Written on September 5, 2008 – 10:00 am Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Now that Duncan Riley finally convinced me to give FriendFeed a serious try, I might as well share a new Friendfeed mash-up with you. It’s called FFholic and it shows the most liked entries, most liked videos, most commented entries, most commented videos, and also the most popular users on Friendfeed. Co-founder Arda Kutsal has sent me an email, explaining how they create these lists. Apparently they currently track over 100k profiles in real time, a number which is still growing.
While the list of top users shows the regular crowd (from Arrington to Le Meur and from Cashmore to Calacanis), the lists of most liked / commented entries are more interesting. Will this become another frontpage to strive for?
The most liked entries are mostly fun pics, I couldn’t find any serious news (something you do stumble upon on digg). The most commented entries though, give an more interesting insight in the social web. The list gives a good overview of what causes keep people (or: the early adopters) busy. Some examples:
The last mention is the most popular, and in Arabic Persian. That’s no coincidence, as a lot of the most liked/ commented entries turn out be written in Persian. So there are at least three possible reasons for his. One, of those 100k profiles FFholic is already tracking, the majority is Persian-speaking. Two, there’s actually just a large number of Persian-speaking people who are on Friendfeed. Or it’s a cultural thing and people from Iran like to discuss Friendfeed entries more.
I hope you like that post!
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Written on July 7, 2008 – 1:20 pm Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Just when I thought the lifecasting/ aggregating/ microblogging market was saturated, a new useful player pops up. The emphasis is on useful, as new services in this field emerge all the time - yet most of them look like useless clones to me. But Swurl absolutely isn’t one of them. Ryan and Jonathan from San Diego have developed a lifecasting tool that aggregates your online activity in a blog-like diary.
Although there’s a comment function, Swurl isn’t so much about sharing stuff with friends. Just likeSecond Brain, it wants to help you out with organizing and remembering the things you did online. So instead of desperately trying to evaluate the day in a diary, you just give Swurl your blog, Twitter, Amazon Wish list, StumbleUpon, Friendfeed, Flickr and more services’ credentials - the machine will do the rest. Although you probably don’t publish your deepest feelings online, Swurl can be satisfying alternative. Here’s a screen shot of my “diary”:
This may sound odd, coming from somebody who just posted a screen shot of his diary, but I’d like to see a “private” option on Swurl. I share my updates on Friendfeed et al and I’m planning to use Swurl only as a private diary. I could even start a private blog that DOES contain my deepest thoughts and pump them into Swurl. That would complete the diary experience for me.
Written on June 18, 2008 – 8:57 pm Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
One of the last sessions at Supernova 2008 was about “liquid conversations” - the discussions flow away from their original source to services like Friendfeed and Facebook. Dave McClure (500 Hats) moderated the panel of David Sifry (Technorati), Bret Taylor (FriendFeed), Matt Colebourne (CoComment), and Loic Le Meur (Seesmic). I’m not sure McClure knew in advance that this would be not easy as he thought it would be. Here’s what happened.
Each panelist introduced himself and the service he was representing. After some regular introductions by Sifry, Taylor, Colebourne, it was up to Le Meur. He decided to pitch Seesmic by showing a video about the… infamous g-spot. The video was compiled of video replies by Seesmic users from ten different countries and a sex expert - the hilarious type. Here’s the video.
The video was welcomed with several rounds of laughing, although I did noticed some people were a bit shocked. Yes, that’s what happens when the French arrive. Some prejudices are actually based on something.
Valleywag reporter Melissa Gira - “Reporter, Bad Girl, Sex Nerd For Hire” - asked a good question about the video - after answering a question about g-spots. She wondered why Seesmic invites an expert to the video, when the service is all about the conversations of their users. Loic didn’t really give an answer, so I will: It’s a great marketing tool to turn the comments into a show and spice it up with a typical weird sex expert.
Now over to the liquid conversations
Enough for the sex part now, as McClure raised an interesting question about online conversations. They’re flowing away from their original source to places like Facebook, Friendfeed, and Twitter. Friendfeed users aren’t commenting on a New York Times article on the site itself, but express their opinion in Friendfeed. They find like-minded friends there, instead of the railing crowd at the New York Times page. The same thing happens with discussions on blogs - to the discontent of some bloggers. (more…)
Written on September 5, 2008 – 10:00 am
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