Don't Be So Naive: Friendfeed Adds to the Noise
There's an interesting, but tiresome discussion going around about whether FriendFeed contributes to the conversation or the noise. While we've already reviewed how FriendFeed can contribute to other problems such as information overload, the answer seems obvious that FriendFeed both contributes to the conversation and the noise. Here's a look at both sides of the coin.
Adding to the Noise
There are dozens of ways that Friendfeed adds to the noise. For one, it pulls in one of the noisiest services out there: Twitter. At least 10% of Twitter streams have much to do about nothing and filtering out this noise is hard to do on FriendFeed. Secondly, for those that don't entertain certain services that FriendFeed aggregates, that's extra noise.
For example, I hide all Flickr, Twitter, and Seesmic items unless they have a comment on them. I'm not a heavy user of Flickr nor Seesmic and most of the items that my friends on FriendFeed may be sharing from these services, I probably wouldn't be very interested in. At the same time, some services that I have FriendFeed aggregate may be completely irrelevant to another member of the community.
Adding to the Conversation
One of the most popular reasons for being on FriendFeed is for the conversations and not necessarily for the lifestreaming part of the equation. This leads to a plethora of discussions on FriendFeed. Even Scoble has gone as far as calling it a "talk show". Infamous "Bitchmemes" develop overnight on FriendFeed. It can remind users of a Harry Potter duel, though instead of wands and spells, there are words and links to back up the facts.
At the same time, users of FriendFeed add to the conversation with almost everything that they share...almost. For me, Google Reader Shared Items, RSS feeds and stumbles via StumbleUpon are services that add to the conversation. In fact, the items from these services continuously to start numerous conversations, thereby helping to balance out the noise-to-signal ratio on FriendFeed.
Catch-22
Is there another lifestreaming backlash around the corner? Probably not. While some are questioning the "conversation fragmentation" problem on FriendFeed, it doesn't necessarily add to the noise. The fragmentation is just a byproduct of the same information being shared in more than one network of friends, and users that run in more than one circle that may continuously see the same information. This isn't a problem of FriendFeed, but rather a problem caused by the various groups within FriendFeed, which Julian Baldwin expresses other great thoughts about.
In the end, the question shouldn't be whether or not FriendFeed contributes to the noise or to the conversation, but more about how much FriendFeed is contributing to both sides of the coin. This only reinforces why filtering is the next step to better contribute to the conversation while reducing the noise levels.
Share
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts
Friendfeed definitely adds to the noise if you view it as an active service. However if you just view it as another filter you will see a different perspective.
The REAL value FriendFeed will hold over time (and this is why they will be acquired so quick) is that users are able to search their social feeds in one place. Searching of social media personal history is going to be hugely valuable.
I think it would be helpful to define the terms "conversation" and "noise". It's obvious that filtering is what FF lacks but as with other social networking applications, one of the main keys is to manage the number of your feeds, "friends", "follows", etc. I use Twitter, FF, and Google Reader. Through the three I keep out the "noise" pretty well.
Call me naive, but it ain't noise to me. I really enjoy FriendFeed, and engage with it only as much I want to. Occasionally, I need to go outside and breath fresh air. But when I'm on it, it's just a bunch of much fun.
Noise? Nope. Now Twitter on the other hand...
I'm not sure I really see FriendFeed as adding to the noise, in fact I see it diminishing noise.
FriendFeed diminishes noise through the hide feature. As you mentioned you can hide entire services, entire services unless they have likes, entire services for select users, etc. You can pretty much slice and dice how you want to hide just about anything. Twitter doesn't do this, Flickr doesn't do this, digg doesn't do this.
I'm following far more people than you are on FriendFeed (1515 as of present) and find it very manageable -- and far more enjoyable than say Twitter alone.
And now instead of following Scoble's Twitter Feed, and his Flickr Feed and his blog feed in an RSS reader, etc. I instantly get all of it in one place. This reduces noise and makes my life easier.
Hiding things on FriendFeed is easy.
Oh, and where did I find your post? FriendFeed. FriendFeed helps me find all kinds of new and interesting things that I might not have seen otherwise. ;)
I absolutely appreciate the link and the continuation of the discussion, but I don't think we're talking about the same thing. I was referring to the fragmentation of the discussion, which gets tougher and tougher to follow. When I say "noise" I don't mean "unnecessary information", which is what you seem to be talking about here, I'm talking about the organization/availability of information (which may be semantically useful or irrelevant) and the fact that FriendFeed doesn't really help here.
some people like the tv on all their waking hours ... some people can't be in their house without turning on the music, and then converse in shouts with each other to be heard over the sound
me, rarely does anything improve upon the silence
some people think flash and wildly moving websites are cool, i find them x-clickably distracting
some people think the buzz gives meaning to life, or is life, others actually have work to do
friendfeed is at its best for me when conversations show up, the rest is just babble
so i will be tuning into louis gray to figure out how to make that happen
I think that the conversation about the conversation vs. noise is itself noise, and stems from the love affair early adopters are having with themselves.
Nice article.
See an open life-stream platform, with integration with Twitter.
http://letsprove.com
If you use friendfeed as just an aggregator, then it is just another medium for noise. If you are smart enough to use some of the greasemonkey plugins, then it is a gold mine where your friends do the work for you and identify some really great sources of information. It actually depends on how you use. Making a blanket statement is not correct. Don't see friendfeed as an aggregator. See it as a data storage filtered by the combined expertise of your friends. Then if you devise a workflow to dig the filtered data mine, you have the best source of information.
I think the problem is that people are seeing services like FriendFeed as a concrete product rather than a transitory phase.I have tried out friend feed and while a stream of data may seem impressive there is only so much that you can/want to intake and you end up in a pool of information much of it pointless.Lifestreaming should be seen as the link to life filtering not as the hot new trend.
Think of the average internet user not immersed in the tech world.He has no use for a service like this.He would have use for a service that allowed him to be able to pick choose and group his data as that allows one to stay better informed and speed up the process of information consumption.