How to Use FriendFeed

• by Darcy Logan

Introduction

• Are you a member of so many social networking sites that you can't keep track anymore? Folks getting annoyed because you haven't checked out their latest YouTube video, blog post or pictures on Flickr? Finally, there is a reasonable solution: FriendFeed.

• FriendFeed takes all your activity from a multitude of websites and combines it into one spot. It is a free service that helps you keep up-to-date on everything you, your friends or your family are sharing online: photos, videos, music, blog posts, web pages, tweets and more.

• You and your friends can then start a threaded conversation about the items you've shared all in one centralized stream of information. Being social online has never been so easy.

FriendFeed Sites

• Here is a list of the sites that FriendFeed currently supports:

Amazon Blog Brightkite Del.icio.us Digg Diigo Disqus Flickr Furl Gmail/Google Talk

Goodreads Google Reader iLike Intense Debate Jaiku Last.fm LibraryThing LinkedIn Ma.gnolia Mister Wong

Mixx Netflix Netvibes Pandora Picasa Polyvore Pownce Reddit Seesmic SlideShare

SmugMug StumbleUpon Tipjoy Tumblr Twitter Upcoming Vimeo Yelp YouTube Zooomr

Step 1: Create an Account

• To start, you need to go to FriendFeed's Create Account page.¹ You will be asked for the following:

1. Email Address
2. Name
3. Nickname (This will be come part of your URL.)
4. Password

• You should notice a box that says "Make my feed public (anyone can read it)." It is checked. If you are planning to share information with only friends and family, uncheck this box. If you are a minor, uncheck this box until you get approval from a parent or guardian to make your feed public.

• Before you click Create My Account read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.^{2 3} By clicking Create My Account you are agreeing to both of these documents. When you are finished, go ahead and create your account.

Finding Friends

• Once you have created an account, you will be given the option of finding friends through either Facebook or your email account's address book.

1. If you choose Facebook, you will be directed to the login page.
   1. If you do not have a Facebook account, you can create it at this point. (It's free.)
   2. Once you login, you will be directed to a page that allows you to add FriendFeed to your Facebook account.
   3. Decide which options you want, then click on the box that says Add FriendFeed.
   4. You will be sent back to the original FriendFeed page.
2. You can also find friends from your Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail accounts.
   1. Select one and you will be guided to the sign in page.
   2. You will then be asked if you want to grant access to FriendFeed.
   3. This access is one time only.
   4. FriendFeed will then compare your email address to the ones in your account and let you know if you have any friends currently using FriendFeed.

Friend Feeders

• Once you have finished finding your own friends, FriendFeed will suggest some possible friends you can connect with.

1. Click on the name of the suggested friend to find out more about them.
2. If you want to subscribe, click on the Subscribe button.
3. When you are done, you will return to your own FriendFeed.

Step 2: Share Your Connections

• Once you have finished with opening your FriendFeed account, you will be asked to "share something" by importing information from the services FriendFeed currently supports such as Twitter, Digg or StumbleUpon. To "share something":

1. Click on the link or icon of the service you currently use and would like to include in your FriendFeed.
2. Fill in whatever information FriendFeed requires to import that particular service's information. This typically includes your username, password or unique member URL.
3. Click on the Import button. All your posts with that service will now be included in your FriendFeed.

• If you accidentally close out or get lost as you are signing in to your services or finding your account information, don't panic.

1. You can find the FriendFeed "add services" page again by going back to your profile page.
2. Click on Share Something. It is located in upper left-hand side of the page.
3. When it expands, click on Import Your Stuff. You're back where you started from.

Microblogging

• While FriendFeed is great as an aggregator, you can also use it to microblog. A microblog is a quick way to update your friends on what you are doing or to inform them about a great site you've seen. It's really simple.

1. Locate the blue Share something button located at the top left-hand corner of the page.
2. Click on the Share something button. It will expand and allow you to write a message and post a link, if desired.
3. Decide where you want to post to. It defaults to your profile, but you can choose any one of the rooms you have joined. (See Step 5 for more information on rooms.)
4. Click the Share this button.

• If you make a mistake, you can always delete or edit the post by clicking on More beneath the comment. You will be given four options:

1. Link to this entry: Will send you to a page with just that comment on it. You can then highlight the URL at the top and paste it wherever you desire.
2. Reshare this entry: Will move the comment back to the top of your FriendFeed. This can be great if you want to remind people of an important event.
3. Moderate comments: Will allow you to remove any negative or distracting comments made to your posts.
4. Delete this entry: Will erase the post from the FriendFeed.

Comments

• One of the great things about FriendFeed is that you can have a threaded discussion with your friends about any of your posts via the Comments section located below each item in your feed. To initiate a conversation, simply click on one of the options included below each item:

1. Comment: Allows you to write a comment of any length on your friend's video, blog post, link or whatever else he or she has chosen to share. Once you've finished writing a comment, click the Post button.
2. Like: Indicate that you think something is cool by clicking on the Like button. A smiley face will now appear beneath the item indicating which users "liked" an item.
3. Hide: The Hide button will remove an item from your FriendFeed.

Step 3: Edit Your Account Settings

• Now that you've added your connections, it's time to adjust some of your settings to personalize your FriendFeed account. This will make sure that you are getting exactly what you want out of it. Let's start by editing your account settings.

• You can access the account settings screen by clicking on the word Account in the right-hand corner of the page next to your name. You can do quite a few things here that will adjust your feed and your email preferences.

Feed Preferences

• First, you'll notice that you can change your feed preferences. Your feed preferences include six major parts: display name, picture, services, password, public/private feed and how links are opened.

1. Display Name: Your display name is not the same as your nicknmame. Your display name is what is written in black in the corner of FriendFeed. Your nickname is the ending part of the URL on FriendFeed. Your nickname must be unique; your display name does not. You can change both your display name and your nickname.
2. Picture: You can also add a picture by clicking on the change picture link located directly below the box for your display name.
3. Change Password: If you want to change your password, click on change password.
4. Privacy Settings: If you want to make your profile private or public, you can do so here. If you are a minor, you should always make your profile private. This does not mean that no one will be able to see your profile. It means you must approve someone before they can. In other words, all your friends can see your profile and what you posted, but your ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend cannot.
5. Services: You can edit and add services to your FriendFeed by clicking the edit/add link from this page. (Services can also be edited, deleted and added via the Share Something button located at the top of your FriendFeed.)

• When you're done setting your preferences, click Save Changes.

Email

• The email section is where you can set your email preferences as well as add additional email addresses. There are three preferences you can set:

1. Get or stop email when people subscribe to my FriendFeed. The default for this is on. If you don't want to know when people subscribe, make the box is not checked.
2. Get or stop email when people comment on your feed if you haven't logged in recently. The default for this is on. If you want to turn it off, make sure make the box is not checked.
3. Get your FriendFeed via email daily or weekly. The default for this is off. If you want email from FriendFeed, click on the box and choose either the "daily" or "weekly" option.

• You can also add additional email address if you have more than one. This will help your friends find you. You can also see if you remembered to verify your primary email address. If there is a green check next to the address, you did. If there is a red minus sign, you did not. If you never got a verification email, you can have it resent from here as well.

• Notice that there is a second Save Changes button located below the email section. If you made any changes to this portion, you must click this button, not the button located above it.

Step 4: Friend Settings

• Click on the Friend Settings tab on the top right-hand side of the screen to access manage your subscriptions, find friends, create imaginary friends and access stats on what services your friends are using.

My Subscriptions

• Here you can see whose feeds you have subscribed to. You can also find and invite more people by clicking on the blue Find and invite more people link. You will then be given the option of finding or inviting friends via your email address book.

Subscribed to Me

• This tab will show you who has subscribed to your feed. Since you just signed up, you won't have anybody listed there. This screen also shows your FriendFeed url and gives you another link on where to go to invite your friends.

Imaginary

• I know, you thought you'd given up your imaginary friends about the same time you gave up sleeping with a light on. It's not that kind of "imaginary friend." Instead, FriendFeed gives you the option of keeping track of your friends who don't use FriendFeed by compiling the RSS feeds from the various social services they do use into one place.

• For example, my brother and sister-in-law just had a baby. They have been uploading pictures onto Flikr on a regular basis. As the proud aunt, I would like to know the second they are updated. Since I know that they are far to busy to join FriendFeed at this time, I am going to create an "imaginary" friend account for them titled "My New Niece." I click on the Create an imaginary feed button, insert my brothers Flickr screen name and presto—there's a new tab on my FriendFeed which reads "My New Niece" where I can access my brother's pics.

• You can only create an imaginary friend if your friend's information is public.

Recommended

• The recommended tab will give you some options of people you might find interesting. You will probably notice profiles for Bret Taylor, Jim Norris, Paul Buchheit and Sanjeev Singh. They are FriendFeed's founders.

• To add them to your feed, simply click the Subscribe button associated with their profile.

Stats

• Stats, or statistics, are calculated by your last 30 days of activity. It looks at which sites you and your friends are using most often as well as who you find the most interesting.

Find & Invite Friends

• If you clicked on one of the earlier links, you probably found your way to this page. This page gives you three options to find friends:

1. Search for Friends: You can look for people with similar interests by typing in a word or phrase in the box.
2. Automatically find your friends: The same option you had during sign-up. You can find friends using FriendFeed via your Gmail, Yahoo Mail or Hotmail email address book.
3. Invite your friends: If you want to notify your friends about FriendFeed, you can email them from here. A word of warning, some people consider this "friend spam." If you are going to email, be sure to personalize the message.

• Good news! You already have a friend on FriendFeed. Go to Mahalo's FriendFeed and find the official Mahalo's FriendFeed. We'll be happy to connect with you.⁴

Step 5: Understand the Tabs

• There are four tabs that run across the top of your FriendFeed page: friends, rooms, me and everyone. Here's an overview of what each tab contains:

Friends

• Your friends tab is where you can find out what your friends are doing and posting. It is also where you can go to "comment" and "like" posts, two things that will alter your stats in your friend settings.

1. To comment, click on the light blue comment link. A box will open up underneath where you can enter in your comment. If you make a mistake, or change your mind, you can edit and delete any comments you make.
2. To indicate that you "like" something, click on the like link underneath a post.

• You may also notice some of your friend's friends posts on this page. Their name will appear along with a parenthetical describing whose friend they are. If you click on the person's name, you will be taken to their profile page, which gives you the option of subscribing to their feed or blocking them.

Rooms

• A FriendFeed room is a "mini FriendFeed." It allows you to categorize certain friends and share things that you might not want the whole world to know (providing you make the room private). However, you can also connect with like members by creating a room and leaving it public.

• If you want to create a room, it is very similar to creating your FriendFeed account.

1. Click on the rooms tab at the top of your FriendFeed.
2. Click the Create a room now link at the bottom of the page.
3. Enter a room name.
4. Enter a nickname.
   • Your room's nickname will appear in the room's URL: http://friendfeed.com/room/NICKNAME
5. Enter a description of your room.
6. Choose a privacy setting for your room:
   1. Public: This allows anyone to access or join the room.
   2. Semi-Public: Anyone can read or comment, but only admins can post.
   3. Private: Only invited people can access this room.
7. Invite people to your room by inputing the names of FriendFeed users or the email addresses of people not currently using FriendFeed.

• You can find already created rooms by looking at FriendFeed members profiles. When looking at a users' profile, you will notice a blue bar on the right-hand side of the page. This lists what services they use, discussions they have liked or commented on, subscriptions they have and what rooms they have joined. Click on the name of the room to see what that room is all about.

• If you are looking to join a great room, check out Mahalo's public room.

Me

• This tab is exactly what you think it is. It shows your profile. You have the option of changing your picture here if you did not do so on the account page. You will also see all your recent posts.

Everyone

• If you want to see what all of FriendFeed's users are posting, click on the everyone tab. Here you will see the posts other people have made, regardless of whether or not they're your friend.

Share Something

• At the top of all four of the tabbed pages, you'll find a Share Something button. By clicking this button, you can post a message or link to your FriendFeed as well as edit and add the services which appear in your feed.

Step 6: Become a Power User

• Once you have learned the basics, you can start learning a few tricks that will make using FriendFeed easier and more enjoyable. A few of these things include:

1. The FriendFeed Bookmarklet is a great little device that adds FriendFeed to your web browser.
2. Alert Thingy is a desktop app that allows you access to FriendFeed, Twitter and Flickr from your desktop.
3. You can also embed FriendFeed onto your blog or webpage using the javascript Friendfeed provides for you.
4. You can add FriendFeed to your iGoogle page.

• The following video shows you how to install and use the FriendFeed Bookmarklet:

• 
  How to share anything with FriendFeed from Dan Hsiao on Vimeo.

Conclusion

• Okay, you are ready to start making new friends, re-connecting with all those people you abandoned due to lack of time and be totally in the know about everyone and everything. The beauty of FriendFeed is that you can now do all this from one centralized place on the web. Your online life may never be the same.

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References for How to Use FriendFeed

1. ↑ FriendFeed: Create Account
2. ↑ FriendFeed: Terms of Use
3. ↑ FriendFeed: Privacy Policy
4. ↑ FriendFeed: Mahalo's Official FriendFeed

Additional FriendFeed Resources

• Google Blogoscoped: 10 Ways to Get More Out of Friendfeed
• FriendFeed: Frequently Asked Questions
• Google Groups: FriendFeed
• FriendFeed: API Help
• Andy Beard: How To Find FriendFeed Rooms With Google

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