FriendFeed over Twitter
I keep seeing Robert Scoble refer to FriendFeed being better, in comparison, to Twitter. As result, dozens of his readers chime into threaded discussions on FriendFeed leaving comments about how they agree, disagree, which apps they use, and sometimes stem off to is AlertThingy better than Twhirl… and so on… and so forth. There’s at least four discussions a week that thread off this way, and when Twitter goes down? Well, then it’s a guaranteed topic of discussion on FriendFeed about Twitter.
Maybe I’m not understanding something here.
Twitter is a micro-blog that allows for short messages via SMS, IM, web and a barrage of other services like Twitpic, Bright Kite, WordPress, Jaiku, Slandr and even FriendFeed, which also equates to AlertThingy and Twhirl…
FriendFeed is an interactive aggregation site that allows you to feed all your RSS goodness into one happy bucket, sharing it with others, and giving those that subscribe to you a means to discuss.
I see two different services. Yes, they allow you to receive replies, and comments on what’s being said. But if you’re looking to hold a conversation… Well, Twitter simply isn’t your place to do it. I’ve never seen Twitter as a “chat application” or even a threaded forum site. It’s a means of getting things said, and shared, to those that follow you…
Comparing Twitter to FriendFeed, actually, is like comparing FriendFeed to Flickr. You can still post comments, in fact, the comments blocks are “threaded” by image on Flickr, and honestly, that’s even a better comparison… Again, maybe I’m missing the boat here all together, but I use FriendFeed to aggregate and jump into running conversations. I believe that the comments should be saved for the blogs and articles in which they came, but if you’re looking for a conversation on Twitter… perhaps, even though you’re looking in the wrong spot, FriendFeed can fill in that gap… But then you basically have a phpBB-like site, and why not just use one of those and feed that to your FriendFeed as well?
