The Steve Rubel Stream

Insights on emerging technologies and trends.
Steve Rubel
Steve Rubel (bio) is SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, a division of Edelman - the world's largest independent PR firm.

He is charged with helping clients identify emerging technologies and trends that can be applied in marketing communications programs. Rubel also explores these topics on his site, a monthly Forbes.com column and in a bi-weekly AdAge column. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook as well.

Steve can be reached via email at steverubel@gmail.com.

Note: Everything posted on this site is Steve's personal opinion. It does not represent the views of Edelman or its clients.

               

Search My Posterous

Subscribe

Posterous Catches Friendfeed

Data via trends.google.com

Since it was acquired, I have basically abandoned Friendfeed. I love the service, but I am waiting to see how the team integrates it into Facebook.

Unsurprisingly, traffic to the Friendfeed site has plummeted since the acquisition in August. And Posterous now has nearly as much traffic (Posterous is the red line above), but trails Tumblr by a wide margin and Twitter by light years.

What does this say about the future of lifestreaming services? I still see a big space in between in between blogs and Twitter that allows you to have a hub and spoke strategy and post in multiple formats. That's one reason I am bullish about both Posterous and Tumblr.

Filed under  Friendfeed   Lifestreaming   posterous   stats  
47 Comments
Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 5 months ago

Gallery: How the Leading Social Sites Describe Themselves

I just wrapped up a nine-day swing through California, the majority of which I was in Silicon Valley. Every time I visit the Bay Area (which I truly love to visit) I am always struck by how technology pervades the region much more so than any other. Digerati chatter is everywhere, from the coffeehouses to the billboards that line US 101.

While technology influences all of us, life is different inside the bubble of the Valley. This is why I am glad I get to spend so much time each year in several major cities: Chicago, New York, Toronto, London, LA, as well as San Francisco and Silicon Valley. My travels help me maintain a broader perspective that I believe the Valley sometimes misses. I am increasingly embracing my time on the road because it (hopefully) helps me maintain a wider worldview.

Here's a small example of what I mean. In the gallery below I pulled together the welcome screens that grace some of the more popular social networks and communities on the web. As you look at these note how similar the language is - particularly Twitter, digg, Friendfeed and Stumbleupon. 

Now try to imagine you're a new user from Bismark or Des Moines who heard about these sites on CNN, would you sign up - and how might you choose?  Do these sites only speak to Silicon Valley, rather than the broader universe of citizens they hope to attract? If so, how might this hamper their growth?

That's what's on my mind tonight now that I am back in NY.

           
Click here to download:
Gallery_How_the_Leading_Social.zip (434 KB)

Filed under  Digg   Facebook   Foursquare   Friendfeed   language   marketing   positioning   social networks   StumbleUpon   Twitter  
9 Comments
Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 6 months ago

Trend: Are Friendfeed Refugees Already Flocking to Facebook?

Since Friendfeed announced their sale to Facebook earlier this week I have seen an uptick in friend invitations on Facebook, with these individuals specifically saying they follow me on Friendfeed. Now I don't know if this is a trend or not, but some others are seeing the same. (For more see the embedded conversation below.)

This presents a bit of a dilemma. To date on Facebook I have only let people into my network who I have personally met or corresponded. I don't make all of my Facebook content public. Meanwhile, on every other social network, I open my content to all and/or accept every friend request. This includes on sites like Foursquare.

Now that the two are merging, I am rethinking this strategy - once I have a chance to tweak the privacy settings. I am also wondering if opening up on Facebook will bring more interaction around my content there.

I am in no hurry to make changes but I am already starting to see Friendfeed have an impact on Facebook indirectly. 

Filed under  Facebook   Friendfeed   Social Networking   trends  
11 Comments
Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 7 months ago

Friendfeed Should Become Facebook Labs

The big news today is that Facebook acquired Friendfeed. There's a lot of nuances to this story - and people will likely talk a ton about what it means for Twitter. Don't miss the bigger story. Here's my quick take on the news.

Facebook just got bought...
So what then for Friendfeed? My hope is that it becomes "Facebook Labs." I would love to see it remain a free-standing site and a place where they rapidly pilot new innovations with the early adopters and then bring in the most promising ones back into the mother ship.

Another more profound thought that I want to chew on some more is this: lifestreaming is going mainstream!
Filed under  Facebook   Friendfeed   lifestreaming   social networking  
15 Comments
Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 7 months ago

Lifehack: gReactions Makes Google Reader Even More Social

Here's a nifty little Firefox add-on, which I discovered via MakeUseOf. It's called gReactions.

The extension adds a button underneath every item in Google Reader that says "Show Comments." Click on it and instantly you can browse incoming links from Twitter, Friendfeed, Digg and more. In addition, for some blogs, you can view comments right in Google Reader using gReactions.

Neat tool. (Disclosure: Pizza Hut, which is mentioned in the screen shot, is a client of Zeno Group, a Daniel J. Edelman company - where I work)

Filed under  Friendfeed   gadgets   google   lifehacks   RSS   Twitter  
7 Comments
Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 7 months ago

Why One Blogger is Shifting to Friendfeed

Cloudnotes is a gem of a little blog I have been reading for over a year. But now the writer, Marshall Preddy, is trying something new. He's moving primarily over to Friendfeed because he wants "full-on exchanges" in a place where everyone’s on equal footing and a simpler way to share things. Definitely worth watching how narrow verticals can thrive by finding community inside Friendfeed, which once again is starting to consume more of my social time.

Filed under  Friendfeed  
10 Comments
Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 8 months ago

Five Fantastic Friendfeed Filters for Flow

Friendfeed, it seems, isn't going mainstream anytime soon. That doesn't mean it doesn't rock. In fact, I am using it a ton as a real-time front end for in-bound social flow. The secret is to use three powerful features: lists, imaginary friends and saved searches. Combine these with email alerts and Gmail and it gets even better.

Here are five ideas...
  • Co-workers - Group and track your colleagues
  • Feeds - Follow your favorite feeds in Friendfeed (or groups of 'em via Google Reader tags)
  • Influencers - find the top influencers on Friendfeed (or your own personal list) and bundle them
  • News - Some news sources are already on Friendfeed, if not, you can put them there
  • Tweets - set up a saved search for service:Twitter use Friendfeed as a Twitter front-end
These ideas just scratch the surface of what you can do with Friendfeed. For more see the gallery below. How are you using it?

         
Click here to download:
Five_Fantastic_Friendfeed_Filt.zip (568 KB)

Filed under  attention   Flow   Friendfeed   lifehacks   RSS  
10 Comments
Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 8 months ago

10 Useful Tips for Tricking Out FriendFeed

via maketecheasier.com

Great primer for newbies and veterans alike. The email notifications, when coupled with lists and Gmail filters, are outstanding and vastly underutilized by many.

Filed under  Friendfeed   lifehacks   tips  
5 Comments
Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 8 months ago

How I am Declaring My Independence from Technology Today

For those of you in the US, Happy Independence Day! There are lots of ways to celebrate this amazing holiday. In New York, the Statue of Liberty crown is finally re-opening. Every town, it seems, has a parade. Here's another idea...

I am celebrating July 4 by declaring my Independence from some of the technology that clutters my "psychic RAM," as David Allen terms it in Getting Things Done. Last year there was a National Marked All as Read Day. July 4 is my own reminder to do the same.

I am simplifying my technology in five ways...
  • First, I am eliminating any bookmarks, software/webware that I haven't used in the last seven days. This is an idea I picked up from my friend Jeff Sandquist at Microsoft.
  • Second, I am down to two devices for everything - a laptop and a cell phone. Period, end of story. This means my Kindle is going on eBay (eBay is one of our clients).
  • Third, all my critical data seamlessly syncs between these two devices. If a service doesn't allow me to sync stuff via the cloud and access it both online and off, it's toast. Evernote and Google (Google Reader, Gmail IMAP, CalDAV) are lifesavers here. My business data already syncs wonderfully via Exchange. 
  • Fourth, I dumped tons of of stuff: RSS feeds and virtually every email newsletter, with two exceptions - Marketing Charts and the Social Media Smartbrief
  • Fifth, I am setting up lists on Friendfeed to help me find signals in the noise and so that I can do the same here for you, my audience
Anyone have any other tips? Share them in the comments. I am always listening.

Related articles by Zemanta
Filed under  attention   Friendfeed   gadgets   Producitivity   RSS  
38 Comments
Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 8 months ago

Friendfeed Brings "Best of Day" to Lists, Helps You Spot Trends from Friends

   
Click here to download:
Friendfeed_Brings_Best_of_Day_.zip (756 KB)

One of my favorite Friendfeed features is called "Best of Day." I use it all the time to hone in on the most liked/commented conversations. If you're logged into Friendfeed, you can hit this link to see the most interesting conversations from your friends over the last 24 hours or this one for the past seven days. The problem with the feature, however, is that it only worked across all of your friends. This can be problematic if you follow hundreds of people, as I do.

Last night, however, Friendfeed quietly added a killer feature that brings "Best of Day" to lists - groupings of friends you categorize. Now you can more easily spot trends from friends. The screen grab below shows you the most interesting items over the last month just within my "favorites" list. This smart filtering of content plus the recent addition of real-time search on Friendfeed is exactly what those of us who participate in the social web need.

This incremental innovation gives me just another reason to be excited about Friendfeed. It's also why I love Gmail, Posterous and Evernote. They constantly keep innovating all the time even through the tough times.

Filed under  aggregation   friendfeed   search   Social Networking   social search  
9 Comments
Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 8 months ago
Theme by Cory Watilo.
More great Posterous themes at themes.posterous.com.