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How Important A Good Tool Is (for FriendFeed)

I’m going to scramble out on a limb like Toto the Monkey.

Robert Scoble has mentioned (in a good post by Louis Gray here) that he’s scared about people not understanding the many Social Services around today (please correct me if I’m wrong).

A good tool will solve this. FriendFeed (and the others) should invest in the creation of a Tool that will bridge the gap of their Service and the public awareness.

For me, the Tool that caused me to _get_ FriendFeed was twhirl. It allowed me to see what was happening, from a desktop app.

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I think the web services need to examine more carefully the importance of a desktop app to bridge the gap between them and the world.

It doesn’t have to be a desktop app, but that’d be the first context I’d pursue.

Should the Social Web Services spend more time on a Tool to bridge the gap between them and the general public? And should they care?

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Twhirl, Twitter, Friendfeed .. Can It Work Again?

I’m not referring to the Services themselves working, but to MY use of them.

My last journey into the world of Social Networking ended when Twitter stopped it’s jabber (and thus Gtalk) support for me. This kind of waned all other interests.

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Now I’m using Twhirl, and it seems pretty cool. My biggest gripe so far is that CTRL-Backspace doesn’t do what I want it to :).

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The Config windows are simple. Twhirl runs on Adobe Air, and looks .. "air-ee". It allows me to follow Twitter posts and FriendFeed conversations. Also has support for other Services. Considering it’s now owned by Seesmic, it supports them too.

So maybe it’s back in my bloodstream. In my routine. We’ll see.