Now that I’m one day out from Facebook’s acquisition of FriendFeed, I’m starting to see the move through a less emotional lens. Do I still feel like the FriendFeed team sold us out? Absolutely. Is it their fault, though, that all the work we’ve put into our FriendFeed accounts might vanish one day? I’m afraid not.
The fact is, nothing lasts forever, and the FriendFeed sale has made that more apparent to me than ever. Money talks, and not just for small startups but bigger companies, as well. If a product or venture isn’t making money, it either needs to start or it needs to disappear – that is what is in the best interest of the investors or shareholders. And unfortunately, while we the customers help these companies grow, they don’t answer to us.
I fear for the future, now. FriendFeed is not the only service I use on a regular basis and it certainly isn’t the only free service I use. What if AOL decides one day that the AIM servers aren’t worth keeping on? What if Twitter can’t monetize, its investors become impatient and it sells in a way similar to FriendFeed? The only platform I can truly depend on to stick around is my blog, which is why I’m going to bring it back into the fold again. The blogosphere needs to become a bigger piece of my conversation pie because, honestly, my trust in microblogging has been shaken.
If you’re a FriendFeeder with a blog, I would love to connect with you and toss your feed into my Google Reader list. Leave me a comment and maybe some other visitors will subscribe to you, too.
Remember again – nothing lasts forever. Especially things that are being given to you for free. Choose the place you converse and make connections wisely, because it might not be around tomorrow.
I haven’t written a blog post in about four months. Life has been getting in the way and I just haven’t had the time to sit down and put some thought into a serious post. This is the first time I’ve felt compelled to write in that span of time and it pains me to do so. Whether this strikes a chord or is just another post echoing around inside the chamber, this is how I feel.
Betrayed.
Earlier today, FriendFeed sold itself out to Facebook for a reported $50 million. What will Facebook do with FriendFeed? No one knows for certain, but many suspect this was not a purchase of FriendFeed but instead a purchase of FriendFeed’s tech and talent. Much like Twitter acquired I Want Sandy a few months back and later shut it down, this might not bode well for FriendFeed users.
I’m a bit sickened by FriendFeed’s willingness to sell. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I have a few theories.
Maybe it’s the way the early FriendFeed adopters contributed so much and are now getting so little. Robert Scoble and Louis Gray, for example, evangelized the hell out of FriendFeed and did so for good reason – they loved the service and thought it could do big things. My idea of a big thing was not selling to Facebook, but I’m not sure how Louis and Robert feel. And it wasn’t just Robert and Louis but tons more. If I named every single person who talked up FriendFeed like it was the light bulb, I’d be writing here for days.
Maybe I hate this move because I will miss the FriendFeed community – the people I’ve met, shared laughs with and learned from. What happens to them? Do they vanish into thin air? I don’t know. For those who want to keep in touch, find me on Twitter (@shawn) or send me an email – shawnfarner (at) gmail (dot) com.
There’s one last reason I could be disappointed by this – maybe I thought the FriendFeed crew was above selling themselves out. Maybe I thought they wanted to innovate on their terms. After all, these guys left Google to strike out on their own. That led me to believe that they were going to do their damnedest to make sure FriendFeed became all it could be, and by that I mean more than just a few new buttons in Facebook. Guess not.
I’m sure a lot of others are let down by this news and are standing at the same crossroads, too. FriendFeed is saying it still wants to be my friend (for the time being), but I’m not sure if I can do it. If Facebook decides to keep FriendFeed intact, that will take some of the sting away but it won’t repair the trust – and what’s a relationship without trust?
I do not consider FriendFeed items to be “mine”, and maybe that’s a fundamental difference I have with others. Once I bring it into FriendFeed, it’s fair game for anyone to comment on, like, compliment or trash. I like criticism. I invite opposing views.
That is discussion.
To moderate comments or delete threads altogether is to spit in the face of those who bothered to contribute. I value those contributions and, once you make them, I feel you should always have access to them in the future. Moderating your comments or deleting threads is basically me telling you this – “You aren’t smart enough to filter things for yourself.” I don’t feel that way.
If things get out of hand with comments, there are features available to FriendFeed users. Block certain people. Hide items you don’t like. You are very capable of filtering this information how you see fit. I certainly don’t feel like I’m in a position to do that for you. If the thread starter wants to hide what they said, you know what they can do? Delete their own comments. Not everyone else’s.
You can take a look at my FriendFeed stream today and find out that I’ve used both Gmail, Yahoo and Facebook today – not because I posted or tweeted this myself, but thanks to a tracker I installed for Wakoopa, a site that aims to socialize our application usage. Going through the public stream, I can see that LouCypher has recently used Google Talk and Yahoo! Messenger. Hasan has accessed the Command Prompt and used WordPress. Haggis (Sean) has visited Classmates.com.
Doesn’t this seem like a bit much?
I pinged some of the folks on Twitter and FriendFeed for answers to this question – Are we sharing too much on social networks?
@jak440 – “YES!” @hearsmusic – “When people are dying for changing their status on facebook, I think so, yes…” @johnrogers – ” “too much” is relative to me. I am who i am, and tend to share everything. nothing to hide really” @hbombx – “Yeah, some of the “meet me hear if you want” sound too much like “I’m alone and easy to abduct.” ” @rahsheen – “I don’t know about sharing too much, I was actually thinking of going the full monty….ok not really…LOL” @rorowe – “There was a great article in Wired ~6 mo. ago about a guy who literally put *everything* online so the FBI’d leave him alone.” (He later tweeted the article URL – here it is.)
Amber aka SDA - “A little” Akiva Moskovitz - “What do you mean? I don’t even know your blood type… yet.” Helen Sventitsky - “I’ve always shared too much. Half my offline friends block me because I’m such an embarrassment to them online, LOL! :D” JMS likes you - “Perhaps” Niki Costantini - “Well, it’s not that we are obliged to share everything, aren’t we? So “too much” is only up to us at the end of the day :)” Sparky - “You are right. People share way too much on social networks. Like Akiva’s social security number 526-87-2412″ Vijayendra Mohanty - “Sharing personal information happens when you are not really ‘doing it’ also. Like metadata. The other kind of sharing (links, pictures) is a good thing, isn’t it?” anna awesomesauce - “I was talking to some college students about to enter the work force, and one was like, “should I clean up my facebook page” answer: vehemently “yes!” tiffany needs a tissue - “i am. i need to stop that.”
So what do you think – are we sharing too much? And what do you think of Wakoopa – does this type of application cross the line between acceptable and “way too much”? Comment away! :)
Well, the new Facebook layout is here – that is, if you want it to be. It is accessible by visiting www.new.facebook.com and logging in. I personally have been looking forward to the upgrade to see what features Facebook would implement to take on Twitter and FriendFeed. They had a real opportunity to turn the News feed on the Home Page into a FriendFeed of sorts by adding likes and commenting, and to take on Twitter by making status updates more of a conversation and less of an away message.
They did none of the above.
The News Feed is pretty much the same – and by pretty much, I mean EXACTLY the same. Ball dropped. I’m confused as to why Facebook felt it needed to add commenting to the Profile’s Mini-Feed (which I rarely look at) but not to the Home page (which some people scan religiously for the latest gossip). They had a real chance to put FriendFeed away – Facebook’s user base easily dwarfs FriendFeeds. A definite blown opportunity.
Status updates are primped up a little bit, but not much. The Profile page now has a box at the top that asks, “What are you doing now?” Very Twitter like, don’t you think? However, that’s where the similarity ends. First off, I don’t quite understand the rationale for treating status updates like Twitter on the Profile page but treating them like the status updates of old on the Home page. It’s confusing – I honestly believe that those new to Facebook (and even some veterans) might not understand that these two status messages are, in fact, the same thing. On top of that, there’s no way to communicate with others through updates (no @replies like Twitter). To see the status updates of all your friends, you have to visit the “Friends” link at the top of the page. However, these status updates are only that friend’s most recent – you won’t find multiple updates and it is nearly impossible to look at old updates. Lame.
There are a bunch of other things I don’t like about the new Facebook interface, like the Wall Post/Activity mashup where a clean, uncomplicated Wall should be. However, the News Feed and Status Update features are the ones I’m the most disappointed with. I really felt like Facebook had a chance to capitalize on its user base and establish itself further as a hot spot on the web by implementing FriendFeed and Twitter-like features. They didn’t, and that is an epic fail.
Why am I so high on FriendFeed? It lets you keep tabs on the web activities of your friends and/or those you find interesting. It also spurs discussion for nearly everything. Depending on what is shared, you can comment on blog posts, Twitter updates, Digg submissions/diggs, Flickr uploads, shared items from Google Reader, liked songs on Last.FM, job changes on LinkedIn, bookmarked tunes on Pandora, stumbled sites from StumbleUpon – yes, the list is huge, and I could go on longer if I wanted. If it has a feed, it can probably be shared and commented on through FriendFeed.
This could change the way news is shared with the world. If you take a look at this room I created for Central Pennsylvania, news items can be automatically pulled in via an RSS feed. Items can be liked and commented on inside the room, which can make others more aware of a good story. And, unlike PennLive, items can also be added by FriendFeed users themselves. This makes news and the discussion of it more interactive than picking up a newspaper or reading an article on PennLive. These sources push information out and don’t allow for contributions.
I seriously recommend that everyone give FriendFeed a shot, at least for a few days. While I was at first highly skeptical of its usefulness, i find myself using it more with each passing day. If you’re part of the Central PA Twitterati or are a local blogger, I recommend joining the Central PA room as well. I really think that, with enough people, it could far surpass the quality found on the PennLive forums.
I’m getting really fed up with all the FriendFeed evangelists who insist Twitter is on its way out. I can’t go one day without reading a blog post, a FriendFeed comment or a tweet (the irony) suggesting that the takeover of FriendFeed is imminent.
Let me tell you what is going on in my FriendFeed right now – lots of tweets, a few posted FF messages and blog posts. Most don’t have comments. I’m following a lot of not-so-well-known techies who are getting no love. It seems that most of this “world-wide talk show” revolves around items shared by Paul Buchheit (a FriendFeed founder) and well-known FriendFeed trumpeters (Robert Scoble, Louis Gray, etc.).
Moving over to Twitter – someone is clearing out their spam folder. A local journalist is @replying back and forth with residents in the area. Robert Scoble is on his way to HP labs. These people are telling the world what they’re doing and what they think is interesting – quickly and concisely. In Twitter, it seems to matter less how popular you are. It doesn’t matter that @problogger has thousands more followers than @floor9. Their tweets are weighed the same – unlike FF, where the popular users gain more comments, which in turn bump their items to the top and bury the rest.
Does Twitter have downtime problems? Absolutely, and I complain a lot, believe me. The truth is, though, that Twitter’s network dwarfs FriendFeed’s. The users are hooked. Think about how many times Twitter has gone down or deactivated key features. The fact that they still have such a strong user base speaks volumes. If anyone thought there was a viable alternative to Twitter, they’d be there. There isn’t. Those who insist that the Twitter exodus has begun or that FriendFeed has somehow “taken over” are being sensationalists. FriendFeed will never kill Twitter. I’ve stated this a few times, but one more won’t hurt – if Twitter is killed by anyone, it’ll be Facebook. And FriendFeed will share the same fate.
I will continue to play in both, because I do believe that each one has value. FriendFeed does a lot of cool things and aggregates social networks better than any other app I’ve seen. But FriendFeed replacing Twitter is nonsense, and I invite anyone who truly believes it to totally delete their Twitter account and put their money where their mouth is.
Of course, a lot of me wants to say yes. Scobleizer interviews some pretty high-profile people in the world of technology. He also gets to fly all over creation. He has a multitude of eyes and ears hanging on his every word.
Unfortunately, I feel that being fully immersed in the startup world and the ever-changing landscape of the web has put him out of touch with those who will make or break many of these ventures; the every-day guys and gals.
That isn’t a knock on Robert at all. I’m totally envious of what he gets to do, and if things go my way, maybe one day I’ll have as many eyes and ears on me. You can call my BS if you want, but if I had to choose between being a voice among tens of thousands of voices in the Valley or being one of just a few here, I’d choose here.
I’m located within spitting distance of a state capital that is severely lacking in web presence. There are not many people on Twitter in Harrisburg – how else would a college student be able to chit chat with local news reporters at will? We have very few serious bloggers, but these bloggers consistently scoop our newspaper writers on a regular basis. There aren’t many people here who get it yet, and to me, that’s exciting.
Those few of us bloggers/early adopters that do exist here have the opportunity to do something great, something not a lot of people can say they’ve done. We have, in our hands, the opportunity to transform an entire city. We have the chance to completely change the way this city communicates, consumes media and sees the world as a whole.
I would guess that 97% of Harrisburg’s citizens have never heard of Twitter. They’ve never heard of FriendFeed. Some might think that Google is the only search engine in existence. These people use email, AIM, Myspace and Facebook. They read their favorite sites using bookmarks, not RSS feeds. They find new music through the radio and word of mouth, not sites like Last.FM or Pandora. The early adopter pace is just too fast for them to keep up.
I do not look down on these people at all. Many early adopters seem to think highly of themselves for having been on something “first”, before it was cool. I do not think that way. For me, these people are not a heavy anchor holding us back. Instead, they are the sails. When they flock to a service, then you know you have something special.
I look foward to helping introduce them to this new world. And Robert, next time you go to Tel Aviv, save me a seat?
I haven’t written a blog post in about four months. Life has been getting in the way and I just haven’t had the time to sit down and put some thought into a serious post. This is the first time I’ve felt compelled to write in that span of time and it pains me to do so. Whether this strikes a chord or is just another post echoing around inside the chamber, this is how I feel.
