The Problem With FriendFeed(ing): It’s Not Twitter
May 20 2008 
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Twitter is currently down for me right now (4:04pm EST). Of course, I switched my focus to FriendFeed to see what’s going on within my networks. However, there was something that caught my eye and not in the best way. Users are now starting to send messages on FriendFeed as if they’re twittering.
What’s Not The Problem
I don’t actually have a problem with any of the FriendFeed community posting messages to FriendFeed. It’s convenient for many reasons. I’ve done it a handful of times myself and did it today in fact, since Twitter is down. I would’ve done that regardless because I do not import my Twitter stream into FriendFeed. When done properly, posting messages to FriendFeed only adds to the conversation and FriendFeed’s value. This is a community after all and also one of FriendFeed’s purposes. Sending messages of value are great additions to FriendFeed. The key word here is value.
What’s the Problem
FriendFeed wasn’t made to be used like Twitter. Sending random updates to the service is a ton of noise that I’d rather see restricted to Twitter. FriendFeed’s UI is not designed to effectively show such updates without seeming….disruptive. I find value in the fact that there’s a lot of great content on FriendFeed. I love how the conversation is restricted to the items shared on FriendFeed instead of having randomly submitted comments all over the place. The latter is what I’m seeing today due to Twitter being down and also because of the proposed Twit-Out for tomorrow (here, here, and here).
FrienFeed Isn’t Twitter
If this is part of the Twit-Out parade, then personally, I’d like to see it moved somewhere else that caters to noise levels of Twitter proportions. For me, these random messages of using FriendFeed like Twitter are devaluing the service in many ways. That’s not to say that I have a problem with all of these messages. I’ve contributed 1 message today, and I’ve responded to a few. However, those few were valuable. The rest that I’m seeing, well, they add no value for me. FriendFeed isn’t Twitter and in turn, shouldn’t be used like Twitter.
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I agree that “FrienFeed” isn't Twitter. :)
But, seriously, perhaps there should be a tool to import your friends to Jaiku or Pownce (from Twitter) when it goes down. That way people who want to be “disruptive” can keep on keeping on….
Okay, let's all sing-a-long with Allen now.
http://www.centernetworks.com/twitter-come-back...
You could always create imaginary friends to solve that.
I definitely have to agree with you here. FF ne Twitter and I would hope no one decides to randomly answer the question “What are you doing?” in my feed.
Apparently, I am lucky to only have subscribed to people who are simply looking to stimulate intelligent convo, so most of the FriendFeed messages I'm seeing are to that end.
Then again, maybe I just don't classify any of the additional comments/questions as noise :)
Twitter come back!
lol thanks I needed the laugh.
When the conversation is centered around the various items shared on FriendFeed, that's not a problem for me and I don't consider that noise either.
However, random FF messages that really should've been on Twitter? That's a different story for me.
It took me awhile to get used to FF. Now that I am used to it, I enjoy it. I do agree, though, it's not twitter. There can be a lot of random noise, especially when there is no twitter.
No way will Friendfeed replace Twitter . Quoting myself:
“Twitter comments have their purpose — short, to the point thoughts. Want a more robust discussion? Welcome to Friendfeed!”
thanks for linking to my video! :)
I don't think FriendFeed can replace Twitter. I do think it has the capability of supplanting or superseding it if they (Twitter) don't tighten up. No one likes crappy tools. Twitter is currently a crappy tool. Twit-out serves to discuss the crappiness of said crappy tool and also put action behind the discussion. Why do we put up with it? So where's the best place to have a discussion around moving topics? FriendFeed. The discussions so far have been great so I think it's already served its purpose. Tomorrow things will only get better.
I'm by no means an expert, but that's my $0.02.
Sorry, Corvida, but I'm inclined to disagree with you. FriendFeed has the potential to build a service as good as Twitter, if not better. I don't think technology or design is the issue, since FriendFeed is more like “glue” holding together a bunch of apps than a dedicated service like Twitter is. No reason why they couldn't build a better app or, even better, appropriate a better one.
HOWEVER, it wouldn't work IF the Twitter community doesn't largely migrate to FriendFeed. THAT would be the deal breaker.
One person's noise is another person's valuable content. Because FriendFeed allows incorporation of any RSS feed, you can put anything in there (in my case, a list of every song that I listen to on last.fm). I don't think that you can categorize one type of content as “noise” and another type as “not noise” – is Thomas Hawk noisy because he posts a bunch of pictures all the time?
As I've stated in a recent blog post, FriendFeed is a “messy” application that can have all sorts of content smashed together, up to and including the proverbial kitchen sink. And in my view, that's a good thing.
During tomorrow's Twit-Out, I will be making the occasional post in my pseudo microblog, and these posts will show up on FriendFeed and will allow FriendFeed comments. Ideally, FriendFeed would allow people to block certain RSS feeds without blocking the entire “blog” category.
I agree sort of. You technically are not disagreeing with Corvida. You are saying FriendFeed could build a better twitter, but it is not a twitter replacement right now. FriendFeed could have a side service for something twitter like, but the noise can be very distracting. I already hide twitter in friendfeed as I use the two for different reasons.
I couldn't agree more. I tend to post inane drivel to Twitter. It is the ultimate in disposable blogging.
On FriendFeed, I tend to occasionally post FriendFeed related stuff because I suspect there is a different audience. I don't want to clutter up FriendFeed, my blog or even my Tumblelog with my continuous stream of inane drivel.
Also, I wouldn't use FF to Tweet, mainly because I don't like typing into a single line, ever expanding text box which is hard to read/edit.
Also, the 140 character limit imposed by Twitter is encourages brevity which is absolutely necessary.
My solution – I grabbed an invite for Jaiku and and am digging in the sand over there.
It would be really neat if users can selectively share specific tweets in Twitter so every other 'personal' tweets can keep in check.
Fully agree with your post. It just doesn't equate to the functionality that Twitter has given us. All this twit-out talk has gotten people amped up and running to the supposed 'next best thing'.
Yes Twitter's outages are annoying but we got to have patience…and ultimately, faith in the system and that the issues will be fixed.
we all want a central aggregator of all the social networks into one interface.
So whats the idea of imagineery friends in friendfeed? I dont really get that. I use both Friendfeed and twitter I would like to be able to post out of FF to Twitter and my post are short and not crappy. If I Tweet it will be something of value at least to my friends
So whats the idea of imagineery friends in friendfeed? I dont really get that. I use both Friendfeed and twitter I would like to be able to post out of FF to Twitter and my post are short and not crappy. If I Tweet it will be something of value at least to my friends
we all want a central aggregator of all the social networks into one interface.
So whats the idea of imagineery friends in friendfeed? I dont really get that. I use both Friendfeed and twitter I would like to be able to post out of FF to Twitter and my post are short and not crappy. If I Tweet it will be something of value at least to my friends
we all want a central aggregator of all the social networks into one interface.