Friendfeed Facelifts and Threads Microblogs

Friendfeed, a microblogging site, is experimenting with a new layout and a cool new feature: the ability to combine all the same like-minded posts under a single listing. The site’s new layout changes are subtle. The site itself doesn’t have a lot to it — it’s fairly straight-forward, but what it does have is accessible […]

Friendfeed, a microblogging site, is experimenting with a new layout and a cool new feature: the ability to combine all the same like-minded posts under a single listing.

The site's new layout changes are subtle. The site itself doesn't have a lot to it -- it's fairly straight-forward, but what it does have is accessible now in a handy sidebar on the left side.

The far more interesting feature is the duplication detector. It bunches all posts by friends and followers under the same heading. Essentially, it threads microblog posts. It has support for Twitter and TinyURL's as well. If the link is heading to the same place, Friendfeed will put it in the same thread.

It's a good idea considering Friendfeed is like the Tivo of microblogging. It allows you to consolidate feeds, bring them all together under one log in and update all your accounts at once.

If you're microblogging but new to Friendfeed, it's worth checking out. In fact, Webmonkey authors use Friendfeed as a way to get us all on the same page -- so we don't all start writing the same article. Our protected room acts as a bulletin board for ongoing events throughout the day.

The site currently has support for 43 microblogging sites. All the popular microblogs and status updatable social networks are there; Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Google Reader, Flickr, Digg, Delicious, etc... It also has some of the newer, lesser known sites; Disqus, Diigo, Plurk, Pownce and Polyvore.

Perhaps the best feature of Friendfeed is the ability to comment on other feeds, creating entire dialogs on microblogged ideas, quotes and articles. This isn't a new feature with this release. I'm just saying.