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?
If you enjoyed this post from Conversation Agent, subscribe, share and like it.