Comments on: Has the echo chamber had its day?

By: notes, thoughts, ideas and responses » The FriendFeed Sponge

notes, thoughts, ideas and responses » The FriendFeed Sponge — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:41:37 +0000

[...] “On FriendFeed, We’re All TV Channels.” Colin Walker is hovering his finger over different possibilities and trying to pinpoint exactly what all this means. Steven Hodson thinks bloggers [...]

By: Digg Was My Local Bar, Then They Ruined It | Fog of Eternity | Website design and discussion

Wed, 07 May 2008 22:29:52 +0000

[...] development is our cool little local bar. We like to hang out at Sphinn, or on FriendFeed. It means we hang out with the same friends talking about the same things. That’s our hangout, not Myspace or Facebook, they’re like that busy and unpleasant [...]

By: Colin

Colin — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:43:42 +0000

Thanks for your thoughts.

Hutch, I don’t disagree about devoted fans enthusing about a service but the problem may be that the early adopters are moving on too quickly for any service to actually achieve a tipping point.

Robin, good point about services evolving and perhaps doing so at the expense of their early users. May be worth exploring at a later date.

Mark, was going to use this example myself. With the iPod, however, it wasn’t so much Apple creating a need (the need was always going to be there with the increase in digital entertainment) but it was more a case of them creating a ‘desire’ which then translated into them cornering the market.

Corvida, if early adopters are moving faster then are they not further separating themselves from the mainstream and thus making themselves irrelevant to the general population by virtue in the gulf that appears?

By: Corvida

Corvida — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:26:31 +0000

I wouldn’t say it’s becoming irrelevant. I think that early adopters are moving at a more rapid pace than mainstream. Mainstream seems to be getting slower and slower with catching on to new services imo. At the same time, they aren’t nearly as consumed with these things as early adopters are, which I think has a tremendous impact.

Last blog post..Grand Effect: New Members To The Family

By: Mark Dykeman

Mark Dykeman — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:15:13 +0000

Apple and the iPod created a need that didn’t exist beforehand – it went massively mainstream, as we all know. Simple and powerful technology. Maybe social media could learn a lesson. And Apple has always been a step apart from the rest of the technology world.

Last blog post..Welcome to Twitter Club!

By: Robin Cannon

Robin Cannon — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:40:18 +0000

I think there’s definitely going to be a developing split between niche social media and mainstream options. Something like Sphinn is a good example of this, where it’s not even looking to extend beyond social networking early adopters as an audience.

The more mainstream a site gets I think the less attractive its going to be to early adopters. So I think we may also see a greater move towards social media that you can effectively target. Twitter is this kind of service – regardless of the overall usage it’s still easy to remain focused on people talking about the kind of things you’re interested in.

Digg is the best example of a site that’s lost attractiveness to early adopters as it becomes more mainstream. It gets criticised for having too much “fluff” in terms of celeb gossip or YouTube videos, but that’s exactly what you’d expect from a more mainstream site being used more often for fun than just functionality.

Last blog post..Three Great Twitter Sites

By: bhc3

bhc3 — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:51:48 +0000

Nothing wrong in the early days of an app for a devoted set of fans to enthuse over it and make suggestions for improving it. I’m thinking of FriendFeed, which to my knowledge, no one has claimed mainstream status.

Slowly, but surely, the early fans attract others to the app, if it has value.

But if something has been out for years and still hasn’t gotten more mainstream, then you’re seeing a lack of general population interest.

Too early to sweat social media and mainstream. The only ones that REALLY care about that are those who need to consult with companies. Companies want to know when something has reached the tipping point. They’ll budget and plan accordingly. Twitter and Facebook fall into this category of wondering about mainstream or not. Most other social media are doing just find with their enthusiastic fans at this point.

Last blog post..Ten FriendFeed Visitors Beats 1,000 StumbleUpons Any Day