Alltop Launches Frienderati to Help You Find FriendFeed Friends
Using AllTop’s new Frienderati page might help you find Becky McCray, a small town business professional who focuses on how the web can help out small business owners, especially those in rural areas. You might learn from browsing Frienderati that Becky sees things differently than others. And because it’s a feed from FriendFeed, you’ll see what she posts for pictures, how she uses Twitter, and whatever else she’s attached to the service to track.
She’s one of a whole gaggle of interesting people you might add as friends in FriendFeed once you peruse Guy Kawasaki’s new Alltop page, Frienderati.
Why do I like the project? Because it’s a way to help new folks coming onto the web to see things in a simple interface before they choose to go deeper. Have you looked at the project? What do you think?
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
I think it’s a bad way to help new folks find friends because probably half the people on that list don’t participate FriendFeed at all or have minimal usage — including yourself. They have FriendFeed setup to pull in their activities from others sites, but there’s little to no participation from many of them (not all).
How many times do we have to tell folks to participate in communities if you want to get value? The value isn’t in the content they are sharing, it’s found by interacting with the community and sharing opinions and starting discussions.
Nothing personal Chris — you have some of the best Social Media content on the web today. I’m just making a point.
I certainly am not a power user of FriendFeed, but I dip into it every day. I read a lot. I don’t comment a lot.
But a great point, Shey. Maybe these folks all use it to differing degrees. : )
Thanks Chris. Just to clarify — I’m not saying that you HAVE to comment and like stuff in FriendFeed — you can just read or use it anyway you want to. But I wouldn’t recommend following someone that only pulls in shared content.
Chances are there are others around who are having discussions around that same content — which is where I believe the value is.
Chris, it’s nice to see the inclusion of my favorite e-mail expert in that list….
I’m heartened by the collaborative comments on FriendFeed (which usually aren’t conversations, per se, but rather acknowledgments of others’ thoughts). There’s a listening that’s happening there, and it’s refreshing.
‘Why do I like the project? Because they publicise my feed and those of all the normal suspects’. Couldn’t find anyone new or with a sense of humour. Just too straight for me…
[…] comments on Chris Brogan’s post on Frienderati sums up my opinion: I think it’s a bad way to help new folks find friends because probably half […]
I refresh a couple alltop tabs (science and socialmedia) at least once a day. Apart from my favorite sites, I like to ’scan’ alltop’s headings to find articles of interest on sites that don’t usually offer me enough to subscribe to. funny thing is I end up “removing” the sites I like most and use alltop for the “others” portion of my surfing. However, that said, I have also discovered “new” sites that have graduated to “frequents” because of alltop.
so I guess you can say I’m a fan.
Hi Chris,
Feeding off Becky’s position-internet marketing for small town business is a very interesting phenomenon. I grew up in a small town with four stop lights and everyone knows everyone. Social media marketing may not be the best vehicle to expanding a business in a rural area because of the already intertwined community. However, if the business is something of a tourist attraction, or something that people drive a pretty good distance for, then it would be more than useful. The college town i went to school in is such an example. I worked at a small business there that customers would drive almost an hour for. Social networking would greatly benefit such a business to drive its commuting customers to spend more, come more often, etc. What do you think?
Rebekah
I really dislike the UI of this page. The uninitiated would likely ask: What am I looking at? Who are these people? What does this have to do with FriendFeed?
I think FriendFeed already does a nice job of suggesting other users it’s members may be interested in. And using either the FF interface, or an app like Alert Thingy makes the content easier to consume that this Alltop mess which I cannot search or sort.
[…] did not realize people were having such a hard time trying to find people to follow on Friendfeed and […]
[…] the problem Sean and I (and many other bloggers found): most of these folks are largely inactive on the service. As such, we think that most of the […]
Leave a comment
FriendFeed had this many likes and comments: hide-
i see it as "rss for the masses" & "lazy friendfeeding" - not for me but certainly useful for those inclined not to dive right in to rss or friendfeed, sort of a walk before you run approach...
-
I think it’s a bad way to help new folks find friends because probably half the people on that list don’t participate FriendFeed at all or have minimal usage — including yourself. They have FriendFeed setup to pull in their activities from others sites, but there’s little to no participation from many of them (not all). How many times do we have to tell folks to participate in communities if you want to get value? The value isn’t in the content they are sharing, it’s found by interacting with the community and sharing opinions and starting discussions. Nothing personal Chris — you have some of the best Social Media content on the web today. I’m just making a point.
-
but shey that's the way you use ff (frankly its the way i do too) however not everyone will want to use it that way, its a pretty free-form environment that can be used in many ways other than the one we personally prefer - to be clear though i don't like lists either, but the fact is alltop has the right to create them if they desire and chris has the right to put his stuff into ff and not interact that much - we should be tolerate of any way folks want to use this great platform, shouldn't we?
-
@Mike Just to clarify — I’m not saying that you HAVE to comment and like stuff in FriendFeed — you can just read or use it anyway you want to. But I wouldn’t recommend following someone that only pulls in shared content. Chances are there are others around who are having discussions around that same content — which is where I believe the value is.
-
shey: don't disagree w/ the way you recommend using ff - i use it the same way but i do also have some "input only" friends (both imaginary & subscribed to) that allow me to view/aggregate their presence, which was the original premise of ff & still a very valid one - the community discussion aspect is a very nice feature but not everyone may want to utilize it - to each his/her own works fine in an opt-in, subscription, block or hide as you see fit model - at least it does for me
-
At present, I use it as a way to see the larger story around someone's media. I don't live on here. I've yet to find the right interface. I'm having trouble even knowing who I do or don't follow. The "friending" aspects are really rough here. The way it works? Clever. Friending, not so much. But hey, I don't sit around in here too often. Feels like commenting where the person won't see it, is my fear.
-
FF makes it easy to participate, even with people we don't follow on twitter or we don't have in our feed reader.
-
Have to agree with the "who the heck is following me? am I following them?" aspect. It's kind of tricky. The only thing that helps somewhat is that the little balloons to the left are yellow if I'm following someone or white if I'm not. Still, I'm slowly getting sucked in bigtime.
-
I'm all for anything that raises the marvelous Ms. McCray's profile: she's truly doing a service for the small town biz person with her work all over the web (and off of it, too). That said, I'm not nuts about Alltop or Frienderati-rama. Want to like them, really I do: they're striving to provide a service just like Becky is. But they seem...off. There's something missing. Chris, I'll agree with you that FF is some tough wrangling. I like it, but it's like wrestling spaghetti or something.
-
That list seems to be mostly tweets and google reader shares, but there are some gems in there. I'd like them to look a little deeper for people who are really bringing something to the platform. How about Hao Chen's scripts and Directuer's Noiseriver? There are plenty more.
-
How did Kawasaki get on the list? He's never left a single FF message (just tweets and stumbles) and subscribes to just one person (Arrington, surprise).
-
@droffset: I second both of those nominations. Both of them could use a little more exposure (for the good of all FriendFeed users)
-
i appreciate Shey's argument.
-
+ Shey (and edythe by proxy). Chris makes an excellent point: he's concerned about his audience NOT seeing his conversations here in FF... Unfortunately, FF is *not* yet mainstream, so I can see folks being reluctant to adopt who have large public audiences / communities established outside of FF. Those folks would have to use Disqus or another integrated means of aggregating their content - related conversations all in 1 spot (thus the entire concept of FF).
-
It appears that Alltop has already made quite a few changes to the Frienderati list. I see Mona and Max Gladwell and a bunch of new names since yesterday.
-
Chris - Definitely better but not quite there yet (I'm not sure there's a formula for this since everyone's interests are different). Still at least 5 that just recently started using FF
-
still don't like lists but i think the fact that shey is now on the list is pretty ironic ;)
-
Guy is good at listening.
-
Aaron: Yes, he is. And a gentleman.
i like it too. i’m a fan of alltop despite what Michael Arrington says…Not everyone who is interested in what is said in the blogosphere has the time to dive in deep enough to discover everything themselves. alltop is a great way for newbies to quickly get a snapshot of what is going on.