Without even testing Flickr video yet, I can tell you why YouTube shouldn’t be worried about the industry’s newest entrant. When you think YouTube, you think video. When you think Flickr, you think photo. These well-known associations are embedded in the minds of users. A huge change in perception would be needed and I just don’t see this happening.
What exactly is Twitter? It’s universally recognized as a “micro-blogging platform”, but its functionality extends beyond that. Twitter’s versatility is what makes it so useful and effective. It is also a major driver behind the success of the company. Serendipitously, Twitter has uncovered an unknown niche nestled between instant messaging and e-mail.
A little while back, I stopped reading TechCrunch and Mashable. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise. I’m sure others have done the same. Degradation in the quality of content is my main reasoning. A combination of thoughtless articles and copycat posts just isn’t compelling to me. The same can be said for numerous other top tech blogs. I may peek in from time to time, but overall, they just aren’t worth my time and attention.
Wikipedia has revolutionized the concept of user-generated content and brought wikis to the forefront of technology trends. It is the poster child of web 2.0. Even so, the site still gets bombarded with criticism on a daily basis. Some social media critics, most notably Andrew Keen, cite two major flaws centered around ownership.
[FriendFeed is the New Hot Sh*t] - Almost exactly a year ago (March 13th, 2007 to be exact), I wrote a post entitled “Twitter is Hot Sh*t Right Now”. Well, a year has passed and the Twitter hype continues to build.
The skeptics are eating their words and micro-blogging continues to climb in popularity. This Internet phenomenon may very well be the future of personal blogging. So now what? What’s next? Let me introduce you to FriendFeed…
If you haven’t heard of or checked out FriendFeed yet, it is a must. This extremely useful, yet simple, service has caught fire and become very popular among the A-list tech bloggers. As was the case with Twitter, many think this short-term viral growth will subside. I’m not so sure.
What makes Facebook so viral and sticky? In other words, why do users continue to visit the site on a frequent basis? Answer: the news feed. They are constantly receiving new news about their friends’ activity. This is both interesting and useful. So why stop at Facebook? What if there was a universal news feed that could tie together all the services that your friends are using? This is the basis for FriendFeed.
Once I’ve added my friends, I can see new updates and changes on services like Twitter, Flickr, StumbleUpon, Ma.gnolia, Pownce, or a blog. Not only that, but I can reply and rate the content as well - all from the FriendFeed site. Very cool. The user experience is clean and intuitive. They’ve added only the necessary features and nothing more. I congratulate them on a job well done.
The only thing I don’t like about FriendFeed is their stereotypical web 2.0 logo… but I’ll let that one slide.
What are your initial thoughts on FriendFeed?
Aidan Henry is an Internet strategy consultant, designer, and web entrepreneur.
aidanhenry (@) hotmail.com
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