One of the key problems in this era of social networking is keeping track of your friends in all the places that they exist online.? Facebook, blogs, Digg, Flickr, Twitter? need I continue?? Some ex-Google programmers (like guys responsible for Google Maps) have started a new company/service called FriendFeed with an ambitious plan to be the one feed to unite them all (your friends):
FriendFeed users can see what their friends are reading, listening to or viewing on the Web as a continuous stream of notifications. This stream can appear on a personal Web page or in a module on the user?s customized page on Facebook or Google. The system does not require the installation of software, but it does require the friends to participate.
The system can track people?s activities on a variety of Web sites, ranging from collaborative news filtering sites like Digg and Slashdot to music services like Last.fm and video and photo services like YouTube and Flickr.
FriendFeed now supports 23 Web services, and it also permits users to comment on postings and carry on online discussions. Source: Service Helps Friends Share Their Online Discoveries – New York Times
If you visit the site right now you?ll see the public stream:
And you can request a beta account (I have).? The potential here is, of course, intriguing.? Have a feed/page you can subscribe to/visit to see what your friends on a stream of social networks are going.? Interesting.? Wait, Plaxo Pulse is doing this.? Hmm.? Don?t need a beta invite for that.? I subscribed to the feed of all the stuff my contacts were doing (on Pulse I have <100)?after a few days I unsubscribed.? Why?? Talk about information overload.? Wow.
So while this is undoubtedly cool, I think people with say a few hundred friends on Facebook similar numbers on other social networks, will find that they are drowning in a sea of information.
I?ll have to see what happens when I get my invite and try it to see if I?m right.
I guess it?s one thing to try to keep up on what your friends are doing, a wholly different thing to be overwhelmed with the vast amount of information that is generated by said friends.
