I think the rooms are an interesting addition. It's like we've gone full circle, back to IRC and chat rooms. - Kathleen Anderson

could be both. - Marcel Weiß

def. both - kosmar

Answer one because of answer two. - Matt Harwood

Don't you feel like going from one fancy club to the next when the former is too crowed and not 'in' any more? - David Álvarez

I think FF is great in how it is a centralized place where different viewpoints about a multitude of topics can be shared and discussed - acedanger

It's easy to forget amongst the chatter and noise that FriendFeed is quite a powerful aggregation platform. Think of the seven blind mice (or men, depending on which version you've read) who are all trying to describe an elephant. They can only sense one part of the elephant and so they guess differently because one feels the trunk, another the tusk, one the leg, the tail, and so on. Finally, one smart person figures out that all of these parts are connected together into an elephant and recognizes it for what it is. In a similar light, FriendFeed makes visible virtually all social media presences for a specific person and you get to see how interesting or talented they are. This sets the stage for more interesting and enjoyable conversations and learnings. - Mark Dykeman

Anyway, in the moment - and as twitter is still fragile - it is getting a lot of scope - that is -imho- the power that may give a big push forward ... wait and see ;-) however it is better for conversations than to abbreviate Ur statements so that you can crop it into this ****** 140-sign limit ;-) - michael h

Full circle to back to IRC? I never left it :> - Sam Levine

Friendfeed is at least this year's big thing. But they've got some improvement to make before others see it's value (threaded comments, dupe reduction, etc.). - Shey

Friendfeed is the web2.0 version of IRC's and MUD's. The concepts are old, but the implmentation methods are new. BTW, can any1 clue me into why MUD's (multi user Dungeons) games and forums are not called "social media" app's of their time ?? I mean the term "social media" is a bunch of crock and totally overated, IMHO - Peter Dawson

solly - jst threading this conv0- steve's blog post - http://www.micropersuasion.com/2008... - Peter Dawson

I might not have 1000 twit follows anymore,but since I blew up NoahDavidSimon and QRU due 2 Panopticons, I noticed friendfeed has improved new following selections. many people I was meeting on twitter were random b4, now I use friendfeed as a screening service 2 figure out who I like b4 I sniff ass with 'em. I now can get to know a person's comments b4 I follow just cuz it is a random friend of a friend. friendfeed might just save twitter. question isn't friendfeed or twitter, the question is how they compliment each other. that is the beauty. glad my old twit accounts r gone. I only wish I could find a Mac based twitter to friendfeed follower conversion. - NoahDavidSimon

as the panopticons fellow... imagine instead of 21 twitter accounts. 21 friendfeed accounts and you don't tell people they are all you. you then have a conversation with yourself and force yourself to the top of the feed. yes I have already thought about it. next panopticons will be an imaginary friend in friendfeed that uses rss from sneak accounts on twitter. how does that break architecture on twitter? ur thoughts? and will twitter bother to delete the accounts now? the reflection will happen off twitter!. - NoahDavidSimon

FF need to group the duplicates, that's the one weak point I find here right now, just posted on the feed instead of the discussion...via feedalizr - Dobromir Hadzhiev

I vote for bored. - MichelleBB from twhirl

the next big thing. - Thomas Hawk

I strongly believe the concept behind FriendFeed is part of the overall shift that is occurring within our society with regards to the way we use technology. The adoption of the cell phone, instant messaging and new social networking and communication innovations are getting us used to the idea that if we want to interact with someone RIGHT NOW we should be able to. That said I think FriendFeed in its current form is something that appeals to a select group of individuals. ran out of room - TBC - Marco(aureliusmaximus)

Look at the topics that garner the most consistent attention and activity - post something about FriendFeed, Twitter or the overall direction or uses for social media and people swarm - post something regarding just about any other topic and it will hardly get a second glance. Obviously just an extension of FriendFeed's user base. Not bored - just very interested in the changed taking place. The next big thing but not in its current form. - Marco(aureliusmaximus)

Throwmy vote in the hat for the next big thing. - Robert Lee from twhirl

That depends - what was the last big thing? - Brian Sullivan

Next big thing, I've found more cool stuff watching the activity around Thomas Hawk in two weeks, then two years on MySpace and Facebook. FF is it for me here on out, the best of all worlds. - Ace

I think for the tech crowd it's the next big thing...Beyond that?...It's tough to say. - Chris Rossini

the next big thing. But not for the majority - not yet. - Baard Overgaard Hansen

I'm not bored, and I certainly hope it's going to be big cause it's great. A bunch of us life science/bioinformatics geeks have built a community here that we haven't been able to anywhere else (even the recent uptick on Twitter was driven by FriendFeed IMO). That in itself says something. - Deepak Singh

Twitter is still very much this year's thing (and still has a lot of room to grow). Friendfeed (like Twitter) is simple on the surface yet brilliant (and better). It's all about the buzz. It very well could be the next BIG thing. Was thinking the same thing as @Kathleen last night. In some ways, we have come full circle. - Charlie Anzman

Next big thing. "Yes, FriendFeed Will Be Mainstream (by 2018) and Here's Why" http://tinyurl.com/3na5pm - Hutch Carpenter

I've been using FriendFeed as a business tool. It allows me to aggregate content from lots of great sources (like your blog) and share the most relevant topics to my co-workers. My co-workers subscribe to my feed as I filter out all the noise for them. I see a tremendous amount of potential for FriendFeed as a lightweight knowledge management tool for businesses. - Tom Wentworth

I've been thinking a lot about this too. FF is positioned well to be the next big thing for the bleeding edge early adopters and the uber geek set. I see it continuing to grow because of the richness of the conversation, diversity of views, the immediacy and the openness (at least on the inbound side). That said, I can't imagine it fully blows up and goes mainstream – for exactly the same reasons that make it a hit with geeks. - Christian Anderson

I don't know if FF is solving a problem for the mainstream. Besides early adopters I don't know any people who feel that they are using too many services and NEED way to aggregate the content. I need that so I love FF, but we are in the minority and it will remain that way. I also like FF right now because of the quality of people who you can reach at this early stage. - Rajiv Doshi

this is the best thing I liked after Google Reader - Arvind

Rajiv, I completely agree. The aggregation and quality of conversation is what keeps bringing me back. - Al Stevens

I've felt the same way with each new thing. I started using Plaxo recently to get my address book under control, and liked Pulse for it's ability to aggregate all my other services... and a day later I discovered Friendfeed... and Disqus... where does it end? - Mitch Contla

The question should actually be "Is Lifestreaming the next big thing". FriendFeed is but one of many services that facilitate Lifestreaming (or Social Services Aggregation). You see that some alternatives are mentioned in the comments already, and I cover the whole sector at lifestreamblog.com but in any case I think the answer is a resounding YES. News about Lifestreaming services have dominated many tech blogs in 2008 and I believe they will continue to do so. Lifestreaming services are still in their early stages of development and I think we will see much more innovation occuring. Several initiatives such as Data Portability, Open Social, and others will continue to fuel innovation in this area as well. - Mark Krynsky

Its all about the “Atomization of Conversation” (http://tinyurl.com/5k2hq2) - Dave Raffaele from twhirl

Mark, I get what you're saying but when I ask my non tech friends on the information flow that they deal with on a day to day level they look at FaceBook as being the pinnacle of lifestreaming. They see it as the way they can keep up with friends in a bitesize way. I see facebook taking the lead as the lifestreaming choice if they can add that functionality and allow you to filter the noise in a more lifestyle streaming manner. - Stewart Steel

@Mark Krynsky - good point about recasting the question as "Will Lifestreaming be the Next Big Thing?". FriendFeed clearly has the jump on everyone else, but the category is nascent. - Hutch Carpenter

I find that I resist jumping on bandwagons. I did resist FF for a while but I'm glad now that I joined. - metageoff

Well now that Twitter's out, I'm using FF instead of the other microblogs out there (Jaiku, Pownce etc), it's fair to assume that conversations will shift to FF (a point re-inforced by Jeremiah Owyang) - Sachendra