I have so many Good friends on Netvibes... It is stupid to follow them on ... FriendFeed, no ?

After a few monthes with Netvibes' Ginger , I have now a good community of good Netvibes' Friends.
They are not my "real friends" that I meet in "real life". But they are good friends there on Netvibes. They have good suggestions, good readings. They open my vision with their own. They read things I was not aware and that I start to appreciate.
With time I had to drop some of the first friends I had add : their interests were too far from mine. But now my 160 friends are a good mix.

The most active of my Friends are just 20 or so but the "My Community" widget is now too small for me. I am not able to check all their interesting messages and favorites directly in the widget. And I can not be on Netvibes all day ;)

I can, of course go to the my Activity, in the upper menu but the reading is less pleasant.

Another solution is to go to FriendFeed.
There I can check again for my good Netvibes friends, add them to my profile and then check from there without any limitation. I will also be able to check all their activities not just their Netvibes' post.

I do not know why, but I found that stupid... And you ?

Anyway, here is my FriendFeed profile: http://friendfeed.com/netex
If you are following me on Netvibes and want to follow me there...

Small bug for the Netvibes' Contacts board ?

I do not know if it is a small Bug or not, but my Netvibes' Contacts Board shows me only contacts with the green sign on their side: all my friends , of course, but also all my followers ! And some of my new followers I have not already had the opportunity to visit their Universe and to add them as "my friends"appear with the green icon. It is disturbing, because to know if they are already friends I have to visit their Universe and see if the Friends line is missing (that means that I have not already added him/her as a friend)

If you check the image here: you will see that last month that green sign was not always present.

FriendFeed aggregates your own and your friends' various Social Networks feeds (also Netvibes) :4*/5

It is a few days that I am using FriendFeed a new service that aggregates in one page your own and your friends' various Social Networks feeds and updates

For example, you can see what songs your friends are listening to on last.fm, what video they enjoyed on YouTube, their last blog or Twitter post or see the new photos they have published to Picasa. And you will show the same!

Currently, FriendFeed supports 33 different services :

News

Digg

Google Reader

Reddit

Bookmarking

del.icio.us

Furl

Google Shared Stuff

Ma.gnolia

StumbleUpon

Status

Gmail/Google Talk

Jaiku

Pownce

Twitter

Video

Seesmic

Vimeo

YouTube

Books

Goodreads

LibraryThing

Photos

Flickr

Picasa Web Albums

SmugMug

Zooomr

Blogging

Blog

Tumblr

Music

iLike

Last.fm

Pandora

Miscellaneous

Amazon Wishlists

Disqus

LinkedIn

Netflix Queue

SlideShare

Upcoming

Yelp

You choose the ones you want to share with others, you set the user/pass, and then if your page is public (open to all) or private (you must grant authorization).

Then you check for your Friends. When you click on them you see the services they share and the people they have suscribed to.

Netvibes as such is not already listed, but what you can do is to get the RSS FEED of your own public Activities on Netvibes ( In own your profile, close to "edit profile", the orange icon Feed) and insert it as ... BLOG. That way, even your "Not yet Netvibes" friends will see your Netvibes updates (but not the Star it!)

With FriendFeed you can also check people that are not already using FriendFeed by creating an "Imaginary Friend". Then, you get your friend's Twitter, Facebook,blog, Netvibes Activity, ... Feeds and by placing the Feed as a ... Blog you will be able to follow them.

But it is not just following that you can do.

With FriendFeed you can also:
Comment by leaving a short note
Like by choosing an emoticon
More by linking the entry.

You can also leave links and psot a FF status. You can also see comments from Friends of Friends, pictures and captures....

I like this service and I have created in my Netvibes page a full tab dedicated to it with the WEB PAGE widget (add content/essential widgets/Web page).
This way I check my most interesting friends in more "complete way" not, as before, service by service but activity by activity. Thanks FriendFeed !

My public FriendFeed is : http://friendfeed.com/netex and I publish there my Twetter, Blog, Netvibes Activity, Facebook updates.


NetEx Rating: 4****/5

Friendfeed is a very powerful service to aggregate your Social networks feeds and Updates.
It is the most advanced service toward my Single Social Interface dream.

The 4* means that the service is not already "finished": the search was just added a few days ago.
Friendfeed should also add Netvibes as a basic service ;)

To get FriendFeed go here

For some reading : TechCrunch

New Friend category is emerging in Social Networks: the Best Friends

As mentionned in this post from Inside Facebook blog, the new Facebook Privacy rules changes are increasing the role of the Friend Lists.

Facebook, as one of the largest Social Networks is also leading the trend. And "Starting last week, Facebook elevated Friend Lists to central status within the Facebook user experience by making it the basis around which users can specifically limit access to certain information for certain friends."

A new Friend category is, in my view, emerging: the Best Friends.

Since now you had just a 1 choice : all of your Friends(as Netvibes , Facebook, FriendFeed ...) or Following (in Twitter, ...) were the same: could read and follow you the same. Now that will change to reflect better the real life.

Your Best Friends will the only one with whom you will share all your "limited" public data.

If Netvibes was to get soon in that breach, that could give birth to "private Universes" with restricted access only to selected Best Friends.

NetEx Tip: Drag your friends icon on your Netvibes page

NetEx Tip:

Did you know that by dragging the icon of any of your Friends (from Contacts) on to your page, you are installing your Friends' My Community public widget ?

This Public version of the widget shows: the friends and followers of your Friend and his public activities.

Many users, create a Friends Tab on their Netvibes universe to check all their best friends activity one by one.

PS: I just discovered it ...

To all Netvibes Friends: add the MY WALL to your Universe !

I travel in the Netvibes Universes ;) and I see a majority of Universes where there is no MY WALL Widget !

So there is no way for your visitors to leave you a message, a suggestion, a compliment ...

So, please, ADD A MY WALL to your Universe !! NOW !!


NetEx Tip: add the same MY WALL Widget also in your Private page. That way you will be able to follow who is writing to you and to answer it, without going on your own Universe.


You can find it

* on my my Really ESSENTIAL WIDGETS tab in my Universe where you can get it by "SEND TO MY PRIVATE PAGE" option

or

* by clicking here:

Netvibes' Contacts (black) Board review

Just a few lines to present my view on the Contacts board of Netvibes in the Ginger upgrade (but why not everybody is in Ginger ?).

Well, the background ... is black but as you will see also the My Followers that are also my Friends are highlighed ... in a blackcard, but in a ... darker black AND with a green sign on the right side. The Followers that are not (already ? ;)) my friends are just ... in black with no other sign. The "My Friends" option works in the same way.

As a general impression I would say that for my small screen a lot of space is lost ... in black as only my friends/followers are presented by groups of 8.

At the same time the "My Followers"/"My Friends" sign is repeated twice: in the left menu and in the Contact board. And also a lot of space is lost under the cards. With out those lost spaces a third row of contacts could be arranged, if needed.

Some Friends/Followers are presented with Name AND Firstname on 1 row others on 2 : it could be easier to have all on 2 rows. The 3rd row is the country one when declared.

On the practical side, Netvibes should do better than other Social Networks, by giving better ways to:

• display friends (not only date of subscription),
  
• browse between friends in the 2 directions (first/last),
• offering funny applications to visualize relationship between friends...
• create groups of interest ...
  

I know, I know that all that will come, but I am so impatient ...

4 rules for What are Friends and Followers in Netvibes ?

If you are new to Netvibes and/or to Social Networks like Facebook or Twitter you could have some difficulties to understand what are the FRIENDS and FOLLOWERS of your Netvibes page in the new Ginger release.


FRIENDS
When you arrive on Ginger you have already one Friend: Netvibes Then you will explore Netvibes and you will arrive on someone's universe (let's say: Free-Ingrid-Betancourt) .
If you check her contacts you will ONLY see her Follers (not the Friends !)
If you like her Universe and/or want to get in touch you click under her profile the: add friend .
(For: How to Find Friends with Netvibes read my previous post here)

If you now go in your own CONTACTS (by clicking Conctacts in your own Netvibes page) you will see that your New Friend has been added on your Friends list.

But the term FRIEND is not correct as the correct one should be: FOLLOWING.

Yes, if you are Friend with Some one, in Netvibes and the other Social networks, that means only that you FOLLOW that person.
Following means being able to read and watch his/her Activities.
(For my post on Activities go here)

The contrary is not true:

Rule 1: YOUR FRIENDS DO NOT FOLLOW/READ YOU !

That is quite strange for "normal people" but the Web works with asymmetric communication ;)
In normal life when I phone to a friend he answers me and so forth. Not here.

So, now you are able to follow Free-Ingrid-Betancourt Activities but Free-Ingrid-Betancourt is not. But on her Conctacts she will see a new Follower: you.

Rule 2: WHEN YOU ADD A FRIEND , YOU BECOME HIS/HER FOLLOWER !

That means that if you click on Activities or you watch your MY COMMUNITY Widget you will be able to read her activities , updates ...

Rule 3: WHEN YOU ARE FRIEND, YOU CAN SEE YOUR FRIEND' FRIENDS
When you are a Friend to someone you can, if you go back to your Friend Universe, see who are her/his Friends not just her/his followers. And if the Friends' of my Friends are my Friends rule works then you can find new friends...

FOLLOWERS:
Are following a person Activities.
When you check you own Friends and Followers if you see a little green mark on the right, that just means that you already have added him as Friend = you are already following.


Of course, all your Friends are green marked and possibly just some of your followers are...
But, if you check your Friend' Friends you will see yourself but with no Green Mark: Netvibes bug or choice ?


In conclusion, for what I am concerned, I think that the minimum is to check who is following you and as I am quite open to new ideas I like to transform my Followers in Friends ;)
What I require is just to have an Interesting Universe...

Rule 4: ONLY WHEN YOU AND YOUR FRIEND ARE MUTUALLY FOLLOWER AND FOLLOWING (FRIEND) THAT A REAL BIDIRECTIONAL COMMUNICATION CAN WORK.

Suggestion for Netvibes:
When 2 users are mutually Friends that should be marked differently and perhaps also named as : "GOOD FRIENDS" with a special "BEST FRIENDS" group to be left for the Good Friends to decide...

Hope is it clear enough...

How to find Friends with Netvibes' Ginger

Here is a comment I found concerning the HOW TO FIND FRIENDS with Netvibes' Ginger release:

Ginger is cool, but it is hard to find people... I suppose we are just supposed to invite our friends. Maybe add a way to find people with similar interests/feeds/widgets/etc?

In fact, when you are upgraded to Ginger, you have already 1 Friend as defualt. His name netvibes.

If you do not know already any "real" friend that is using Netvibes, a first step will be to check the followers of your only friend "netvibes" by clicking on your contacts option in the upper menu.
By browsing between the ever increasing profiles you will find some interesting universes. And by assuming that interesting universe means interesting friend you will add him/her to your list.

Last night http://www.netvibes.com/netvibes counted more than 7.000 followers and they are increasing minutes by minutes.

(at the moment I can not access the http://www.netvibes.com/netvibes profile, probably too many updates)

In the mean time, you can always check my list of preferred Universes .

If you want to add me as a friend ;), here is my Universe.

If you know somebody who could be interested by looking at your Universe you can now use the Invite a friend option.

IN THE FUTURE

If Netvibes could provide a well done search for the Universes it could be possible to find a list of users having the same feeds and widgets.
If Universes could be tagged as i suggested, by searching tags you could find friends with similar interests. You could also use localisation or age/sex group.
A proper widget (looking for a friend) could also be setted up ;)

Netvibes unveils first official preview of Ginger release

Hi,

The Netvibes blog is unveiling the first official preview of the new Ginger release that will officially presented at the LE WEB 3 Conference in Paris next Tuesday.

As I already announced as a scoop, the main change will be the Social twist made by Netvibes.

With Netvibes Ginger, you will be able to:

• Import your friends from your favorite social networks or make new friends directly in your Netvibes page
• use Activity, a new feature that will let you know what your friends are doing
• you can archive and tag as favorite any content or any widgets for yourself or with your friends
• you can create your own Universe and build your public Netvibes page
• add your myspace or facebook friends, and distribute widgets

Perhaps all this could help NETVIBES to become my Single Social Interface ?