MMMeeja

Wow, fashions change quickly in the social networking world. If you’re still getting to grips with Facebook, you are way behind!

After hyping the phenominally useful Twitter, it seems that the A-list bloggers are really getting behind the useful little feed aggregator. Andy Beard has a couple of posts discussing (and dissing) it. Maki (doshdosh) has been tweeting about it in a more favourable manner.

Hype Or Substance?

This heightened activity is interesting - especially the negative reviews. It means that FriendFeed is acheiving some critical mass since its early beginnings in what is becoming a crowded space.

People are actively trying to find out how their friendfeeds should fit into their personal information architectures - something I’ve have not successfully managed yet. This should become more apparent as the user base grows and more and more technically minded people conduct a few experiments.

For all the hype surrounding it, FriendFeed is not about to become the next Twitter. As Duncan Riley correctly points out, it is just not good for an immediate conversation - Twitter has taken that crown and won’t be giving it up without a fight. Instead, FriendFeed is better for quietly stalking others, friends and foes alike.

What’s It Good For?

Right now, not a lot, the social aspects are still sadly lacking. The beauty of it is as a list of stuff I like. Recording a user’s diggs, del.icio.us bookmarks etc. provides a telling amount of information about them. When the semantic web finally arrives, FriendFeed will be a great source of data.

As people find more practical applications of their FriendFeed data stream and build applications aroundit, it will become another essential tool, just as applications like TwitterFeed and TwitterCal have changed Twitter from a glorified chatroom into an early warning system.

You can stalk me on FriendFeed at http://friendfeed.com/andymurd.