Wanted: Trackbacks to FriendFeed Entries
July 18, 2008 12 Comments
Thomas Hawk posted this on FriendFeed:
Want to know why the future of FriendFeed is a search engine? Try this search. http://friendfeed.com/search?q… I get more great blog post ideas and find more valuable information from this search than anyplace else on the web today.
I agree. I use FriendFeed entries as points of illumination for my blog posts. The site has really generated some terrific points of view and information. For a blogger, it’s a terrific hunting ground.
One thing I want: trackbacks. When a blog uses a link to a FriendFeed entry, I’d love a trackback to the blog included in the comments.
I used a FriendFeed entry in the blog post Using FriendFeed for E-Commerce. I’d love for that entry to show a trackback like this:
When a trackback link is added to an entry, it has the same impact as a comment. It bounces the entry to the top of people’s FriendFeed page.
Why do this?
- Blog post amplifies the entry. Give it the full comment treatment.
- Acknowledges FriendFeed’s growing role in information creation, distribution and consumption.
- As a creator of FriendFeed content, I’d love to know how it’s used out there, just like a blogger.
What do you think? Useful?
*****
See this post on FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/search?q=%22Wanted%3A+Trackbacks+to+FriendFeed+Entries%22&public=1
About Hutch Carpenter
I'm Not Actually a Geek 
The problem is that trackbacks are not necessarily connected to profiles on Friendfeed. So the usual way to block messages or comments (and to let through messages by friends of friends) won’t work with it. That could be a nasty gateway for spam.
Otherwise: yes. Trackbacks would be a nice thing because Friendfeed seems a bit “under-linked” to me at this moment.
Hey Hutch,
I think trackbacks would be a great idea! It would be helpful in keeping up with some of the conversations from certain threads on FriendFeed for those who need more room to expand on their thoughts.
Great idea.
Yes, great idea.
Thank you for articulating one of my frustrations with FriendFeed. There have been too many times when a great thread will get swallowed by the noise and I have to navigate through too many layers to get back to the conversation. Trackbacks may not work in the FF universe but a viable solution can be found. Thank you for this share point Hutch and for re-posting the Thomas Hawk comment that I missed in the firehose stream.
Agreed – having recently incorporated my FF comments into my blog, I’d love to have trackbacks for my posts.
Hmm, not sure i like the idea of these being mixed with comments – they don’t seem to have any worthwile content in them.
Perhaps a list of related items after the comments on an item (or a brief clip of the article on a trackback?)
– imma
furukama – great point about trackback spam. I wonder if FriendFeed could use Akismet, which has done a wonderful job with trackback spam for wordpress.com.
Corvida – exactly. The blog post really amplifies the discussion on a separate venue. But it ties back to what people were discussing.
Franklin, Mark, Nice Fish, Jim – thanks.
imma – you’re right. The trackbacks would just be links to a blog post with relevant discussion. Separating them out would work, have to think about the UI there.
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