FriendFeed has generated a good bit of buzz since the companies inception because the founders came from Google. Paul Bucheit, the driver behind the company, was the creator(well, basically) of GMail and has continued to prove that he is a visionary with the latest FriendFeed update. Basically FriendFeed took some of the best parts of Facebook and Twitter – many of which had been stolen from them so they really were only taking them back – combined it with a better conversation format, a better look in my opinion, and a host of powerful tools.
Perhaps the most interesting feature is that FriendFeed is literally real time. In other words unlike Facebook and Twitter where you have to hit refresh – on FriendFeed you only have to sit there and wait for the posts and information to flow by. It really heralds the future of social networking on the web in my eyes, although it remains to be seen if non-techies buy into that idea any time soon and if they can keep up with the flow of information. It can be somewhat overwhelming.
Regardless, FriendFeed’s beta which is available at FriendFeed Beta is something you need to check out!
My main question is how are they going to make money? They haven’t said and I am not sure that enterprise features like companies such as Yammer could ever work for the real time web. After all enterprise instant messaging is already the real time web, especially if you use powerful tools such as Brosix Enterprise Messaging which according to many categories in the About.com is the best IM client for business clients everywhere.
In other words FriendFeed needs to look more at measuring consumer sentiment in the real time and data mining that for companies rather than enterprise options.