“A Listers” Are Beta Junkies
I know Louis Gray is a huge fan of FriendFeed but with all due respect, his enthusiastic post today on how a bunch of “elite bloggers” (aka A-Listers) have flocked to FriendFeed strikes me as, well, promotional.
A more accurate assessment may be that FriendFeed has done an amazing job in capturing the spotlight and, as a result, managed to get a lot of people, including “elite bloggers” to give it a whirl. While that’s certainly a significant accomplishment, everyone should take a deep breath before declaring that FriendFeed is the best thing since sliced bread.
While certainly not suggesting I’m an elite blogger, I have registered for FriendFeed and dabbled with it. While it seems like a useful service, the problem is it’s yet another vehicle that needs/wants my attention, focus and love at a time when I’m already stretched with things like Wordpress, Twitter, Facebook, del.icio.us, GMail, Techmeme and that thing I do every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. that pays the mortgage.
As Louis has highlighted, FriendFeed is interesting enough that many bloggers have tried it out. The question is how many of them stick around, how often they use it and, more important, whether it becomes an integral part of their daily online lives.
(Note: In theory, I was supposed to avoiding the Web but the place we’re staying is wired and everyone else brought their laptops and…..)
March 13th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Nice to see you couldn’t stay unwired for long lol.
Though FriendFeed not the best thing since sliced bread and Louis’s post could well be considered promotional, you realize and can almost hear his enthusiasm for FriendFeed and honestly, I think that’s refreshing to see. I don’t see many bloggers, outside of Louis and Scoble, doing the same thing.
Isn’t that one of the points though? When you’re enthusiastic about something and you talk about it to other people, you are, in a sense, promoting the service.
I think we all will be looking forward to seeing FriendFeed’s user stats. Until then…
March 13th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Mark, I’d argue there’s little wrong with some promotion now and again of services we like - whether it be FriendFeed, Twitter or Apple, Linux, iPods, you name it. There were multiple purposes to the post, one of which was to highlight that these folks were on FriendFeed, and could be added. I personally do use FriendFeed __A LOT__ and find it very valuable. Others may have a different experience.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Sigh… Friendfeed seems to be another one of those things that I just fail to appreciate yet gets the blogosphere in a big tizzy… I could be way wrong, but my hunch here is this is yet another service that is great for those with “followers” and the rest of us folks sit on the sidelines and scratch their heads about.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
FriendFeed is unique because it is a central place that lets you have a conversation about shared items or created content.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I’m increasingly cranky lately, but I’d much prefer to see more content creation, more in-person conversations, and less incessant/frantic/hip circle-linking and sheep-like following.
Less time talking about the latest cool big thing and more time creating great small things and discussing them over coffee. *In person!*
Maybe I’m just in one of those persistent “When I was younger!” moods, but I’m sick of the flocks and herds… and yearning for a renewed emphasis on truly reconnecting. And for crying out loud, less blogging about blogging. Less posting on aggregators about aggregators.
And yeah, by participating in much of this — albeit sometimes negatively — I’m being at least a bit of a hypocrite
March 13th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
And just for the record, I believe there’s a chance that FF could actually be designed / used to facilitate what I’m getting at here — connecting/reconnecting with people who matter and what you want to see/know from them — a genuine focus on FRIENDS rather than just another feed. But thus far I see it being used more as a BoingBoing — a somewhat impersonal Directory of Wonderful Things. And I have enough distractions in my life.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
What I find crazy about friendfeed is how easier it is to generate replies/shares.
http://friendfeed.com/engtech
March 13th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
The friend recommendation feature there is quite remarkable. Just keeps churning out suggestions for new people to follow. A great model every app could learn from. Also renders well on mobile. Best thing about it though is that it lets me view messages from friends that were originally posted on platforms I don’t participate on, like Jaiku, Google Reader and Flickr. I don’t use those but I like to see what people of interest to me are doing there just as much as I like to read their mssgs on Twitter.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I think that FriendFeed is another one of those “echo-chamber” services that speaks only to the web 2.0 crowd. The probability that such a service goes mainstream is low…
Cheers,
Aidan
http://www.MappingTheWeb.com
March 13th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Given the enthusiasm for FriendFeed, it looks like I may have to take another good look at it. I just finished bringing Twitter into the digital fold, and now there’s yet another tool that could be interesting.
Thanks for all the comments!
March 13th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
[...] bloggers and a new trend called stalkerati. Susan is right these lists don’t mean much. Mark Evans made a good point that bloggers are ‘beta [...]
March 13th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
The thing that I’m impressed with about FriendFeed, as engtech alluded to, is the ease with which you can comment. The way I see it, this is *almost* a friction-free solution. Google reader does an even better job of being effortless in the right place at the right time. I’m reading along, decide something is really worthwhile, shift+s and it’s “published”. While that’s great, it often leaves me wanting to dash off a quick blurb about “why”. Did I share it because I think it’s a ridiculous joke, because it was meaningful, etc… The context is lost - it’s just sitting out there. That’s what FriendFeed brings to the table, the ability to easily jot that note so people don’t just know what you like, but why.
March 14th, 2008 at 11:01 am
[...] Evans calls “A Listers” beta junkies and wonders if this is just another fad in where new tools are hyped then abandoned in favor of the [...]
March 14th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Mark shame on you! You should be with your wife and drinking margaritas, not writing blog posts! Always carry a notepad and store all your thoughts for further posts but that’s the key, “further”. Now it’s time you desintoxicate from the Internet
Have fun man!
March 14th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
[...] (which I most certainly don’t belong in, but others like Scoble and Dave Winer do), though Mark Evans and Brian Solis have a lot more to say on that topic. I’m still not sure why/if I need [...]
March 14th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Alex: Yeah, I definitely hear you. The “problem” is siesta time is the perfect time to spend some quiet time online - and I don’t get much quiet time when I’m not on vacation.
That said, I’m only popping onto the Web for short periods of time a day so there’s lots of time for margaritas and “the wife”!
Mark
March 15th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
[...] having access to coveted invites). Mark Evans, a tech journalist, even astutely points out how “A Listers” are Beta Junkies and goes on to explain how this whole process felt rather promotional. Much like the hype Second [...]
March 20th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I can tell you I will be sticking around on friendfeed for a long time (and not an A-lister).
Read my post on friendfeed, let me know what you all think…
http://webpoet.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/i-just-started-my-friendfeed/