence, I'd say too much for blogs that are primarily writing based. - Mo Kargas

+1 Shawn - Thomas Bøhm

Hrm, I take the points Mo points out as the positives :) - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Really Rah? You're trying to make a serious post, and suddenly there's wacky pictures of a drunken trip to Tokyo randomly brought in from Flickr :D Not sure if readers would appreciate the juxtaposition or take you seriously. Also when I look at it, my eye goes Pics -> Lifestream -> Writings. Should writings be the last thing a reader looks at? I'd say Writings should take centre-stage; unless Twitter ramblings are more important :) - Mo Kargas

I guess I don't take myself that serious. If you go to my blog right now, I have some pretty wacky pics next to a post about 12seconds and it's integration with Twitter. I kinda like the way it looks...LOL. I'm obviously not your average blogger, though :) - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Ok, if you lump it all together and don't care, I suppose it's a great theme :) - Mo Kargas

Exactly :) - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

That's really nice-looking. Too bad I'm allergic to premium themes because my bank account is apparently allergic to money... - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

Good thing this one is free, then :) - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

very nice... - .LAG liked that

What, it's free? But it says it's a premium theme...oh. Wow, I should actually read stuff. Thanks, Rah, I might download it when I get home and play with it some. - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

This is great. I like this one a lot. - Trish R

My original title had the word free in it. Guess I should have kept it, but it seemed wordy. - Mark Krynsky

Ok Jandy, I've now capitalized and bolded the word free on the post just for you. - Mark Krynsky

Heh, thanks Mark. I'm having such a special needs day today. - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

Benjamin Golub

March 9 from Flickr - Comment - Like - Share

Darren Heydon, Michelle Marie Miller, Sarah Perez and 13 other people liked this

Inspired by http://friendfeed.com/e... - Benjamin Golub

To do the white background I layered sheets of white paper on my desk and lit it with two desk lamps placed as close as possible. - Benjamin Golub

Nice. - Mona Nomura

Robert Scoble

Why I haven’t posted for two weeks - http://scobleizer.com/2009...

March 6 from Scobleizer: Technology,... - Comment - Like - Share

Squid, Mike Fruchter, patrick and 114 other people liked this

Good luck! - Ian Dexter Marquez

76 more comments

Cause you've been screwing around on FF? Just kidding :) Sounds like lots of change for you. Good luck! - coldbrew

I think your rule #13 is a very good one. More people should follow it! - Reidar

Rules? - coldbrew

I hope your new venture is as interesting. Thanks for everything - Scott Davies

coldbrew: see my corporate blogger's manifesto. I linked to it from my blog post. - Robert Scoble

Yea, you can keep that, and any other rule set that you've created. Not interested. I will brake that set and never look back. - coldbrew

"I’m working on that and hope it’s in shape so we can announce something at the SXSW conference." - Does this mean that you're going after all? - Tamar Weinberg

As I said at TC - We're all rooting for you whatever comes next. And as Reid said, our bootstraps are all knotted together... let's get our best game on RFN! NOW can you manage a layover in Tulsa? After all... Austin's practically next door! :) - Gerald Buckley

Weinberg, he used plain English. What is it that you do not comprehend? - coldbrew

coldbrew, instead of being a smartass, perhaps you should know that I asked before and he said he wasn't. I also heard rumors that he wasn't, so hence me being direct about it. - Tamar Weinberg

Tamar: yes, I will be at SXSW. - Robert Scoble

Tamar: that is a change, by the way, from three weeks ago. Sorry for the confusion. - Robert Scoble

Robert, glad to hear. Excited to see you and hear your news. :) - Tamar Weinberg

No need to apologize, Robert. The only person who should be apologizing is coldbrew. - Tamar Weinberg

Weinberg, instead of being an uptight boob, you should know that life is short, and the you should relax and take it easy. If you could not glean that he is now attending SXSW, I am without the ability to clarify without making fun of you. - coldbrew

Apologizing? Because you can't comprehend English? - coldbrew

"don’t write if your life is in turmoil." that's indeed very good advice. You were already so wise back then. :) - Meryn Stol

coldbrew: "we"' could represent an entity and may not necessarily include Robert. So yes, I am justified in asking a legitimate question. Again, instead of being a smartass, let me ask Robert the question, and do me a favor - don't get involved. - Tamar Weinberg

Please block me if you cannot deal with my pointing out that you asked a stupid question. Do not act like FF is your domain to have a private conversation, that is for email. And, if you are that uptight you probably need a break anyway. I meant no harm, and you blew this way out of proportion. - coldbrew

"There is no such thing as a stupid question." Clearly, you are just above us all. In any event, this isn't the place to hijack Robert's thread, and my question was not intended to do that either. I have no idea why you considered it your place to do so, but hey, the rest of the world will be the judge of who is the stupid one. Have a nice day. - Tamar Weinberg

Yo, yo, yo, knock it off. Geesh! - Robert Scoble

Sorry, Scoble. I was shooting for levity (as one might at 4am when they are still at the office). My girlfriend says I'm turning 12 this year :) - coldbrew

Well, good luck Robert! You are responsible for getting me to FF...Tks for all. - Mauricio Fonseca

Good luck Robert!! - Jim Connolly

You know, there is an astonishing amount of ass-kissing and stupidity among various folks in this space. I'm sorry for calling it out, but I truly look forward to meeting many of you people b/c, in person, one cannot hide this crap. - coldbrew

Coldbrew, with regard to "meeting people in person", have you noticed you're the only one not posting under your real name? - Meryn Stol

Stol, will you be at SXSW? I think I'm now heading down there and that would be cool. - coldbrew

Mohomed, ask my references... But if you really in doubt, I think I can manage to provide some id. I don't think that anyone doubts that Robert's name is Robert though. - Meryn Stol

Coldbrew, no, I live in The Netherlands, and I don't like flying. (plus this would be really expensive of course). - Meryn Stol

I respect you, Stol. I just don't believe in taking privacy lightly. I know this will present some problems for me, and I can handle it. It is quite obvious that using an alias scares people here that can't fathom the idea. - coldbrew

Good luck, Robert. Looking forward to hearing about the next step of the journey. - Tom Guarriello

Nice ass kiss, Guarriello. - coldbrew

Scoble must be disgusted with this crap. - coldbrew

Best wishes with your new venture, can't wait to hear more! - Jamie Vidamour

I hope you people have met Scoble in person. - coldbrew

So Obama *is* picking you for CTO then after all? - Prokofy Neva

So we'll see you at SXSW - paul mooney

Wow, first you stopped drinking diet pepsi, now a career move. You sure know how to live on the edge! Looking forward to hearing your newest ideas! - tracy

good luck Mr Scoble, may you choose wisely :) - chaz2b

Good luck to you, my friend. I'm sure where ever the journey takes you, it will be a fun ride. - Warner Crocker

Best wishes, Robert. I suspect these changes will open very profitable doors for you. - Tim Beyers from twhirl

All the best Robert. Change can be tough but it can also be exciting. I know I'm excited to see what you do next! - AJ Kohn

Good Luck. I'm pretty sure you'll do better! - Alex Sauceda

Good luck, Robert. Interested to see what you're planning next. - Mark Trapp

Good luck Scoby! - Chrimmus Tad

Good luck Robert - looking forward to seeing what's next! - Jordan Hofker

good luck robert - as usual love your ability to attract and help us all filter out trolls here on ff, it is much appreciated - you should consider monetizing that somehow ;) - mike "glemak" dunn

break a leg - DC Crowley

Excited to see what happens next. - Andy Roth

Robert, good luck. Hope to see you writing again soon. (I have met Robert in real-life coldbrew, is it ok to write a comment now?....) - Alexander van Elsas

Looking forward to seeing what you do next. I am sure you will keep us all posted. - Bill from twhirl

Good luck, Robert! - Helen Sventitsky

good luck on the move. and you'll enjoy wordpress.org :-) - Jonathan Blundell

Good luck, Robert - Bret Taylor

Good luck, Robert! Looking forward to more exciting announcements from you. - Moushumi Kabir

Best of luck. You are going to keep innovating, I know. - Phil Boiarski

All the best for things to come !! - Jayavasanthan J

Best of luck and good vibes, Robert. This has to be a stressful period for you. - Sean McBride

Good luck Robert. I am sure you will find something great and exciting to do. But I hope you will continue to post great info., etc. on FF and Twitter. - Bill Romanos

Robert, I wish you the best on your next adventure! - Jeremy Brooks

Best of luck and looking forward to what's next! - Loren Heiny

Luck for you - Anticipation for me. - Cory Hendrickson

Good luck Robert - I look forward to reading the next chapter of your life. :) - Laura Zickus

Best of luck to you. Very interested in seeing/hearing what you might announce at SXSW - Tamara

Best of luck. I went and saw all the latest videos you did, great job, can't wait to see what's next from you - Gubatron

Good luck Robert, Iknow whatever you do next will be awesome! - Bill Pennington from twhirl

I wish you luck, sorry to hear that it happened so soon, though. - Tyson Key

If you want me to host your wordpress on my server let me know. It is a media temple grid server that is cloud based. Consider it my repayment for all the great content. - Jonathan

Good luck! Does it mean you are NOT coming to visit Israel any time soon? - Niv

Best of luck Robert. Whatever is ahead for you is bound to be exciting. - Ginger Kenney

Hope your new venture is half the work (more family and self time), twice the pay, and offers the same great level of thoughts and content that we're all accustomed too. - Patrick Jordan

is friendfeed hiring any marketing people yet? ;-) break a leg, dude. - Karim

On to the next adventure--I like the speaking tour idea in another thread. - Betsy Devine

Robert, I have in my own world, lived your first 2 sentences when I lost my job. It is indeed hard to do that and I haven't met anyone yet who can breeze through it. I so agree with not letting the "cat"-harsis out of the bag when that happens. Well done. - Melanie Reed

Robert - I am very excited for what lies ahead for you! You can write your own ticket, so this will be fun. Personally, I think you should be the CMO for Friendfeed You already evangelize the heck out of it and you clearly understand the value of it! :) Cheers!! Wishing you all the best!!!!! - Susan Beebe

Robert - you will make an exciting transformation and we will benefit from your experience. My best to you and yours during this exciting yet challenging life moment. - ka3drr

Robert, you and your family are in my prayers for blessings - Melanie Reed

Robert Scoble

User data ownership on Facebook and why it doesn’t matter - http://scobleizer.com/2009...

February 17 from Scobleizer -- Tech geek... - Comment - Like - Share

Xiangzhen, Kevin Murray, Shivanand Velmurugan and 95 other people liked this

I'm glad to see Robert back to long-form, insightful blog posts, rather than getting distracted by twitter and friend feed. - Steven (optionshiftk)

53 more comments

You do realise that they extend their license to stuff you link to right? They can subicence as steve points out to their hearts content and you lose the value of your own content. I agree with your blogs sarcastic point about serving facebook. I made a similar one myself. - Anton Mannering from twhirl

I took a different angle on this too. I'm less worried about the things I know, and more worried about what we do not know. In essence we transfer all control to Facebook, but they are not transparent about what they actually do with our data. We don't know if we are signing up for the next best thing or selling our soul to the devil. Mark is answering the wrong question and we fell for it again: http://bit.ly/19GmYF - Alexander van Elsas

BTW here is an excellent writeup of Amanda French comparing TOSes of different sites like Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, Youtube. Moral of the story? The uproar is justified: http://bit.ly/tJJBK - Alexander van Elsas

As a person who builds very consumer facing products and features I believe it DOES matter. With power (175 millions users) comes responsibility. FB has an obligation to transparency regardless of whether there service is free, and it's TOU is one piece of that transparency. If you claim one thing and do another, or you claim one thing and then claim another thing because your business is changing, that matters... - Ryan

Who uses FB to publish original works? Promotion yea. But don't people who have something to protect get their ©, ®, ™ before putting it out there and then just link to it from the various mediums? - Ryan Stanley

Just read Alexander van Elsas post. We should be discussing this on his FF feed. Great post and insightful analysis. Glad to see someone actually read and posted the TOU. - Ryan

@Ryan, @Jason, thanks guys! You're welcome to discuss it on my FF feed, it's here: http://friendfeed.com/e... , but here is fine too ;-) - Alexander van Elsas

Robert and Alexander, I have to agree with Robert. As I mentioned to you, Alexander, if you go to any institution implementing a GLS or CMS, you pretty much have to play by their rules and (having learned by painful experience) your data is not necessarily treated as if you are an esteemed author who could sue THEM for plagiarism. ;) That's as Robert says, reality. So I agree with his response. - Melanie Reed

In the early days, I treated my portfolio as a catchall for everything. I went with the bait. But having learned who really has the most "rights" to it and then with their upgrade, having seen all my legacy RSS link and bookmarks destroyed I was forced into the realm of Robert's reality. Facebook, Flickr, etc are going to do what they are going to do. Now, I can adopt a strategy that serves my needs out of that....or not. I'm learning as I go. - Melanie Reed

@melanie the most important issue is the lack of transparency. We are forced to give up everything while they do not. It is not an equal balance. Saying that that is just the way it is is accepting a bad practice that could easily be replaced by a good one. - Alexander van Elsas

@Alexander I agree that lack of transparency is the important issue. Now whether I like it or not I have to try to understand the other party here. I can see (but not like) the effectiveness of the ad targeting FB uses. How pivotal is that to FB's revenue? Seriously, would any of us say 'yes' willingly to allowing ANY of our demographic information to be used by Ad customers? - Melanie Reed

@Ryan, Your copyright is still valid and is not changed by Facebook's TOS. It you read their TOS carefully, you will find that by posting or sharing your content on FB, you are granting them an unlimited license to do whatever they want with your content. You still own the copyright, but it's value might be greatly lessened by allowing FB unimited usage rights. - Jeff P. Henderson

What if I'm a unsigned and indie band that uses Facebook to promote our music in a group or fan page. Does the TOS give FB the right to "use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute" those works for commercial purpose? - Matt Albiniak

@Alexander This brings up how business on the Internet is done. How do we want that done? How do we want businesses to conduct their research on target audiences? What should they know before hand in order to market to us? How do you want them to do that? I'm not fighting for their "rights" so much as I am asking that the methodology of what is acceptable marketing practice (that will be effective) is defined. BTW- I have a stake in this as our org has copyrighted material up on FB, too. - Melanie Reed

@Matt, Based on my interpretation of the TOS, I would say probably yes. - Jeff P. Henderson

@melanie my simple answer would be to choose a business model that monetizes user value. It would force you to do the right thing, always. Check out smugmug as a very positive example. They do not just have paying customers, they have paying fans! - Alexander van Elsas

@Alexander If I understand you, that would indeed cause a problem that many are trying to avoid: disenfranchisement in the digital world. Not everyone is capable of paying. So as I understand it, thus the two-tiered system as Flickr does with their pro accounts and the free. So how do we address that? - Melanie Reed

"Zuckerberg is saying: "We're not evil. Just trust us!" But this has been the mantra of nearly all companies that handle personal information. What company would say: "Yes, we intend to use your data maliciously and in ways you'll abhor"? There are many problems with Facebook's policy of 'trust us'" http://www.concurringopinions.com/archive... Solove, as always, gives an excellent analysis of the pitfalls. - LogEx

@melanie, you do not have choose a model in which every user has to pay to receive value (although that is the cleanest model there is). freemium is definitely a great model too. Provide a service for free and extra's as a premium. Either way. A user centric model will ensure you give more value to the user than to anything else. - Alexander van Elsas

@logical extremes, I recall banks and insurance comapnies saying the same things and look where that got us ;-) - Alexander van Elsas

@Alexander, exactly. Facebook should either drop the pretense, or adjust the TOU to describe exactly what they intend. - LogEx

Matt, Melanie, etc...I'd definitely suggest you take 5 or 10 minutes, and go read the earlier mentioned comparison by Amanda French http://bit.ly/tJJBK . The differences between what MySpace, for example, asserts as a right over your data, and what Facebook does, are both real and relevant to any creative type. Amanda has ferreted out the relevant sections of the license terms for multiple sites, and compares and contrasts well. - Ken Kennedy

Scoble's missed the boat, same as Chris Brogan. Facebook (and LinkedIn) has Terms that are NOT the same as everyone else's, and which, unlike MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, Picasa and Twitter, do NOT permit you to revoke their license to use your content. I dove into the legal issues here: http://is.gd/jJXy - Maxwell Kennerly

Article on the new Facebook TOS changes and protecting yourself http://tinyurl.com/d4oeps - Chris Miller from twhirl

@Ken, thank you for replying and @Alexander, thank you as well! Ken, I did read Amanda's post. And, with respect to you and others, I still agree with both Robert and Matt. And in regard to MySpace, they are the ones who allowed access to everyone's private data to the search engine Spock. That's why I don't use MySpace or Spock among other reasons. - Melanie Reed

the point is if you upload it to facebook and decide later you want it deleted, and it's not deleted then....well it's nice to want things. I don't think this justifies the uproar, only that people should (have already been) thinking twice about what they put on those sites. It may, and probably won't, ever really go away once it's out there. - Richard Lawler

Really good side by side comparison here- http://amandafrench.net/2009... - Ryan

@Melanie ... no worries! As long as you've got the data, you're more than entitled to make your own decision. If I were you, I'd keep stuff I want to monetize off of FB, though...you really have no control once you've uploaded it there. It's a walled garden that FB can cash in on as they will. (note: I expect this will get restated before too long...this is too big a grab even for FB, but as of now, that's how it works out). - Ken Kennedy

@Ken, Interesting that you said that just now as there was a Facebook Ad, (company unknown as I didn't clickthru-that's one less cpv they'll have to pay for) that popped up on my right in Profile view that claimed "Monetize User Content" -"Grab content off your site from users and put it on T-shirts." roflol. This does provide some humorous aspect to me especially when you consider, I could get our ministry content out to a greater territory. ;) - Melanie Reed

GOLDEN Rule: Don't put anything on any site/form/webpage that you may change your mind about. Once it's out there it will never disappear. imho - walterh

@walterh, I hear what you're saying, and I definitely grok the spew of 'information wants to be free' (FTW!), but that's not really what's critical here. This is "boring" legal stuff...regardless of whether or not the data is available in some cache somewhere (which it is), this is FB asserting the right to use whatever you upload for it's own commercial purposes, forever. That's a whole different issue that "it never gets deleted anyway". - Ken Kennedy

@ken I am not really trying to argue your points. I was trying to say that all forms like FB will at sometime try to sell your info when they reach a critical mass. A perfect example of this is the phone scam going on right now were people call you telling you that your car warranty will end soon. These people are calling me on my cell phone. I only give my cell to trusted contacts as it is the only real way to get a hold of me in real time. That so-called trusted contact or service has sold my info. - walterh

@ken .....if you don't put personal info out on FB then when this happens you will not be regretting what you have done or posted. - walterh

@walterh Just FYI, the car warranty thing isn't a sold data issue...it's just a "brute force" attack on phone #s (ie, they call them all). It's gotten so cheap to make phone calls, even LD, that much like email spam, the minuscule response rate they get pays for it. As for personal data on FB, again, I understand that, but it's not really what we're talking about. Consider a band that wants to share their music, but not intending to let FB monetize it if they get popular. They're out of luck. - Ken Kennedy

So the expiry clause was in there when I signed up (i.e. if I leave they lose their rights over my content). If they have now changed the terms but I've not agreed to the new terms, then I'm not bound by them, right? Or did I miss a "we can change the terms whenever we feel like it and you're still bound to them" clause? - Yan

@ken I understand your point. Let me ask you this. Has a case like this gone to court yet. PS the warranty people have never called me at home. Had that number for 20 years. Every other sale company calls me at home. I do see your point that it could be "brute force" - walterh

The blog post has merit, the headline, not so much. - jcunwired

I basically agree with Robert that this isn't shocking since Facebook hasn't respected user's much; however, I do think ascerting ownership to data already in the system crosses the line. This is similar to the Google Reader shared feed issue that Steve Gillmor railed on for a while. - Robert W. Anderson

yeah, he reels em in with the hyperbole - Josh Haley

hyperbole Josh? yeah that Bill of Rights crap is overrated. BTW Google fixed that problem. - Steve Gillmor

Beyond the argument over who owns what and who's creating value for whom is a more interesting question, I think. Most people will not give a second thought to their rights to the intellectual property they create on Facebook. They just use it. They upload photos and videos and talk to each other. It strikes me that one thing Facebook is remarkably good at is capturing a user's... more... - David Erickson

hmmmm ... fascinating and important points being made here. However we are at the core talking about the morality and selflessness of corporations. The only way to own your own data completely is keep on your hard drive. Look at the terabytes of data Magnolia unfortunately lost last week. Their intentions were entirely altruistic, yet a technical malfunction intervened. We are in the midst of a radical shift and "ownership" is going to be defined by security, trust, and new elements ... - Bankwatch

... that have yet to be defined. Do you trust Google? Do you trust your bank? Do you trust gmail Apps Premium? These are fundamental questions and the answer will define internet and our future. Market forces will take care of it, but getting there might be ugly. - Bankwatch

It is a cheap and risk free business model for the service provider: The user generates all the content, is responsible for all legal consequences (even when the provider reuses the content in an unanticipated way), but the service provider may make all the profit out of it. whereever, forever. This business model was once called Web 2.0... - Arnd Gronenberg

you're right. facebook should be used as a hub, flickr gives you CC options, it's not hard to set up a wordpress blog for the same, i think youtube are the last in the list. there's plenty of apps on facebook that will update your profile when you upload photos to flickr, or make a new blog post. they're not perfect but they're getting better. - Terry O'Fee

They changed their mind: http://blog.facebook.com/ - Liron Eizenman

Most people wun care too much. But yes i agree it's creepy. - Alekkus

Well, then there's the 25 Things you didn't know about in the Facebook TOS: http://bit.ly/25thingsTOS - Steve Woodruff

To me it clear from Mark Z's post that the lawyers were tasked with drafting a revised TOU and blew it. ROLLBACK! - Ryan

doesn't say much for their lawyers on the writing and the way the TOS was handled... - Stuart Evans from twhirl

This is the new age of transparency. The big CEOs will have publicly available pictures of them from college. Professional images will become humanized. Social media has allowed us to share everything about our lives and so we did. I thought Mark made a great point in his first post regarding the issue when he explained that in order to give the community the services that they want, certain legalities are necessary and must be represented in the TOS. We just have to get used to the new age. - David Spinks

@David, if Facebook, and Mark Zuckerberg too for that matter, are just as transparent as they force you to be then it would be fine. Until that moment it is pretty ridiculous that privacy only works one way. You must disclose everything and they take it all without providing the slightest clue what they actually do with it - Alexander van Elsas

I wish someone would analyze TOS that bank credit cards, mortgages impose. The funny thing is that while Facebook is having to backtrack - it probably never would have screwed us over - but banks that increase rates from 3.9% to 39% over night - regularly do. - Anshu Sharma

Good post, Robert. It's always been clear that Facebook has put their own interest in content assets first, but in fairness it's not so different that way than say...Friendfeed. One does pay a certain price for posting in Facebook, but to reach those who are more interested in relationships than in marketing their content, it's a good price oftentimes. I do think that over the next year that more publisher-friendly terms will come to Facebook, they've been lazy and now they'll have to catch up. - John Blossom

Robert Scoble

Is the real-time web a threat to Google search? - http://scobleizer.com/2009...

February 9 from Scobleizer -- Tech geek... - Comment - Like - Share

Chris Patterson, Eric Bowen, Iggy Mwangi and 90 other people liked this

Yes. - Meryn Stol

55 more comments

All about how friendfeed search is kicking ass and taking no prisoners. - Robert Scoble

Yes and no, but considering they want to be the end all be all of the web- then Yes. - Dan Rockwell

Glad to see there are still white spaces that google is yet to squat. - Jim Posner

First of all Yes, it is a threat for google! I see you why the question popped up. I just hope twitter understands the importance of integrating the search in their - Sampad Swain

could be a big play. my tweet 2h ago http://twitter.com/cemi... - Cem Dalgic

Yes! I can ask my friends and followers a question on Twitter and get better answers from them than Google search, simply because I trust real people and their judgments. - Jennifer James

no, it just gives early adopter like you/us some advance. The average user will continue to drink their usual website information. But if Google doesn't achieve to do the same as FF and this is a need, they will buy them ;-) - Frédéric Sidler

Yes, it is! I just hope twitter don't forget to give much importance to the integration of the search since monetization is one of the biggest question in their mind. Still they goto remember that google didn't earn much the moment they launched google-search. Something so important does take sometime to evolve as, I see it! Infact I see for the 1st time that their is a feeble chance that something can give shot at search in google's arena! - Sampad Swain

in need for creative destruction (yet again) in the search marketspace. let's see if google can jump the curve - Yung-Hui Lim

My 2 cents: real time is about things happening now, being up to date with your friends, areas of interest, etc - out of all these conversations only some live up to be relevant in the long run - and this is where google steps in to sort out - Lucian Nicolescu

I think the argument shaping up is trusted info (Twitter, FF) vs anonymous info (Google, et al.) - Jon Mason

Yeah, it definitely is a threat. All the web needed was a central place to discuss what is happening right now, and Twitter is it. For real-time news, there is nothing better than Twitter. I only wish I could participate in creating that real time awareness, but can't because I'm protected on Twitter. - Scott Breakall

so mahalo + google = twitter ? - Cem Dalgic

No threat at all. I can't name five university or high school friends that use any realtime websites. Friendfeed is no threat to google search. - Richard A.

Yes, it is a threat. First googlebot went out and started crawling and indexing. Now people let google know (and other services know) when they updated their blog, think of xml-sitemaps, ping services. What is the next step? Take a look at google friend-connect and you might have an answer. - Imran Ashraf

hard to call it a threat when Google can just imitate or purchase the tech, but I agree that it could change the game. I hope you folks at friendfeed see this and keep improving and pushing search - and monetize it somehow! - David Knight

Is the real time web a threat to Google search -- maybe sometime in the future. Is Twitter a threat to Google as Moorman indicates? Never in a million years. Twitter is a toy, a fad, like CB radio in the 70's. - Brian Sullivan

I would say the bigger threat (and to the web, not just Google) is people putting their personal data into proprietary silos. I'm not talking about FriendFeed here, but lots of people are putting their data into places where not only 1) not only no general search engine can reach, but 2) people can't always get their own data back. - Matt Cutts

@Matt - I agree with you there I wish more services would do something like Wesabe's Bill of Right - https://www.wesabe.com/page... It makes me feel much better about trusting them with something as important as my financial information. - David Knight

Wow I never i quite thought of it like that, I getting into this instant gratification mode lately, this is why... real-time web - Tate DA FF MVP

when more of the web embraces real time it will be, for now google is safe - BCK

Left a comment on your blog saying something similar but hasn't been approved as yet. Basically all the search functionality that you speak about is possible with google search. However, the real-time and trust aspects are something that google is going to have to work on. They have introduced the ability to flag a search result as the one you were looking for. Eventually, if it isn't already, google will feed this into their search results and probably put something like X people recommended this. - Phil Leggetter

Wouldn't it be easy for Google to expand its command line language? For instance, to search on Friendfeed from Google: /ff *searchexpression - Sean McBride

Excellent points Robert. I agree, I come here now to gain personal opinion on factual issues to sway me in a particular direction. For purchasing, this was the power of Amazon reviews for products, but that doesn't cover everything and I trust the people here more. For example, I'd rather get a web application opinion from Zee in the Apps room than a Google search. I know he knows what he's talking about :) - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

Yes, in many ways! - Emmanuel Anumonwo

As a journalist, one of the laws I follow in reading stories is that "any story which ends in a question mark can be answered 'no'". This is no exception :) - Ian Betteridge

No - there will still be an archive that needs to be searchable - andy brudtkuhl

Ian, you must create an exception for this rule for questions posted by Robert. He's of a very special breed. :) - Meryn Stol

Friendfeed needs to move quickly to make itself more commercial, most people do not yet understand Friendfeed. Twitter is a lot easier for the mainstream and Facebook already has the numbers. - Chris Frost

I agree with your statement regarding FriendFeed. I keep seeing posts from Scoble and I wanted to know how I can maximize the service. I'm still not quite sure of the answer but if I keep playing with it and meeting others who use it then maybe I'll get a grip. - Damond Nollan

I still think that if you're going to have a converstation and don't want a word limit (like twitter does.) FriendFeed is the way to go. I see a lot of people interrupt a converstation on twitter becuase they think that they're invovled in, when they're not. - Patrick from twhirl

twitter search is most of the time the better alternative to google search - Thomas Acosta from Nambu

Little OT: often Delicious and Reddit offer better search results than Google. Not real-time results, but filtered by people interest. - bnoise

Integrate Gtalk / Twitter into Google Latitude and that's all the real-time web I'd need! 10 Reasosn Latitude will succeed (The Next Web) http://thenextweb.com/2009... - David Petherick from twhirl

No. This is dumb. I'd rather get results that are 15 minutes old and *accurate* than right this minute completely unverified results. Social search (who seriously cares if it's "real time"?), will be a game changer though. Which Facebook and Friendfeed are well positioned to make headway in. Not Twitter. - Eric P

I wonder if this emerging trend will give rise to twitter users being paid for click-throughs on links in their tweets; why not? If the link is relevant, truly written by someone I trust, and meets my need, I'm all in favor of that person being rewarded monetarily (and socially in terms of increased trust capital between myself and that person). Twitter could shave a few cents off the top and actually monetize their service while not disrupting the signal-noise balance. Your thoughts? @socialtopher - Chris Stewart

@codinghorror and @scobleizer should get together - You.

Are we coming full circle? [near-]Real-time, archivable discussions were the stuff of Usenet 20 years ago. Sure, it's more "web", but there's much about how a discussion starts, blossoms and expires in FriendFeed that is comfortingly familiar somehow. So could FriendFeed be the new Usenet, where instead of news servers relaying posts blindly to the next-in-line, we have information distributed and filtered via mechanisms based on human interaction and recommendation? - Paul Robertson

I think there are a lot of people who don't have the time to keep up with the real-time Web. That having been said, I think there are some opportunities to expand Google Alerts as a product.... - Steve Lynch from twhirl

rtw humans are preferable to the algorithms since the algo's have an industry (SEO) consumed. IMO the first one evolving the real time web into mainstream information retrieval wins - shayne catrett

Is it a threat? No, it's not. Just because some CEO has a theory and Robert Scoble is using Google less does not mean it's so. I like that you have posed the question, but you've also started to make a point. If I'm looking for an opinion, I might turn to my 'friends'...that being, my real friends. - Ryan

It's not a threat, but it does give us options - paul mooney

Interesting - I'm writing a blog post about this right now. Long story short - no, real-time web is not a threat to Google search. Recency is flawed (hey, how many times would Steve Jobs be dead now?!) and authority is flawed (real-time web spam is a problem.) - AJ Kohn

I agree real time can be helpful, but will not be a threat to Google. The volume and history that google has adds scope and context to searches that real time can not. - walterh

This just means that Google will need to look into real time indexes, parsing Twitter and FriendFeed feed's, although this will cost a lot b/c there can't be much/any caching. If they dont will we see another Google, are we back to '97, a whole medium without any search? - Brad Arsenault from twhirl

Google is like a Casino, if you think you have a system that can beat the house, they'll send a limo to pick you up and bring you down to try. Then, if your system actually works, they'll buy it and make you a pit-boss... - Wallace

I think it is more a threat to SEO - when many people ask their network before they search, being found becomes more than buying adwords and optimising the site... and that in turn might erode some of google's advertising revenue. - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

Maybe... all I know is I wish some of you guys would grow a pair and not be "yes men" just because an a-lister asks a question! Provide a unique viewpoint... please quit with the "great post! i totally agree!". C'mon people! - Adam Curry

Adam: I had to go back and look for the "great post! I totally agree!" comments here. Wonder what thread you are reading? - Robert Scoble

very intersting ! - thomas from twhirl

What Wallace said. - Ciaoenrico

It all depends, if you're searching for what people had for breakfast, the currency of wtf, lol, omg and a torrent of PR both personal and corporate then maybe. If you're searching for the ports of magellan's voyage, the cheapest price for a home cinema system and who was the director of Gone With The Wind, then no. - Simon Lucy

It really depends on how well-versed and -informed your digitalized friends are - Jeroen Fransen from twhirl

We don't know, it's too early to say. We won't know until the dust has settled, surely? I'm not sure there's even a truley coherent idea of what 'real-time' web means at the moment anyway. - Sam from twhirl

There is still some data that will need to be indexed. Factual information like Simon is talking about is WAY easier to find on Google than FriendFeed. If you are looking for news or a conversation then real-time, social news is the place to go. - Brandon Titus

I think it depends on what you are looking for. For real time news and conversation I think friendfeed and facebook are way beyond Google. But for searching for other content, archive etc internet search is going to be better. - Chris Patterson

Loic Le Meur

Seth Godin tries the Aptera 3 Wheels 2 Seats Car - http://www.youtube.com/watch...

February 4 from YouTube - Comment - Like - Share

Chris Stewart and bcultral liked this

Loic Le Meur

YouTube - Le Web 09: Save the date - http://www.youtube.com/watch...

February 1 from delicious - Comment - Like - Share

Chris Stewart liked this

Loic and Geraldine Le Meur announce the venue and dates of Le Web 09. - Loic Le Meur

Erhan Erdogan

10 More Semantic Apps to Watch - ReadWriteWeb - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...

February 1 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Nicholas James, Daniel Rowley, Semra Arslan and 9 other people liked this

"Boorah, Swotti, Dapper, Inform, Siri, Evri, UpTake, Imindi, Juice, Faviki" - Erhan Erdogan from Bookmarklet

Tim O'Reilly

Free The Facts: Critical Issue, Killer Presentation - http://radar.oreilly.com/2009...

January 26, 2009 from O'Reilly Radar - Insight,... - Comment - Like - Share

Daniel Rowley, Abbas Haider Ali, Brent Schlenker and 4 other people liked this

Now THAT's a great presentation! Managing the nuts and bolts of his argument without bogging down into trivia. Thanks for sharing, Tim. - Chris Stewart from twhirl

Robert Scoble

Happy sixth birthday WordPress! - http://scobleizer.com/2009...

January 24, 2009 from Scobleizer -- Tech geek... - Comment - Like - Share

Kyle, Gavin, muzo and 39 other people liked this

I love Wordpress. The hosted version I use, wordpress.com, has been the most reliable service in my life. That's a huge testimonial to how good it is and how well Matt and his team thought it all out. Thank you! - Robert Scoble

13 more comments

So you're saying that WP and my daughter were born on the same day? I still think I got the better end of the deal! ;) - Lucretia Pruitt

WordPress birthday is one day before mine? Must be a good sign. I love both my WP.org blog and WP.com site. They are a great company and really get their community too. WordCampSF was an amazing experience this year. - Morgan

As great as it is, I'm doing a lot of yelling at it right now lol - Dean Clark

Happy Birthday Wordpress- I use you for my blog and I love it. - Rob Cairns

Happy Birthday WordPress! - Drew Lucas from twhirl

Six years, already? Can't believe that much time has gone by. I came from Movable Type and started using Wordpress prior to version 1.5. Switched my last blog to WP when MT had problems handling the large amount of posts. With WP I have always liked the simplicity and ease of use. I hope it stays that way. - Donald Townsend from twhirl

Happy B-day WP! - Adriana

Happy birthday. Great platform - Håkan Dahlström

Yeah... Happy Birthday WP. If anyone told me some 2 decades ago, that i would ever leave a birthday with for some lines of codes ... oh well... things changed and WP definately changed my life, too. - Sascha Pallenberg

Happy birthday to WordPress. I use the self-hosted one and it is by far the best blogging platform you can use. Very much recommended to all bloggers! - Marko Saric

Now I know why I was having so many problems designing a new theme yesterday. I guess it was upset that I hadn't wished it a happy birthday. Happy birthday WordPress, now be nice to me today. - Keith Beucler

Now please go away to make room for _good_ software. - ·[▪_▪]·

WordPress.com introduced me to the blogosphere and enabled me to share my voice with people from the US to the UK and beyond. Happy 6th birthday WordPress, you old-timer you! - Joe Mescher

Long Life WordPress: Code Is Poetry! :-) - Adriano Gasparri

Derrick

Mixed-race couple Dean Durrant and Alison Spooner celebrate after having a second set of black and white twins - http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol...

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

HealingBrush, Matt Warren, Kol Tregaskes and 85 other people liked this

"When the first set of twins arrived in 2001, the couple were astonished to see that Lauren took after her white mum, with blue eyes and red hair, while Hayleigh had black skin and hair like dad Dean. Then this year Alison, 27, found she was expecting again — and lightning struck twice." - Derrick from Bookmarklet

33 more comments

That's beautifully trippy! - ‘-.-’ Tutivillus Grift

That's so interesting! And awesome! - Alisha

This is so cool. :) - Molly, "sorry"

Woah!!! How very very interesting! - Fa La La La Lindsay

what an awesome family! - vijay

Wow black and white twins, I didn't even know that was possible! - Toby Graham

Did anyone else think these were the parents at first? LOL. - Todd Hoff

Doing it once is cool. Doing it again, absolutely awesome! - Merry Xmas FFeeders - AJ

that's awesome. they are beautiful. - Carmen - Happy 2010!

thats so amazing! awww - Cardeen Martinez

That's insane and my daughter is utterly baffled. She now wants to know why she doesn't have a white twin. LOL. - Admiral Anika

lol Anika - Carmen - Happy 2010!

?!? I thought the odds were originally computed to be 1M:1 against that kind of combination. And twins twice? They need to play the lottery or something. :) - mikepk

And this is one couple who will never mix up their same gender twins. - Admiral Anika

I wish that more people would realize how flimsy a concept race is after seeing these sisters, but they instead get all caught up in still seeing them as black and white. That discussion was already all over the web when the first 2 were born. See Racialicious.com. - Kamilah Gill

love those sweet baby faces sleeping! i think everyone should have a black/white twin. - Trish Haley

Amazing. - Amani

really cute ... black and white twins .... - Viva Vida

This is annoying me on several levels. If the "white" girl was by herself, she'd just be "mixed" (or whatever you want to call it) like any other biracial child & that would be that. She's only "white" in contrast to her "black" sister. I hope people don't get the children thinking this way about themselves. Also, how is this any more "astonishing" than fraternal twins coming out one with blond and one with brown hair?? All it shows is general ignorance about what "race" consists of, namely almost nothing. - Kamilah Gill

I agree, Kamilah. White is only being applied by contrast. Separate them, and they're all black - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Not only separate them, but have them arrested (god forbid) and for sure they are considered black. - Amani

interesting arguments Kamilah, Rahsheen and Amani, but it's no longer race in that context but discrimination that you're talking about. - Trish Haley

Huh? I say nothing about discrimination, only Amani does. What is race?? It means as much as hair color or eye color if you are talking about siblings. I have a sister who has albinism, so she has blond hair and very white skin, but no one's ever going to call her white and not black, even though she could pass for white at a quick glance (until you notice her nose and lips just like mine). - Kamilah Gill

But in the US, one drop of Black blood makes you Black, Not saying it's right. It just is. Look at Obama. But he did refer to himself as a "mutt" in his first press conference, which is a definite step in the right direction. A guy I knew who was half Native-American, half Anglo.said "we're all half-breeds, it's just more obvious with some of us." - Bob Morris (polizeros)

ok, so you're talking about labels... i don't get why it's annoying. Edit: Oh, OK. I got it. But ultimately, you fear the labels because they lead to discrimination. - Trish Haley

a beautiful family! - BEX

OMG Awwww :) - Yuvi

awww - DO ANYBODY NO MONIQUE

Perhaps, Trish. That's why it needs to stop and this needs to not be news. There needs to be better education about the whole thing and about how genetics work and what phenotypes mean. Phenotype does not mean a significant difference in genotype, and these babies are a perfect illustration of that. That's also a huge point that most average people in the world just refuse to get or understand. They see things as black or white and it's just not that simple. - Kamilah Gill

It's true that things are never simple. And you're right that fraternal twins would normally not generate such hoopla, but it's such a blatant thing of joy when considering Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. What would he think? Race is important because it's good to know where you come from and it's time that we embrace it. So I think this picture is doing what you want in the end. - Trish Haley

Indeed I was talking about discrimination because it still occurs even under the radar in the most progressive of places. - Amani

amani, it sucks that it's true and all the more reason to keep posts like this one and read books like "same kind of different as me". - Trish Haley

That is fascinating! - Egyirba

Aww! Two sets of twins! That's pretty rare! - Phil G

Chris Messina

Prototype: Apple’s New Multi-touch Mighty Mouse - http://www.macblogz.com/2008...

December 19, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

TheHenry, Gabe Diaz, fbrunel and 24 other people liked this

Yeah, I think this has to happen. - Chris Messina from Bookmarklet

7 more comments

Absolutely, the current one never was really good. - Thomas Bøhm

Yeah...nice. I react to aluminum if I handle it too long. This is a non-starter for me. - Stephen Pierzchala

I use a wireless MSFT mouse. Works fine for me. Might get a bluetooth mouse with my tax return in the spring. Will make a decision then. - Stephen Pierzchala

Looks pretty sweet. The mighty mouse is due for a refresh. I'm looking into the arc right now. I need a portable mouse more than anything. - Brandon Titus

Does this thing still have a scrollwheel/scroll ball? - Tyson Key

I think the idea is that it´s a multi-touch surface - Thomas Bøhm

multi-touch mouse? awesome! sign me up! - Susan Beebe

Cool. I'm ALWAYS trying to do the two finger scroll when at my iMac and then realizing, oh yeah, I'm not on the MBA. - Nick in Manila

Appetite: Toby Graham

freckle: time tracking rethought - http://letsfreckle.com/

December 4, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

TheHenry, Zee., borghrose and 2 other people liked this

trying now - Toby Graham from Bookmarklet

5 more comments

looks good, but man, freaking expensive!! $24/mo the basic plan! - Leandro Ardissone ⍨

Wanted my credit card details for the 30 day trial. APP FAIL - Toby Graham

ya, skipped the trial - Leandro Ardissone ⍨

Wow. Another brow-wrinkling episode of "The Internet: You're Doing It Wrong". - abacab

Signed up for the free account: 1 user, 1 project. I'm lumping everything into a general category and tagging specific projects :) - Chris Stewart from twhirl

They want my credit card to try their "free" trial. No thanks. Let me use the thing and then make me like it before I fork out the cash. - Todd Hoff

Robert Scoble

PeopleBrowsr: A Visual Dashboard for Your Online Identities - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...

December 4, 2008 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

Parthasarathi, Kevin Whalen, Mr. Gunn and 7 other people liked this

I love PeopleBrowsr. I have a video of the founder demonstrating it here: http://www.kyte.tv/ch... - Robert Scoble

3 more comments

Robert - PeopleBrowsr rocks, thanks for sharing it with us 1st here on FF ! - Susan Beebe

Is it cool to give up your password to the parade of SM aggregators? - Michael Markman

cool! - catepol

Trying PeopleBrowser now. Looks great. - Sheldon Steiger from twhirl

Appetite: Zee.

Dial2Do is Jott for the rest of the world...and it's free & bloody brilliant. - http://www.dial2do.com/

November 6, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Peter van Teeseling, Cibeles, Brad Brooks and 18 other people liked this

Available countries: http://www.dial2do.com/faq#COU... - LouCypher

14 more comments

i personally use the service and it is genuinely impressive. - Zee.

Testing now. I think this app was made for me! Kudos, Zee!!! - Bec Rowe @d0tski

OMG IT WORKS! Squee! Zee, I could kiss you!! - Bec Rowe @d0tski

awww....*blush*...My address is 51, Pet... :P - Zee.

Awesome! Unavailable in India though :( - Parth Awasthi

AWESOME. Thank you ZEE - Keith - @tsudo

Just like http://jott.com/ ?? - Joel Bennett

Yes comparable to Jott but FREE!@! - Keith - @tsudo

i'm a fan of Dial2Do already. Evernote and RTM support. And available in France! - Adarsh

Hmm... the translate part, at least, does not work. Tried twice, got no reply :( - Adam Lasnik

Also, I'm concerned and bummed that it asks for so many passwords when it could use safer authorization options. For instance, it rightly uses FF's remote key (rather than password), and should similarly use Google's option for authenticating users via signins on the google.com domain. - Adam Lasnik

Okay, sorry, one more comment; anyone else curious about a business/revenue model? ;) - Adam Lasnik

Someone needs to make a Skype version of this - Bryce Roney

Fantastic! I've long wanted a Jott-type service for the UK. Great find Zee! - Brad Brooks

That's awesome. I'm in the US, but Jott's not available to me. This is a great service so far. Just wish I could post directly to my self-hosted WP blog. - Admiral Anika

Paul Buchheit

The "We voted" meme

November 4, 2008 from email - Comment - Like - Share

Mitchell Tsai, Voyagerfan5761, Louis Gray and 24 other people liked this

Makes me sad that I didn't get a sticker (voted by mail)... hopefully sending my vote to Indiana will help things go the right way. - Clare Dibble

cute! - Susan Beebe

Paul Buchheit

Chrysler, R.I.P. | Newsweek.com - http://www.newsweek.com/error...

November 1, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Siddharth Deb, Mathieu Ayel, MVB (Grinch of FF) and 18 other people liked this

"Daimler, which paid $36 billion for Chrysler in 1998, put a fitting coda on its investment last week. It valued its remaining 20 percent stake in Chrysler at zero. So why would GM want a worthless automaker? Well, it certainly isn't about Chrysler's cars. It's about the cash. Chrysler said it had $11.7 billion in the till this summer, and GM desperately needs that money to survive. It also wants to get rid of one of its crosstown rivals so it doesn't have to match the outrageous rebates Chrysler puts on its models any more. "The real reason GM is doing this is to get their hands on that cash," says auto economist Sean McAlinden of the Center for Automotive Research, "and to put their competitor down. It's called 'buying the business.' In that way, you save GM." If this sounds ruthless, that's because it is. GM is backed into a corner, running out of money, time and options. Its sales have tanked, it has lost $18.8 billion so far this year, and bankers will no longer lend it a penny. It's burning through" - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

32 more comments

Well, my grandfather was an inspector for Chrysler. It's how he dutifully supported his family for many years. I have a friend whose dad works there. I wrote a little tribute to him: http://docs.google.com/Doc... - Melanie Reed

This, unfortunately, would cost more than just a few lost jobs, Gregory. GM and Chrysler failing could cause more than 100,000 (probably a lot more) to be lost from the workforce...that's a huge shock to a system that is already heavily battered. - Alex Scoble

@Alex, well said and reminded. There are "patting on the back of comeuppance" here in this downturning economy. - Terence

My dad would lose his job, Greg. Thanks. - Mattie Kenny

So...you walk everywhere, Greg? I assume you don't own a Ford, GM or Chrysler vehicle. Do you own a foreign vehicle? - Mattie Kenny

I want to keep companies in business, yes. Consolidation in the American auto industry is necessary but you want to completely destroy it and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people without an ounce of guilt. The thing about the market is that it's fluid and companies CAN bounce back. You'd rather have them destroyed because of poor business decisions. You'd rather cut off my entire college fund, probably make me lose the house I live in and put me on freaking welfare. It takes TIME and MONEY to - Mattie Kenny

retrain people for different fields. Time and money you aren't willing to spend and the govt shouldn't spend. The market will fix itself and consolidation is one of those ways. Poor business decisions because of bad projections does not make you a bad company that should be eradicated. It makes your company projections poor. - Mattie Kenny

Running a business differently: 2 ice cream shops. 1 town. A hot day and twenty people are lined up at the shop each buying an ice cream cone for 25cts. The people are happy. The owner has enough to pay for supplies, his salary, and his 2 employees salary. It goes on like this in the town year after year. Not a problem. Another man puts up an ice cream shop on the other side of town. Another hot day and 20 people are lined up. this man charges 25cts per cone until one day he reasons.... - Melanie Reed

I'm hiding this entry. I can't even stand to see it in my feed because of the comments. - Mattie Kenny

...the same people will show up if he charges double the price. He does and they do. That is the problem. - Melanie Reed

Um. I don't want any handout and never said I did. Wtf? The market will correct itself and the businesses will have to adjust to the market. I don't want any handouts from anyone. Don't tell me what I want or what I'm trying to say, asshat. - Mattie Kenny

Gregory, I just don't think our economic system can afford the shock of this right now, seriously. Maybe in the long term it's better for GM and Chrysler to die (although I don't think that's true either, if GM can survive this they will be forced to innovate quickly or die), but in the short term it's not in anyone's interests (other than the competing car companies') that these companies disappear. - Alex Scoble

Uh, no the concept of foreign is NOT over. Those companies are still headquartered and run in other countries. I have nothing against foreign cars whatsoever. - Mattie Kenny

@Mattie,you're better than that. Be nice, Gregory is entitled to his point of view. We are all frustrated that this market is pulling everyone down with it, a la the Titanic. Lets hope, that the jobs loss, and the contraction is minimal, and we can right ourselves in a socially responsible way the next time around. - Terence

And I actually specifically said the govt SHOULDN'T spend money on this. ugh. - Mattie Kenny

He's telling ME what I'm saying. That's fucked up. That's not his opinion but him impressing upon me his own words against my will. I am better than that. I would NEVER tell someone what they're saying. I would ask for clarification. - Mattie Kenny

Some people might lose their job or lose money in the stock market if Chrysler goes out of business. On the other hand, we could continue to pour billions of dollars into a bottomless pit to try to bail them out. If you aren't blinded by self-interest, the solution is straightforward. - Alex Power

Why is it when I see the name 'Gregory Lent', I get a wild craving for a mango? - Akiva Moskovitz

It's not my destiny to go to college and I don't have a "narrow" view. Don't use some lame appeal to wisdom fallacy on me. I'm not "a kid". You can go ahead and make me as small in your mind as you'd like because that makes you feel better about yourself. - Mattie Kenny

Mango? - MVB (Grinch of FF)

Wow. Old boy deleted all of his comments. How... well... words fail me. - Akiva Moskovitz

Piss poor form, Mr. Lent - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

This looks like something I'm glad I missed. Either Gregory is someone I've already banished from my FriendFeed sights, or Paul took care of a little moderation on this thread. Either way, whoa. - Pete Delucchi

I apologize for resorting to an ad hominem attack and calling him an asshat. It was in poor form, but baleting all his messages makes me look like a nutjob. :-( - Mattie Kenny

A loan by US taxpayers (MUCH less than is be pumped into banks right now) saved Chrysler the first time. Despite my 'free market' outlook, it makes no sense to see this happen. If there was ever a time for a rescue, this is one of those rare cases. Assuming, of course, we can find another top shelf CEO to put them back on track. Downsizing and consolidation have their place. So does competition and ingenuity .....and defining what 'true' global free markets really are. - Charlie Anzman

Mattie, don't sweat it. Enough people saw what was happening before Gregory took the Gentleman's Way Out. - Akiva Moskovitz

What's funny is, with all those comments gone, it's pretty hard to tell whether Gregory was being an asshat, or even what the argument was, despite the fact that the other half of it is still here. - j1m

Mattie... Mattie... Back away from the keyboard slowly... - MVB (Grinch of FF)

Gregory, you have some balls. No brains. But some balls. - Akiva Moskovitz

Meh. I agree with Chris. Bailouts are bad. I don't think that we should wish the destruction of companies. That's bad business and not what the market is designed for. The auto industry hasn't been interpreting and predicting the market correctly and they're paying for it. However, it has NOT been putting out bad product. Just too much of a product people don't want anymore. The auto industry WILL correct itself and the market will reward it. And no, what Gregory Lent said is NOT what Chris White said. - Mattie Kenny

Is it because you believe their product is poor or does not match your needs? (This is just out of my curiosity.) You missed a big flare-up in this comment thread because of a troll so sorry if you're a lil confused. My response was equal parts to you and referencing what I was saying earlier. - Mattie Kenny

Chris have you ever remotely considered the CTS-V? It compares very well with the M5 and the E55. But those are sedans. The new Corvette has been lapping at the 'Ring very near 911 times, and the upcoming ZR-1 version posted a time faster than a 911 Turbo. Perhaps worth a second look. - MVB (Grinch of FF)

long story, sad story... bad story... since the 80s... MORALE... never try to rescue a company which is dead, it just will take more money, sometimes from the taxpayer... all for the same result... inspiring for today banks, isn't it... - jfayel

Brian Oberkirch

You guys mock all you want. Palin is going to pwn Biden in the swimsuit part of the competition.

August 29, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Mladen Srdić, Ňicķ, Clare Dibble and 10 other people liked this

lulz - DO ANYBODY NO MONIQUE

Robert Scoble

The talk here among journalists at IFA conference is the conference war over new companies. You can guess who they are talking about.

August 29, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Chris Stewart liked this

We all know who wins too, TC52 FTW - Andrew Fielding from twhirl

Mona Nomura

30 Creepiest Clouds On Earth -AWESOME - http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/feature...

August 18, 2008 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Randall Haney, J. Abdul-Qahhar, Neill Adamson and 81 other people liked this

Am I the only one baffled as to why they called it "Creepy"? - Mona Nomura

12 more comments

Cuz clouds ain't 'sposed to do that...LOL. Combine these with those funky trees from earlier and we can make real life super mario bros - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

UFOs run! - Merry Xmas FFeeders - AJ

I read a book a while back saying that aliens spy on us from the clouds... I wouldn't be surprised. - Michael Forian

Can they... really see us??? :( - Mona Nomura

"They" are watching you right now. Get your hands away from there. :-) - Mathew A. Koeneker

these are some amazing images... :-) - Moksh Juneja from twhirl

i need a 'love' button for this - Geoff K

Mmmmmmmm, lenticular - Slappy Line

I wonder if the "contrail" conspiracy nuts will decide these are proof of something? - Soulhuntre from twhirl

Those aren't creepy; they're stunning. - Ayşe E.

Mammus clouds are also cool, and are also often mistaken for UFO's - in this case because, unlike most clouds, mammus pods don't have wispy edges. http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropsh... - Slappy Line

i see one pic .fuji and the clouds like that above it - Arash

thats awsome - Arash

Paul Buchheit

Auto Facial Attractiveness Enhancement Engine - http://www.cs.tau.ac.il/~tommer...

August 17, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

'Like' robot (frɐnc), Damond Nollan, Uncle CW™ and 124 other people liked this

This is amazing. I think we should automatically apply it to all profile photos ;) - Paul Buchheit

35 more comments

Facial discrimination? - Jason

Impressive. - j1m

Can I get one for the body as well as the face? - Dion Almaer

Very interesting. Hope they post the download link soon so that we can all play with it. - Brady Brim-DeForest

It seems as if the main problem with most people in the examples shown is their forehead is too short or too narrow. Wonder if there's a subtle clue that big brains are beautiful there! :) - Fa La La La Lindsay

@Jason - that's an interesting concept. Would you be more likely to trust the girl on the left or right? Would you be more likely to talk to either one of them at a party (or more intimidated by either one?). - Fa La La La Lindsay

Right one looks more dumb... - Phil Smirnov

Notice that for all the women they soften the jaw, while squaring it for men. Everyone also gets a slightly thinner face and upturned almost smiling lips. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

@SB yeah and the forehead adjustment... almost like there is a triangle with the forehead at the point and they flip it so the chin is the bottom of the triangle... weird. - Fa La La La Lindsay

They are different women! Blame Paul! : ) - Erhan Erdogan

impressive - accesine

Lindsay: whenever sketching generic faces, the face starts as an inverted triangle and the eyes appear a third of the way down from the top of the forehead; lips and nose appear below and above (respectively) a line 1/3 up from the chin. Looks like these pictures are rearranged to meet that particular school of drawing. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

That is interesting yet odd. Seems that the faces are slendered with the software. - Jim Goldstein from twhirl

I wonder what would come out of applying their algorithms to face of black or asian person? Different countries have different concepts of beauty. - arty

This technology should be made available in eye glasses, just imagine how much better your work day can be! - Claude Betancourt

Paul - Think you should definitely add the option. "Click here to be beautiful without the expense of plastic surgery! .... and you may even get more 'Likey's" :)" - Charlie Anzman

Some of the stuff coming out of Siggraph this year is really freaky. How about combining this with the automatic video editing stuff? ;) - Joe Beda ()

without a doubt amazing. It's incredible how subtle the changes are yet massive difference. - Zee.

Huh, that's pretty crazy. Creepy, but cool. :) - felix

I haven't read the paper, but I wonder if it adapts to different notions of "attractive" (that changes from culture to culture ...) - Rui Pires

+1 @Claude I was thinking the same thing! Incorporate this software in wearable monitor glasses, and the whole world would be beautiful! I'll bet we can look for these on the shelves in the U.S. just before November. Social media and reality enhancement software have put Winston Smith out of a job. - ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ

Isn't this something these Japanese photo booth do since years? - Tobias Boonstoppel

do i sense another manga-style meme starting? - anna sauce

So, if it turns me into Gilbert Godfried... what does that mean? - l0ckergn0me

You know, if these guys had gotten together with the realtime video+photo enhancement folks and approached the Beijing Olympic Comittee then that singing girl in the opening ceremonies might not have had to been replaced with a body double. (Yeah, I just brought three of this week's biggest memes together. I'll be here all week.) - Kevin Fox

The artist proportions were laid out by the Greeks as the perfect human, that's not being used here. This beautification engine, I think, builds on top of a previous study where some students tried to mathematically identify attractiveness. They had participants rate the attractiveness of head shots from yearbooks. What they found was there was a high correlation b/w the geometrically "average" face and high attraction. That "average" is based on the proportions of the di - xero

stances between the individual elements of the face and their relative sizes. IIRC the software adjusts elements so they statistically/geometrically complement each other. It's not actually working toward a golden set of proportions, but a set of proportions appropriate for the individual as defined by the masses. I wouldn't think of it as "facial discrimination" so much as "deviation from ones potential". - xero

imagine if this were available in real-time installed into special glasses. sober beer goggles. - Jess Lee

I'm waiting for the first Facebook application that automatically enhances your profile picture like this. Every social network should run this on the avatars. Beautiful people! - Benedikt Koehler

Can you imagine the controversy if dating sites got a hold of this? - xero

@paul automatically apply it to all profile photos, huh? are you sure you ready for results? check my picture - try to see wonderful cossacks writing infamous letter to Turkish Sultan :) - A.T.

I wonder if they'll turn Mickey Mouse into Mighty Mouse - Dave Q

@Lindsay; A)Maybe/? 1=Left 2=Right 3=N/A - Jason

this will have a lot of practical applications to create a (virtual) world of beautiful (or more acceptable facially) people. - Apostolos Tsompanopoulos

Just a complicated high tech implementation of beer goggles. - Hayes Haugen

Chris' comment is sooo tempting - Charlie Anzman

mashable

It’s Official: Firefox 3 Sets a Guinness World Record - http://mashable.com/2008...

July 2, 2008 from Mashable! - Comment - Like - Share

Apollo L, Dave Hodson, Sarah Perez and 5 other people liked this

I'm part of a World Record....sweet! - Craig Dalton

3 more comments

lol - first world record for me too!!! ;) - Dieter Schwarz

Does this make up for the download day troubles? - Rishabh Mishra (p248)

Yeah! Congratulations! - Fletcher from twhirl

you can get a pdf certificate for taking part in download day ...they're very nice - John Blanton from twhirl

Paul Buchheit

Diary of a Failed Startup - http://www.reddit.com/goto...

June 24, 2008 from Reddit - Comment - Like - Share

Nenad Nikolic, Gabor Cselle, Merry Xmas FFeeders - AJ and 32 other people liked this

Great quote - "It's very, very difficult to wear both the developer and the evangelist hats at the same time: being a developer requires that you be very pessimistic, so you can see and fix all the problems in your design, while being an evangelist requires that you be very optimistic, so others can feed off your passion. I suspect that if I tried to do both, the cost would be my sanity" - Eric Kerr

4 more comments

"Linux started as a terminal emulator".. !!!? Or not. - Nick Lothian

Definitely a lot of points that rang true for me, especially the "Chicken and Egg" point. - Adam Thorsen

I myself have worked on two start-up concepts and a revitalization effort, each of which bombed, but each one taught me something different. I finally threw in the towel on my last start-up and picked up a full-time day-job because I couldn't find anyone willing to share hats. We were already incorporated, so I was the CEO, book keeper, technology evangelist, sales guy, support tech,... more... - Chris Stewart from twhirl

Haven't read the article yet, Nick, but Linux didn't start out as a terminal emulator. Linus Torvalds deliberately started working on implementing a "practice OS" called "Minix" from a book, and it grew from there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Phil G

@J. Phil - exactly my point. - Nick Lothian

David Sifry

holy crap, Amazon.com is DOWN. AS in HARD DOWN. As in, "Http/1.1 Service Unavailable" down.

June 6, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

david beckwith, Jeff Quinton, Leif Hansen and 7 other people liked this

Wow. Just checked it out and got the same - Anand Sharma

7 more comments

Indeed. Check out GrabPERF -- Over an hour of downtime. - Stephen Pierzchala

.co.uk is still working too - Phil Coyne from twhirl

strange www.amazon.com kept working for me - Naor Mark

amazon.com front page came up for me, but the first catalog item I clicked on resulted in the Http/1.1 Service Unavailable" response - Micah Wittman

fine for me too - Leif Hansen from Alert Thingy

Oops, X that, you're right --items not showing - Leif Hansen from Alert Thingy

back up for now - nesman89 from twhirl

Down again. - Soulhuntre from twhirl

Louis Gray

Twitter and its Culture of Downtime - http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archive...

May 20, 2008 from Google Reader - Comment - Like - Share

Andrew Dobrow, Chris Stewart, Dobromir Hadzhiev and 2 other people liked this

Sarah Perez

Microsoft Demos TouchWall - It's Like Surface for the Office!! - http://on10.net/blogs...

May 14, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

Susan Beebe, Ian Rathbone, Francois Bochatay and 9 other people liked this

I have the link to the video and timestamp in my post so you can see it for reals for yourself - Sarah Perez

4 more comments

Well I'm impressed - Bwana ☠

Video comments will be appreciated when we're using these instead of laptops. - Rex Pechler

I find it hard to be less impressed. Might be possible, but maybe on the Microsoft Summit next year. - Dani Radu

First there was the Big Ass Table now it's the Big Ass picture frame? http://twurl.nl/1ntrz8 - Kevin Shannon

I'm very interested in the potential of this technology, I wonder what else Microsoft are experimenting with? - Ian Rathbone

Marc Andreessen

If Microsoft goes fully hostile on Yahoo - http://blog.pmarca.com/2008...

April 28, 2008 from blog.pmarca.com - Comment - Like - Share

Mitchell Tsai, Dan Hsiao, A.T. and 7 other people liked this

Indeed very good post. I'm expecting the "White Knight" option. - Cem Dalgic

I really hope that MS doesn't use the proxy fight option - John Blanton from twhirl

Chris Stewart › Likes