Comments on: Be Prepared, the Mainstream is Coming

By: Rob Diana - Web Apps Should Keep It Simple For Success « Scott Purdie

Rob Diana - Web Apps Should Keep It Simple For Success « Scott Purdie — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:20:43 +0000

[...] this. If you keep something simple, it is hard to mess it up. Why do I bring this up today? Well, I recently wrote about a conversation with my brother where he asked about Twitter and the conversation moved to [...]

By: YAGP: Web Apps Should Keep It Simple For Success - Regular Geek

YAGP: Web Apps Should Keep It Simple For Success - Regular Geek — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:54:54 +0000

By: FF Power Tips From The Regular Geeks at SocialMediaCampus - NYU

FF Power Tips From The Regular Geeks at SocialMediaCampus - NYU — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:11:35 +0000

[...] use FriendFeed. First, let me state that FriendFeed is a tool, and you can use it however you want. I wrote recently that the early adopters should be guides for when the mainstream starts to use these tools. Daniel [...]

By: FriendFeed Power Tips - Regular Geek

FriendFeed Power Tips - Regular Geek — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:56:04 +0000

By: mdangear

mdangear — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:38:03 +0000

My answer to what Twitter is: it is the virtual “water cooler”, and yes there is a use for anybody who cares about staying in touch with others, whoever that it.
Twitter is convenient because you can use it from your phone or from your PC.
You can go there to see what people are talking about when you have a minute to spare.
OR you can use search.twitter.com, which allows you to search on specific keywords to see who talks about what you are interested in. This can be any topic, or it can be a tag for a conference, in which case you have access to the “backchannel” = what people are discussing while somebody is talking. Very useful to complement any presentation.
Twitter is clearly something you should have in your social networking toolbox…

By: robdiana

robdiana — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:15:37 +0000

Justin,

My hope is that as the attention increases, that the early adopters like ourselves can act as guides. We can help people get integrated into the site, and promote good usage of the site. We all saw the number of arguments on FriendFeed due to the political information. Imagine if traffic was 10x what it is now. If we guide people into the services, then we can also promote good behavior.

By: robdiana

robdiana — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:12:34 +0000

Mitch,

Let me start by saying that I am addicted to FriendFeed. I am very active there, especially compared to Twitter. In this post I did not want to compare Twitter and FriendFeed, but they were conversation points. The main issue that people see with FriendFeed is the quantity of information. You need to work with it in order to find the way you want to use it.

Twitter will be more comfortable for many people because they are familiar with IM and text messaging. So, something like Twitter is similar, just more public. I do agree that conversation on Twitter is harder, and FriendFeed is built for promoting conversation.

The other problem is that I do not believe the mainstream wants as much information as is available on FriendFeed. Most people watch 1 or 2 television stations and read one newspaper. FriendFeed is the equivalent of having almost every TV station and newspaper funneled into one stream of information. Maybe I am wrong, but my brother did not want to know anything more about FriendFeed than I told him.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:12:44 +0000

Another point for Friendfeed over Twitter as a starting point: it’s quite likely that people new to the game have at least one or two accounts at sites which could be imported to Friendfeed (Facebook is the most likely in my mind). That’s a quick way to give your account some content vs. having to post links manually on Twitter (likely requiring you to first learn to use something like TinyURL).

Also if you opt for Twitter first you need to learn how to compose your thoughts in 144 characters which some might consider frustrating.

I know I sometimes feel like I’m talking to nobody when I write @replies on Twitter because you can’t always expect a response. On Friendfeed if you encounter any topic you’re interested in, you’re free to comment and you can count on more that just the author reading it in most cases. I think, in general, Twitter is more about broadcasting where Friendfeed is more about content discussion which gives the latter the edge in engaging new users.

Maybe I haven’t been as caught up in the Twitter community as you, Rob, but I think that Friendfeed offers many fewer barriers to entry. Either way, they’re both very interesting to read.