The First FriendFeed Event: MSFT and YHOO

Well, just spent the past four hours watching FriendFeed for interesting discussions about the Yahoo/Microsoft deal. This is the result. Page-after-page of conversations. It’s like a new talk show. There’s even an audio talk show that I participated in during this time. Do you see it on the feed? This is the new conversation. Now compare to Techmeme’s conversations about the same. It has a totally different feel, don’t ya think?

Which do you find more interesting, why?

Comments

  1. ulf marcus says:

    Hmm.. I don’t get it.

    Are you really differentiating between what was a private social event for you – since your friendfeed agreggated most of the influencing blog posts – and what is really interesting content?

    Between true value and the naturally exhilarating experience of being connected with all these great people during such a major valley event?

    Looking back at your friend feed, most of the valuable commenting was done in the form of blogs. I just didn’t see much of interesting analysis coming in the comments, even though banter and short, clever remarks is really cool when it’s coming from Louic, Paul Bucheit, Arrington et al.

    The major event was that Microsoft walked away and how this broke on twitter, and then friendfeed and blogs & techmeme.. The rest was composed of aftershocks which seemed heightened in the moment, and probably was heightened since it was a major major event that MSFT walked, but still – the actual thought and content coming out of this social event , of the drama, that was not primarily to be found on your friendfeed but through blogs.

    The human experience was maybe heightened by friendfeed in this case. But more by friendfeed enabling a feeling of connectedness and a scene for the drama than by it bringing any meaningful thought and insight to the conversation, IMHO..

  2. ulf marcus says:

    Hmm.. I don’t get it.

    Are you really differentiating between what was a private social event for you – since your friendfeed agreggated most of the influencing blog posts – and what is really interesting content?

    Between true value and the naturally exhilarating experience of being connected with all these great people during such a major valley event?

    Looking back at your friend feed, most of the valuable commenting was done in the form of blogs. I just didn’t see much of interesting analysis coming in the comments, even though banter and short, clever remarks is really cool when it’s coming from Louic, Paul Bucheit, Arrington et al.

    The major event was that Microsoft walked away and how this broke on twitter, and then friendfeed and blogs & techmeme.. The rest was composed of aftershocks which seemed heightened in the moment, and probably was heightened since it was a major major event that MSFT walked, but still – the actual thought and content coming out of this social event , of the drama, that was not primarily to be found on your friendfeed but through blogs.

    The human experience was maybe heightened by friendfeed in this case. But more by friendfeed enabling a feeling of connectedness and a scene for the drama than by it bringing any meaningful thought and insight to the conversation, IMHO..

  3. Christopher Coulter says:

    It’s like a mindless chat room, a zillion “conversations” with tons of redundancy. Ego-casting really, as, to anyone outside of the 250, it will just grant major headaches. Nothing of realy import, this sort of stuff makes blogs look good. But one solid WSJ analytic-take, beats it all.

  4. Christopher Coulter says:

    It’s like a mindless chat room, a zillion “conversations” with tons of redundancy. Ego-casting really, as, to anyone outside of the 250, it will just grant major headaches. Nothing of realy import, this sort of stuff makes blogs look good. But one solid WSJ analytic-take, beats it all.

  5. Here in San Francisco KGO is the most popular AM radio station. Why? Because it’s a talk show that you can get YOUR voice heard on. Even if it’s only for a minute or two before the host cuts you off.

  6. Here in San Francisco KGO is the most popular AM radio station. Why? Because it’s a talk show that you can get YOUR voice heard on. Even if it’s only for a minute or two before the host cuts you off.

  7. Webomatica says:

    I love FriendFeed because of the comments. The conversation has definitely moved over there, for some blog posts there’s just as much discussion going on as the posts themselves, sometimes more.

    Second, the links and comments are all on one page so I can scroll through them very quickly, scan what’s going on, and click through to articles very quickly. It’s easier than on Digg where you have to click down to the link’s page to read the comments. On FF all the comments are on the top level.

  8. Webomatica says:

    I love FriendFeed because of the comments. The conversation has definitely moved over there, for some blog posts there’s just as much discussion going on as the posts themselves, sometimes more.

    Second, the links and comments are all on one page so I can scroll through them very quickly, scan what’s going on, and click through to articles very quickly. It’s easier than on Digg where you have to click down to the link’s page to read the comments. On FF all the comments are on the top level.

  9. [...] And lots of interesting thoughts from people whose voices are getting more attention via devices like FriendFeed, thanks to people like Robert Scoble riding the edge. [...]

  10. RBA says:

    Robert, I don’t read The New York Times… Well, unless it shows up in some of my alert feeds :-) Perhaps you misunderstood what I mean by “noise”.

    I like to read things that matter to me from different sources. To me, that’s not noise. Noise is either things that do not matter to me or things that IMO add nothing of value, a distraction, a nuisance… Occasionally – more frequenstly than not – noise gets in the way… And I try to avoid it. ANd yes, by doing that, perhaps every once in a while I miss a really good point of view, details, et. but that’s the tradeoff. I don’t have the time to dig into the deepest details of every news that pop up. Lukcly those who can. Yet, I survive, and trust me, I’m doing fine :-)

    Anyway, I do follow you, so when I miss that really good point, I know good old Scoble will make sure I don’t miss it :-)

  11. RBA says:

    Robert, I don’t read The New York Times… Well, unless it shows up in some of my alert feeds :-) Perhaps you misunderstood what I mean by “noise”.

    I like to read things that matter to me from different sources. To me, that’s not noise. Noise is either things that do not matter to me or things that IMO add nothing of value, a distraction, a nuisance… Occasionally – more frequenstly than not – noise gets in the way… And I try to avoid it. ANd yes, by doing that, perhaps every once in a while I miss a really good point of view, details, et. but that’s the tradeoff. I don’t have the time to dig into the deepest details of every news that pop up. Lukcly those who can. Yet, I survive, and trust me, I’m doing fine :-)

    Anyway, I do follow you, so when I miss that really good point, I know good old Scoble will make sure I don’t miss it :-)

  12. RBA says:

    F-Up: I said perhaps you misunderstood what I mean by “noise”. But it could also be that *I* misunderstood what you meant by noise as well :-)

  13. RBA says:

    F-Up: I said perhaps you misunderstood what I mean by “noise”. But it could also be that *I* misunderstood what you meant by noise as well :-)

  14. [...] was interesting to me yesterday, though (and apparently also to Robert Scoble), was that the conversation on FriendFeed was so much more interesting, in-depth, faster and [...]

  15. Prokofy says:

    I find it pretty creepy and scary that you blocked me on Twitter!

  16. Prokofy says:

    I find it pretty creepy and scary that you blocked me on Twitter!

  17. [...] lets you track blog posts, Twitter messages and other activities from your friends around the web. Robert Scoble and many other bloggers used it to have freewheeling discussion with readers about the possible results of Yahoo’s [...]

  18. Crider says:

    Wow… I hate to use the term “information overload,” but that’s what I am thinking. It’s a good thing, but it’s also quite exhausting to follow.

  19. Crider says:

    Wow… I hate to use the term “information overload,” but that’s what I am thinking. It’s a good thing, but it’s also quite exhausting to follow.

  20. [...] Blog, Valleywag, Quick Online Tips, GigaOM, Profy.Com, AppScout, ClickZ News Blog, The Register and Scobleizer [...]

  21. [...] And lots of interesting thoughts from people whose voices are getting more attention via devices like FriendFeed, thanks to people like Robert Scoble riding the edge. [...]

  22. [...] instances when the current structure of feed aggregation works well. Lately, Robert Scoble has been talking a lot about the benefit of the aggregated conversation at FriendFeed. It’s an example of the benefit of centralized [...]

  23. [...] This leads to a plethora of discussions on FriendFeed. Even Scoble has gone as far as calling it a “talk show”. Infamous “Bitchmemes” develop overnight on FriendFeed. It can remind users of a Harry Potter [...]