The problem with FriendFeed

FriendFeed has had a lot of coverage this week. But then again so has Windows 7, Twitter, TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop, so there’s a chance you may have missed it.

When the new FriendFeed beta was unveiled on Monday I was certainly intrigued (in fact so much so that I’ve spent most of the week in FriendFeed, and not on Twitter where I usually hang out). Although I’d signed up for FriendFeed when it was first released, I hadn’t actually given it much of a look in until this week.

A few weeks back in my Twitter Popularity Content post I lamented the eroding of community on Twitter, and how the vibe was changing. In that post I jokingly suggested following people simply for the follow-back. Little did I know that some people actually seriously advocate this as a strategy.

I concluded by asking: where all the cool kids are heading? And the answer is now clear: FriendFeed.

Sadly though it seems I’m too late . All the cool kids are there alright, but the inevitable rabble of celebrity and marketer have turned up too.

But that won’t put me off for the short term. I love the community discussions that take place on FriendFeed. In many ways it is the replacement for comment systems on blogs. A discussion of topics is easy to promote and comment on. Filters are natural, and friend recommendations are actually relevant. I’m a convert.

(I’ll still be on Twitter though. Twitter’s biggest feature is its simplicity which I still like. In contrast, FriendFeed has taken me a little while to get used to.)

So what’s the problem?

Well, there’s a few problems.

The first is the lack of client tools. Sure, Twhirl and a few others provide FriendFeed support, but it actually detracts from the experience (especially since FriendFeed is now in real time). There’s no killer FriendFeed app.

Second is the ease with which you can pollute your stream, especially if you pull in from numerous sources (Twitter, Facebook, Ping.fm, etc).

Third is the bad layout. The UI is so inefficient that on a 1280 X 1024 screen I’m usually only seeing 6 or 7 messages (I agree with the suggestions on Mashable too).

These can all be overcome of course with time and proper development. Which just leaves the final problem:

How will they ever make any money?

Making money is going to be the priority for all but the best cashed up ventures (eg I think Twitter can hold on for a while), so FriendFeed surely has to be thinking of how to monetize the business at some point soon (they’ve only had $5M in funding so far). I can’t think of anyway they can monetize FriendFeed in its current format.

If the audience is predominantly geek, then they aren’t going to go for an ad supported structure. 

And even if the audience grows to mainstream, they probably still won’t be able to make money from ads. Why? Because if Facebook with all its rich, detailed demographic information can’t turn a profit from ads, then FriendFeed sure as hell doesn’t have a chance either.

Their information is taken predominantly from other sources, so there’s very little unique data-mining that can extracted.

And I don’t think they’ll be encouraging Friendfeed in Uni lectures like they are with Twitter.

So that leaves what?

Perhaps the only chance for FriendFeed will be if it gets acquired.

Finally

FriendFeed is great. I like it. But I think its days are numbered.