Facebook's FriendFeed coup and Huffington

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: bucquero () msu edu
Date: August 18, 2009 7:49:48 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   Facebook's FriendFeed coup

In this regard, Huffington Post just launched its social networking  
site. Much to my horror, I found that the home page lists the articles  
all of my friends have visited or commented on. Unless I delete my  
membership altogether, this means I will change my viewing habits  
immediately. No more peeks at the latest news on Michael Jackson's  
death. Only serious article visits for me from now on - and that will  
hurt Huffpo in its ad revenue.

Bonnie Bucqueroux


Quoting "David Farber" <dave () farber net>:

>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Gordon Peterson <gep2 () terabites com>
> Date: August 16, 2009 2:50:45 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] Facebook's FriendFeed coup
>
> The serious design flaw of most all of these social networking sites
> is that they embody the design concept that all of your "friends"
> ought to know about everything you do online, and know about everyone
> else who you talk with online.
>
> I believe that a lot of people try to keep their personal, social,
> professional, political, and other circles of friends rather more
> distinct and separate than that.
>
> One of the reasons I like Snapfish for photo sharing is because you
> can share your specific photo albums with specific and appropriate
> friends, and your other "friends" can't just wander in and leaf
> through all the others at their whim.
>
> Yahoogroups, by the same token, doesn't tell other people the list of
> all the Yahoogroups you subscribe to.  You can keep your various
> interests separate. (And some companies, like the heavily-disliked
> Grouply, presume that they can deny their subscribers that
> discretion).
>
> Just today I had to decline to join a friend's Facebook group that I
> otherwise might have enjoyed joining, for that same reason.
>
> I don't think I'll be signing up for either FriendFeed or Facebook
> Connect...! I have some "friends" that I don't especially WANT to
> have meet some specific other "friends"...!
>
>> Facebook's purchase of FriendFeed, an obscure social-media platform,
>> is potentially momentous. To understand why, we must understand
>> FriendFeed, a start-up that is ubiquitous among techies and unknown
>> to everybody else. It's a sleek application that acts as a
>> clearinghouse for all of your social-media activities. Post
>> something to Flickr? That will show up on your FriendFeed page. Digg
>> something? FriendFeed will know. Post to Twitter from your phone?
>> FriendFeed will syndicate your tweets. Once you initially tell it
>> where to look, it will collect everything and tell it to the world.
>> The goal is to make automatic that which is all too annoying to do
>> manually. If I like an article enough to Digg it, why should I then
>> have to tell all my friends via Facebook or Twitter, as well? The
>> social-media landscape has become disparate enough -- so many
>> start-ups controlling so many different pieces of our lives -- that
>> we need a central place that will organize all of our actions for
>> us. That place is FriendFeed.
>> Facebook has recently shown that it, too, wants to be that place.
>> For all of its genius in harnessing the collective procrastination
>> of an entire planet, Facebook has usually asked you to come to it.
>> For example, want to post photos on Flickr but not Facebook? Good
>> luck telling your Facebook friends about it. In the past, while
>> Facebook was building an audience, this walled garden helped it
>> build its audience. If all your friends were on Facebook, then why
>> not post your pictures there? After all, the point of digital
>> photography in 2009 is to relive memories with the very group of
>> people that lived through them in the first place. That group is
>> most likely found on Facebook.
>> But now Facebook's user base is big enough for it to start looking
>> out. There's a Twitter application that synchronizes your tweets
>> with your Facebook status message. And then there's Facebook
>> Connect, the company's convoluted and potentially brilliant attempt
>> to make Facebook the official login for the rest of the Internet.
>> Sites that support Facebook Connect -- about 15,000 and growing --
>> let users log in using their Facebook credentials in order to do
>> things such as leave comments on articles and blog posts. That
>> activity is then pumped back into the author's Facebook profile,
>> which then promotes the site where the comment was left. Everybody
>> wins -- especially Facebook, which gets more content and more of an
>> off-site footprint.
>> So here's a theory: FriendFeed is going to become the companion to
>> Facebook Connect; Facebook Connect pipes Facebook out to other
>> sites, while FriendFeed's technology pipes other sites in. <snip>
>> ..
>> That leaves two mega-conglomerates that will compete to be the
>> portal of everything we do on the Internet. Google has long tried to
>> get into the social game, and Facebook surely wouldn't mind
>> expanding into some of Google's territory. (Real-time search is the
>> likely entry point.) It's as classic an American struggle as Pepsi
>> vs. Coke. Two companies, one market. Regardless of which side you
>> choose, I'm sure Facebook will be happy to air your thoughts on the
>> matter. Even if you write them on Blogspot, Google's blogging
>> network. After all, that's why Facebook bought FriendFeed. So it
>> could own you.
>
>
> --
>
> Gordon Peterson II
> http://personal.terabites.com
> 1977-2007:  Thirty year anniversary of local area networking
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------
> Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
> RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
> Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
>
>




-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com