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Kol Tregaskes to Kol's feed, FriendFeed Talk

So FriendFeed's growth is flat, why do you think that is and how do you think that could be improved?

John Ladd, K.D., Kevin Whalen and 17 other people liked this

It's a shame that FF is not growing yet has all better features over the likes of Twitter and Facebook but what is causing the lack of growth and what could be done to increase growth in FriendFeed? - Kol Tregaskes

41 more comments

FF is too much work. Consumes time, needs a lot of effort and most people are happy with one-to-one than one-to many interactions. Twitter wins. - vijay

FriendFeed fits in a space in between Twitter and Facebook. There is very little reason to join FF if you are already using both Twitter and FB. - Daniel Sims

Is it down to 'missing' features? Is the poor introduction for new users to blame? - Kol Tregaskes

Also what Daniel said. - vijay

Daniel, I did. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Vijay, yeah it can be pretty complicated for the new user, how would you make is simpler? - Kol Tregaskes

if you make it any simpler it becomes twitter. Only way to go is to get users to replace their Blogs with FF. I think that's what they are working towards. - vijay

I have replaced some of my blogs with friendfeed. I think it's excellent for blogging (microblogging). - Svartling from email

Vijay, you meant for writing your own blog articles? Yep, that would be great. All I'd really need it a few HTML options in the first comment to do this. Nothing too fancy. Then I could blog from FF, embed it on my site and everything is synced, comments and all. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Svartling, I've done the same thing also. - Ashikur Rahman

I think what needs to be done is have a clear "walk-through" example of setting up one's full social media life on FriendFeed. It's a great box of toys for exploring and tinkering -- but trust me, new users will be quite daunted at first unless they have some hand-holding - Ashikur Rahman

It only targets content producers - Genaro Bardy

Ashikur, I see this all the time as I seek out new users to welcome them each day. A lot post their first entry as "what do I do now?". Once new users have completed the registration process they are put on friendfeed.com with no other explanation. A nice Flash anim is needed here to show the new user the basic features of the service. - Kol Tregaskes

FF should go all the way and become a fully-featured Twitter client. People will join and stay for that, then eventually fall in love with FF. Right now, FF's integration with Twitter is just half-way done and causes more confusion. - Daniel Sims

Make it a fully-featured Twitter client with better blogging functionality. - Svartling

If I could import my non-FF Twitter friends, keep it refreshed if I unfollow them and swap them to FF users if they join, then I'd use FF as my Twitter client. But the likes of Seesmic Desktop provide all sorts of useful features like RT and tabs for replies for multiple Twitter accounts and DMs. - Kol Tregaskes

FF requires more time to enjoy. Many of the features are probably difficult for new visitors to see or find. The interface may be overwhelming and it may be a bit too "Zen" in appearance for most people. People used to Twitter may find it harder to connect to others (they may find the lack of @ replies as a communication hurdle). The API isn't exploited as widely as Twitter's. Mobile... more... - phil baumann

FF hasn't gotten the buzz Twitter has. It's seems harder to find like minded people on FF. Maybe, I just don't know how to do it. I love the pictures and the ability to have real conversations. I hate 140 character rule of Twitter. Twitter more people are just talking. Not as many listeners. Lots of marketers and life coaches on Twitter. Don't like that. I like "rooms" on FF. I like... more... - Kimber Scott

Kimber, absolutely agree with you. - Ashikur Rahman

What I dont like is to properly track watch my friends, I have to follow FF, twiter, and facebook. - ZoneDancer

Kimber, interesting points there. Twitter is definitely a broadcast tool whereas FF is a discussion tool. - Kol Tregaskes

I have noticed with friends that FF requires some usage on the part of the individual, so it's a hard sell and steep learning curve that way. Most of my friends I introduce here see a relatively blank page, with just my posts. They're timid to subscribe, and thus see a really whitewashed space. - anna

Anna, agree about it being a hard-sell. I think the email features should be plugged more. I think there is a big market of users that I used to emails and know nothing about social media beyond Facebook. I'm trying to tempt a few friends onto FF via the email features, to them it's a matter of registration then emailing me to a different address. Eventually they may move onto the site and use all the regular features. - Kol Tregaskes

I think FF is too much for people new to social media I don't know. I think the realtime thing kinda pushed a lot of people away as well. I'm finding myself finding more people I'd rather interact with on Twitter and Facebook than FF. Discussions are nice, but they are time consuming. For anyone with a job that doesn't allow them to be online, a family to take care, a house to take care... more... - Mike VanLare (slayerboy)

I'd also like to see it pushed as a collaborative tool. It works really well in this sense. Businesses could use FF. - Kol Tregaskes

Another thing that bothers me on FF is a user issue, but I think with some encouragement from FF is could be improved: There are too many blank profiles. People should be encouraged to say 'something.' It takes a lot of work to see if you want to follow somebody, if they have a blank profile. Also, private feeds are so off putting. I know they should be an option, but it's very hard to... more... - Kimber Scott from email

Personally I like the rate of growth, after all a good wine needs time to reach its full potential. - Kevin Hatton

Heh, Kevin. I'm not after Twitter or FB like growth but any growth would be nice. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Some of it is habit. And herding behavior. If their friends use it, then they want to. Maybe FF should be all about quality rather than quantity. I stepped through many people to help them start up. Showed them how to use the bookmarklet. None of them wanted to use it. It's a new technology in its own right. Sometimes peeps are just set in their ways? - Marg Uerite

Peeps have to have a certain level of computer literacy sophistication, just to appreciate it! - Marg Uerite

Kimber, the user settings page is presented to new users when they register but the description is only optional. I'd like to see an explanation of how and the benefits to why to fill in this be displayed with the tutorial. - Kol Tregaskes

Kol, exactly what I was thinking - a little education will solve so many issues. - Kimber Scott from BuddyFeed

:-) - Kol Tregaskes

FriendFeed needs to think through its use cases, & survey users for their preferences between them. Examples are FF as feed reader (needs a "Subscribe to this blog" bookmarklet), or the FF as Twitter client++ mentioned above by several people, which I'm also big on. Then, once decided, make it clear for new users through usage videos, UI "obviousness" improvements, etc. how it works.... more... - Alex Schleber

the main reason why friendfeed doesnt catch fire is its lack of complete profiles...i cant search for people from munich,...or from my schools, etc, etc,... FAIL - Chris Hofmann

I kinda wish I had a local search of somekind. One way that twitter first grabs users is by finding others around you that use it as well as easy tweetups. - tomit from iPhone

Good point, Chris! - Ashikur Rahman from iPod

... and, why do I have to go all the way up to the start of a conversation to comment? Especially when it's a long one? - Ashikur Rahman from iPod

Chris makes a very good point and so does Ashikur. No complete profiles. On FB you can pretty much trust that the person is a real person by looking at the profile, you get a sense of community, you can find people you know, or used to know, etc., etc. Ashikur's point should be very easy to fix. - Kimber Scott from email

Mass media is driving twitter adoption nothing else. - Geoff Schultz

Odd, isn't it. Traditional media pushing the latest "new media" trend. - Jason Nunnelley

Having just switched over to using Friendfeed for all my social networking, I can say that making this a full-featured Twitter client would bring more people in. Once here they'd realize that's not what it's really about. But the halfway method that exists now is a major deterrent. - John Ladd

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