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
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
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
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...
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- 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...
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- Kimber Scott
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...
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- 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...
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- 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
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....
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- 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
... 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
iTweetReply features the ability to view your entire Twitter timeline along with the ability to send you push notifications for mentions and direct messages. It also allows you to upload images via Twitpic, but that’s basically it. Find more info: http://k.clipotech.com/itweetr...
- Svartling
Let me know if it's good when someone have tried this app :)
- Svartling
does this thing do push outside if it's little universe, or is it a walled garden like iTwitter that only pushes other tweets by iTwitter users?
- Kevin Arth
“Twitter absolutely changes the media landscape,” said Ross Dawson, author and communications strategy analyst. “I like to refer to Marshall McLuhan’s description of media as ‘an extension of our senses.’ Now, Twitter is extending our senses to tens of millions of people who are often right on the scene where things are happening.” I think Twitter is great for news.
- Svartling
from Bookmarklet
The investment was revealed in a comment made by angel investor John Borthwick at TechCrunch’s Real-Time Stream CrunchUp in Redwood City, Calif.
- Svartling
from Bookmarklet
"Seesmic, the Twitter and Facebook desktop client developed by Loic Le Meur, is launching its much talked about browser-based Twitter client today at TechCrunch's Real-Time Stream CrunchUp."
- Svartling
from Bookmarklet
Currently, the browser client only includes support for Twitter but Le Meur says that Facebook integration will be coming soon
- Svartling
Bantam Live, an online workspace for business teams that has “social CRM” features, joins the trend. Launched today at TechCrunch’s Real-Time Stream Crunchup, the software-as-a-service product provides an online workspaces for business teams that includes a real-time dashboard stream of messaging and workflow activity along with a native social CRM application.
- Svartling
from Bookmarklet
Now, when you search for locations using Google Search, you may see pictures from that place alongside a map. You can click on any of those images to go to the photos layer on Google Maps where you can browse many more geo-tagged photos.
- Svartling
The secret is to use three powerful features: lists, imaginary friends and saved searches. Combine these with email alerts and Gmail and it gets even better.
- Svartling
from Bookmarklet
[SteroidFeed]: Here is my new way of watching feeds on FriendFeed. I call it SteroidFeed but it is also a "Multi-Talk" style interface ... the file sits locally and allows me to view multiple topics. I've attached a copy of the simple html. Feel free to modify the html but please leave attribution and share your changes. Leave a URL if on Internet.
Of course, the version I uploaded does not include my own entries but instead has the iPhone entry as an example. My local copy uses "from:lph" so I can see my entries and add comments quickly. (e.g., this comment is added through steroidfeed.html and not through the site.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
I've changed this file a bit so that a fourth column is available, and this holds a rowspan of my own entries. This makes tracking easier.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
I should state that the fourth column is an embed so that I can add comments, photos, files, etc. - That code is similar to the one on my personal blog: http://www.layneheiny.com
- LPH™ and his dog P™
Trying this on a 1024 x 768 resolution, 12-inch notebook - and it is fine with all four columns.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
I dunno about Adrian Veidt; I'm thinking "Elvis's 21st Century TV Room." Now let's get mad about something and shoot out 1/12th of the screen!!
- Rich
OK - so are you asking - can I span this across multiple monitors? -- because Elvis used to watch multiple t.v.s at the same time.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
Svartling - yes - your setup is nice. I've gone back and forth between 3 and 4 columns. My desktop setup can handle 4 but the notebook (1024x768) can only handle 3. Therefore, http://www.steroidfeed.com is only sitting at 3 right now. I'm also missing the instructions on how to make changes for anyone not familiar with FF.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
Yes I was thinking of make 3 columns but I decided to make it 4 because my web stats shows that most visitors have a resolution at 1024x768 or higher. Maybe I will change to 3 columns. Hmm..
- Svartling
Really appreciated man, one of the best things for my following attitude
- Amiroo
Tumblr Introducing: Submissions http://staff.tumblr.com/post... - The author starts posting about a topic they care about, the readers start contributing, and before you know it, the author has become a curator. http://www.clipotech.com/...
A feature to streamline community-driven blogs. You can enable it from your blog’s Customize screen to let your readers submit posts via web or email.
- Svartling
friendfeedCommentAnchor [v0.1.0] - http://wittman.org/project... - A user script, a bookmarklet and an alternative configuration userscript (has autoCommentAnchor turned ON). To add a permalink to each comment. The hyperlinked text default is "#" (you can change it in the Configuration section to "permalink", "linky", etc in the user script). Works in single post and stream modes. Tested on Firefox and Safari.
- Micah Wittman
Special Note ~ Post image: NOT A HASH TAG :)
- Micah Wittman
I started the group ffhacks to house a concise listing of user scripts: http://friendfeed.com/ffhacks . If you have a script that works on the current version of FriendFeed, and you're its author, write a comment on http://friendfeed.com/ffhacks... with the link and I'll share the original friendfeed post to the group.
- Micah Wittman
Does it only work to other users with the script enabled?
- Andrew Trinh
The anchor is the comment <div> container id which has been there all along; there simply has not been a user interface to conveniently access it. So yes, a URL with the anchor will work for anyone regardless of script usage (tested in Firefox & Safari).
- Micah Wittman
ianf, yep. I try anyway. I remember one or two conversations you had anchors - I've wanted access them for a while too. Cheers!
- Micah Wittman
#hashanchors should have been there by default, so that you could spend your time on more creative things rather than fixing FF. In fact, absence of this key element of hypertext, granular addressability, tells me that FFeeders really do not care for comments - they're ffodder to the OPs, which are the only ones that rank anything in the hierarchy of submissions around here. I don't...
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- ianf ⌘
"Does Posterous comments get indexed by Google? Much better to have own comment system than for example Disqus. That way we can build up our posts with more content via comments."
- Svartling
"I think it works much better to use Gmail to save stuff I want to use and find on both computers and my iPhone. I store it under different labels, and now you can even search for it in the iPhone email client with the new OS 3.0!"
- Svartling
"I use Evernote to save important stuff from the web, so it's ok that it only works on my Pc, but sometimes I want to see some of the notes on the iPhone. Then I use the web version instead."
- Svartling
Bing’s Twitter account just sent a message directed towards Google’s, asking if they could take a look at their index and captions.
- Svartling
from Bookmarklet
Nothing to stop them going into "rogue mode" and crawling the Bing index/results pages though, except maybe a little issue of annoying a load of admins at Microsoft and getting their own indexes filled with junk. ;)
- Tyson Key
"Just as companies were starting to get serious about installing Android, a mobile Linux OS, on netbooks, Google announces Chrome, a netbook Linux OS. The relationship between the two OSes is already getting tense, or at the very least, awkward." Knowledge: http://kb.clipotech.com/chrome_...
- Svartling
from Bookmarklet