How I Use FriendFeed

January 3rd, 2009

Seems to be a bit of a brou-ha-ha regarding what’s wrong with FriendFeed and how to fix it. I thought I’d share some self-analysis regarding how I use the service (which I love, BTW).

How I Use FriendFeed

• I treat FriendFeed like the Digg front page. Meaning, I pop in there multiple times a day to see what has percolated to my personal feed featuring everyone I follow.
• I use search to find specific stuff. The FriendFeed search is really fast; I don’t know how it works so well.
• I click on people’s names. This is another way I find more content and other people to follow. Clicking on names next to amusing comments calls up that person’s FriendFeed stream. Whenever I find an interesting stream, I follow that person.

What I Like About FriendFeed

• Links to interesting stuff. Just as I used to use Digg, it’s a source for cool information using other people and their comments as a recommendation engine.
• Conversation. Lots of amusing back and forths going on in the comments that is a draw into and of itself.
• A constant flow of new stuff.

What I Don’t Do On FriendFeed

• I ignore 90% of what’s in my feed. There’s just too much there. I figure if something is really worth looking at, it will percolate up (due to number of comments or resharing) and I’ll happen upon it at some point.
• I rely on number of comments and likes to decide what to click through to. If there’s a link without any likes or comments, odds are high I’ll gloss right over it.
• Items with pictures or videos are inherently more attractive.
• I don’t use/like the “real time view.”
• I don’t really use/like rooms as much as I could/should.
• I don’t use/like those custom FriendFeed lists.

Random Thoughts

I Don’t Use FriendFeed Like Twitter: I don’t think the parallels between FriendFeed and Twitter are appropriate. There are no “direct message” from one user to another. As mentioned a few times above, I use FriendFeed more similarly to Digg — a social news site.

Mainstream Users Are Passive Users: We have the early-adopter “broadcasters” and mainstream “passive users.” Attracting the latter group is the next hurdle to jump. For passive users, custom friend lists are too much work. Tutorials on how to use the features to set up filters are a waste of time — it’s a personality difference. I also feel they won’t be interested in the lifestream aggregation aspects of FriendFeed — they don’t have enough social site activity worth streaming or won’t take the time to set it up. Unfortunately, that “lifestream aggregation” is currently what FriendFeed is known as.

To attract these “passive” users, content is king: the cool links and conversation. The analogy of FriendFeed as a social news site might be a better strategy. I’d love to see a page that was just the “best of the day” — with no sidebar (rooms and custom lists) and the comments hidden. This could be the best of the day for the entire site, not relying on any network of followers to set up. It would basically be like this page at TechFuga.

With this page:

• Users that have no account at FriendFeed could get something out of it.
• Users that have very few friends could get something out of it.
• Users with absolutely nothing piping into their FriendFeed could get something out of it.

I’m not sure if this route is good one for the FriendFeed folks. I don’t think they set out to create a social news site, plus that entire category of Web 2.0 is overpopulated and possibly a dead end unto itself.

I’ll Do Some Evangelizing

Anyhow, in the interest of promoting FriendFeed and seeing what ordinary people think of it, I’ll try introducing some “newbie” users to FriendFeed and note their reactions. I’ll be sure to share them on this blog.