Popular online activity-monitoring service FriendFeed just announced IM integration and the way they implemented it is really smart. I’m now getting an IM every time someone comments on one of my items in FriendFeed, and I can reply with a comment on that very same item from inside my IM client. It’s a great way to keep on top of conversations and keep them flowing.
If you’ve never used FriendFeed before, it’s a must-see application for sharing and discussing cool stuff on the web. This new feature addition is going to make it even better.
Here’s a tour of what we at ReadWriteWeb are up to on FriendFeed.
These simple, smart settings offer a whole lot of powerful possibilities. I’ve never set up particular bundles of friends on FriendFeed, but now that I could get just items from them on IM, I probably will for co-workers, trailblazers, etc.
The way that the company handled commenting on multiple items, by assigning a number to each and requiring an @# reply, is really smart.
Making it this friction-free to monitor and contribute to conversations has the potential to increase participation in FriendFeed by orders of magnitude.
The Down Sides
There’s no way to get an IM when someone “likes” an item, which would be a nice option to have.
Unfortunately, there’s still no ability to subscribe to searches inside FriendFeed. We would really like to get IMs from FriendFeed when anyone on the service mentions our new site Jobwire, and we’d like to be able to post a reply to them from inside IM as well. Not yet, though!
So come join us on FriendFeed and we can discuss the awesome things we find online – instantly!
