louisgray.com - Latest Comments in Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

Svetlana Gladkova — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:19:59 -0000

Very interesting post, thank you Louis. It really shows that we may well end up without the features we suggest (like messaging you mentioned here) but probably we will appreciate what they eventually release even better than what we want now - after all, too many people complained about FriendFeed generating too much noise and making the information stream more relevant to our needs could be much more important than the ability to send a message to someone. Besides, it's good they have started thinking about the business model, it will be interesting if they come up with something similar to Techmeme models with sponsored content mixed with natural content.

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

Louis Gray — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:38:13 -0000

Thanks for posting, Loic. Now, it will be a good test to see how
accurate my quotes from notes are versus the video of Bret from
yesterday.

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

Loic Le Meur — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:31:51 -0000

Hi Louis, I posted Bret's presentation in video here. Audio/video crap but you can hear...
http://seesmic.com/video/bl...

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

lawrence coburn — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:21:00 -0000

Great write up Louis.

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

Louis Gray — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:41:13 -0000

Jeremiah, in terms of being a stalker, you're not a very good one. I keep hearing about places you "just were" or "almost went to". One of these days, we'll both be in the same place at the same time, and you'll discover you don't like me after all. :-)

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

Louis Gray — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:40:07 -0000

Interestingly, Seesmic's Loic Le Meur talked more about how the company is responding to feature requests from users than did FriendFeed. In fact, FriendFeed often talks about how the early adopters are different, and how they want to get to the mainstream. What made FriendFeed work for me, after the initial aggregation, was the ability to have comments and conversation. It's clearly what's helped the site dramatically, and expanded the conflict of bloggers vs. aggregators in terms of where comments reside.

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

tadwook — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:03:48 -0000

i think its interesting all the data they are collecting -- just look at video - this is funny - its a list of the most popular videos on ff — kinda what i thought — politics and cats
http://www.snackfeed.com/pu...

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

Stephen Pierzchala — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:37:47 -0000

Cool. Just sort of stood out from the rest of the article, as if there was going to be some connection between Keynote and FriendFeed.

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

Louis Gray — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:25:14 -0000

The software Bret used to make the preso wasn't important. It was just
a detail you'd only get from being there. He and the other presenters
also used Firefox on Mac laptops, if that is of interest. He did say
he prefers Linux, and therefore, can't use Chrome, on his main
computer. It's just background information.

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

Stephen Pierzchala — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:03:38 -0000

Louis:

Why is the software Bret used to make the presentation important?

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

Jeremiah Owyang — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:35:26 -0000

I was really close to going! missed you by a hair.

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

gregorylent — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 07:52:46 -0000

me and swisher would not get along ...

the best ad solution? something like zemanta, where you hover the mouse over a comment or category, and a window with other content and an ad appears ... click for the possiblity of an ad, they are there, without them being in your face.

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

Adam Helweh — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:41:45 -0000

Great article Louis. Thanks for being there when many of us could not. FriendFeed has definitely turned out to be a daily destination. I remember it initially being coined as a Twitter competitor poised to take all the displeased "Fail Whale" haters and make them whole again. I don't consider it a substitute in my daily routine.

Re: Bret Taylor on FriendFeed's Road to Monetization, Early Surprises

ontarioemperor — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:29:05 -0000

Thanks for attending. Bret's comment on not realizing how popular "likes" would be illustrates that applications are tools, and the value comes when the tool is used. Bret may think he knows how the tool will be used, but it isn't until the tool is in the hands of users that the good and bad things are illustrated. It makes me wonder how FriendFeed will change as the proportion of the user base changes and there are fewer early adopters (or, when 140,000 slightly-underweight Asian teenage girls join the service).