Facebook Takes on Google Reader: Who Said RSS is Dead?

On February 1, 2010, In New, By Tac Anderson

I’ve been playing around with Facebook. Both how to promote brands on Facebook as well as how users consume content within the walled garden (hint: there’s a direct correlation between the two).

As blogs and media networks extend their reach using Facebook Pages, I noticed something interesting:

Facebook can be used as an RSS reader.

Most people don’t use the groups feature enough but it’s just like using Twitter lists, except you can’t share them. I’ve set up one just for the blogs I follow on Facebook.

Facebook as RSS Reader

It’s like a more graphical version of Google Reader with the shared and comments view shown in the collapsed mode.From here users can like or comment on any post or click through to the expanded “notes” view.

Facebook is a growing source of news for most people. While the geeks among us may still prefer RSS or Twitter your average user will follow a fan page before they subscribe to an RSS feed.  I’ve written about a study showing that Facebook members use the social network as a growing source of tech news.

(BTW, feel free to join the New Comm Biz Facebook Page.)

Over on the Facebook blog, Malorie Lucich, has a post about how she’s seeing the rise of Facebook as a news source Creating Your Personalized News Channel.

When the earthquake hit Haiti, victims in the area, news affiliates and people around the world used Facebook to learn what was happening, connect with loved ones and quickly disseminate information. ABCNews.com and France 24 added Facebook live stream boxes to their sites to enable people to share their feelings on the disaster and relief efforts, and publish it back to their Facebook status. Meanwhile, The New York Times created a special Facebook Page dedicated to Haiti coverage, resources and updates from their reporters on the ground.

Malorie then recommends building a group of just the news sources you follow to clear the clutter. The next step in Facebook’s twitterfication will be to make these lists shareable. Facebook could also further this adoption by mimicking Twitter’s now dead, Suggested User List and have a recommended group that people could follow or even recommended groups by category. Companies would pay millions for that kind of reach.

As this kind of use on Facebook grows your Facebook fan numbers could easily eclipse your RSS subscriber numbers. This also poses an interesting challenge for publishers hiding their content behind pay wall or a unique partnership opportunity, depending on how they approach it.

Update: Marshall Kirkpatrick just posted a very similar post on ReadWriteWeb:

Facebook Could Become World’s Leading News Reader (Sorry Google)

Services like MyYahoo and iGoogle saw some traction and many readers here may have a Google Reader account, but dedicated RSS (really simple syndication) feed reading services have never lived up to their potential to become a mainstream phenomenon. These days many people say they just wait until links get shared on Twitter and they never use a feed reader at all. Late last week Facebook threw its hat in the ring and called on users to use its service as a news feed reader. There are a number of reasons why Facebook could be the strongest online subscription option yet.

Join the New Comm Biz Facebook Page or follow the Twitter account.

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Social Media Makes Search More Wicked [Bitly vs Feedly]

On January 17, 2010, In New, By Tac Anderson

I love wicked problems. No, not that type of wicked. A wicked problem is a problem where the more you learn about it the harder it gets. Search is a wicked problem. Scaling social networks is a wicked problem. Searching real time social data is a very, very wicked problem.

I use url shortener Bit.ly and it’s sister service J.mp, a lot. I love these services because of the great real time analytics they show you.  I am even willing to sign up for their Pro tools but they’re still invite only.

Today I noticed Bit.ly Search. You can search through all of Bit.ly’s real time data and compare data on links being shared. Below you’ll see a screen shot of a search for Haiti. You can see the article title, the URL of the article and the last tweet that posted the article.

I think it’s interesting that they don’t show you who the first person to post the link was. I think that would be far more interesting then the last person to RT the link. You can however click the info button to see all the info they have on that link including the first person to post the link.

bitly and feedly search

bitly and feedly search

They are obviously using click through and time as the measures for relevance.

Another interesting feature is the ability to see more links posted by the user. This really gets into people discovery. The result when you click the info button is that it takes you to a search for that user name.. So even if someone isn’t signed up with Bitly, assuming they use Bitly and not one of the other URL shorteners you can see all of a users shared links. This feature alone has pushed me over the tipping point to quit sharing links from Google Reader through FriendFeed, which uses the ff.in, and start using Reader to Twitter, which uses Bit.ly so that I can track all of my shared links here.

One thing that you will note is in the bottom right corner there is a small blue box with some other results. This is Feedly and it’s feature Feedly mini. Every time I search on any page, Feedly gives me a small list of results which it pulls from my Google Reader. But the real power of Feedly is when you search from your account within Feedly.

I have included several screen grabs and you can click on them to see larger versions.

Feedly gives you several options for your search and here I chose to just search withing my own resources. You see the news and then results just from withing my Google Reader sources.

You also see here the sources being pulled from and I can click on anyone of those to narrow down my search just to that source.

Feedly then does something fun, and it’s part of their revenue model I’m sure, is they go and search Amazon using recommendations from my account to show me recommended books on Haiti. I like this far better than AdWords.

Bellow that you see search results pulled from Twitter. I have my setting adjusted a little further so that I only see tweets containing links or hashtags. Where Bitly leveraged it’s size (it’s the #1 URL shortener and the default on Twitter) so I could search across most of the links being shared on Twitter about Haiti, Feedly allows me to see only the links my network is sharing on Haiti. Two different approaches but both very powerful in their own right.

The last results on the page are searches on YouTube and Flickr on Haiti. These are not from my network but in this case that’s a good thing since I don’t have very large networks on either of those sites.

Like I mentioned earlier thought Feedly get’s the extra advantage of being a browser pluggin and is with me where ever I go. It becomes ubiquitous. This is alos only one feature of Feedly. It’s not actually a search product, although it does it quite well. Even better than that, Feedly is also an amazing work flow tool. But I’ll save that for another post.

While both of these services take two different approaches they both have their obvious advantages. By building it’s own rich pool of data Bitly is proving to be a serious player in semantic search.

Prediction: I’m willing to bet Bit.ly gets acquired before the summer’s over.

Feedly has taken the opposite approach. They are aggregating all of my personally relevant data from Google, Twitter, Amazon and YouTube and Flickr. There site is the interface, so it’s not even like going to their site to search. It really feels like I’m going to a page I own that just happens to overlay a bunch of my own content. Feedly doesn’t own any of the data but they don’t have to.

On this note I will make the only fair comparison between the two services. It’s irrelevant to compare their approach or their results but it is fair to compare their interfaces.

Bitly is young and still developing but come on, it’s search result page has to be the ugliest interface out there. With the tweet, links, url’s and very little descriptive text I find it hard to read.  My only advice to Bitly is to fix that. It makes a huge difference in how often and how long users will use the site. Bitly has always felt sparse and not in a good way. It feels raw like I’m looking at the back end of an unfinished site.

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This is Why Google Scares the Sh*t Out of Companies

On October 29, 2009, In Biz, By Tac Anderson

Wow. I mean really, WOW! One announcement of a Web based product that is currently inferior to your product that only runs on a very limited number of devices and your company looses Billions of dollars. Wow.

This is what happened to TomTom and Garmin stock prices when Google announced Maps Navigation. I suspect their stock prices will come back *some* but not to their previous levels. A new bar has been set and it’s very, very low. There was a certain amount of value in those companies because there existed a barrier to entry: satellites, relatively expensive hardware, distributors, supply chains, etc.

Google had all of that or didn’t need it. New rule book and they made it up.

via mashable.com

Now a similar announcement by a different company wouldn’t have had this effect. But it’s Google. And Google doesn’t play the way your company does. It doesn’t have the same cost structures and it has a major cash cow that can fund that free product for many years before it becomes profitable. Basically long enough to drive you out of business. (This reminds me of another company in the 80’s and 90’s)

Google scares companies. But Google is also starting to scare people. It was bad enough when the only real data they had on you was your publicly available data and your search history. But now imagine a scenario that Louis Gray is toying with, where someone goes all Google.

You run the Chrome OS, which is basically the Chrome Browser running on Linux. You use only the Google Docs product and of course Search and Gmail, then Google Chat and  Google Reader. Now throw in to that an Android phone with GPS and Maps Navigation.

Google knows every Web page you visit, every search you make and has your documents and email in their searchable database, plus they know where you are at any given point (because no one goes further than 10 feet from their phone anymore).

As a user you can control the products you use and where your data is stored (at least to some degree). But as a company how do you compete with this?

A few days ago  I suggested every company needs to be reevaluating all aspects of their business and I meant it.

Going even further back, two years ago (ironically when writing about Google and their effect on your business model) I suggested to disrupt your own business model. Don’t wait for Google or someone else to disrupt your model do it yourself. At least theoretically. This way you’re less caught off guard and maybe even come up with a whole new business.

HP did this when they launched their Ink Jet devision to compete with their highly profitable LaserJet devision. Google even did this when they launched Google Wave, which is *supposed* to be a replacement for email.

What does your disruptor look like?

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How Do You Prioritize Your Social Media?

On September 2, 2009, In New, By Tac Anderson
My social Network on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter...
Image by luc legay via Flickr

I’ve recently received a few inquiries from friends. They’ve noticed that I haven’t been as conversational on Twitter lately. I still highly value the conversations on Twitter I just don’t actively participate as much as I used to.

If you’ve read any of my previous posts you know that I’ve been busy. (That statement was made as yet another entry to the understatement of the year award).I have several mechanisms set up to allow me to continue to post *to* Twitter but you can’t automate conversation (nor should you try).

FriendFeed allows me to cross post items I share in Google Reader or songs I bookmark in Pandora from FriendFeed to Twitter. Posterous allows me to automagically post my short thoughts, pics, screen grabs and collections of ods and ends from Posterous to Twitter (and Flickr and YouTube and Facebook) which all end up in FriendFeed (BTW Mark Z, I know you’re reading this and give a rat’s ass what I think, but please don’t shut down FriendFeed, ever. kthnxby).

With my ever-shrinking, finite time I have to prioritize where and how I participate. I love Twitter. It is my social network of choice. But, for me, blogging is too valuable to ever give up. It’s become an integral part of my thinking process. It’s so bad that half the strategy docs I write for clients sound like blog posts. It’s an easy style for me. Even when I have something that’s not appropriate for the blog I have to send a a blog style email to someone to get it out of my head.

My hierarchy of social media goes something like this:

  • Google Reader
  • Blog/Posterous
  • Twitter
  • FriendFeed
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Yammer

There’s a very real long tail effect here. I start my day with Google Reader at 5:00 a.m. and check it constantly through the day, sharing the posts I find most interesting. Between my blog and my Posterous account I average 10-15 (or more) posts a week. Tweetdeck is running constantly at work and I check it frequently, I just don’t jump into many conversations. FriendFeed usually gets checked a few times a day and Facebook about once a day. LinkedIn and Yammer get maybe one or two visits a month.

What about you. Where are your social media priorities?

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Why Would You NOT Blog?

On August 20, 2009, In Comm, By Tac Anderson
Playing with the TypeDrawing app.
Image by Tac Anderson via Flickr

Following yesterday’s post (and months of posts really) about how easy Posterous makes blogging, why would you NOT blog? Seriously it’s so freaking easy?

If sending an email is too tough, check out Tumblr. Pulling an RSS feed doesn’t get any easier. Check out my music blog http://tacanderson.tumblr.com/. The only thing I have to do is use the bookmark song feature for songs I like in Pandora or tags certain bookmarks in my Diigo as ‘music’.

It doesn’t get any easier than that!!!

I know, you think you have to have something really important to say. That’s just plain stupid. Start writing and posting and you’ll come up with good stuff to say. You’re not going for a book deal you’re learning and engaging with people. It’s the online version of what you do every day.

You don’t even need a blog to blog. Flickr, FriendFeed, Delicious, StumbleUpon and even Google Reader shared items have “blogs”.

If for some reason you still don’t have a blog start with Delicious. Start bookmarking and curating interesting content. We can work with you from there.

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Mobile App Blogging Thanks to Posterous: Regator vs MeeHive vs Byline

On August 19, 2009, In Biz, By Tac Anderson

If you haven’t noticed, I like Posterous. I think they may have single handedly made email relevant for me again. Here’s my Posterous blog. I also like using tools in ways they weren’t meant to be used. That’s the case with this post. Please note that none of these apps were designed for mobile blogging so my review of them is completely irrelevant to the real reason people made them.

The main way I use Posterous is for mobile blogging. If I’m at me desk I’d just as soon use Windows Live Writer with the Zemanta plugin. Most of my mobile blogging is done from Byline. Byline is an amazing app that synchs with Google Reader making my RSS feeds portable. Byline is my secret weapon for reading hundreds of blog posts a day. But Byline has another cool feature: Mail Link to this Page. The mail a link option in many mobile news readers turns them into a mobile blogging app thanks to Posterous.

Last night Louis Gray turned me on to two new apps. Regator and MeeHive.

My problem with Byline is that it’s a little ugly for blogging. Heck it’s even a little ugly for an email. The link it sends is the feed proxy link not the Web URL or permalink.

My typical process is to copy and paste a section of the post, then select the email a link option. This redirects me to the iPhone’s mail program which I have linked to my Gmail account. I then paste the pull quote, edit the message of the email, which is the title of post and usually add a sentence or two of my own thinking.

Bellow is a screen shots of a post I did with Byline. As you can see the link at the end of the article is kind of ugly.

Byline

Byline2

It’s a little dirty but it works. Posterous is even kind enough to convert wordpress.com into a link even though I didn’t send it over than way.

Next are two quick posts done with MeeHive and Regator:

MeeHive

MeeHive1

Regator

Regator2

Regator wins hands down for pretty links. Even if you’re only sending an email and not blogging it seems like a hyperlink would be nicer to get than a raw proxy link. Granted if they view email in plain text then it will separate the link out anyway but it can’t be any worse.

MeeHive did a cool thing though when I highlighted text it inserted that into the email. That was cool.

No real conclusion here, I’ll continue to use whatever app I’m in to do quick blogs but I have to wonder if, as blogging continues to get easier, this is something app builders will need to take into account.

Anyone else out there mobile blog? Any tips or tricks?

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Posterous plus PostRank equals Pretty Cool

On August 12, 2009, In New, By Tac Anderson

I love it when I get to talk about how to combine multiple products into something even cooler. This is one such post. This may not be new to some of you but I just figured it out.

Do you use Posterous? (If you haven’t set one up yet email your reason why to post@posterous.com if you’d like to set one up email the same address.)

Do you subscribe to lots of other Posterous blogs? If you’re like me you do and I get them all in one daily email. I had thought of going through each account and subscribing individually to each post. But that was too much work so I haven’t yet. The problem with the emails is there are too many of them and they aren’t mobile friendly.

The other problem is that people use Posterous like a scrapbook. Not those frilly scrapbooks where people spend hundreds of hours making them into works of art but real scrap books where we keep all our raw thoughts and collections of stuff.

That’s a lot of noise. Good noise but still noise. How do you filter just the good ones?

Fortunately I found a fix to both problems.

You will need FireFox (my stats tell me that’s half of you), Google Reader (the 800 lb gorilla in the feed reader market), and your PostRank account.

If you have all of those go to this address http://www.postrank.com/postrank/firefox and install the FireFox extension. Now go to this address http://posterous.com/reader and subscribe to that feed in Google Reader (assuming you haven’t already).

PostRankerous

PostRankerous

What you’re seeing is PostRank rankings next to each Posterous post. It’s on a scale of 1.0 to 10.0 and the darker the orange the bigger the number. If I use the drop down menu I can just select to view All, Good, Great or Best. If I’m in a hury this allows me to quickly filter out a certain level of noise and get to the good stuff.

The great thing about the PostRank plugin is that it works with all your Google reader items. But I usually use Feedly to view those if I’m on the Web. (Hey Feedly meet PostRank. PostRank meet Feedly. It would be *really* cool if I could combine those two services.)

And by subscribing to the reader view, anytime I follow a new Posterous account it is automatically added to that feed. Brilliant! Love it.

Photo credit: Tac Anderson

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I Love Link

On August 12, 2009, In Comm, By Tac Anderson
I Love Link

I Love Link

An Ode to the Link.

I love links. They’re like magic. Transporting you all across the Web with just a click.

It’s why I love Twitter. Links, lots of links. Behind each shortened URL is a wealth of knowledge and information.

I love Bit.ly for their innovative approach to making something as mundane as a URL shortener a breakout category.

I love Zemanta because they add all these links in my post plus all the links at the bottom of the post.

These simple links are the only think connecting the entire Web. They’re small but there are billions of them. Maybe Trillions of them, I don’t know.

I think most people take them for granted. I know that most of you don’t click through on the links I leave here. It would be impossible to click every link.

I love link blogs that people post. I love that some people who don’t have regular blogs use their Google Reader shared page or Delicious link blog as their blog.

Basically, I love link.

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Searching, Sharing and Quiting via FriendFeed

On June 28, 2009, In Comm, By Tac Anderson

Sent from my iPod

19 Twitter Desktop Apps Compared | Technology News
You’ve got access to your followers and friends, custom groups, earch (integrated with FriendFeed and One Riot), trends, tr.im and pic.im integration, multiple accounts, Ping.fm integration, filters, and three view options for a one or …
Technology News – http://technewsreport.co.cc/

I had no idea there were this many desktop apps. FriendFeed and One Riot integration sounds great.

Bookmarklet Fu« Webtropic
I use it to share things in Reader occasionally, but most of the time I share things either in twitter or in friendfeed. Why? They show up much faster and the crowds in these two services are so much bigger than Google Reader. …
Webtropic – http://webtropic.cc/

Or you can do what I do and have your shared Google Reader items go to FriendFeed and then post to Twitter. It’s not as fast but much more efficient.

Quitting FriendFeed » Webomatica – Entertainment and Tech Digest
Almost entirely at random, I got caught up in a FriendFeed thread by Aaron Brazell where he voiced dissatisfaction with … Webomatica – Entertainment and… – http://www.webomatica.wordpress.com

Let the FriendFeef quiting begin. A sure sign a service is getting ready to take off.

Posted via email from Zemashup

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What I’m doing to fight the social media echo chamber

On June 2, 2009, In New, By Tac Anderson
Echoes album cover
Image via Wikipedia

I think the number one threat to social media is the echo chamber.

Online social media is an amazing thing. One of the most powerful aspects of social media is that it’s a scale free network. This is the phenomena that create viral videos. People, companies or their agencies don’t create viral videos, scale free networks create viral videos. Scale free networks are why once you get to the top it’s infinitely easier to stay on top. This is why when Robert Scoble posts something on FriendFeed it gets dozens of likes and comments (seriously EVERY single thing).

The downside of this attribute is what we call the echo chamber. I don’t have to follow Seth Godin’s blog because so many people will share his most recent post on Twitter or in their Google Reader. I used to not (but I do now) follow TechCrunch because of the same reason. If you’re on FriendFeed you don’t have to follow Robert because someone else in your network will like it and it will show up in your feed.

The great thing about this activity is that it creates a certain layer of human filtering. This is why sites like Digg, Techmeme, Slashdot, Tweetmeme, RSSmeme and others are so useful.

The problem is that it leads to group think. We’re all reading the same blog posts, following the same people ipn Twitter, linking to the same things and drinking the same Kool-Aid. It’s dangerous. It’s this kind of group think that leads really smart people to miss really obvious things (mortgage crisis anyone?).

That is why I try not to share links from the obvious sources, unless I REALLY feel they are worth while. This is why I spend so much time looking for the really good long tail blogs. I try and share posts on Twitter and this blog that most people aren’t talking about. This is why I break up my twitter posts with things like what I’m listening to on Pandora. And while it may not seem like it this is also why I’ve started sharing less stuff on Twitter and trying to write more posts here on my blog. Beyond 140 I can add context. I can expand why I agree or disagree

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