The new FriendFeed beta – Very impressive!

The new beta of FriendFeed was released yesterday and it has totally blown me away!  I am a keen user of FriendFeed, (you can subscribe to my feed here), yet I know many people have been put off using it because of it’s ‘awkward’ interface.  This has now been massively improved, with yesterday’s launch of the new beta version at beta.friendfeed.com

FriendFeed beta

There are way too many improvements and new additions for me to cover here, so here are a few of my favourites.

What I have found most useful thus far, is the ability to easily track all the conversations I have taken part in, in real time!  I leave a comment in a discussion and am then instantly notified, without having to leave the screen.  This makes conversations flow with ease and dramatically improves the overall experience.  It will also see far more people engaging in conversations.

FriendFeed beta – Direct Messages

Another function of the beta is the ability to send and receive Direct Messages.  However, unlike Twitter, you can send a Direct Message to more than one person at a time.

FriendFeed beta – Filters

One of the most common complaints about FriendFeed in the past, has been the huge amount of information that’s fed into a users feed.  This has been addressed too, through the development of a number of extremely useful filters.  These allow you to only see comments (for example) from certain people or for you to see comments / shares about a certain subject, which have a minimum of 2 ‘likes.’

FriendFeed beta – scalable

FriendFeed, with it’s new filters and massive amount of customisation, makes it super-easy to follow people in huge numbers, with no additional apps required.  Twitter is a prime example of a platform, which has failed to scale correctly.  I’m not talking about the fail whale here.  I’m talking about the fact that with so many people using Twitter, the amount of noise generated is ruining the experience for many users.  This is why apps like Tweetdeck have been developed. It would be close to impossible to manage a large following on Twitter, using only the Twitter website.  This would not be an issue with FriendFeed, thanks to the new interface.

FriendFeed beta – Overall

Whilst there are many new bells and whistles added to the new FriendFeed beta, for me, the single biggest improvement is the ability to have real time discussions and track your discussions with pretty much zero effort.  This totally changes the FriendFeed experience and transforms it into a far more valuable and user friendly environment.  I can see myself using Twitter less and less.

I believe that if enough new people get to use the FriendFeed beta, there will be a huge increase in user numbers.  If people try it, I think they will love it!  If you have not tried FriendFeed or you tried it before and found it awkward to use, check the new beta out now at beta.friendfeed.com and let me know what you think!  My FriendFeed user name is jimconnolly

FriendFeed beta – The video

Take a look at this introduction video.  It was shot by techcrunch and shows Bret Taylor of FriendFeed going through the new interface.