FriendFeed Franctic Attack
I signed up for FriendFeed last night, and had been toying with it for a couple of hours. That few hours were enough for me. What’s the big buzz I have been reading from various social media “gurus” in Singapore’s blogosphere? It seemed to be consistent with my insignificant view that some “experts” we read here are nothing more than just hypebeasts.
It looked cool to have 41 services available in FriendFeed, but how practical is that? All these social applications are really running out of of ideas in my opinion. In social media, my favourite quote is “anybody and everybody is anywhere and everywhere”. I’ve lost count of how many people I have served this quote in my entire blogging lifespan and private discussions.
My view isn’t here to trash anybody in particular, but seriously, why do we need to create multiple sites all equipped with the same function? Will a new entity in terms of name make any difference or improvement to conversations that are already ongoing presently?
Everyone is everywhere. The split second I gained access into my account, I see the same old folks again. As I went through the profiles, there are even people listing 10 to 15 other services from Youtube to Facebook etc. If I am able to track them elsewhere, why do I need to track them here? What difference would that make?
Building a new conversation, not. Some sites I have read proudly proclaimed the ability to hold discussions in FriendFeed. Granted, you can leave comments. Is that something not in process on Twitter? Is that not possible in Del.icio.us or Stumbleupon comment section? Or are our blogs incapable of holding a conversation that we need another replica to do so? Most of the postings are integrated from Twitter anyway.
Great that I see one or two real conversations that went beyond the 20 comments mark, but if only Forrester Research wasn’t “attacked”, Jeremiah wouldn’t have “retorted”. If only Robert Scoble didn’t “complained” about another person of attacking his friend… if only this and that. The conversations were still very much between the “Silicon IValleY League”, just like anywhere else. If not for the A-list bloggers, will there even be a conversation I wonder.
Duplicate Mill. If you’re one of those like me using both Del.icio.us and Stumbleupon, it is likely you will submit interesting sites to both. Hence, the submission of both will appear in your FriendFeed - one of it as a duplicate obviously. If you submit to FriendFeed, no existing followers in your networks elsewhere can see that article.
How do we overcome this duplicate problem? It’s fairly simple. Don’t submit any articles to Del.icio.us and Stumbleupon. Or if you do, you will have to drop either one when importing feeds. Better still, quit all the networks you have painstakingly work on in other sites and start afresh in FriendFeed. Yes, I hear you going… OMG!
So, what’s the big deal?
There is no way I can understand how FriendFeed will rise up to the cohort of live conversational tools or social bookmarking giants. We have no lack of those now. Is there anything that I cannot do on other sites except in FriendFeed? Hardly any that I can think of. The Web 2.0 scene is sadly reduced to micmicking one another with no real substance at the end of it.
Even more so, our dear “gurus” in Singapore should really think twice and thrice before they start praising a new social site that comes along. The technology is meaningless without real values like all its predecessors.
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EDISON ROWAN LEE
Ed savors the building of conversations and always prospecting the inception of values beyond the usual puffery.
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On a different matter, that is why I have start deleting mails inviting me to join other social-networking sites - duplication.
I could no longer remember how many I have joined just because someone sent me an invite - friendster, facebook, hi5, tagged… Some of which I don’t even log in anymore and totally forgotten until it sents me an email saying that someone’s having a birthday.
Sometimes I wonder… don’t these guys have better ideas?!
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Xizor, I have most of those in my spam box.
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