10 Reasons I Love FriendFeed

FriendFeed is my social aggregator of choice. It’s mine. I love it. I want to take it behind a middle school and get it pregnant.

http://friendfeed.com/markwilson

Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time on FriendFeed. And by spending a lot of time, I’m effectively glued to it. My Google Reader has suffered serious neglect. I’m trying to come to terms with my addiction.

1. The people

In the short time that I’ve been on FriendFeed (I became a power user in July, 2008), I have met some of the nicest, most genuinely interesting people I’ve ever interacted with online. It didn’t take me long to become one of the most active users of the site after meeting so many awesome people. On a daily basis, I’m introduced to amazing people. While I may have never met any of these people in real life, I look forward to interacting with them day in and day out. What else can I say? My passion for FF is tremendous. The users of FF rock!

2. Conversations

Twitter does not generate conversations like FriendFeed. I usually post to my Twitter account two or three times a day. How many responses do I get to my messages? I’m lucky if I get one or two responses on Twitter. On FF, I’m almost guaranteed that my posts will generate discussion. I love getting involved in the conversation and FF is all about the interaction. If you’re not interacting and getting involved on FF, you’re doing it wrong. If you are a new user wondering why the items you post never generate conversation, get involved. If you have something to say, say it! People on FF will listen.

3. More than a lifestream

In the beginning, the inherent value of FriendFeed, for me, was the fact that it was a lifestream. I could neatly add all the services to which I blog/belong and FriendFeed would aggregate my feed. I soon realized that I was not adding any value to other users by simply using FF as a dumping ground for my Twitter & Tumblr streams.

4. It’s not Twitter

I don’t like Twitter but I continue to use it. It’s been around longer than FF and has more users. CNN is pushing Twitter to become the next big thing. I’m not sure if it will reach the heights of Facebook but only time will tell. If I could convince all of my friends on Twitter to use FF, I’d ditch it in a second. 140 characters? Blah. I recently posted a message on FF about my dislike of Twitter. I couldn’t quite place my finger on what it was that I disliked about Twitter. Mona N. responded to my message by pointing out that on Twitter you don’t talk TO people, you talk AT people. Bingo! I don’t want to talk at you, I want to talk to you.

5. Diversity of material

Few sites offer the diversity of material that FriendFeed offers. In the beginning, the site seemed to be filled with lots of articles about social media, technology, and assorted other topics of nerdery (not that there’s anything wrong with that). This is beginning to change due to the efforts of a handful of users. While I have an interest in social media, it is limited. I’m beginning to see a shift towards more entertainment and music stories. As well, you’d be hard pressed to sign into FF and not find at least some users participating in a wacky and zany meme (whether it’s mangoes or bacon or taking photos of yourself). There’s something for everybody on FF!

6. Sense of community

There is a great sense of community on FF. It’s more than just a site to post items from your Twitter account or your blog. Get involved in some conversations with other users and you’ll soon find yourself immersed in a community unlike any other online. It’s not about how many subscribers you have or how many people you are subscribed to. It’s about WHO you are subscribed to.

Here’s an example of the sense of community. One user, Mattie Kenny, expressed that she was interested in starting a podcast but didn’t have a co-host. It didn’t take long before she and another FF’er (Shawn Farner) were in contact and prepping material for their first episode.

7. Most boring users on the Internet

FriendFeed has gotten a bit of a reputation as being a boring site with boring people. See for yourself.

Rex Sorgatz of Fimoculous called FriendFeed, “The most boring site on the planet, FriendFeed has a new beta redesign, which is still mighty sucky…”

Merlin Mann of 43 Folders claimed that, “…FriendFeed, which has quickly become the platform of choice for the web’s least interesting narcissists…”

I suppose that means I’m one of the web’s least interesting narcissists. Oh well, at least I’m being narcissistic. FF is far from boring. Check it out for a couple of days and visit my FF at http://friendfeed.com/markwilson or do a search for Mark Wilson.

8. Lists

FF introduced a beta version of the site in late August (it went live last week) and one of the most talked about features of the beta was the introduction of lists. Users can create lists of their subscriptions. For many users, this feature is invaluable. I have over 350 subscriptions on FF. I’ve created a list of about 100 people on FF who I interact with most frequently. 99% of the time, I still use the Home Feed (which includes all of my subscriptions). However, in a pinch the list feature is a great way to quickly scan items. Mike Fruchter recently wrote a blog post entitled My A,B,C’s of FriendFeed in which he describes the usefulness of FriendFeed lists.

9. Rooms

I didn’t join many of the topic specific rooms that FF offers in the beginning. Many of the rooms weren’t updated frequently. However, the recent introduction of specific rooms has changed the way I’ve looked at rooms in FF. The Confessions Room quickly became an addictive part of FF for me. While the conversations have slowed down, I’ve seen some incredible topics discussed that I wouldn’t have been involved in on other parts of FF.

10. The people

I asked my FF friends what they liked about FF and the overwhelming majority said they liked the people on FF. There’s a reason that I put the people on this list twice. Each and every person that I subscribe to is great in one way or another. I love them all for giving me something to think about or something to laugh about. FriendFeed is more than meets the eye. If you’re not on FF, why not?

11. Cleaner FriendFeed V2

You didn’t think I was going to leave you with just 10 reasons, did you? FF user AJ Batac has come up with a great userstyle for FF (and hey it works with the new design). Cleaner FriendFeed will make your viewing experience richer. Some of the features:

• Cleaner and cool look and feel (FriendFeed is already clean, this makes it a lot cleaner)
• Different font style
• Highlights friends comments with baby yellow (instantly know that the user is already your friend)
• Highlights your comments with baby blue
• Highlights Likes to light pink
• Dims comments from non-friends (normal color of FriendFeed comment)
• Separated each posts with a bottom border

You can download Cleaner FriendFeed from here.