I’ll try to keep this a short and sweet question, but this one does have a bit of background so let me catch you up.
FriendFeed is leading the way in many areas. Their API is really, really well done. The stuff they do real time is great. The fact that they have groups, allow for aggregation, photos, different types of media, and are generally built ontop of a phenominal platform are among the ways that they excel.
I respect the work that FriendFeed has done. There is no doubt that they have some of the most brilliant minds on staff and that they are doing really, really great work. I was having this same discussion with Rob Sandie and I described FriendFeed as a brilliant, genius-level scientist. Except, instead of that scientist working hard to cure cancer – they are working on making better ice cubes. Surely they are doing good and interesting work – but no one really needs better ice cubes.
So who uses FriendFeed? They have a ton of users. I have an account. But who really uses it? Robert Scoble, who is a self-proclaimed FriendFeed addict, starts discussions on the service and gets an incredible amount of feedback. That’s all well and good – for Robert. But what about the rest of us?
On FriendFeed I have 311 followers. Not a lot by today’s social-juggernaut standards – however, 311 people is a lot of people. Think of the room you’re in right now being filled with 311 people. If you stood up in that over crowded room and asked a question you’d probably get at least a few people to answer you. Especially those close to you.
Well, I did that very thing – nearly a month ago – on FriendFeed and got zero replies. I do polls on Twitter (where I have just over 1,700 followers) all the time and I get a bunch of replies. Sure, 1,700 is much more than 311. But out of 311 not a single response?
So my question is: Does anyone really use FriendFeed? If so, how?
If your big enough, I think you can take your audience anywhere you want.
For instance, if scoble was hot on Brightkite, everyone would follow him there.
That’s the reason he can use it.
The reason I don’t use it, is because I find it hard enough just to use Twitter & facebook consistently.. why do I need another?
True. It does duplicate a lot of the things we have elsewhere (though perhaps better).
One thing I really need with FriendFeed is a native app. That is one reason I’m able to keep up with Twitter.
Hey – I hear you! I feel the same way about Friend Feed – who really USES it?? I have an account and yes, I haven’t really accumulated friends on it but that is because I AM NEVER ON IT. I just haven’t fallen in love with it yet and therefore forget it exists. I posted something a few days ago or maybe it was yesterday because i was trying to see what was up with Twitter and I got one response which I saw on my email and it was simplistic. Anyway, I don’t really use it but am uber curious how other people are using it so thx for posing the question. If twitter would let me say ANYTHING today (still having issues) I would RT your post – sorry
Maybe you should post it on your FriendFeed?
I used FriendFeed for a bit yesterday during the Twitter outage. I was definitely impressed, but with the lack of a client (at least I don’t know of one) I really can’t just leave the webpage open. As soon as I could I added all of my Twitter friends on it. I’ll probably log in more often to read that stream. And I’ll slowly build my network on it as more of a twitter backup than anything else.
One thing I do like is that I’m getting info from many different feeds. So I’m getting a different set of info than I do from Twitter. Plus less spam as it’s not the hot service right now.
I like that – A Twitter backup.
FriendFeed is too self contained in the website. Part of why twitter is so prevalent is because there are numerous native apps for different platforms. I have to REMEMBER to go to FriendFeed. With Twitter, I can launch Greet/Seesmic/Tweetdeck/whatever and forget about it.
And you don’t have one step clicking to find people. You have to click browse/edit friends -> Find friends.
Friendfeeds lists and exclusion rules provide a richer and IMHO more productive experience than Twitter but until there is a good desktop app, the usage is gonna stay stagnant.
James: I completely agree. I also feel this is the very same reason that Brightkite is so far behind. The desktop application war. Twitterrific, the first really, really popular application for Twitter, made Twitter a success among geeks fast.
I really love friendfeed and use it everyday. I don’t have a lot of followers but i do follow quite a few people. http://www.friendfeed.com/zachishi
It is the best place to aggregate everything I am doing. It for me is also better than RSS. The people I follow have the same interests that i do and if they don’t i can group my friends and view their content by group. I do how ever believe that the lack of a client is killing them. I think that twirl works but I find the web interface easy to use and really who doesn’t have a browser open everyday all day.
I have a friendfeed. I’m sort of new to it and I don’t really remember why I signed up for one. So I am interested to see more answers. Cuz I dot know why I’m using it either!!
There is a FriendFeed Notifier for the desktop that will allow you to comment on things that appear in your feed. You can’t post from it yet, but I’m sure they will get there. Using this I can see what is happening and look at the posts that interest me in the browser. Here is a link to the Notifier:
http://friendfeed.com/settings/notifier
I use it too, but more as a tool than as an actual app. I feed my blogs and a few other things into it. With that, I can then post to twitter (which I do for selected items), Facebook (which I do for selected items) or give the feed address to my followers for a one-stop shopping experience for the content that I create.
I rarely go there and use the site tho. I see more value (to me at least) in using it as an aggregator for my content.
I suppose I both use it and don’t use it every single day of my life. I guess I’m more surprised to learn that people use it for purposes other than to aggregate all their actions on the Internet to post on their Facebook profiles.
FriendFeed offers something few other sites do right now, which is serious “real estate” for conversation. You’re not limited to 140Ccs and you’re not barred from Real time as you are in FaceBook. There is definitely a drawback in that not as many people use FF as FB and Twitter. But I think this is overcome by the fact that all other services can be linked into FF. What’s most compelling for me is that I can follow my friends all over their web presence from Tumblr to Twitter to Feedly, once I follow someone on FF their Vlogs, music streams, blogs and social network sites are all “present”. I don’t know if FF will be the site that people stick to ultimately, but I do believe their model of a whole web ecology presence is one that will prevail. (Yes still waiting for Google’s Wave to fully release at which point FF will probably get chomped). I go back to FF time and again because I can connect with every facet of the ppl I follow and as of now, FF is the only service that really let’s you integrate yourself and your friend’s many many apps, links, thoughts, and sites.