FriendFeed Adds Twitter Replies, Support For More Sites

March 25th, 2008

FriendFeed: Twitter

So despite the huge amount of buzz over the past month, the FriendFeed folks aren’t sitting still. They recently added support for more websites, most notably Disqus, a blog comment service, which I’ve noticed appearing on more and more blogs. Other sites are Library Thing, Last FM, Good Reads, Pownce, ah heck, just look at this line of logos.

FriendFeed’s implementation of Disqus may eventually help alleviate some of the “conversation kidnapping” I wrote about on The Blog Herald. It’s certainly nudging me toward installing Disqus on this blog, too (how’s their spam comment detection?).

But about Twitter support: It’s a fairly big deal. It announces that FriendFeed isn’t just about sucking everyone’s social networking activity in, but also sending it back out where appropriate. Steven Hodson in particular is quite into this, saying it has “sealed FriendFeed as the leader in the social aggregator space”.

I’m intrigued that in order for a site to be included in FriendFeed, they must broadcast user data in RSS and ideally, have an API. That means opening up those “walled gardens.” I personally hope more users will bug the social networking sites they use to set their data free, if only for inclusion on sites like FriendFeed. As for privacy concerns? I personally feel that anything one puts on the web is fair game, and if I as a user am okay with that, the social site should allow my data to be portable. Well, that’s a debate for another day.

Please subscribe to the Webomatica RSS Feed!

Categories: Technology :: Tags: :: Trackback URL
Back Previous Post: Battlestar Galactica: Thoughts On Season One
Back Next Post: Movie Notes: Zodiac
Back Related Posts: Interesting: FriendFeed :: FriendFeed: Open For Business :: I’m Back on Twitter: Blame The iPhone :: MyBlogLog Adds Activity Feed ::

Viewing 11 Comments

Steven Hodson 7 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

To answer your question about Disqus spam detection - one word - excellent. That said there is one function that Disqus is still working on implementing and that is trackback support. That will still show up in your Admin- Comments section and have to be dealt with by Akismet.

When I have talked with Daniel he has said that trackback support is something that they are working hard on but want to make sure they do it right - which included being able to deal with the trackback spam.

reply edit reblog flag

http://www.winextra.com

webomatica 7 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Interesting - getting closer to trying it out. One other question - what happens to all the existing comments on old posts? Hopefully they aren't eliminated.

reply edit reblog flag

4 /people/webomatica/ /people/webomatica/following/ http://www.webomatica.com/wordpress/

Steven Hodson 7 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

when you install Disqus and go to your Comment page in the Admin you will see the Disqus settings for the blog just select the middle option in #2. This will have Disqus only handle any new post comments. All previous comments to posts will remain in their previous format and so will any new comments to those old - pre-Disqus - posts.

reply edit reblog flag

http://www.winextra.com

Mike 7 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Disqus looks quite interesting, though it clashes with my want to store all of that on my own server.

I mean, what if Disqus goes away one day? Though, I suppose blog comments on old articles aren't a tremendous deal.

Do you use trackbacks? As a reader/commenter, I skip over them entirely. I'd prefer to discuss things here on the site, and trackbacks seem like noise to me. Some themes segregate them into a separate section other than the comments, which makes it easier to read.

reply edit reblog flag

10 /people/flammable/ /people/flammable/following/

webomatica 7 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

I'm definitely considering installing Disqus. I have a fairly constant battle with spam going on, with several plugins and manual moderation active on a daily basis. It would be nice to hand that all over to someone else to deal with.

But I do feel a little odd with handing all the comments over to another company. I think my solution for now is to hold off, see if other blogs I read start using it, and see if they add trackback support as Steven says is in the works.

reply edit reblog flag

4 /people/webomatica/ /people/webomatica/following/ http://www.webomatica.com/wordpress/

Steven Hodson 7 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

@Mike .. don't quote me on this but IIRC Disqus has mentioned in the past that this is a concern they are aware of and that they are looking at alternatives. Now barring unforseen problems they do have an Export feature which will allow you to export from Disqus and then import into a Wordpress installation - I don't know about other platforms.

reply edit reblog flag

http://www.winextra.com

Steven Hodson 7 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

@Jason

Since installing Disqus I have only had to deal with about 5 pieces of comment spam and that were ones that got by Akismet for older posts. 3 or 4 times I have had Disqus put a comment in the "Please check this" queue which I ended up removing but that is few and far between.

reply edit reblog flag

http://www.winextra.com

Mike 7 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

@Steven

I like the idea of an 'Export' feature. The ability to switch on a whim is generally what keeps me using particular services, like del.icio.us and such. Nice.

The more I think about it, the more something like Disqus makes sense. As of now, if you run a blog you've got to set it all up yourself - Gravatars, Subscribe to Comments, spam protection, etc. And you've got to keep it all up to date, and be on the lookout for new solutions as they arise.

The ability for people to impersonate you, too, is there. Hmm.

You know what would be nice? If Disqus supported OpenID. Seems like they're both aimed at solving similar problems.

(1 minute later)

Holy crap, they support OpenID. Nice. I'm signed up.

reply edit reblog flag

10 /people/flammable/ /people/flammable/following/

webomatica 7 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

Mike let me know what you think of Disqus. As mentioned before, I am pretty close to singing up, too, but will wait a bit, and I'll do some research on other bloggers' experience with it.

reply edit reblog flag

4 /people/webomatica/ /people/webomatica/following/ http://www.webomatica.com/wordpress/

Mike 7 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

So far, I like it. Although their WordPress blog could use an upgrade, it (naturally) has Disqus integrated. Also, the OpenID support means that while I had to sign up for an account, I didn't have to generate another password and save it in my keychain.

I suppose I'd have to see more blogs implement Disqus to really get a good idea of how I feel about it. I'm glad they don't force people to join, however, as you can leave comments as you normally would.

BTW: It's quite easy to get an OpenID account. Just sign up for an account here:

https://www.myopenid.com/

And if you'd rather use your own URL for your OpenID, just follow the instructions here:

http://simonwillison.net/2006/Dec/19/openid/

It's a matter of adding two lines of HTML, and means you could instantly switch OpenID providers whenever you'd like.

reply edit reblog flag

10 /people/flammable/ /people/flammable/following/

Steven Hodson 7 months ago 1 point
Please login to rate.

Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.

glad to have been of help

reply edit reblog flag

http://www.winextra.com

Trackbacks

(Trackback URL)

WinExtra - An interview with Daniel Ha from Disqus
September 4, 2008 at 9:21 pm

[...] – is concerning the comments being on the Disqus servers .. to best typify the concern I quote Mike ...