Finding Technology News: Is FriendFeed the new Google or Citeseer?

Over the past two weeks, I've found my behavior changing. This is a good thing!

DRAFT: Tue 10:30 AM PT Only have 15 min to write...

*** (1) FriendFeed (NOT Google) is where I'm now typing my searches when researching a technology article. ***

Before when I found an article intriguing, I would type the title of the article into Google. This would give me other people who had linked to the article, or were discussing the topic.

No more. FriendFeed is providing a window into the artistic process of insightful journalists (aka bloggers) and dedicated news junkies.

*** (2) How do I search now? ***

Say I have an article like "FriendFeed Tips: Do You Use All The Great Features of Friend Feed", and I want to find out more.

(A) Type article title into FriendFeed search box with "who: everyone".

- Look up & down the timeline.
- Who first brought this article into the FriendFeed community? What is their background? What sources do they use (e.g. what else might I be reading?)
- Which discussions seem the most interesting? Or most likely to become interesting? (e.g. saved by Robert Scoble or Louis Gray)

*** (3) Use "comment" or "like" to create a "personal newspaper" to revisit the conversation in 2-24+ hours. ***

I started doing this about 2 days before Robert Scoble's wonderful article on participation & discovery.

NOTE: Don't be too aggressive. There's a daily limit on "likes" of around 65-75 "likes"/day. I started hitting this at 160 "likes".

*** (4) Search the wider web. (A) Type title into Google (B) Type URL of article into Google ***

Gaurav Mishra makes an appeal for an application to unify the "fragmented conversations" of the Internet.

http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/conversations-are-becoming-fragmented-the-case-for-a-killer-conversation-tracker-application/

However, one can get stuck in the FriendFeed community. Find the wider conversation which is happening.

(A) Type the article title into Google.

(B) Type the URL of the article into Google.

NOTE: You may have to try variants of the URL (e.g.)

http://www.labnol.org/internet/tools/friendfeed-tips-tricks-productive-uses-of-friend-feed/2835
http://labnol.org/internet/tools/friendfeed-tips-tricks-productive-uses-of-friend-feed/2835
friendfeed-tips-tricks-productive-uses-of-friend-feed

(C) Sometimes useful is typing the article titles/URLs of 2-4 interesting articles into Google at once.

Two major issues in refining searches (1) Too much (2) Too little
....