something happening at friendfeed?

So I just logged onto friendfeed and saw the logo below - what does it mean? Could friendfeed be moving? or maybe they are about to unpack a whole load of new features?

update: friendfeed were moving offices.. lol

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It is not so long ago that your internet experience went something like this:

1. Connect to Internet
2. Check your webmail account
3. Check your favourite sites
4. Go to Google to search for something

Then came RSS/webfeeds which allowed you to centralise most of the above into a single page - your personalised home page. There are plenty of options - iGoogle, Microsoft Live.com, My Yahoo and Netvibes (which I use) to name a few.

This was supposed to be the page that became your first port of call and Google has been leading the way.

..except something has happened to divert people away from it.

Facebook

How did this happen? Well actually most people online never really got to that second stage of using a personalised homepage. It was just a bit too geeky and difficult to use. It still is. Instead they joined Facebook in the millions and stored all their info there.

I keep hearing stories of teenagers who say that they use Facebook to message their friends and only "oldies" use email. Photos are stored on there; quick updates (a la Twitter) are submitted there and now you can even play games and chat in there.

So it’s fast becoming a user’s first point of call, integrating your life offline - online. As many have pointed out, it contains a significant amount of info about your life. This has rapidly pushed privacy to the fore.

So where is the threat to Google? Well Google survives by scavenging off the information you leave behind when using its products. So if you are no longer using its products then there’s a problem.

What if Facebook added a search bar for the web into its platform. Since you are there already will you use it? I think that’s only likely if its good enough.. but Yahoo and possibly Microsoft Search isn’t that much behind Google in terms of quality - it’s just habit that keeps Google where it is.

Or Facebook added:

a decent calendar service..

..or a decent email platform

If they can do it well enough.. those teenagers will be shifting away from Google to.. yes you guessed it.. Facebook’s platform.

What would be more interesting would be if Facebook opened up its messaging platform - allowed 3rd party providers to provide the solutions. Oh its doing that already.. but not enough.

Imagine - your preferred calendar/email/search service all embedded in to your Facebook page. Facebook becomes the glue that connects everything together.

First they need to get the privacy right though..

[update] Just read that Facebook signed a deal with Microsoft to place Microsoft adCenter sponsored links and other ads on Facebook and that now there is talk that Microsoft is possibly looking at a £150m-£250m investment in exchange for 5% of the company. That values Facebook at a cool £5bn. More importantly, it would place Microsoft in a stronger position for access to Facebook’s userbase.

Orkut is google’s take on social networks like facebook, hi5, myspace etc (there are only several million more these days).

In any case, of the major players, I do not rate orkut that highly but those that love it do seem to use it constantly. I have constantly heard about how huge in South America, unfortunately those South Americans will be feeling some pain today as orkut has been down now for around 15 hours now, and counting!

There are rumours on the web it is an upgrade..

I hope so as it is in desperate need of one - however if what I saw prior to orkut going down was anything to go by, it doesn’t look like it. Immediately prior to the under construction page, the friends list was completely unavailable and there were huge number of orkut’s donut error pages flying around..

If it is an upgrade, Google sure need to make it smoother to the user and communicate better.

It’s easy to see why the entire “2.0″ phenomenon has created so much buzz - there are so many different topics, technologies, concepts, whatever to grab onto that everyone feels they have something to contribute. This was very much shown at the mashup* event that took place tonight at The Commonwealth Club in London. The public discussion itself could have continued long into the night.. instead breaking into enthusiastic more private discussions later. Of course the sheer vastness of topics meant it was difficult to cover everything to the same depth or maybe even in enough depth. Time for another mashup*..

Anyhow, it all left a lot to think about so I am going to briefly list the areas discussed and one or two thoughts and then write each of them up a bit later once I have let things settle a little.

structured blogging
Basically tagging the individual parts of a blog post to create something more valuable. Is this the way forward?

IP ownership
Who owns user generated content across the various mediums - why?

(re!)launch of Gamespot UK with user content stylee
Is this user generated content too far or is it something that is going to drive users to Gamespot UK?

myspace uk
Can the US phenomenon make it in Europe?

the napsterisation of social networks?
Mark Canter talked about the launch of his new open peer to peer social network (it certainly uses enough buzz words to describe itself). Can it take on myspace and win?

old new media vs new new media
does old new media need to adapt and embrace the new way or can it sit out on its own separate to the “2.0″ phenomenon? have the bbc made a mistake when it says it is to invest in relaunching bbc.co.uk with user generated content?

trusting content
how do you know what you read online is true? is it possible?

the future
Putting everything discussed together to see where we might end up

I think that covers most of it.. meanwhile on a separate note I just managed to burn my hand in the oven.. no it seems 2.0 or not you cannot cook and blog at the same time