FriendFeed: Nothing Special with a Big Name Ancestor
February 17, 2008 |
FriendFeed seems to be the aggregator on everyone's Facebook profile these days. Made up entirely of ex-Googlers, it seems to have taken off, at least as my updates seem to keep telling me.
Linking up feeds from 28 supported services (including the usual StumbleUpons, Twitters, YouTubes, and Flickrs), FriendFeed allows you to keep up with what your contacts are doing in one centralized location, via either your FriendFeed page or the corresponding Facebook application.
If this is all sounding familiar, you are right; FriendFeed is similar to other aggregators like Spokeo and Dandelife. It lacks the spooky quality of Spokeo, but the ex-employer information on the team page would have been apparent merely from the UI design. FriendFeed has a bare-bones look-and-feel that makes you wonder if you aren't just looking at a glorified feed reader, devoid of any personality to make the app memorable. What works for search doesn't always work for users, especially if you want them to spend any time on the site.
As for the Facebook app side of FriendFeed, they obviously abandoned the less-is-more mentality behind the site design. Installing the Facebook app updates your profile (and sends a story) every time you interact with any of the services you have linked to your FriendFeed profile. In other words, if you tend to Tweet a lot, or bookmark a lot of sites, be prepared to have your profile (and many of your friends' updates) buried in your every action.
Between the too-sparse web interface and the overzealous Facebook updates, I found FriendFeed more hype than function, with a long way to go to lure me in.
