The TechMeme killer or the Google Reader killer?

I’m desperate to do something that frees me from Google Reader. FriendFeed might just be the thing to do it. Then again, probably not. Just having to pare down my list of those who get my attention even more.

I guess, it depends on algorithm. I didn’t use FriendFeed, I love to see some personalization and filtering based my history/preference. I think Google Reader records my reading habit, they also have post rank (search rank) etc. thats why I believe that Greader would dominate. I don’t think other-readers can give me such a personalization, content ranking and search.

“Google Reader is being killed by its addition of a social network”
I think, they should initiate OPML bundles from myspace, not from Gtalk.

@Tom OMG yes Friendfeed is Facebook without the stupid.

On second thought, why do I blame Google for force-feeding me a tube that i picked myself? Well, it should time out. It should disappear unreads. Then ghost them and if I press the “aren’t you guilty you didn’t read these” then it fetches them again.

How could you compare Tech Meme? On Friendfeed you can talk back. You can post back to your friends’ links. TechMeme doesn’t have a place to post to on it.

I like friendfeed. However, at them moment,i cannot integrate it to my wordpress blog as yet. I’m just looking forward to that day when i can replace my LINKS with FRIENDFEED on my blog.

Robert,
Do you really think that as FriendFeed becomes more popular that the bigger blogs and names won’t start taking of the front page?
Once they get uber-popular, these sites don’t stay ‘indie’ they go mainstream and inherit all the Scobleizers + that come with it. Wait for it…

K

Robert,

Sharing the same experience re Google Reader – too damn slow. My home is set via iGoogle which allows me to import almost everything. btw, experience has taught me that Dave Winer is the pack leader, the alpha dude we can all learn something from. Cheers

Google reader was never working for me, I am more of a “get a quick glance of headlines from my preferred categories” kinda girl. After Pageflakes and Netvibes stints the iGoogle start page and following interesting Twitter sources (like scobelizer btw) was working well for me (on my iPhone as well) but just yesterday – with the new search feature of Friendfeed – I found out a very interesting way:
To stay on top of news, blogosphere buzz and social meme in one place I imported the wohle (mostly new media based) Twitter friends feed and certain searche-feed from Friendfeed into my iGoogle page.
Exampl: I have a search in FF that goes: “service:friendfeed who:everyone social-media”. I subscribe that search’s feed (yes it works) and import that in iGoogle. I could even comment on all messages I’m reading there – I see the headlines and full text/commenting features. For now, I am a happy “news and vibes sifter” again

In my opinion, FriendFeed’s most likely to have an impact on Twitter, not Reader or TechMeme. Some discussions that might have gone to Twitter are taking place on FriendFeed. (Don’t get me wrong, I DO NOT thinkg this is a Twitter killer. I just think it’s more in the social space than pure data aggregation and delivery.)

My favorite thing about FriendFeed is that it has the same discovery possibilities that Twitter facilitates. I keep finding really interesting conversations and individuals.

@Prokofy That’s fantastic. “Facebook without the stupid.” I like that.

Techmeme has been getting lots of negative publicity lately. This shows that people are having more expectations which are left unfilfilled because it hasn’t changed much since its inception. I’m one of those who needed some fresh air so instead of trying another memetracker or aggregator, I just built my own to see how memetrackers really work.
It’s so much fun coz I can tweak the algorithm as I want and read the interesting news. Not everyone can. I just decided to make it public some few days ago. You can check it there : http://www.techsted.com

Robert,

Do you reckon Google Reader would bug out for people who don’t have such a huge amount of info on their plate? I’ve been using NetVibes for a while now, and it’s doing the job .. but then, I hardly have fifty feeds I keep an eye on.

Is FriendFeed worth it for small-time feeders? I’ll check it out anyway, but, as always , interested in your opinion.

Techmeme jumped the shark when it spent three days spotlighting lacy underalls and mark whatshisname…..sheez – if there are two bigger bores in the world I don’t think I need Techmeme to find them…

The new new isn’t as good as the new new new, short attention span theater, as the new new scales and bogs down, but the new new new is still fresh and fast, where all the cool kids are going.

Which is why anything hyped by the “250″, has an expiration date shorter than milk.

Arts and Letters Daily and Refdesk remain my homepages, one for info-seeking, another for (gasp) reading.

AllTop is fine for scanning a variety of “top” sources, but TechMeme is still my number one source for social media news. I also like the at-a-glance view it gives me of what people are talking about most. The one improvement I’d like to see with TechMeme is that it branch out into more areas. I realize that the best markets are large ones and therefore probably not the ones I’d like to see most, but still I can’t help wishing for it. I finally decided to write my own little conversation tracker to follow blogs/news on topics that I’m most interested in, such as Tablet PCs/MIDs/etc, Apple news, and Microsoft developers. I’m now working on adding a tracker for R/C planes, drones, and the like. Yep, not exactly top tier topics.

On FriendFeed..

I think TechMeme, Google Reader, and Friendfeed can co-exist. Sometimes I read Techmeme via Google Reader. What I like G.R. to do is add a commenting functionality that would integrate with the orinigating blog post.

Friendfeed cannot replace GR because it doesn’t allow you to read the entire content of a feed. It’s not built for “reading”. You cannot JJJ or KKK or O (GR shortcuts). Friendfeed is built for sharing and commenting.

Of the three, I spend the least time with TechMeme because I can scan it via GR.

Feed readers are problematic because sites like Engadget and TechCrunch post too often, so your content is flooded.

TechMeme is problematic because it requires a “conversation” and has no way of tracking “interestingness”. In fact, if anything it is less likely to find something “interesting” to read (not that it’s not useful, which it is).

FriendFeed is problematic because it means you are deciding only to consume news from a very limited set of sources. I believe it is a better way of tracking people you like/care about than Greader is, but not good enough.

seems like there’s still an opportunity…

@Robert: How about checking out Alertle (http://www.alertle.com) for your feed reading needs ? You might find that it moves very swiftly and you can go through several feeds and items very quickly and with minimal clicking, pressing. It is actually supposed to be ideal for high-volume feed reading. At the end of the day, you can simply save more time with Alertle and not feel overloaded with news..if that is ever a problem for you

@Jeremy: You haven’t seen Alertle as yet perhaps. I used to feel frustrated / overwhelmed with other readers, which is why I designed Alertle to be as clutter-free as possible.

Varun

Friendfeed co-founder Bret Taylor – API weeks, not months away; Duncan Riley criticism “completely valid”
(title is from my blog (above) but link below is to original interview source:
http://www.lastpodcast.net/2008/03/17/interview-with-bret-taylor-from-friendfeed/

Good alliance: Twitter+FriendFeed+TechMeme

I love TechMeme… FriendFeed is pretty cool I just started an account this week. I don’t use google reader that much, but it sure does drive a lot of traffic. Isn’t there room for all of them?

So… if I use the one-year waiting rule for Robert Scoble, and he uses the one-year rule for Mr. Winer… will anything still exist by the time I get around to trying it? Life is really hard sometimes!

I began using FriendFeed March 1st and never looked back… love it!

I too find that it’s refreshingly simple and uncluttered (let’s hope it stays that way!) … no adds ahh!

You’re subscribed to 512 people, which probably includes a lot of top tech bloggers whose blogs you’re already subscribed to in Google Reader. In that case, yes FriendFeed is kind of like a replacement for Google Reader. But I think that kind of misses out on the whole “Friend” part of FriendFeed. I think of FriendFeed as news through a social filter. Not the “top” stuff from all bloggers/news sites (that’s what TechMeme is), but all the stuff that your friends liked. For me, FriendFeed is like Digg + Facebook. I wrote about it at http://www.jessyoko.com/blog/2008/02/04/why-i-like-friendfeed/

But in the end I guess FriendFeed is whatever you make of it. It’s good that it’s flexible enough to be Reader to some people but social Digg to others.