As we expected, the new “like” functionality in Google Reader seems like it’s seeing some good usage. Certainly, given that “likes” are fully public, we’re seeing much more social activity on feed items than previously with Google Reader’s “share” or “share with note” functionality. And that’s good. In a world of Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook, where social sharing is very easy, Google Reader… → Read More
FriendFeed is launching version 2 of their API for beta testing today, adding a plethora of new features for developers to work with. We’ve written in the past that FriendFeed has long been in the driver’s seat for experimentation for social media and today’s announcement reinforces that thought.
With the new version of FriendFeed’s API, developers can replicate that real time stream feeling… → Read More
As we’ve noted for some time, Google Reader’s social features leave a lot to be desired. The search giant is slowly moving in the right direction towards making shared items more accessible between friends, but it’s still rather clunky. Today, the functionality receives yet another upgrade, including one that may finally spur social usage — “liking” items.
Beginning today, you can search for… → Read More
No matter what you think of FriendFeed (killer app or a waste of time), you have to admit this is just kind of awesome. The site has just released a new theme today called “Duck Hunt.” That in and of itself would just be kind of cute, but pointless. Except that this theme is interactive.
Yes, ducks float by you in the background (and over FriendFeed elements) and you shoot at them with your mouse… → Read More
Just to follow up on our story from Friday, FriendFeed has now implemented the feature that will allow you to disable comments on individual threads.
This move is in response to ours and others’ concerns that while FriendFeed’s real-time commenting component is great for conversation, it also can fuel the mob mentality, and quickly get out of control. Previously, you could only go through and… → Read More
So. Maybe you read Michael’s rant about FriendFeed being like syphilis. His point was that its brilliant technology which facilitates real-time discussions is also perfect for mobs. Mobs that rally around hot topics, and get whipped up into saying fairly awful things about people they don’t really know. I’ve written similar things in the past as well. Anyways, a mob situation came up led to us… → Read More
I’ve been filming segments with various folks in preparation for TechCrunch’s Realtime Stream CrunchUp this coming Friday. One of these conversations took place last Thursday in the wake of FriendFeed’s announcement of what they call Realtime Search and what I call the return of Track. Paul Buchheit and his co-founder Bret Taylor have been on numerous editions of the Gillmor Gang… → Read More
You may have noticed that Twitter has started hyperlinking hashtags. Those are words preceded by a “#” which denote what the Tweet is about and makes it easier to search for Tweets about specific topics and events. For instance, try searching for #realtimecrunchup. Now that they are hyperlinked, when you click on a hashtag, you are led to the search result page for the specific hashtag. Others… → Read More
Ever since its redesign a few months ago, FriendFeed has been one of the standard-bearers of the real-time web. That’s because while a lot of sites claim to be real-time, FriendFeed is one of the few that actually updates continuously as data comes in. Starting today, any search you do will also get that same real-time treatment.
Enter any query into FriendFeed’s search box and you’ll see a… → Read More
FriendFeed now lets you individualize your account with six new designer themes. When you select a theme, your FriendFeed account will always include your theme, and other people looking at your profile page will see it in whatever theme they have chosen.
FriendFeed says that it plans to allow users to customize themes down the line as well as give users the ability to create an entirely new… → Read More
People have always been inclined to join mobs – most people have at least one story to tell about a time that they got swept up in or had to face a crowd demanding justice for one thing or another (both of my experiences were in college). The Internet has proven to be a frighteningly efficient tool to create virtual mobs. But we note two trends that suggest a bleak future: the increase in… → Read More
The killer features of FriendFeed continue. Today, the service has just added a way to share files on the service. So now it’s just as easy to share a PDF or text file as it is to share a picture. “You can attach (almost) any file to your FriendFeed posts via the web interface or by emailing file attachments to share@friendfeed.com,” FriendFeed co-founder Bret Taylor says.
And what’s really great… → Read More
Facebook has had a big week. The social network finally caught up to MySpace in the U.S., according to ComScore. News leaked of its upcoming Everyone button. And Facebook made some significant improvements to its search capabilities. Now the social network is improving its inbox’s interface, which previously was a little clunky and difficult to organize.
The new design gives you filter options at… → Read More
A few months ago, Twitter significantly updated its new follower email alerts to show you information such as how many followers that person has, how many tweets they’ve sent, and how many users they were following. It’s a decent indication of if the person is someone you actually would want to follow back, rather than making you click through to the site to get that information. However, it was… → Read More
True Ventures backed Socialcast is launching adopting the freemium model for its FriendFeed-like collaboration and social network SaaS for businesses. A finalist for the 2009 Crunchies Award for “Best Bootstrapped Startup,” Socialcast is a communication tool businesses can use to incorporate social networking with real-time messaging to share knowledge across enterprises.
Socialcast’s… → Read More
By now, you’ve probably heard all about the controversy surrounding the Iranian election and subsequent protests. If not, check here for a solid roundup. And you’ve probably also heard how this has spilled over into the tech world because Twitter has been one of the key points of contact between those inside Iran dissenting, and the outside world. If Twitter escaped being blocked by the Iranian… → Read More
Here’s a question that’s been running through my head ever since Michael posted about FriendFeed being in danger of becoming the coolest app no one uses: exactly how many startups out there are trying to be the one social networking service aggregator to rule them all, and how many is enough?
It seems like every day startups come up with new applications, be it for desktop, Web and/or mobile… → Read More
Talk of how to monetize Twitter, both from its founders perspective and a third-party point of view, is dominating conversation on the web these days. Tweetbucks, a startup founded by entrepreneur Chris Sukornyk, is hoping to make money for users of Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed through leveraging affiliate fees and CPCs from ads.
Here’s how it works. Tweetbucks has a database with thousands… → Read More
I was hoping to get down to the 140 Twitter conference today in Mountain View, but FriendFeed proved too efficient at carving up today’s developments in realtime. Robert Scoble’s live microblogging suggests Twitter is feeling the heat from Facebook and FriendFeed, but the Track report was murky, with no chance of rain anytime soon. Track is coming back, but not from Twitter anytime… → Read More
It turns out that people are following more than just their friends online. Look at the comScore chart above comparing unique visitors in the U.S. to FriendFeed versus Twine. Yeah, I was shocked to see that Twine has more than three times as many unique monthly visitors as FreindFeed (714,000 vs. 188,000). On a worldwide basis, comScore shows FriendFeed still slightly ahead of Twine. ComScore… → Read More
While we continue to debate the Death of RSS, another more interesting battle is taking place inside the walls of some important companies about the shape of the new realtime network. Though Google has seemed to capture the imagination of the Valley and the respect of Microsoft, it is Redmond where the impact of realtime is most sharply felt. Google’s 20 percent project has finally reached… → Read More
Once again, the Internet is shifting before our eyes. Information is increasingly being distributed and presented in real-time streams instead of dedicated Web pages. The shift is palpable, even if it is only in its early stages. Web companies large and small are embracing this stream. It is not just Twitter. It is Facebook and Friendfeed and AOL and Digg and Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop and… → Read More
While Twitter is busy removing features, or half removing them, or whatever — FriendFeed continues its relentless pace at adding new ones. The latest one today is small, but potentially very, very useful. Basically, you can now get emails/IMs/pop-up notifications from any group or individual user on FriendFeed.
While it may not be so obvious at first, this is useful because you can custom tailor… → Read More
When Facebook redesigned its homepage in early March in a wholehearted embrace of the real-time activity stream as its primary user interface, everybody complained. “Why on earth does the world need 2 Twitters?,” asked one of my friends on Facebook. Twitter-envy aside, some early data suggests that embracing the stream was the right decision after all.
Since the redesign went into effect… → Read More
Today saw the launch of two new real-time search engines, from OneRiot and Tweetmeme. While the two are slightly different in ways that I went into earlier, all that really matters are the results you get. So I put those two to the test along with Twitter Search, Google Search, FriendFeed and the recently launched Scoopler. To see which would give the best results based on a current event.
One… → Read More
As they mature, social networks are increasingly becoming viable systems for information management. We’re seeing this with Facebook, and with FriendFeed and even to some extent with Twitter. The combination of social graph plus information is a powerful one. And that’s exactly why CubeTree wants to port that idea over to the enterprise world.
CubeTree’s new enterprise collaboration suite, which… → Read More
We all know about Twitter’s downtime today. It was a scheduled maintenance service that was supposed to last for about an hour. Sure enough, after about an hour, Twitter came back — but only partially. Over the past hour since it’s been back, it’s been up and down, but mostly down. And now there’s another problem, FriendFeed is down too.
FriendFeed, aka, the first alternative to talk about… → Read More
I’ll be honest. I have no idea what Kim Kardashian does. I wouldn’t even know who she is if it weren’t for jokes on Pardon The Interruption (an ESPN sports show) about some sex tape a few years back. But apparently, she joined FriendFeed the other day. And then she immediately added 35,000 users as friends.
Now, she did this thanks to FriendFeed’s new one-click Twitter login functionality. This… → Read More
A lot of people use Google Reader as their primary RSS feed reader, so you’d think its social features would be extremely popular. But they’re really kind of lame, and extremely underpowered. And Google knows this, that’s why it’s continually shifting the way it presents the social elements. The latest change today allows users to more easily find and share with friends of friends. That is to say… → Read More
Ever since Leo Laporte enabled a foldback loop on the video feed coming from his TwiT studios, the Gillmor Gang has hit a new sweet spot in the Adventures of Realtime. Prior to the foldback loop, we were still back in the Nightline days of staring blankly into the camera and pretending to see what Ted Koppel’s expression was. Harry Shearer of the Credibility Gap and more recently the… → Read More
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