This started out as a "simple" comment to Robert Scoble's post The second life of friendfeed.
I still use friendfeed to "play around" with ideas about how I want to interact with the web, as both a content consumer and provider. Nothing I've found (yet) can replace friendfeed's functionality, easy to explain "common interface" (WRT to twitter/feeds) and the simplicity/flexibility of their embedded pages and widgets.
Before the Facebook merger and the mass exodus, Friendfeed revolutionized the way I interacted with the web. I looked at the comments of the people I respected before I visited the site/page that was being discussed. For me, real-time search has nothing to do with friendfeed's value (I actually use FF paused). I love the focused search capabilities (title, user, # of comments and groups/lists). Come on how cool is that ..as long as you actually have content/comments to search?
I've used friendfeed (and it's API) to replace personal to do lists and bookmarks, blog comments, site feedback, and discussion/bulletin boards, all which I can manage in a single tool. It even pops the latest interactions to the top for me. Google Friend Connect and FaceBook Connect don't even come close to FF's ease of integration. Try using GFC and FB on a site that doesn't support javascript. FF's embeds are simple and the ultimate fallback is their image embeds, everyone can add them on almost any page, even inside Google Reader. The built-in individual and group controls allow me to tweak accessibility without complex tool/widget specific constraints. No @, RT, #, DM and 140 char limit. No add this app to view external content (different for FB page vs profile) or archaic upload interfaces. No special list and follower management just to add a comment to someone's shared item. And all the data I add can be extracted back out at anytime (via the api).
I recently saw an embedded twitter hashtag search with the title "Follow the conversation on Twitter.. use #XXX"... are you kidding me? Can your non-twitter friends follow "the conversation"? Plus it's public nature and lack of moderation is a spammer's dream! Try to explain Twitter or Google Wave to the people that already feel overwhelmed by their email inbox (95% of us). Then attempt to show them how much more "efficient" they'll become while they try to suck content through the "real-time fire hose". Fire hoses are used in movies to torture people for a reason!! As a side note: I believe real-time is critical for capturing conversations and initial reactions but most people work and even sleep once in a while. How much time do you actually spend in the flow versus navigating and searching it's results?
The future of the web will certainly involve search, content and comments, filtered using a topic specific set of trusted resources (friends, experts, websites etc). Personally I don't care what the entire Internet thinks, I want results from people and sites I respect. Louis Gray might be my "go-to guy" for the geek stuff, but I suspect he doesn't know @%#! about sailing or the best place for sushi in Boston (at least I haven't seen it in any of his posts.. yet). The sad thing is there are only a couple of key friendfeed features/fixes that would allow me to implement almost everything I think I need for both personal and corporate solutions. I feel like FF is so close, it seems like such a waste to walk away.
But I've seen this way too many times in my career... companies walk away from a fully functional tool/prototype that people can play with, give feedback and iterate ideas. Today it seems too easy to overhype visions of tools as the ultimate end-all be-all solution, especially when nobody can kick the tires or call BS.
Visions are just ideas and concepts.. vaporware. I'd much rather have something I can bang on, interact with and use my data to see if it meets my goals. The entire time I'm evaluating a solution I wonder will my wife, parents and non-geek friends be able to understand this and find value? Ultimately they represent the mainstream users, not us geeks. In three years, you won't find them standing in front of the real-time fire hose.
Update:
Louis Gray just wrote a nice post Finding Value Even If I Were the Last FriendFeeder...
Johhny Worthington chimed in with more reasons.. FriendFeed: All The Cool Kids Are Using It… And You Wanna Be Cool, Right?
Come on over and check it out.. I'm at http://friendfeed.com/chrismyles
Note: I only consider myself a part-time geek. I've been developing web content for six years but was unable to interact with it's readers (trust me it's a little hard from the middle of the ocean using only email through a coffee stirrer.. read more). I am attempting to find a balance within this "New to Me" socially connected world, without killing myself or being consumed by it in the process. I'm also trying to document my observations and issues before it all becomes second nature. During our trip, I missed living on the "bleeding edge"!
Oh yeah, I didn't even realize "second life" was a game.. you can't play online from the middle of the ocean either.
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