Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 2nd July 2009
4 COMMENTS 
Martin Bryant, Co-founder, Social Media Café Manchester
FriendFeed has completed its conversion to an entirely realtime service by launching Realtime search. As of now you can type in a search query and see results from right across FriendFeed stream down in realtime.
When FriendFeed moved to a realtime feed in April some users resisted the change. Keeping track of incoming items can be much harder as they stream down your screen. Difficult, that is, until you get used to using the handy ‘Pause’ button. However, few could fail to see the value of realtime search results. Want to monitor what people are saying about anything, as they say it across the whole Social Media landscape? FriendFeed can now do it quickly and stably.
That’s not all – they’ve added a widget to display realtime search results in your own webpage. So, why not, here’s what people are saying about The Next Web right now:
Besides being a really awesome spectacle, realtimes search will be a huge boon for businesses monitoring what people are saying about their products, journalists monitoring news and much, much, more.
FriendFeed has completed its conversion to an entirely realtime service by launching Realtime search. As of now you can type in a search query and see results from right across FriendFeed come up in realtime.
When FriendFeed moved to a realtime feed in April some users resisted the change. Keeping track of incoming items can be much harder as they stream down your screen. Difficult, that is, until you get used to using the handy ‘Pause’ button.
However, few could fail to see the value of realtime search results. Want to monitor what people are saying about anything, as they say it across the whole Social Media landscape? FriendFeed can now do it quickly and stably. (more…)
Written on 30th June 2009
38 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Friendfeed has just announced long desired theming options to the social aggregating service.
The team at the San Francisco based startup relaunched earlier this year with one the harshest criticisms of the relaunch being the poor colour scheme and overall UI.
Today the team release six themes, each with their unique style – the catch however is that only you the user can see them rather than any visitors to your profile. Additionally, the designer in you can’t create your own theme just yet – but that is apparently on the road map, so sit tight.
Definitely a step in the right direction though, and to be fair, the themes are rather original.
Here’s one example, but you can choose your own here.
Written on 25th June 2009
44 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
It’s not often we write about a company twice in two days (unless you’re Twitter of course… :O) but we felt this news warranted it.
One of the most interesting features of Posterous is its ability to autopost to various sites. Post an image to your blog, and it’ll get sent through to Flickr. A blog post can get sent through to your wordpress blog. A status update can get posted through to Twitter and Facebook – you get the idea.
Well today Posterous quietly pushed an update letting users post to many more of your favorite web apps, specifically:
Written on 24th June 2009
8 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Literally seconds after Facebook announces the launch of public updates and media sharing, Friendfeed pushes an update which sees it enter the realm of file sharing.
As Friendfeed notes in their blog, this is a particularly useful feature for sites and organisations (such as ourselves) who use Friendfeed groups to discuss our business and content.
Currently the file types are limited to documents (PDF’s, spreadsheets) and mp3’s, unfortunately video (more…)
Written on 16th June 2009
3 COMMENTS
Martin Bryant, Co-founder, Social Media Café Manchester
As shockwaves from the current disturbances in Iran continue to be felt across the world, Twitter has been a useful tool for getting stories out of the troubled state.
The Iranian government has locked down social networking tools such as Facebook temporarily in the past so it wouldn’t be surprising to see such a block happen to Twitter now.
While it doesn’t seem that access to Twitter is currently beingrestricted by the Iranian authorities, there is evidence that another online service popular with Iranians, FriendFeed, is being blocked.
Bret Taylor, co-founder of FriendFeed, has posted a graph showing an almost 100% drop in traffic from Iran
(more…)
Written on 15th June 2009
28 COMMENTS
Martin Bryant, Co-founder, Social Media Café Manchester
With an ever-increasing number of places to publish content online, keeping track of it all can be difficult. Pulling it all together and presenting it all in visually pleasing way is a surprisingly difficult task. Quite a few ‘Lifestreaming’ solutions have sprung up in the last couple of years, allowing you to turn your website into a diary of your web content. The question is, are any of them the perfect solution? Let’s take a look.
FriendFeed
Although it’s refocused on being a content discussion service in recent months, lifestreaming is at the heart of FriendFeed’s offering. Requiring nothing more than a few lines of Javascript, their Feed Widget is probably the easiest way to share what you’re up to online. You can configure how many items it displays, its width, whether people’s comments and likes on your content are displayed and you can even switch off the FriendFeed logo so the widget fits better into your web page’s design.
If you’re a heavy user of Twitter your tweets will dominate the feed. To exclude tweets (or any other content you don’t want to display) you could set up a custom feed within FriendFeed that only displays the information you want to show in your widget, then set the widget to display that feed.
The main downside to FriendFeed’s Feed Widget is that it doesn;t separate out all your content, for example, you can’t switch to a display of all your blog posts or all your photos – it’s a simply list of your content. It’s a simple lifestreaming solution but if you’re after something that’s good looking as well as functional there are better options.
Sweetcron
If you have your own website and want something more powerful and flexible than a widget, Sweetcron is one option. It can be thought of as a ‘lifestreaming engine’, doing the dirty work of pulling all your content into one place and leaving the design to the user’s taste. It’s also a simple blogging platform, allowing you to run a blog alongside your lifestream. There’s no rich text editor for the blog, though – you’ll be using HTML even for simple things like adding a link or putting text in italics.
It’s self-hosted, so you have to install it on your web server and set up a PHP database for it. It’s a simple enough installation procedure and if you can install Wordpress, it’s not any more difficult to install Sweetcron. It works by regularly pinging the feeds for all your web content and then displaying it in whatever way you choose.
Sweetcron uses CSS for formatting meaning that if you have the skills it can be sculpted to look however you want it to. For those not too hot on CSS coding, a number of ‘themes’ have been developed to give the service a variety of different looks. Unfortunately most of them are quite basic, bordering on ugly. However, one theme, Tangled Up In Blue by Tom Beardshaw, shows just how powerful Sweetcron can be.
The biggest problem with Sweetcron is the invested of time you have to make to get your theme looking the way you want. If you use one of the themes that come with it you can be up and running quickly but they’re not exactly good looking. When you get into the realm of custom themes you have an added problem. Unlike with Wordpress, theme configuration isn’t a simple task and you may find yourself having to manually edit the CSS to get it working the way you want it to.
The list supported services in Sweetcron isn’t anywhere near comprehensive, missing off services like Qik. These can be manually added but that requires hand editing of code, an arduous process. Thankfully help can be found at the Sweetcron Support Google Group, but unless you’re a person who likes tinkering with code it might be worth giving Sweetcron a miss.
Amplifeeder
As if to provide an answer to Sweetcron’s shortcomings, Amplifeeder has recently launched. Another self-hosted solution, this is essentially Sweetcron, but much more user friendly. It has a Wordpress-esque admin pannel, offering lots of control over your lifestream. Developer Jon Paul Davies has put together a great walkthrough video that explains it all in detail.
Much like Sweetcron, a number of themes are available and they’re generaly better designed here. Mostly named after Joy Division songs, the ‘Disorder’, ‘Komakino3′ and ‘Irresistible’ themes are the most pleasing to these eyes. More themes are promised soon but in the meantime you’re able to get down and dirty editing HTML and CSS to create your own designs.
Amplifeeder has a lot going for it – ease of use, some good looking default themes and a good level of customisation for those willing to get coding. The only thing that lets Amplifeeder down at present is the requirements for installing it. Your web host must support ASP.NET 3.5, IIS6 or 7 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or above. Not all hosting companies offer these resources and those who do often charge a premium for them.
Thankfully, versions for Google App Engine, Ruby On Rails and LAMP are on the way, as well as a hosted version which would mean you coul simply sign up for an account and use the service without having to install anything. News about that final option is expected very soon.
Cliqset
If you want a hosted solution *now* and can’t wait for Amplifeeder’s solution, Cliqset might be for you. Once you’ve signed up and imported all your feeds from around the web you have a profile page that can be used as a simple and effective lifestream. Aside from adding personal information there are no customisation options here, by default Cliqset is a pretty plain affair.
Cliqset’s strength is its developer platform, offering all aspects of your social activity across the web up for use in whatever applications they choose. At present their App Directory is a little on the empty side, with just five apps although this is bound to change if the platform gains traction in the developer community.
Currently available apps include one to update your Facebook, Myspace and Twitter status via Google Talk and one for syncing contacts between Cliqset and Microsoft Outlook. Looking at the documentation, it seems like much more complicated apps and lifestreaming solutions could be built using the Cliqset platform. One to watch.
The hand-coded option
If you’re experienced with coding you could try building your own lifestreaming solution. Many other have tried it with spectacular results. Just take a look at what Shimone Samuel, Rafael Cruz and Joery Bruijntjes have produced – they put everything produced by the services to shame. If you have the skills and need some inspiration, the highly recommended Lifestream Blog has a regular Custom Hosted Lifestream Gallery.
With an ever-increasing number of places to publish content online, keeping track of it all can be difficult. Pulling it all together and presenting it all in a visually pleasing way is a surprisingly difficult task.
Quite a few ‘Lifestreaming’ solutions have sprung up in the last couple of years, allowing you to turn your website into a diary of your web content. The question is, are any of them the perfect solution?
Let’s take a look at some of the best options out there right now. Which ones strike the best balance between good looks, ease of use and flexibility. You might just find the perfect answer for you.
(more…)
Written on 9th May 2009
6 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Twitter went down today, this time round it was scheduled and the plan was to be back up and running an hour later. Sure enough, Twitter was up an hour later but down a few moments after and still is at the time of writing.
Friendfeed, my usual first choice, but most peoples Twitter alternative then decided to go down and quite possibly the most inappropriate time. MG Siegler over at TechCrunch discovered via Friendfeed co-founder Bret Taylor that the site has lose contact with its data center.
The question is, what are the serious alternatives for all the tech heads out there? Facebook is one I suppose, but just never attracts me unless I’m looking to catch up with offline friends. Plurk is another alternative but sadly people seem to have abandoned the site. Identi.ca? Flickr I guess? What ever happened to Virb?
image courtesy of TastyBlogSnack
Written on 6th May 2009
5 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
The team at Friendfeed, in one fell swoop, have made conversation a much easier concept to digest for Twitterers the world over.
It’s no secret, attempting a conversation on Twitter is a painfully frustrating process, usually cut short by concerns over flooding your followers streams. It’s a wonderful place, but lets face it, attempting real conversation is equal to shouting across a crowded room.
Friendfeed, known for it’s lifestreaming and content oriented discussion, have added one click OAuth login for Twitter users making it painless to both join and comment on peoples shares. This, along with Facebook and Google login/signup, leaves virtually every web savvy user with a Friendfeed account ready and waiting. The news is going to be particularly good for Friendfeeders like Robert Scoble who send their posts through to Twitter.
There are bound to still be complaints from Twitter users who find the entire commenting elsewhere process a hindrance, but with any luck they’ll realise the virtues of Friendfeed and adjust. Friendfeed also provides functionality to share comments through
Along with easy login, the feature automatically finds all your Twitter friends on Friendfeed, imports your profile info as well asa your profile picture – it really doesn’t get much easier than that.
I do however still hope for deeper integration with Twitter, and not to forget Facebook, to the point where using Friendfeed as a client for both comes naturally. Once there, Friendfeed has the potential to become the webs social hub, surpassing what desktop clients such as Seesmic Desktop, Eventbox and Nambu are attempting to do.
Written on 29th April 2009
1 COMMENT
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Friendfeed’s co-founder Bret Taylor has officially launched the new Friendfeed at Friendfeed.com. There’s been a fair bit of controversy over the new release, particular on the UI front, but overall the feedback has been positive.
So what’s new?
A fair bit actually. Most significantly, the new UI and a focus on real time notifications. Friendfeed have also introduced more complex search features and the ability to save these providing an awesome way to filter content shared.
Friendfeed have also provided a space to enter profile info into your Friendfeed profile, an enhanced reshare option, keyboard shortcuts and more.
Whilst the new Friendfeed has been available to all via beta.friendfeed.com, ‘Friendfeed by Email‘ is a brand new feature released just today.
Taylor explains:
Post new items to your FriendFeed by emailing share@friendfeed.com. You can post to groups by emailing groupname@friendfeed.com, and you can direct message your friends by emailingusername@friendfeed.com.
You can also choose to get your FriendFeed posts and comments delivered directly to your email inbox (see your email preferences), and even comment on entries simply by replying to messages.
While we’ve been testing this new feature, we’ve used FriendFeed groups to completely replace all our internal mailing lists. And we’ve loved it! It’s been easier to share screenshots and links, and we’ve loved being able to post and respond to all entries from the comfort of our email inboxes. Try it for yourself instead of a mailing list.
There’s bound to be plenty of neat new features even we have yet to discover so for now, we recommend visiting Friendfeed.com to check it out and read the new FAQ’s.
Written on 3rd April 2009
11 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Earlier this week Friendfeed, the social aggregator and discussion platform, announced a press conference of sorts at their offices on Friday. Robert “The Scobleizer” Scoble stepped into their offices just a few moments ago and was able to share news (via Friendfeed) of an upcoming redesign, to supposedly go live on Monday on their beta site http://beta.friendfeed.com.
Friendfeed founders Paul Buchheit and Bret Taylor are choosing not to release details of the update until then – presumably to ensure Facebook don’t duplicate the features before hand (sorry, I’m bitter..).
Further details to be posted here as we hear it.
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
