FriendFeed, Meet Your Biggest Fan

How does that saying go? Imitation is the greatest form of flattery? If that is true, then FriendFeed should feel very special, because the most popular social network on the planet is taking pointers from the up-and-coming social aggregator.

Far be it from Facebook to let a good feature that some website innovates go to waste. FriendFeed, which is primarily an aggregator of various social media platforms, provides a unique way for users to share their various contributions to the social sphere with friends (and non-friends); from there, just about anyone can start and develop conversation on the blog posts, photos, videos, podcasts, or whatever else someone decides to post.

Though many social media buffs disdain FriendFeed, there is certainly some merit to the platform. Granted, FriendFeed might not be the most user-friendly or attractive platform on the web, but then again, have you checked out Plurk? Many believe adoption rates of FriendFeed will suffer due to competition with Twitter as a micro-blogging and mini-messaging service. The folks behind FriendFeed would disagree, claiming that the platform's goals aren't to interfere with Twitter's, but FriendFeed suffers anyway.

Where FriendFeed falters, Facebook is picking up the slack. Though Facebook already has a mini-feed similar to FriendFeed's, Facebook just added a comment system to the mini-feed. With the comments on feed content now in place, users of Facebook can take advantage of the benefits that FriendFeed offers an a well-established and widely-used platform. Developers have also worked with Facebook to provide a sort of social aggregator to users who are interested by way of their individual profiles and applications. So Facebook has effectively cornered FriendFeed's market…at least theoretically.

In execution, I seriously doubt Friendfeed has anything to worry about. Though Facebook does have a friends feed on each user's homepage, and individual mini-feeds on every user's profile, Facebook's feeds are structured very differently than FriendFeed. Where on FriendFeed, the feed is pretty much the focus, mini-feeds on Facebook are largely overlooked, except perhaps by those jealous lovers and "interested" others (oh, come on, everyone has them…right?).

Facebook is essentially Social 101 for those looking to get connected to friends. Platforms like FriendFeed and Twitter, at least at this point in time, are just a higher level of social media. Adoption of both platforms is increasing, but I don't think that FriendFeed needs to worry about losing its user base to Facebook-happy comment heads. Sleep easy, FriendFeed, and enjoy the flattery by imitation.