The explosion of new social networks and web applications that occurred several years ago created a need for individuals to keep track of one’s web content/activity over many different online services. The lifestreaming/social aggregation solution seemed to address that problem quite well and soon there were almost too many to choose from.
FriendFeed quickly became a favorite but there were many competitors including Iminta, Minggl, ProfileFly, Profilactic, iStalkr, Correlate.us, Explode.us, SocialNetwork.in, Snag, ProfileLinker, MyLifeBrand, ProfileOMat, UpScoop, 8hands, SecondBrain, Tabber, SocialStream, SocialURL, PeopleAggregator, Spokeo, Profilactic, Readr, Mugshot.org, Fuser, OneSwirl, Lifestream.fm, and SocialThing. Some of these are still around today but most have died off. So what happened to them all? Was there just too many competitors? Perhaps, but it probably didn’t help that Facebook was quick to follow this trend and implement their own lifestreaming/social news feature.
While FriendFeed was able to differentiate itself enough to find a decent following, many others were forced to change direction or close shop. A few still have their heads above water but their future looks quite bleak unless they can quickly reinvent themselves. With the lifestream-like redesign of Facebook and the rise of Twitter, FriendFeed has recently been overshadowed. It was great to see the new FriendFeed design that simplifies the site’s layout and the functional improvements that reduced the time lag for content to post. I think that should help quite a bit. I’d say that the lack of direction of the previous layout clearly played a role in why I didn’t use it very much. The new design feels more like Twitter and, while some may not like it, it’s clearly much more conducive to interacting with others and jumping into a conversation.
FriendFeed has made some really great changes and I think it’s indeed moving in the right direction. They need to do much more however in order to recapture user attention. FriendFeed can do this effectively by focusing on their strengths and give users what they can’t get from Facebook and Twitter alone. Facebook’s weakness is that it’s a closed system that’s not conducive to interacting with people that you haven’t befriended. Twitter on the other hand is much more open and befriending (i.e. following) someone is not obligatory for both parties. Twitter’s weakness is the 140 character limit and its inability to display inline videos and images. Here’s a few things FriendFeed could do to position itself as the central platform for social networking/communication and recapture public interest.
1. Give FriendFeed full blown Twitter app capabilities – Currently you can only CC Twitter your status update from FF and it attaches an annoying URL (ff.im/…) that links back to the original message on FF. FriendFeed should give its users the ability to check and respond to Twitter replies and DMs as well as search Twitter from FriendFeed itself. If you’ve ever struck up a conversation on Twitter that needed to be continued elsewhere (i.e. chat, email) you understand why this would be very useful. If FriendFeed could double as your default Twitter app, when the need arises for a more in-depth discussion (140+ characters) with another Twitter user, the conversation could easily continue without any inconvenience. Furthermore, because FriendFeed can display other content (i.e. images, video) it provides a bountiful environment to effectively communicate.
2. Implement URL shortening for FF users with traffic stats – Yeah, I know there’s too many of these URL shortening services already but they’re very useful and, because it’s a content aggregation platform, it just makes sense for FriendFeed to do it (no framing of content though, please FF). Moreover, it adds extra incentive to bring in new users.
3. Remove obligatory FF link when CCing Twitter – This one is more of an irritation to me but really there’s no need to add a link back to the original FF content unless it contains content that cannot be viewed within Twitter (e.g. images, videos). Furthermore, the link should be optional so the user can decide whether or not they want it to display within the status update.
FriendFeed Links Cannot Be Turned Off?
The points cited above combined with FriendFeed’s speed, expandability, and the fact that you’re not solicited by friends to install useless Facebook apps on a daily basis should make it very attractive to users. FriendFeed’s posting speed alone is especially helpful now given the massive strain of celebrity-driven traffic and the frequent fail whale appearances Twitter is currently experiencing. I would love to make FriendFeed my homebase for communicating, networking, and Twittering, and I’m willing to bet that I’m not the only one.
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