You might have noticed that FriendFeed looks pretty different today. We've just launched a whole new design, and a host of features and improvements that comes along with it.
We unveiled this look three weeks ago in beta and have been busy gathering feedback and making improvements. Here are some of the things you'll now find in FriendFeed:
Real-time
Forget the refresh button. All pages now update in real-time. You'll see your friends' photos and messages stream in as they're shared. Comments and likes also get displayed as they happen.
More powerful share box
You can now choose whom to share items with. Post something to multiple feeds or to just a few friends. You can also now direct message anyone who's subscribed to you.
Saved searches
Use FriendFeed's advanced search options to create filters for easy access to the friends and topics you care most about. Choose from filtering options such as seeing only entries that have certain keywords or entries with a certain number of likes or comments.
FriendFeed by Email
And of course, we had to add something new to the beta... and so we're introducing FriendFeed by email!
Post new items to your FriendFeed by emailing share@friendfeed.com. You can post to groups by emailing groupname@friendfeed.com, and you can direct message your friends by emailing username@friendfeed.com.
You can also choose to get your FriendFeed posts and comments delivered directly to your email inbox (see your email preferences), and even comment on entries simply by replying to messages.
While we've been testing this new feature, we've used FriendFeed groups to completely replace all our internal mailing lists. And we've loved it! It's been easier to share screenshots and links, and we've loved being able to post and respond to all entries from the comfort of our email inboxes. Try it for yourself instead of a mailing list.
And there's more...
As you spend time on the new FriendFeed, you'll notice other new things, such as:
- profile information
- more powerful "reshare" functionality
- you can now sign up for FriendFeed and find all of your friends with a single click from the FriendFeed homepage
- a "My discussions" feed that shows every entry you've participated in
- notification options for email, IM and our desktop notifier
- keyboard shortcuts for the most common commands
You might also want to check out our updated FAQ for things that have changed, such as groups. If you find a bug, let us know. And of course, we're still working on new features and improvements to this interface. As always, let us know your thoughts and comments in FriendFeed Feedback.
74 comments:
This is great! I was caught way off guard when I logged in.
I guess I'll have to give some actual critique or something, too. I suppose it'd be nice to have it more customizable, but other than that, I'm liking it a lot :)
Thanks for your work guys.
The only thing I want to say is about new design. I don't like it and I think that It's definitely worse. It's less minimalistic... and grey background looks too pale to me. Service like this should have better design. Thanks again.
很好很强大
Yes, thank you for you time and efforts but it sucks....The minimalistic design was very easy to use and efficient. This one is just too shinny but not really functional!! At least allow the option of going back to old days!
We want http://old.friendfeed.com as an option
I can't say it's very good for me and my friend at frienfeed.They've been shocked.
At least there should be another style -which is old from now on- users can choice.
Give us the old style !
Thanks for your efforts, but the new friendfeed is really quite terrible. Trying to read and keep up with it makes you feel like you are on the verge of having a seizure. Please at least give an option to go back to the old layout.
I know people don't like change, but come on. It isn't that bad? It's still got the same functionality (look at why the Facebook update drew fire - they removed useful things, which the FF team haven't done), and it just looks a bit more modern (so yeah, less simple).
I think it's far better than the old one, visually, and exactly the same usability-wise.
Keep delivering the Bacon.
Overall the new look is great!However, the live feed aspect isn't transparent. And I liked the mini live feed window I could open. Can't see how to do that now.
Dear ferfer (that is what we call you in Persian). My father came door (it is a Persian slang with much negative connotation) with this new version, please change it to classic version or I will make your father come!
Please, make the option for old design!
Regarding "Recommended friends" - I wish there was an option to subscribe to a couple of recommended friends simultaneously instead of choosing them one by one.
BTW, its funny you don't use Friendfeed's identities in blog replies
Your team has renewed my faith in the use of email. Thank you and thank you.
The new FF is excellent. It is not even comparable with the prev.
However few notes:
1. I see that most of the users are shocked and are kind of lost. Probably it was better to introduce all this new features kind of gradually.
2. Where are the trends&stats? who like who most and etc?
If you add the stats, the first issue is not that important. People will get use to it soon and it is excellent.
3. Please don't forget to add RTL issue as well.
Love,
Bamdadi (http://bamdadi.com)
I've been using the beta since it launched and I like it on the whole.
Except - the removal of the service icons and the ability to view a service by a simple click on its icon. The vast majority of opinions about this change that I read in the feedback group were negative. I know that you're trying to push the new filters, but they do not work in the same way; the icons provided visual cues in a more powerful way than I think you realise.
For those who don't like the new design: there are plenty of greasemonkey scripts at userscripts.org and userstyles.org.
Someone should tell Niki about the pause button.
It's interesting to see the overwhelming "who moved my cheese" responses here.
I did find myself sticking to classic during much of the beta period, but I'm ready to embrace the new friendfeed now.
"Share box": Please return an option for drop down list. I cannot always remember every of my rooms (now groups).
P.S. Shocked too!
I don't know if it is the new format (excellent BTW!) or maybe I am being spammed but I have gotten an email announceing that:
FriendFeed user Bargain Tweeter has subscribed to your
FriendFeed.
...the problem is that everytime I delete it - it comes back - I;ve received it 6 times today.
Robyn
Argh noo, not another Twitter look!! Facebook already worsened their start page by completely copying the Twitter format, and now FriendFeed. This is awful!
The worst thing now is that I can not intuitively see FROM WHICH APPLICATION certain content comes from (a blog, delicious, twitter, flickr, etc). Instead if the application icon, which was very helpful, now there is a picture of the user, which I don't need at all!
The previous minimalistic design was much better to use, and it was also faster. Pleeeeeeas switch back!!
I have a friendfeed account with my gmail address. Friendfeed now supports Google and facebook login.
So I log in with my google account. No problem. I also have a facebook account with the same email address.
When I log in with my Facebook account it see's me as a new user obviously. They cant get your email address from facebook. So I add the same email address to this account. I logout and login with google again and it takes me to this new account!
Then I close my browser and login again with my facebook and it recognizes my old account! No problem.
Now this is the problem. Most sites maintain accounts based on email addresses. It is is very difficult to integrate third party signin's whithout email addresses. Friendfeed seems to have pulled it off with some glitches though.
the part which i miss most from old design - the removal of the service icons and the ability to view a service by a simple click on its icon. the icons provided visual cues in a more powerful way than I think you realise.
i agree with neil.
we already have twiter, we dont need another twitter.. we jus need friendfeed.
bring back the service icons n their filters. usability was much better then.
Thank you for all your work and time, but please please customise the old design for all these new features you added!
The new design is nice, but the old one is better, at least for me.
I'm disabled & I'm finding the new FriendFeed much harder to use. And where's the mini-window? Where are the rooms? Where is the clean white expanse that made FF a cheerful, welcoming and enjoyable experience? Above all, where is the tutorial video that teaches us how to use the new FriendFeed? Nil points Friendfeed.
Most of my feeds have LOST with this change and I liked much better the previous design
New look is ok, but please return *Add Imaginary friend* function. Tahnks
It looks really great!
More clear, more cool.
Thank you guys.
I think that the new format for titles (``string - URL'') is a step back and makes the feed look cluttered.
I think it looks a lót like Twitter now. I do like the clean look. Every change takes some getting used to so let's not complaint too much at a free service....
Ummm. Don't get me wrong -- I love your product, but you left out one of the most important things you could have done. There is no way to search and group contacts so if you get more than 100 or so, it's impossible to manage them. Other than that, this is a great tool but it could be so much better...
Need the service icon. Or at least a way to remove all posts from a particular service (such as twitter).
So, the new design is LESS useful to me...
TAKE BACK OLD DESIGN!!!
I love the new friendfeed but I'll have no option but to stop using it if imaginary friends are not turned back on. Unfortunately, my mates tend to only use one social network (ie therefore no need for them to set up a friendfeed account) and I aggregate all their content from various sources in my FriendFeed account (I don't want to be subscribed to facebook, myspace, twitter, tumblr, delicious, posterous, last.fm, etc.etc. and have to keep checking them) I just want them as an imaginary friend. Please please turn it back on!
Please read this, it has fixes for two complaints (so far):
friendfeed-suggestion.txt
Where's the "Imaginary Friends" feature in this new design?
IMHO: It's the primary advantage that FF has had over other social aggregators and I'll have to start looking elsewhere (or roll my own) if I can't figure this out in the next couple of days.
Help! You're loosin' me.
Great Work Pals... thank very much for this all this work !
+ 1 for the return of the "imaginary friends" functionality or similar improved alternative
I accidentally created 2 new accounts by clicking on the Google and Facebook signup buttons
https://friendfeed.com/account/delete
I cant set passwords on these accounts and I cant delete them on the above page
What the heck
oh nvm i cant set a password and then delete these accounts
cool update guys
+1 Add imaginary friend
I just ditched twitter for friendfeed. I love the UI, the JS stuff and the software just soo much, now!
I strongly prefer the old interface and ask politely that you allow me to continue to use it.
I just hate the way it looks. I keep wanting to move the friends & groups sections about, they look like stickies, remind me of that wordpress theme. I hate the grey too :(
I'm glad my existing "imaginary" friends are there, but if I can't add more, then I'm going to start using something else that has this functionality.
FriendFeed isn't a social network to me. It never will be. I'm sorry if that doesn't fit with the master plan.
FriendFeed is an event aggregator: a meta-network, and turning off this feature turns off FriendFeed's usefulness to me, since I can't use it to view the events of those who do not have a FriendFeed account.
Also, where did my source icons go?
Information is much more useful when it has context.
The little icon that showed which feed the story was from contextualizes the story.
Pidgin (back when it was called Gaim) was going to get forked before someone put source icons back in the client. It "didn't fit with their vision" either, and it was causing people to vote "no confidence" in the developers.
To everyone that's worked on friendfeed - thanks for making such an awesome app for us all :)
I'd love if you could do multi-line posts though <3
Keep up the great work
- Pete
Melbourne, Australia
Most of the posts in this thread are negative comments. I agree with all of them. Bring back the white, tidy background and the neat service icons. Friendfeed is not the same without tohse two. I don't want to be forced to make use of userstyles or userscripts!
Instead of working on what is different and better than twitter and the others and enhanced it, you make a imitation of twitter ...
Bad design and less functionnal than old version...
This is a very bad move. Looking for a replacement of FF. :-(((
I *hate* it! It's much harder to use than it was.
First, give us the application icons back: I do not just want to see "who" says something, I want to see who says something *where* - at a glance, and not in a tiny link that I have to scan the text for.
I'm also mighty irritated by the fact that it had "Cc" to Twitter on as a default - I noted that just in time before posting - I'm here because I *don'* use Twitter any more.
Finally, I strongly dislike the auto-update; I don't want that, period. And I want to be able to set that as a default, instead of having to hit pause and play all the time: just give me an "update now" button that I can hit *once* when I want to see updates!
You're obviously going to want to reinstate favicons for the various services in a feed. They aid clarity.
If you guys are making a clone of twitter or twitter publishing tools, I have nothing to say. But if you are planning to connect different service via feed, just keep your eyes on the feed service, not the Microblog service.
I hate the new change of FF, you are FF, not twitter. We know twitter is populate, but it's no need to copy them!
Keep your mind wake, and dig the feeds' value!
Great work! Thanks a lot for this nice, new and break-through UI.
Thanks to the Friendfeed-Team!
Is this blog for venting -or- do the FriendFeed folks actually ever reply to the comments contained herein?
Great work,but the sidebar makes me confused again,it goes back to to the right side.
+500 imaginary friends is an important feature and the only reason im continuing to use friendfeed is bc i have imaginary friends created on the olddddddddd ff
It would appear that "Imaginary Friends" are now called "Private Groups". It may be a bit clunky, but you can create a Private group and add one person to it, then assemble their external feeds as desired and it works just like the old "Imaginary Friends" feature.
Start with the "Browse/edit groups" link at the bottom of the right column on the home screen.
(Thanks to ccheath for the tip!)
(if someone finds a better way, please post here -or- perhaps some official FF folks could surface tips in an FAQ for those of us who extensively utilized the "Imaginary Friends" feature)?
It doesn't group feeds anymore (i.e. several links posted on delicious) and imaginary friends can't be added anymore.
IMHO it's worse than before, considering features and design.
'Imaginary Friend' function removed ? aggh - put it back! Please.
I actually don't like the redesign. I think it looks clunky and dated. Plus, the old design showed more items as pictures or video - the new design mainly just shows links. Why not let people choose if they want links or pictures?
Anyway, my main complaint is that I just realised I can't add new imaginary friends. This is a large part of what I use Friendfeed for, so I'm kind of annoyed.
I agree with Neil:
Except - the removal of the service icons and the ability to view a service by a simple click on its icon. The vast majority of opinions about this change that I read in the feedback group were negative. I know that you're trying to push the new filters, but they do not work in the same way; the icons provided visual cues in a more powerful way than I think you realise.
Wow - the new design is absolutely EXCELLENT! It is SO much better than the previous design.
I was really pleasantly surprised when I visited my account today (for the first time in a while).
Please keep the new design - you guys have made it much easier to use FriendFeed.
I can't live without imaginary friends :/
why not have CSS templates like blogs? friendfeed is just a bunch of feeds? so why can't we each customize our own look? some go new style, some go old style. it can't be that hard? or can it?
i really liked the old design a lot more and find myself using friendfeed so much less now. it's less readable to me. the size of the icons distracts from the the posts. i also find the posts seem more uniform, where before you could tell the difference between a delicious link or youtube favorite, etc.
why do sites like this make changes without telling people first? this is the internet, information is free, it's easy to give notice. the entire point is including user voices. you should know better. in general, i don't fear change but i hate when it's thrust upon me without notice.
so i'm not quitting but i am really looking for something new now, where as before i was quite happy. so whoever you are out there developing the next thing, make it look more like the old friendfeed. ;)
I much preferred having access to the drop down menu in the Share Friend Feed Bookmarklet. It enabled me to choose the room/group I wanted to post in.
There is no way to MOVE an item to where I actually WANT it to BE.
I don't particularly like the functionality of the new design. It no longer does what I was using it for and it appears I'm going to have to find a new way for gathering information.
Some links become more difficult to find. For example the /user_name/friends that displayed all updates from everyone, can’t find the link.
Other think I don’t like is that FriendFeed removed the Imaginary Friends feature (because it doesn’t motivate invite ?) without any replacement.
I like new style, I just wish new posts would have small icons from where they are as before.
Can I remove blue line from my ff widget on my blog. Its not matching to my blog at all. Is it possible? http://www.khatia.blogspot.com/
We need to be able to assign moderators for groups. Also we need to be able to authorize anyone to send e-mail posts to a specific group. Currently if the e-mail address is already associated with a freindfeed account it will not let us add it.
I'm wondering if friendfeed is going to take on a similar look to what google wave will be releasing later this year. Sneaking in some similar features could be a good idea!
Will you also allow customized background images to be uploaded for profiles (Like a .jpg that fits the background)? I think it would attract ALOT of people used to the design freedom (people are looking for a stable alternative). Would be purty too ^_^
*also have fingers crossed for FriendFeed hashtags *_^ *
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