How many services do we need?

March 17, 2008 By

I was just looking at my FriendFeed page and see that I’m on 14 different services. Competitor of FriendFeed, Profilactic, says they support 155 different services (FriendFeed only supports 28).

It’s pretty clear that only five are going to survive long term. So, that means deadpools, buyouts, mergers, etc. ahead.

Well, at least we’ll be able to search through all the stuff, thanks to a new FriendFeed search feature turned on tonight.

Filed Under: technology industry

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  • http://scabr.com/ Scabr

    I need about 10 services in active using

  • http://scabr.com Scabr

    I need about 10 services in active using

  • http://mcdevzone.com/ Mike Cohen

    One problem with all of these personal aggregators is duplication of items.

    I use Tumblr to aggregate my blog posts, del.icio.us saved items, dugg items, youtube favorites, and newsgator clippings. I also have del.iciou.us post daily links to my blog. Friendfeed will show multiple copies of the same item from several of those sources.

  • http://mcdevzone.com/ Mike Cohen

    One problem with all of these personal aggregators is duplication of items.

    I use Tumblr to aggregate my blog posts, del.icio.us saved items, dugg items, youtube favorites, and newsgator clippings. I also have del.iciou.us post daily links to my blog. Friendfeed will show multiple copies of the same item from several of those sources.

  • http://www.jambase.com/ Andy Gadiel

    The new personal aggregators are starting to look a lot like Google Reader.

    If all the services publish RSS, then Reader can conquer. Great sharing, sending and subscribing, all in one easy place.

    If sites have specialized styles in their feeds, then maybe Google can adapt to certain premium site partners, or they’ll likely publish a Google Lifestreaming API xml standard for sites sometime soon.

    I agree though, in order for one of these services to break out beyond the rest they really need to take a step back and figure out what real world problem they’re solving, instead of just being the next cool code tool…which is also fun too.

  • http://www.jambase.com Andy Gadiel

    The new personal aggregators are starting to look a lot like Google Reader.

    If all the services publish RSS, then Reader can conquer. Great sharing, sending and subscribing, all in one easy place.

    If sites have specialized styles in their feeds, then maybe Google can adapt to certain premium site partners, or they’ll likely publish a Google Lifestreaming API xml standard for sites sometime soon.

    I agree though, in order for one of these services to break out beyond the rest they really need to take a step back and figure out what real world problem they’re solving, instead of just being the next cool code tool…which is also fun too.

  • http://blog.dooyt.com/ Marcin Grodzicki

    It just shows how much time do we waste on the net. I know that we do some serious productivity online these days, but most of the products are not created in those services. Most of them are pure time wasters (You add to that waste by creating those super important posts I just have to read. And those that are productive (mail, project management, calendaring, collaboration) are not included in services like friendfeed.
    Of course everything YOU do on the net is productive. Lucky bastard.

  • http://blog.dooyt.com Marcin Grodzicki

    It just shows how much time do we waste on the net. I know that we do some serious productivity online these days, but most of the products are not created in those services. Most of them are pure time wasters (You add to that waste by creating those super important posts I just have to read. And those that are productive (mail, project management, calendaring, collaboration) are not included in services like friendfeed.
    Of course everything YOU do on the net is productive. Lucky bastard.

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  • http://www.tomnixon.co.uk/ Tom Nixon

    A large number of services is fine. It’s the maintainance of multiple profile pages and lists of friends that’s the pain. So, what we need is data portability.

  • http://www.tomnixon.co.uk Tom Nixon

    A large number of services is fine. It’s the maintainance of multiple profile pages and lists of friends that’s the pain. So, what we need is data portability.

  • http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Tom: totally agree!

  • http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Tom: totally agree!

  • http://www.broadstuff.com/ alan p

    What I like about FriendFeed is I can aggregate all the stuff and pump it to email daily so I never need to go near the whole webmenagerie again – including FriendFeed ;-0

  • http://www.broadstuff.com alan p

    What I like about FriendFeed is I can aggregate all the stuff and pump it to email daily so I never need to go near the whole webmenagerie again – including FriendFeed ;-0

  • http://unhub.com/pkkha polou/midorie

    I am groggy (lol)already keeping multiple pages of social networking pages for my work and social life. Oh also forgot family too. Well, I just hope there will be a few services that will integrate to make one’s life a lot easier. Thanks for the brief here.

  • http://khapkkha.spaces.live.com/ midori01

    I am groggy (lol)already keeping multiple pages of social networking pages for my work and social life. Oh also forgot family too. Well, I just hope there will be a few services that will integrate to make one’s life a lot easier. Thanks for the brief here.

  • http://www.brianherbert.com/ Brian Herbert

    Alan, that’s what I like about Profilactic. The first think I do every morning is read my Profilactic email that digests everything my friends have done on the web the day before. Even though I’m trying to keep up with everything as it happens, I tend to miss things here and there.

  • http://www.brianherbert.com Brian Herbert

    Alan, that’s what I like about Profilactic. The first think I do every morning is read my Profilactic email that digests everything my friends have done on the web the day before. Even though I’m trying to keep up with everything as it happens, I tend to miss things here and there.

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  • http://www.ondiscoverypath.com/ Tyler Yuniarto

    I think aggregation will play a greater role in the future – not just content aggregation but more about combining multiple online services together to form a solid and compelling joint value proposition – one that is more valuable than the sum of its parts.

    Tell John Doe a traveling consultant how he can use YouMail, Call Wave, and Jott together to respond quicker & better to client needs while on the road, for example, and he will be forever grateful.

  • http://www.ondiscoverypath.com Tyler Yuniarto

    I think aggregation will play a greater role in the future – not just content aggregation but more about combining multiple online services together to form a solid and compelling joint value proposition – one that is more valuable than the sum of its parts.

    Tell John Doe a traveling consultant how he can use YouMail, Call Wave, and Jott together to respond quicker & better to client needs while on the road, for example, and he will be forever grateful.

  • http://techleaders20.blogspot.com/ Alex Hammer

    Many services are evolving so quickly, that it is difficult to determine sometimes who the winners and losers may eventually be, which makes it difficult to determine which to keep and which to jettison.

  • http://techleaders20.blogspot.com Alex Hammer

    Many services are evolving so quickly, that it is difficult to determine sometimes who the winners and losers may eventually be, which makes it difficult to determine which to keep and which to jettison.

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