Joao

Nice reports, even if the chart could be better. I'd be interested in being able to track this as well, including load times. - Louis Gray

Basically I had been overloading the database. I was crawling WAY too fast and the database was getting locked because writes are higher priority than reads. So users suffered. I've made a simple config change to make writes happen at a lower priority. It hasn't gone down since that change. - Benjamin Golub

RSSMeme is the new Twitter ;) - Jason Carreira

Robert, I agree, so please watch and keep me honest. I'm absolutely easy to reach if you think I've made a mistake. - Louis Gray

I so don't see a mistake coming. Especially if you stick to our deal and just let me blog about the good stuff you find out. We did have a deal, right? :) - ♫ Rahsheen ™ ★

I've always found it weird that people are willing to use the phrase "opening the kimono" in an otherwise polite, decorous and respectful business context. - ⓞnor

@nor, it is weird and I almost didn't use it, but it is an understood phrase. The alternative, and even worse, term, is "a complete upskirt". - Louis Gray

I am a bit late now – but first of all my congratulations for you joining ReadBurner’s team in an advisory role/equity owner You have been doing such a great job over last months with your blog that has benefited many of us (me included), I just hope that to continue. And about monetizing your blog – I think you should do it as well, I assume you spend quite a good amount of time researching and writing in your blog and that should be compensated. I few unobtrusive ads will not bother the great majority of your blog readers, I would assume. - Joao

Thanks Louis. Signing up right now. - Larry Kless via twhirl

Must check it out. I've been registered on the site for a while, but haven't been on it much. - Hutch Carpenter

i'm slowing getting into it...it certainly has a lot of potential - Trent Olson

Once again Louis - a great post from you - ; as I was reading your post something come to my mind; - we are clearly moving away from posting comments on the original blog post. A story that becomes popular in any or the news aggregators will get comments in Digg, Reddit, FriendFeed, SocialMedian…ect. Soon we will need a techmeme for blog comments as comment will become more and more disperse. News aggregators will soon realize that is OK to not only grab the news from the blogs but also grab a portion of the meal by allowing users to post comments directly on their sites – I assume Gabe is already working on this one at techmeme. What I would like to see and I am sure someone is already thinking about this is to aggregator comments around top stories from all possible news or social aggregators. So that we would get all comments in just one place. - Joao

@Joao - Also, on the flip side, I would like a way to bring all those dispersed comments to my blog. I don't mind if the conversations happen at social networks (that is what they are there for), but I would really like to see them all in one place and allow my readers to see them as well. - Justin Korn

@Justin - I agree 100% with you. - Joao

Currently, SocialMedian does not have a public API, so the comments are not available. However, I know Jason G. and the team are working on this. Regarding finding the comments and getting them back to your blog, let's just say that I am working on that problem :) - Rob Diana

The problem with coments all over the place is that the discussion gets too fragmented. The social media space urgently needs a defreg pass. It doesnt matter if Comments are pooled here at FF or, at Social Median or, the blog or all at once. As long as we get to consume anad participate in the whole discussion rather than just the one local to the service you are using. - Roberto Bonini

Part of me doesn't want to get involved in yet another conversational outpost, but then, that was the same part of me that dismissed FriendFeed for months. I suppose I'll get there in a bit. Once I accept that it's another part of my morning (okay, all day!) ritual. - Chris Brogan

You mean I guess I have to go back today? That's it. Fourth Monitor. - Charlie Anzman

I have to admit, I like it a lot better now that there are people to follow. :) I've been using the email alerts since early alpha, but it's improved. - Cyndy

I think socialmedian is getting better all the time. Great place to share news and read comments. - Sean Sharp

Hey Louis, we don't care! ;) - Meryn Stol

Ok...but how do I find the conversations? - Shey

Nice post Louis, thanks. As Rob points out, we're working on getting the API's out there. We also want to help take all this comment fragmentation and bring it back together. Robert Scoble and I were noting last night that the goodness in comment fragmentation is that it is exposing bloggers' content to new audiences they were not reaching and thus extending their personal brand. That said, it would be nice to tie it all back together and Roberto Bonini suggests. - Jason Goldberg

digg chased me off any kind of voting site - Gregory Lent

socialmedian isn't about voting. it's not a popularity contest. it's designed to be more about "me" than "we" -- not about what's popular, rather about what my social graph is clipping for me and me for them - Jason Goldberg

Jason, the interface is way uglier and inefficient to use for me, and as with other services - I just do not care like I do not care about discus. to louis: guess what. there are even more pages where my postings are discussed. Which I do not follow either, and neither are you. If somebody wants to stay in their community, they will post there. if they want to be read by the poster or get an answer, they better comment where the poster is reading. - Nicole Simon

Still not sold on social median. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but it's next to impossible to find info there and my interest isn't in 'clipping' what someone else has clipped. And yes, if my favorites toolbar in FF3 actually existed, I'd probably use the bookmarklet to clip more stuff. Maybe if shareaholic added a social median feature... - Anika Malone

Not 100% sure about the site. I have been on there for a few days but we'll see how it works out. - Marcus Hamaker

Nicole, Marcus, etc. We're still very early on this one ... please pass along any and all feedback. I hear you Nicole on the UI -- we have spent a lot more time on basic functionality vs. UI at this point. We need to simplify. - Jason Goldberg

I'm enjoying it, but I created a newsfeed near & dear to my heart, email marketing... and I digg and/or clip those articles daily anyways... http://www.socialmedian.com/ne... - anna

I'm sure it's fabulous, but I'm feeling like I'm spread a little too thin as it is. How many more places besides Google Reader do I have to go to read the news? :) - Sarah Perez

Trusted referrals. Someone's share means that post was deemed "share-worthy". - Hutch Carpenter

I do quite a lot of reading, not so much commenting here, as you've probably noticed - Prolific Programmer

maybe because FriendFeed is Google Reader evolved? - Vincent van Wylick

Its all here... More than enough content to digest... - James Fridley

I read Google Reader prolifically but I don't share items via Google Reader, I share them to FriendFeed directly so I can include text/inline images. - Robert Seidman

I read Google Reader almost every day. It's fun to comment here because you can see what other people think about an item right away and have a discussion. I'm liking FriendFeed more and more as a key discussion place on the Web. - Cathryn Hrudicka

I never used Google Reader - but FriendFeed seems to provide a sort of 'rating & review system' that means that one person shares it in GR, and if enough of my other "Friend Feed Braintrust" folks like/comment on it, then it's probably worth a look. Which would make more sense if I were coherent - but you get the gist. - Lucretia Pruitt

James: I'm actually noticing that the content here is a little light sometimes. Too much talk about certain jerks, or celebrities, not enough about smart topics. So I go off to look for some. - Robert Scoble

I actually read a significant amount in Google Reader. I also routinely share articles, sometimes with comments. I have continued to use Google Reader the same amount since I started using Friendfeed as I did before FF. I find I have interests and follow blogs and news with topics that just aren't discussed here so I do not see giving up using Google reader any time soon. - Jeff P. Henderson

I do enough Google Reader that I've caught myself trying to hit SHIFT+S to send an email :) - Jeff Douglass

Fuck Google Reader, go FeedDemon/Newsgator! - J.T Dabbagian

I read a ton of GReader, and wouldn't know how to consume news without it. I love the iPhone app for Reader, and use it daily. - Granteezy

Scoble, didn't you read my RSS Reader/Organizer post??? shh! Actually, I never really used Google Reader. Was always using iGoogle for my RSS feeds. - Justin Korn

Feedly+Google Reader == Heaven. I just wish I could integrate FF Comments with Reader. - Jesse Stay via twhirl

I agree with Robert that at times content can be a little lite here, or it can be so focused on the shiny new topic of the day (Can you say iPhone...) that there is almost no other discussion going on. But often I find some very interesting topics to discuss here that I can't get anywhere else. - Jeff P. Henderson

And you know how much Google Reader reading we do because...?? - JC unwired

The Scoble sees all, Jody - Robert Seidman

Jody: I do see it all. Well at least I see an interesting subset of all. :-) - Robert Scoble

I hecka use Google reader! - Clay Newton

I haven't figured out how to balance a full-time job, FriendFeed et al, sleep AND Google Reader. Until I gain your type of insight, something has to give. I do think longingly about my GReader from time to time. - MiɳiMagɘ (AlwaysMiniMage) via NoiseRiver

I'm still in GReader a couple hours a day. - Chris Baskind

One thing I noticed is that the content duplication really bothers me. It's one reason why I stopped reading Google Reader so much. I see it again. I really wish FriendFeed's team would do something about this and cluster same items together. - Robert Scoble

I use http://www.feedly.com/ to read Google Reader, better overview (magazine like interface) and all. Sharing is easier too, but because it has a direct link to FriendFeed, it is an example of a route that grows on Google Reader but ends up on FF... - Ruud van Wijngaarden

... or at least suggest something like "This URL has been submitted in the last 24 hours. Would you like to continue your submission, or comment on the existing entry?" - Chris Baskind

I;ve been using Google Reade rto share items for a few months now, I really dig it. - Soulhuntre via twhirl

Really like Google Reader but Feedly makes it sing for me! http://feedly.com provides me with lots of options for responding to read items (FriendFeed, Twitter, Delicious.) - Nice Fish Films

if people were really using the service as FRIENDfeed, rather than Social Mediati feed, or Promote My Stuff Feed or Info Junky Feed, the duplication would be somewhat minimal. Duplicates are heinous even at 150 people (I am following too much of the echo chamber, my own fault) but I can't even imagine how that looks for Scoble with over 3000 people. - Robert Seidman

I use it but skip some days http://friendfeed.com/somenice... - Andrew Smith

Chris: What you are describing is similar to what a few other users asked for and what we tried to implement : each time you select an article, you get a list of all the friendfeed conversations related to that articles this way you can decide if you want to participate to that existing discussion or if you want to create your own post and create a new one. Here is a screenshot of what it looks like: http://www.flickr.com/photos/6... - Edwin Khodabakchian

That's nice work, Edwin. I should have mentioned that I'm getting more comfortable with doing my daily feed crunch in Feedly. In fact, I did all my RSS "work" in Feedly today (at least until it was time to gather my starred items and write). But I usually submit to FF from the article sites. I'll play with that. Thanks. - Chris Baskind

i subscribe to your shared items and read directly from google reader -- in fact, i rarely use friendfeed at all! (although that's slowly starting to change...) - Shawn Reed

Robert: Google Reader -- much better signal to noise than Friendfeed. I find GR to be a much more powerful tool for identifying and processing highly strategic information than FF. Friendfeed, however, is entertaining and addictive, and has the potential, with new features for smart filtering, to replace GR. The GR developers should be thinking about how to assimilate FF, or they are going to be swallowed by FF. - Sean McBride

Not true Robert, being here encourages me to find interesting things in Reader to add to the stream. Reader is the godsend for the information addicted and I'm running at about 600 articles a day just to get by. - Aaron Krug

I use Google reader a bit. - Michael McGimpsey via twhirl

I'm a Google reader addict, I spend on average 2 hours a day or more... I think this cause I feel need read every news item, of several hundreds. like 500 everyday.. bad habit... but Friendfeed makes it easy to comment on any online network activity - Sebastiaan van den Akker

hey gReader is still strong part of the workflow - Dobromir Hadzhiev

I got hooked to greader after I sawa video by Scoble show him skimming through thousands of items using they keyboard... resulting being that my starred item list is huge... lol - Sebastiaan van den Akker via twhirl

Some good shares on Google Reader today Robert, I comment on occasional stories not many though! - Joe Dawson (beta)

For selected things, Google Reader is a better way to consume them. I will never see most things that pass through my FriendFeed; if it's in Google Reader, I'll at least see the titles (usually). - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

not me, although I've been a little quiet today (email fail crisis...and a 4 hours to research and write post). Link blog with shares here http://www.google.com/reader/s... - Duncan Riley

I still use Reader and Scholar for 1-2 hrs daily at the start of every day. It's mostly science and medicine stuff tho, so wouldn't expect as many to like or comment on the stuff compared to the tech news. Sometimes I share as an antidote to the lite stuff on twitter and iPhone - Sally Church via fftogo

I tend to use Google Reader as one might a broadsheet newspaper... whereas FriendFeed is like standing in the bar listening in on the conversations and chipping in now and again. - Jonathan Beckett

Some of us don't use Google Reader for our feeds. :) - Cyndy

I can't drive myself to use Google Reader's user interface. But I love to use FrendFeed. :D - possible248

I use gReader, just tooo dang busy to read many blogs these days...really bummed about it, but my job is really overwhelming lately. - Susan Beebe (Santa Claus)

I couldn't care less about Google Reader, Friendfeed gives me more stuff to read than the time I have to... - ☂Marcos Marado via fftogo

i use newsgator because it easy syncs to mac/pc... netnewswire is the best rss reader ever made (mac)... web version is a joke compared to greader tho - Mike Szczygiel via twhirl

RSS is dead. I haven't used Google Reader in 2 months. Why waste time mucking around in Google Reader and sludging through all the crap when the best of what Google Reader and your RSS feeds have to offer can be filtered through FriendFeed. - Thomas Hawk

Thomas Hawk - I wish I had a better understanding of your model for using Friendfeed. I subscribe to nearly a thousand RSS feeds in Google Reader. I store the top 25 feeds in a folder at the top of my feeds, and tend to focus on that single folder for the pure gold, With GR I am able to reduce redundancy to a minimum by clearly separating read from unread items. FF is a mess by comparison. What am I missing? - Sean McBride

Ever since feeddemon/netnewswire and synching with newsgator became free, I ditched google reader. - Mike Kogelman

simple. Communiy-collaborative filtering combined with conversation. My own G Rrader feeds are a lonely chore - Michael Markman

Sean, just subscribe to those top 25 feeds here in FF instead. Learn to hide everything in FF after you've seen it if you need to more aggressively filter out content you've seen. - Thomas Hawk

When I share something on google reader, I usually put a comment on it. Value added, don't you know... - K Welch

Thomas -- I find hiding to be far too much manual labor. The aesthetic of hiding violates all my principles of good user interface design. (IMHO, of course). And I find the hundreds of feeds that are not in my top 25 folder to be valuable -- I rely on Google Reader to sort unread items in that group by personal relevancy for me, and it does a pretty good job. I skim off a few 100 items from my B-list in odd moments. How do you separate unread from read items in Friendfeed? I dislike the redundancy. - Sean McBride

Perhaps GR appeals more strongly to solitary personalities who are more interested in their internal conversations than in conversations with others. Too much social conversation gets in the way of developing complex and difficult creative projects. - Sean McBride

Not I my friend. - Ryan

I still do a ton of feed reading and share items. - Steve Rubel

I would estimate that Google Reader is, literally, 100 times more efficient for scanning, keywording, storing and retrieving high-quality information than Friendfeed in its current state. - Sean McBride

The problem with Google Reader is that when you subscribe to more than 100 or so feeds you inevitably get bogged down in lower value information. While you can prioritize by creating subject folders or A, B, C type hierarchies, still there is no real relevancy filtering by interesting subjects. Throw your A feeds into FF and let your contacts decide what else is interesting. Add in super search and you have a system that is superior to GR. - Thomas Hawk

remember how years ago everyone used to think dial up AOL was an interesting way to access the internet? Then technology showed a better way. RSS readers are not going to die, but they will be seen as the dial up AOL of content consumption 5 years from now. Your parents might still be using RSS readers, but you won't be. The potential of social filtering through tools like FF today is only the tip of the iceberg for what is coming. - Thomas Hawk

Thomas -- I create separate folders in Google Reader for narrow subjects like "Semantic Web" or whatever. And the cool thing is that feeds can be stored in multiple folders. I also prioritize my folders. (My GR setup is actually a bit more complex than my previous description.) Perhaps I am slow to catch on to all of FF's functionality, but so far I haven't been able to match my GR setup here. - Sean McBride

Robert: I added too many busy feeds in GR and they became unmanageable. Upon review, each feed seemed valuable and a pity to drop. I am keeping my FF subscription list short for a reason. - Alexei Tolkachev

Sean, I used to do something similar. A folder for photography. A folder for ego searches. A folder for Flickr. Overlapping A, B, C folders based on prioritization. Etc. FF is far from perfect, it is where the ball is moving though, it is the future, and I'd rather master the systems of the future than waste time bogged down in the systems of the past. - Thomas Hawk

Thomas - more: the swarm/collective intelligence capability on FF is not being very efficiently used, in my opinion. For instance, I want "rank new links which mention *expression by times linked, liked, clicked and commented on." Currently the cool links swim in a chaotic morass -- I can't easily get my hands on them. My Friendfeed friends (like you) turn up good links (thanks!), but I don't feel like I am seeing the whole picture in any field of activity. - Sean McBride

Thomas - I'm listening carefully to your remarks - I respect your opinions. We are both rather fanatical early adopters. Bottom line so far for me: I want to see a merging of the best features of Google Reader and Friendfeed, and more. - Sean McBride

Google Reader is my number one shared site, I'm almost as addicted to it as I am to FF. - सत्याग्रह {Bren}

Its all about the community effect; we are all here and its so easy to add a message. It all looks so nice and the user experience is great. - Joao

Some do, some don't. I see no problem with people using FF as an RSS reader of sorts, but I am seeing a disturbing trend where people are commenting on the headline and not reading the article! - Sarah Perez

edelman is ok with that? - Allen Stern

when it's time to order a new batch of Moo cards, i'm going to do the same. - Iain Baker

@Allen This is in addition to edelmandigital.com. My blog is already there. May times we give out our Twitter URLs. - Steve Rubel

Steve, I'm on the fence. I like the notion of it, but fear it might seem overwhelming, disorganized for many. - Robert Seidman

I think you should use steverubel.me and redirect to friendfeed. - Shawn McCollum

I just can't handle friendfeed, too much too quick. Just started using it again today after a couple months. - Chris Rohde via twhirl

@shawn I like that idea. I already have the domain. - Steve Rubel

@Seidman good points, as always. - Steve Rubel

Steve, if FriendFeed had a better profile it would be a fantastic idea. Without that type of information, it may be a bit confusing. Twitter is straightforward in what it does, FF is quite intimidating for new people. - Rob Diana

seriously good point Steve. I run ny ff stream on my blog sidebar, and its the most complete view of me. For others, FF has 43 services which can be aggregated into FF. - bankwatch via twhirl

My FF URL is what I use now for every time I am asked to share a link.... cool! - Susan Beebe (Santa Claus)

It would make sense for now as FF starts to be the central place. - Joao

I still think your blog is the way to go - Allen Stern

i use my handle's domain so that i can point folks to whatever my favorite online locations are at the moment - this stuff changes to much... - mike "glemak" dunn

Steve, thanks for the kind words. I think I'm off the fence now and on Allen's side of it. - Robert Seidman

@rob, @ robert, good points maybe steve could put friendfeed in a frame. use steverubel.me, setup a 200px or so frame with business card type info on the left and on the right friendfeed. - Shawn McCollum

own your identity Steve. - Kingsley Joseph via twhirl

shawn's suggestion is good, but instead of redirect you could render the contents of http://friendfeed.com/steverub... in a more "you" way. As other people say, dumping contacts into FriendFeed UI might be a bit much. My opinion is "brand it as you so people know they're talking to the right person, then pass through to FriendFeed (or whatever service) you want to use for them to stay in touch." (And optionally, get the service to pay you for doing so, if the connection is not payment enough.) - Wade Dorrell

one word: identi.my - Pajama Domain via twhirl

Only If FriendFeed let me customize my FF page... - Kerem Ozkan