12 Reasons Why I still Use and Like FriendFeed

FriendFeed is a social network that was acquired by Facebook on August 10, 2009. Luckily, for many of us, although not in crazy numbers like other networks, the acquirer kept the network going.

And so we can continue to see what the friends of friends are saying. You probably don't know about it, or never even tried it. Here are 12 reasons why I still use and like FriendFeed.

1. You can like messages instantly and your network will see them even if they don't follow that person. Except for unlike a retweet, they can comment and react in the thread they now see (Facebook must have taken the idea for the like button. They have scale, of course)

2. It's super search-friendly. I often get alerts from key search terms on messages and links that were posted there, even from other networks, like Twitter. My own content gets better search results from FriendFeed (amazing, eh?)

3. You can follow threads you participated in with the built-in filter, and you can even select the "best of day" thread to see what people gravitated towards (it has a few, simple, useful filters built-in)

4. There is a group option and many created group projects. That option used to be called "rooms" when they rolled them out (maybe it was the jokes, when people were saying you should get a room...)

5. You can still classify messages friends as personal, professional or favorites, which helps you find information you want to file for future reference (again, part of the simple, useful filter concept)

6. DMs are there, too, and you can create a DM thread by sending the message to a select group of people. This is easy to set up because it's so intuitive, and you have a semi-private conversation

7. If you speak other languages, you're in luck. FriendFeed is still used by many groups all over the world, especially by Italian professionals. And you should learn Italian anyway for that upcoming trip or vacation (am I right?)

8. You can easily share threads with others, and if your account is public, anyone can see the thread and get to all the links. Which comes in handy if you're looking to collect various sources/messages to a story that you can then share as one link

9. Mindful of the fact that social media is like sharecropping, I see this network as the best place where to hold conversations and curate content

10. It is more reliable than Twitter, and you can use it to tweet. Many a time I've been locked out of Twitter from clients and the Web version, yet able to @ reply to someone, or send messages and images from FriendFeed

11. It is less cluttered than Twitter, which makes it a perfect filter to see what a few select people with accounts in both places are saying on Twitter (I am tricky that way)

12. You will still find that camaraderie and helpfulness that was present in other networks early on and then went away when things got busy and crowded (and people jostled for positions)

Some of these early addiction warnings are still quite funny, even with the change in name from room to group. Who says that technology cannot serve the people who use it?

 

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Comments

[Nick Stamoulis]

I too find friendfeed to be an easy to use, pleasant platform to be involved in. You did a great job outlining the highlights of friedfeed, anyone ever wondering what it is or does, would find it quite helpful!

[Valeria Maltoni]

Thank you for stopping by, Nick. Glad you enjoyed the post.

[Gabriele Maidecchi]

Oh I am sure #7 was totally uninterested uh? :p
Anyway, although I do have an account there, I never really stopped to actually "learn" how to use FF. This post surely lighted my interest even more, I just have to try and wrap my head around it when time allows. The upcoming vacations are kind of a bless for trying out new things - not just gastronomically.

[LingZ]

I agree with you in this statement "I see this network as the best place where to hold conversations and curate content..." Now a day, this is one of the latest medium for advertising and marketing.

Check this out update all social networks it is a site where you can find the simplest and effective way Means to say, you can catch up to your customers easily I.e post to your Facebook Profile, tweet to your Twitter account and update your LinkedIn profile. Plus you will be able to send a text message from your computer to your customers cell phones.

[A.J. Kohn]

I am a FriendFeed addict and I still think it's the best place for information discovery.

Item number one is the main reason, Friend of a Friend functionally lets me select a smaller group of people (150) to put into my home feed. That smaller group of people brings me everything I'd want through their likes and comments on other people's content.

Instead of using an algorithm to find interesting content, my filters (PEOPLE!) do it for me. Facebook is actually starting to do this - not surprising given the influence FriendFeed has had at Facebook.

But even if Facebook does fully implement FoaF, point 9, 11 and 12 may keep me on FriendFeed.

FriendFeed is where I lifestream, mixing my general interest, humor and rants in with my business. Its simply feels more ... open, and not at all about who has the most subscribers, or can get the most likes or any other ego-based, game-theory infused mania.

http://friendfeed.com/ajkohn

[Eric]

Excellent post. For those that took a day or two to figure out Friendfeed, they now continue to defend the service as the best of the best. Even after all this time the features and presentation of Friendfeed are well superior to all others. Compare the real-time Twitter feed in Tweetdeck or the Like function of Facebook to Friendfeed's original implementation as examples and you'll understand why it is still three to five years ahead of the curve in many ways.

[cdogzilla]

FriendFeed works much better for me than either facebook or twitter. Point #12 is one of the main reasons I'm fond of FriendFeed, but it also just works better for conversation. Twitter may be slightly better for discovery, which is the only reason I continue to use it all, but the superior functionality of FriendFeed means I spend more time there than on twitter and facebook combined. (And I don't actually know any ffers IRL like I do most of my facebook friends.)

[Mary Baum]

FriendFeed is the people. I certainly feel as if I know my FFeeps IRL - I've met some of them, and I spend some time with them almost every day, most weeks. In fact, my criteria for Facebook is, do I know you in real life, or have I known you on FF for a year or more?

[Mary Baum]

And then there's the spam team. There's a reason there's very little spam on FF: a group of hardworking volunteers who spend hours of their time going around and investigating reported spam accounts - and snuffing them OUT. As Louis Gray put it, it's like being in a bar with a $10 cover charge and bouncers.