Lately on FriendFeed and since Twitter has been going up and down... not a day goes by when something comes across my eyes discussing how FF will be the end of Twitter or end of this or that... or how basically one 'micro-blogging' site/engine will be the end of another.... Anyways... at the same time I've also just recently started using Google Reader (I've been with Bloglines ever since I can remember, but lately it has gotten 'stale', I've flipped back and forth between both the basic version and the beta version... both are good, but they simply have not kept up with my 'requirements' which aren't much), and while discussing Bloglines/Google reader may seem like another digression, its not... what I want to bring up in this post, is that everything has its purpose..... Twitter, blogging, readers, FriendFeed, SocialThing, social networks sites, and even bookmark sharing tools and photo sharing tools, they all have their nitch and do solve a need.
Twitter: started as a 'status' microblog for many of us. Many of us sync our facebook, plaxo, and other statuses using Twitter. Lately many of use have started using it for posting and sharing links and news or short quick comments about what is on our mind.
Blogging tools: whether it be Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad or any number of blogging tools, this is where we tend to post our long comments... commentary, summary of events in our lifes, and our storys.
Photo sharing: sites like Flickr or Picasa, photobucket... I know there are others... explanation needed, don't think so
Bookmarking tools: sites like Del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia.com, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, etc., I don't know about you, but I use a number of them and each for its own reason. I use tend to use Digg for sharing 'news', Mag.nolia (and before Del.icio.us) for sharing links thatI find useful, and lately GoogleReaders 'sharred' links for stories that I don't know where else to post.
Aggregation tools: sites like FriendFeed or Tumblr or Plaxo Pulse... well here goes the meat of my post, but for this section, of the post, they are aggregation tools!!!!! (sorry those '!' should be for later)
Well let me get to the point... like I stated earlier, I keep seeing post about how FriendFeed will kill sights like Twitter or Digg and how it is replacing sites like GoogleReader... well all I can say is how and why? Yes FriendFeed provides tools like many of these sites do, and in many ways almost better in some cases, but what is and was the primary purpose of FriendFeed?, aggregation. Okay maybe I'm being closed-minded, but similar to Plaxo, I love their Contact management, but why they created Pulse... don't ask me (I do like it, I just don't directly use it, I use it much in the way I started using FriendFeed). The funnier part is that I see all these comments about how FriendFeed is going to kill x web service/app, but then I see these commenters continue to use them. Twitter still seems to be by far the latest source or information connected to FriendFeed, FriendFeed direct post themselves are still only the 4th most common, behind blogs and google reader. So killing off these others... I don't see this happening (with Twitter's down times... they might just do this themselves, but FriendFeed will not be the cause).
So anyways the way I see it... sites like Twitter, blogs, and the various types of sharing tools (bookmarks, photos, news...) are for posting and sharing. Sites like FriendFeed, Google Reader, Bloglines those are for Reading/Watching. And then since I like the service I must put in a plug, sites like SocialThing are for tracking. Now by putting FriendFeed in a category like GoogleReader, one would have to ask me, why use both... well I'm new to GoogleReader, but I'm really liking its abilty to share (so for me, it might actually kill of Digg in my book, not Ma.gnolia (but only since I like separating bookmarks I'll use again from news and stories I want to share), and while you can comment on a share in Google Reader, I don't see a way to 'discuss', and this is the area where I think FriendFeed will grow to dominate the web, Discussion. Most blogs have a comment section, Digg has its too, and some blogs use Disqus, but I've never witness actual conversation like I have on FriendFeed. So this is why I separate Reader for FriendFeed, conversation. So maybe the term discussion is not correct for FriendFeed, the proper word is 'conversation'.
Summary (again): Twitter, blogs, and sharing tools are for POSTING, Google Reader and Bloglines are for reading, SocialThing is for Tracking, and FriendFeed is for conversation, the fact that SocialThing adds aggregation to the party, simple increases the conversation. So live on everybody, and everybody, enjoy.
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