The FriendFeed Orgasm And Why It Is Off The Mark

I am a happy user of Twitter. Like a lot of people, it took me some time to realize the value of Twitter. My initial reaction was somewhere between “This is stupid as hell” and “It’s useless”. Today, however, I have been using Twitter for a little while. I do use it to network with people, get scoops and keep my blog audience informed on things. Twitter has come through for me more than a few times when I needed something. Having followers that respond is a nice asset.

With Twitter, I am probably in the last quarter of the users that would qualify as “early adopters”. I certainly wasn’t in at the ground level, but I was most certainly in before it catches on as a popular thing online. Most of my audience at PCMech are unaware of Twitter.

FriendFeed, though, is a different story. I got in on FriendFeed early. The A-list bloggers of the world had a virtual orgasm over FriendFeed. But, was it overblown?

I like FriendFeed because it allows me to easily consolidate my activity across various mediums into a single feed. The right side of this site is pulling my FriendFeed into WordPress (using a plug-in) so that anybody can follow everything I do (pretty much).

But, as a social medium, FriendFeed has drawbacks. And as a blogger, it has drawbacks.

Really High Noise Level

Because FriendFeed consolidates activity, the noise level is HIGH. For example, many bloggers (including myself) announce new blog posts over Twitter. But, they also have their blog RSS feed tied into FriendFeed. This means we see the same announcement twice. Also, when people use Google Reader to share a blog post, we see the story AGAIN. If the post is popular, we see it MULTIPLE TIMES.

The post about Duncan Rily leaving Techcrunch showed up on my FriendFeed SEVERAL times. This is because I follow the feeds of other bloggers. Bloggers always follow what other bloggers are saying and doing. It is part of the business. But, with FriendFeed, that means we get a MAD ECHO EFFECT.

I also follow FriendFeed (sometimes) in Twhirl. When somebody comments on a story, that story again pops to the top of the list. Just more noise.

Sucks For Bloggers

OK, well it doesn’t suck in ALL aspects for bloggers. But, think about it. Bloggers WANT comments on their blog, right? FriendFeed, though, serves to move a lot of those comments OFF your blog and onto FriendFeed.

This does blow serious chunks.

My article about Google Reader and the new Notes feature, of course, went onto FriendFeed. I had some well-known bloggers commenting on my story. Scoble. Louis Gray. Others. But, those comments were on FriendFeed! I’d MUCH rather have those guys here on my blog.

FriendFeed Is Not Orgasm Worthy

It simply isn’t. It is cool, yes. It is a social tool. Yes. But, it certainly isn’t the new Twitter. Twitter is a much better medium. And while some say Twitter is noisy, it doesn’t hold a candle to FriendFeed when you consider that you get the same stuff recycled continuously for your questionable enjoyment.

But, what is your opinion of Friendfeed?