Here’s the debate that’s been raging for over a year now, ever since FriendFeed went live: which is better, Twitter or FriendFeed? This is an argument that has been covered by everyone, but most notably by Michael Arrington last year. Arrington had stated that Twitter had better watch out because FriendFeed stood poised to snag many users. Here’s a part of the article. Keep in mind that when Arrington wrote this, you were much more likely to spot a Fail Whale than to find your stream of friends.
If the early adopters move on, there’s a reason (they never abandoned YouTube for the shinier competitors that popped up over the years, for example), and it doesn’t bode well for Twitter in the long run.
By the way, that dip in traffic on Twitter, if real, and coincides with recent downtime issues. Twitter’s runway may be shorter than people think. Open source/open standard competitors certainly don’t help things, either.
A lot has changed in the past year. Twitter has managed to take care of most (if not all) of their capacity issues, and has netted some of the biggest names, including Ashton Kutcher and Oprah. FriendFeed has gained some traction and has implemented “real time.” But there’s a little more to it than that.
FriendFeed has three things that keep me going back to it: real time, groups/rooms, ease of sharing material, and a way for several people to join a single discussion via comments. Sometimes it’s fun to just sit back and watch FriendFeed move in real time. No need to hit refresh; new items are popped to the top of the page, and likes and comments are bumped right back up as well. This makes things easier for the user. Like I said, there’s no need to click on Home or the refresh button.
Groups and rooms are a great way to keep track of certain subjects. For example, I am a frequent visitor to the Android Room. There, I can find news about the Android OS, new applications, or even ask questions and get advice about my handset. I keep an eye on one or two blogs that cover Android, but for the most part, I get my news from the Android Room.
Sharing on FriendFeed is literally a click away. There is a handy little bookmarklet that you should add to your browser’s bookmark bar. If you come across something worth sharing, just click the bookmarklet, and you’re set. You can also chose to automatically pull content from your blog, Twitter, Brightkite, and Last.fm, to name just a few of the 58 supported services.
Conversations are made easy with FriendFeed. Unlike Twitter, where conversations are mostly one-on-one, conversations take place via comments on each post. Multiple parties may comment on something that has been shared, and it makes for some lively conversation.
Before discussing why I don’t care too much for FriendFeed, allow me to talk about why I am in love with Twitter.
Twitter is, of course, a microblogging service that allows you to type 140 character messages that answer one simple question, “What are you doing?” and share said messages with your friends. Hardly anyone I follow tweets such mundane things, however. There is always a serious amount of discussion on Twitter about numerous things; music, social media, web design, fashion, wine, the list goes on. To top that off, I will readily admit that my number one source of news is Twitter. I follow a number of news related accounts, such as @BreakingNews, @cnnbrk, and a few local newsies like @KING5Seattle.
Much unlike FriendFeed, however, Twitter is actually a better experience when you don’t use the web interface. In the year-plus that I’ve been tweeting, I have tried numerous different applications. I have moved on from all but two. I keep TweetDeck running on my PC, and I Tweet! on my Android OS-loaded G1. I hardly ever visit Twitter.com, and when I do, it’s not for long.
Twitter is great for one-on-one conversations, but it’s not nearly as easy to converse with several people at once like it is with FriendFeed. Sharing links with Twitter is just as easy as with FriendFeed; there are several bookmarklets or browser add-ons that can tweet content for you, including ShareThis. You can even just copy-paste a link, and if you’re using Twitter’s web interface, tinyurl.com will take care of shortening your links to make them more “Twitter friendly.”
I think, however, it’s the people that keep me coming back to Twitter, not as much as the service. Yes, it has it’s drawbacks (lack of threaded conversation, not quite real time updates), but I just can’t seem to leave Twitter behind. Here are a few of the key reasons for why I feel that Twitter is where I belong.
It’s simple. Seriously simple. Type a short note. That’s it. With FriendFeed, there’s just so much going on. You like a song on Last.fm, you shared a post in Google Reader, you posted pictures to your Flickr account, and on and on and on. Twitter’s simple enough that anyone can do it. Heck, if you can send a text message to a friend, you are already a Twitter pro. It’s this ease of use that opens it up to a much bigger audience.
It’s also the community, for me, at least. Twitter is a great place to share information, pass links around, forward news, and learn just about anything from just about anyone. People are quick to answer questions, pass information for you to their followers, or even to just start a friendly conversation, or even a healthy debate. FriendFeed on the other hand…
I can count the number of times on one hand that I’ve asked a question and actually gotten an answer via FriendFeed. In fact, I can probably count the number of times on one finger. Keep in mind, throughout the later half of last year up until the early part of this year, I had put Twitter aside and was happily FriendFeeding away. Except, it didn’t matter how hard I tried, how many hours each night after work (where I have absolutely zero internet access… and I think that might be a good thing, because I wouldn’t get a damn thing done if there was), how many great links I shared, how many songs I favorited, how many likes I gave out, how many comments I made, i gained zero traction. None whatsoever. Why? It always felt like because I was not part of the clique that is FriendFeed.
FriendFeed has always, for me at least, seemed like a bandwagon community. If you go along with the masses, you can easily make a name for yourself. Post your favorite “bitch lips” picture, and you’ll be set for TONS of attention, as long as you picked the right day to do so. Talk about an earthquake that just happened not 30 seconds before, and you’ll get all the likes in the world. Post a link to some stirring images from Iran, Iraq, Rwanda, or Italy, and prepare for… silence. Pass real news along and, unless you’re a news outlet like BreakingNews, and watch as your post gets buried by the latest “That’s what she said” zingers.
I’ll be happy to admit that I haven’t given up nearly as many “likes” as Robert Scoble. I haven’t commented as much as Louis Gray. I haven’t posted as many things as Mona Nomura. But I tried. In the end, however, it just wasn’t for me. I don’t participate in social media of any sort just to have people tell me how awesome I am. I don’t participate just to write about how wonderful social media has become. I partake in social media, more than just Twitter, too, to meet new people, discover new points of view, find interesting information, and maybe to find a kickass band every now and then. I listen to and forward the news via social media, and I learn. None of these, however, are readily available on FriendFeed.
Well, not for me, at least.
