Despite all the “FriendFeed is dead” arguments the naysayers have been pushing, a new, pretty significant update was pushed by the FriendFeed team today into production. The update belongs to FriendFeed’s App on Facebook, and now imports every update users post on status update services they import into FriendFeed as status updates on Facebook. This means if you are importing your Twitter feed onto FriendFeed, and have installed the FriendFeed app on Facebook, all your Twitter updates will now automatically import as status updates onto Facebook. Not only that, but it supports Google Chat status updates, Plurk updates, Identi.ca updates, and potentially any status update service supported by FriendFeed.
This move goes head-to-head with services like Twitter’s own Facebook app, which, as one of the very first Facebook Platform apps, automatically posts Twitter updates to users’ profiles. The idea also, to me, suggests that the FriendFeed team will be releasing more updates around this in the future. For instance, it now makes sense that FriendFeed begins to enable preferences around which services auto-populate into Facebook, and perhaps even a “post to Facebook” checkbox next to the already-existing “post to Twitter” checkbox when you post an update on the service. FriendFeed also, very soon, needs to integrate Facebook Connect so that their Facebook integration (which is bound to happen) is much tighter and works better with the Facebook environment. This is based on a Facebook app, which in my best guesses the FriendFeed team should be integrating into their existing FriendFeed app on Facebook – it’s inevitable at this point. When this happens it makes sense to add even more updates to their Facebook integration, further growing the service.
The skeptics have all been pushing that FriendFeed won’t grow because the FriendFeed team is no longer working on the product. I think this pretty much debunks that theory, even suggesting more updates are to come. As I said before, FriendFeed’s just fine – it won’t be going away any time soon, and I think this proves my point even further.
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“FriendFeed also, very soon, needs to integrate Facebook Connect so that their Facebook integration (which is bound to happen) is much tighter and works better with the Facebook environment”
We already do…just not using the Javascript library. The Facebook button on the logged out FriendFeed page redirects you to Facebook where you login and TOS the FriendFeed application which then redirects you back to FriendFeed now logged in and with a completed profile (name, picture, and subscriptions). Likewise the Facebook button on http://friendfeed.com/friends/search redirects you to Facebook and then back to FriendFeed. When I wrote those features I was just way more comfortable doing it all in redirects instead of using Connect.
“This is based on a Facebook app, which in my best guesses the FriendFeed team should be integrating into their existing FriendFeed app on Facebook – it’s inevitable at this point.”
I'm not sure what that means. We only have one Facebook application.
Also I should note that it's not just status updates that are pushed to Facebook. The application has always published everything and still publishes everything. It's just that now status updates become proper Facebook status updates.
One difference that I noted was that the FriendFeed updates in Facebook now appear to de-emphasize the source of the original information. For example, previously my Google Reader updates that streamed through FriendFeed were labeled on Facebook as coming from Google Reader – now, that is apparently no longer the case.
This isn't a big deal, and in fact parallels some changes made in the native FriendFeed service itself several months before the Facebook acquisition, but it's interesting nonetheless.
This is really cool, but I have to admit, it has helped me decide to remove my twitter updates from my Friendfeed. I already wonder if all my Friendfeed activity is too much for my Facebook friends. My main reason for removing twitter though is because in general it doesn't add much value to Friendfeed and is often out of context.
Glad to see Friendfeed continues to innovate and add features.
[…] more excited to see the FriendFeed team still cranking out cool new technologies, making this the second one today for the site. It’s becoming apparent that the FriendFeed team is finally becoming […]
[…] more excited to see the FriendFeed team still cranking out cool new technologies, making this the second one today for the site. It’s becoming apparent that the FriendFeed team is finally becoming […]
[…] more excited to see the FriendFeed team still cranking out cool new technologies, making this the second one today for the site. It’s becoming apparent that the FriendFeed team is finally becoming […]
[…] more excited to see the FriendFeed team still cranking out cool new technologies, making this the second one today for the site. It’s becoming apparent that the FriendFeed team is finally becoming […]
[…] more excited to see the FriendFeed team still cranking out cool new technologies, making this the second one today for the site. It’s becoming apparent that the FriendFeed team is finally becoming […]
[…] more excited to see the FriendFeed team still cranking out cool new technologies, making this the second one today for the site. It’s becoming apparent that the FriendFeed team is finally becoming […]
[…] more excited to see the FriendFeed team still cranking out cool new technologies, making this the second one today for the site. It’s becoming apparent that the FriendFeed team is finally becoming […]
Thanks Benjamin for your comments. I was aware of the registration Connect
implementation, but I'd love to see it even more tightly integrated – for
instance, if I'm logged in through Facebook I should be able to post my
status updates to Facebook, as well as import my stream via the stream API
(instead of the almost-defunct and limited RSS feed that they have). I
should be able to import my Facebook status updates. All this is simple
stuff (FTMP) via the API – I'd love to see a tighter integration with
FriendFeed in that case.
Regarding the second point, that's what I meant. The same Facebook app you
used to set up your registration Connect implementation has the potential to
power the same types of updates on FriendFeed.com. Seeing updates in that
app is promising in that hopefully it means we see more updates on
FriendFeed.com in regards to Facebook integration in the future. Hopefully
that makes sense.
[…] FriendFeed Launches Status Update Sync to Auto-update Facebook […]
I gave the Identi.ca -> FriendFeed -> Facebook path a try, but the FriendFeed to Facebook link sometimes posts out of order and that solution won't let me exclude @replies from what ends up on Facebook. So I'm back to using the Identi.ca -> Facebook path via the Identi.ca Facebook app.
I just removed FriendFeed from my Facebook account, and deleted my entire FriendFeed account. I gave FriendFeed permission to write on my wall in Facebook, not update my status. This is violation in my opinion, and I hope someone really sticks it both of them.
Inchirieri de masini in Bucuresti, Inchirieri Auto la Baneasa si Otopeni. Parcul nostru auto detine cele mai bune oferte la preturi imbatabile. Daca doriti sa inchiriati o masina de la aeroportul Baneasa sau otopeni va sugeram sa folositi inchirieri auto baneasa.
Inchirieri de masini in Bucuresti, Inchirieri Auto la Baneasa si Otopeni. Parcul nostru auto detine cele mai bune oferte la preturi imbatabile. Daca doriti sa inchiriati o masina de la aeroportul Baneasa sau otopeni va sugeram sa folositi inchirieri auto baneasa.
I gave the Identi.ca -> FriendFeed -> Facebook path a try, but the FriendFeed to Facebook link sometimes posts out of order and that solution won't let me exclude @replies from what ends up on Facebook. So I'm back to using the Identi.ca -> Facebook path via the Identi.ca Facebook app.