Commenting on the news

May 6, 2008 By

OK, over the past few hours I’ve gone crazy with Google Reader’s shared note feature. You can see how I’m using it on my shared items feed, which has a cool new ninja design (another new feature shipped yesterday).

It’s interesting, but leaves me wanting a LOT more.

For instance, if you share an item, add a note, I can’t pass those notes along to my readers. I can on FriendFeed, though.

I also can’t edit my notes. You can on FriendFeed though.

I also can’t comment on your notes without resharing an item, which causes duplication of an item if I’ve already shared it. You can do that on FriendFeed, though.

Are you noticing a theme? Is it any surprise that I’m seeing lots of early adopters move their reading behavior from Google Reader onto FriendFeed?

Discuss this either here, or over on my FriendFeed discussion page (which I call the World Wide Talk Show).

Filed Under: technology industry Tagged With: FriendFeed, Google Reader, RSS, World Wide Talk Show
  • http://benjamingolub.com/ Benjamin Golub

    RSSmeme is now pulling in notes too. Click on the “Read XX Notes” link here: http://www.rssmeme.com/story/556834/

    Why aren’t you using Disqus yet?

  • http://benjamingolub.com Benjamin Golub

    RSSmeme is now pulling in notes too. Click on the “Read XX Notes” link here: http://www.rssmeme.com/story/556834/

    Why aren’t you using Disqus yet?

  • http://ticklephoto.blogspot.com/ Crider

    For some reason, my Google Reader is goofing many of the new features up. Any widespread issues known?

  • http://ticklephoto.blogspot.com/ Crider

    For some reason, my Google Reader is goofing many of the new features up. Any widespread issues known?

  • http://twitter.com/skanwar Satish

    You’re taking this FriendFeed obsession too far.

  • http://twitter.com/skanwar Satish

    You’re taking this FriendFeed obsession too far.

  • http://robertscobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Satish: maybe I am. But that’s what I do. I think what’s going on there is significant. It needs a few things before it goes mainstream, though. So can understand the resistance.

  • http://robertscobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Satish: maybe I am. But that’s what I do. I think what’s going on there is significant. It needs a few things before it goes mainstream, though. So can understand the resistance.

  • http://www.somenice.com/ Andrew

    The one thing I’m still struggling with on Friendfeed is linear posting. Not on the comments but original items. It’s great if you are on it all the time but if I want to take a day off and then quickly scan new items. Kind of like the Google Reader read/unread, it becomes a bit hard to do.

  • http://www.somenice.com Andrew

    The one thing I’m still struggling with on Friendfeed is linear posting. Not on the comments but original items. It’s great if you are on it all the time but if I want to take a day off and then quickly scan new items. Kind of like the Google Reader read/unread, it becomes a bit hard to do.

  • Herschel

    Robert, you’ve got to be kidding me. The FriendFeed interface is too much noise.

    The Google Reader with your comments is much cleaner and more direct.

    When I read your blog I’m listening to you, to your expertise, to your experience. If I want to hear other peoples opinions I go to your comment section where I can also join in on the discussion.

    Friendfeel mashes it all there and it is distracting from the message you are trying to send to your readership.

  • http:///www.eclecticismo.com/hhblog Herschel

    Robert, you’ve got to be kidding me. The FriendFeed interface is too much noise.

    The Google Reader with your comments is much cleaner and more direct.

    When I read your blog I’m listening to you, to your expertise, to your experience. If I want to hear other peoples opinions I go to your comment section where I can also join in on the discussion.

    Friendfeel mashes it all there and it is distracting from the message you are trying to send to your readership.

  • http://robertscobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Herschel: good point, I can see that FriendFeed would be frustrating for someone to follow if they just wanted to know the latest I’m thinking. FriendFeed reorders things based on the conversation that happens around them, so items with more conversation (or newer conversation) get pushed up to the top again. It’s not a strict aggregator in that sense. Profilactic or Yahoo’s MyBlogLog or Jaiku are probably better aggregators in that sense.

    But, yet, something is really killer about FriendFeed and something is clearly happening there.

  • http://robertscobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Herschel: good point, I can see that FriendFeed would be frustrating for someone to follow if they just wanted to know the latest I’m thinking. FriendFeed reorders things based on the conversation that happens around them, so items with more conversation (or newer conversation) get pushed up to the top again. It’s not a strict aggregator in that sense. Profilactic or Yahoo’s MyBlogLog or Jaiku are probably better aggregators in that sense.

    But, yet, something is really killer about FriendFeed and something is clearly happening there.

  • http://www.gordonbowman.com/?p=20 GordonBowman.com

    [...] Robert Scoble points out, there are certainly some things that are lacking. And of course there are going to to be some haters. But all in all, I’m very impressed with [...]

  • http://www.clunkclunk.com/ Adam Nelson

    I’m enjoying FriendFeed quite a bit, but I’m not a big fan of the “XXX (friend of YYY) posted a ZZZ.” If someone is popular, *cough* then there’s a lot of irrelevant stuff posted.

  • http://www.clunkclunk.com Adam Nelson

    I’m enjoying FriendFeed quite a bit, but I’m not a big fan of the “XXX (friend of YYY) posted a ZZZ.” If someone is popular, *cough* then there’s a lot of irrelevant stuff posted.

  • http://staynalive.com/articles/2008/05/06/twitter-now-removing-blacklisted-accounts/ Twitter Now Removing Blacklisted Accounts | Stay N’ Alive

    [...] beginning to move much of my activity over to FriendFeed lately. Scoble calls it the “World Wide Talk Show” - please subscribe to my feed to comment and [...]

  • http://barrkel.blogspot.com/ barrkel

    FriendFeed is focused on streams of info from social network links. That’s not what I’m reading blogs for. I’m reading blogs because I have subscribed to a number of prominent folks in my field (software) and I want to read what they write, in full, unabridged posts, without ever missing any of their posts. Google Reader provides this well. I don’t rely on shared feeds much in Google Reader at all, because I have my own eclectic list of sources, and few other folks match them.

    That seems very different from what FriendFeed seems to be offering. FriendFeed seems more like a twitter generalized to RSS with abridged summaries. Not what I’m after.

  • http://barrkel.blogspot.com/ Barry Kelly

    FriendFeed is focused on streams of info from social network links. That’s not what I’m reading blogs for. I’m reading blogs because I have subscribed to a number of prominent folks in my field (software) and I want to read what they write, in full, unabridged posts, without ever missing any of their posts. Google Reader provides this well. I don’t rely on shared feeds much in Google Reader at all, because I have my own eclectic list of sources, and few other folks match them.

    That seems very different from what FriendFeed seems to be offering. FriendFeed seems more like a twitter generalized to RSS with abridged summaries. Not what I’m after.

  • http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ Matt Cutts

    I just wanted to say that I was looking at your shared items page today and I really enjoyed the context that you provided with short comments.

  • http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ Matt Cutts

    I just wanted to say that I was looking at your shared items page today and I really enjoyed the context that you provided with short comments.

  • http://twitter.com/the_real_r2d2 The Real R2D2

    I use yahoo pipes to filter interesting topics. My filter are kinda rudimentary but they work for what I need.

  • http://twitter.com/the_real_r2d2 The Real R2D2

    I use yahoo pipes to filter interesting topics. My filter are kinda rudimentary but they work for what I need.

  • http://http///www.maisietromielee Tromie

    Why oh why do English people refuse to learn another language or embrace a different culture ?

  • Tromie

    Why oh why do English people refuse to learn another language or embrace a different culture ?

  • http://andrewwardlaw.com/blog1/?p=397 The Musings of an Aspiring Geek » When a craze becomes a Service (Part 2)

    [...] find a regular use for them. I know Scoble loves his Friendfeed or has he and others have dubbed it “World Wide Talk Show” but for me it’s a lot of noise rather than totally useful info. Twitter shows me probably 80% [...]

  • http://www.themodernjournalist.com/2008/05/20/my-rss-trends-and-why-i-read-what-i-read/ The Modern Journalist » Blog Archive » My RSS Trends and Why I Read What I Read

    [...] Commenting on the news [via Zemanta] [...]

  • http://stephenbreen.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/friendfeed-a-review/ Friendfeed, a review… « Shameless advertising of an IS student

    [...] In the early days, friendfeed’s biggest cheerleader was Robert Scoble and has near moved his whole blog to friendfeed. [...]

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