It’s my own damn fault. I should have never listened to Mike. This morning I installed Twhirl on my desktop in a failed attempt to keep up better with Twitter and Friendfeed. I was hoping it would help me manage the never-ending flow of information from those two services—which, I admit, I’ve been increasingly ignoring. Instead, it took over my desktop and I couldn’t make it stop (see image above).
Twhirl solves one problem (the need to constantly visit the Twitter and Friendfeed Websites), only to create another one (information overload that clutters your desktop). I’m sure there is some setting I could change to fix the issue, but this highlights a bigger problem with the Web today. There is too much to pay attention to and not enough ways to reduce the noise. Even Robert Scoble, the biggest Twitter whore on the planet who follows 21,000 people and receives one Tweet per second, can’t deal with it anymore.
And it is not just Twitter. Lifestream aggregators like Friendfeed are supposed to make things simpler by consolidating the activities of everyone you know across the Web into one single view. But every day a new lifestream aggregator pops up to the point that it’s gotten to be ridiculous. Now, desktop utilities like Twhirl and Alerty Thing are taking these services out of the browser so that they are always on your desktop.
But if you think it is hard enough to keep up with e-mails and instant messages, keeping up with the Web (even your little slice of it) is much worse. Putting Twhirl on your desktop and hearing the constant “ding” of new messages coming in will make you realize that this is IM on steroids. (You will quickly turn off the sound).
Bringing all of this Web messaging and activity together in one place doesn’t really help. It reminds me of a comment ThisNext CEO Gordon Gould made to me earlier this week when he predicted that Web 3.0 will be about reducing the noise. (Some say it will be about the semantic Web, but those two ideas are not mutually exclusive). I hope Gould is right, because what we really need are better filters.
I need less data, not more data. I need to know what is important, and I don’t have time to sift through thousands of Tweets and Friendfeed messages and blog posts and emails and IMs a day to find the five things that I really need to know. People like Mike and Robert can do that, but they are weird, and even they have their limits.
So where is the startup that is going to be my information filter? I am aware of a few companies working on this problem, but I have yet to see one that has solved it in a compelling way. Can someone please do this for me? Please? I need help. We all do.
Twitter whore… That’s awesome.
-Twitter twat.
“Web 3.0 Will Be About Reducing the Noise”
Word!
I agree. What we need is much higher quality information, not more of it. This doesn’t mean that one couldn’t scan 1,000s of information sources, but I just want to see the top ‘blips’ that really matter to me.
I can see those who blog to make a paycheck but information overload is something that can be cured rather easily. Staying up on top of everything is akin to Aspies need to know everything about Star Wars, or trains, or dinosaurs…it just doesn’t fucking matter. Just use a mantra…
Harry “I just don’t give a shit” Wang
Web 2.0 = web acting like desktop apps
Web 3.0 = sites fully integrating with each other and sharing information (APIs)
Except most folks don’t have nor will ever have the same problems. Most folks don’t get 2400+ unsolicited emails. Most folks don’t have 10,000+ twitter BFFs. Most folks don’t need a website to let them know what their friends are up to.
Hmm I was just writing about Twitter and was about to do a section on twhirl…now I’m scared..
Sorry if I sound naive having not installed yet (ever?) So can you not block tweets then?
I don’t see the need for stand alone twitter apps… why not just add twitter to your google talk and then it just is all in one IM window..
Honestly – http://crowdstatus.com/ is helping me to manage my Twitterfeed… Grouping actually helps.
I know that’s probably too much work for most folks – but sometimes I only have the time to check a handful of twitterstreams I really want updates on – and it’s easier than typing in the urls.
A spiritual teacher, Almaas, said “There is nothing you can ultimately say, but you have to exhaust all the words.” Hope Web 4.0 will be about silence and meditation.
I’m working on it…
So is web 4.0 when the Internet pervades into our home appliances? Like the toilet, kitchen cabinets, the microwave, the fridge, etc…
Absolutely. Spot On.
I’ll bow out of the debate about what is 2.0 vs. 3.0, but we have to remember that readers of this site are in the minority with our desire to process large quantities of information, but in the majority with being inundated with more and more content every day.
The sites that curate content and reduce noise will win.
I don’t even try rto stay on top of the constant flow of FriendFeed and Twitter. I check in form time-to-time in my work day and at home. So there’s a bit of serendipity as to what I learn there.
There are certain people I specifically check on for their FriendFeed updates.
I also subscribe to specific search terms on FriendFeed in my Google Reader. That’s a really interesting play – find people who have expertise and interests in things you’re in to.
Those are my filtering strategies.
The model for filtering information is already out there, and it’s dead simple.
It’s vertically oriented content aggregators/social news sites.
Digg screwed the pooch by trying to be all things to all people. Techmeme is pretty effective for Technology news, and similar sites will emerge (hint, hint).
Name one social news site that isn’t growing? Trick question….they are all growing.
There won’t be a Web 3.0
Tech Advances are so continuous that they would occur in chunks as in the past
Future measurements will probably be divided by year as opposed to assigning a number – things are just occurring too fast.
The Web is a classic example of the Wisdom of the Crowds and probably the real first example ever in history because the common person as well as the experts can contribute what they can and let the creme rise to the top naturally
OMG!
That screenshot is like what Dante would have written into a lower circle of Hell for Geeks.
Seems like you mostly need to shut off Growl notifications for Twhirl.
Browser based demons are more easy to handle then making them land on the desktop. Twitter craze is everywhere and the Egyptian case too. I can only say that in this time we can only Tweek!!
I still trust RSS to gather info on new.
Forgot Twhirl is an AIR app… Seems like you just need to change notification settings.
I’m not sure that Web 3.0 is here.. Yet.
Don’t forget, Web 2.0 was only introduced a while ago and is still influencing many website designs..
We will just have to WAIT AND SEE
Besides the people that use Twitter as a promotion vehicle (like TechCrunch-employees or Scoble), nobody actually has more than 10 to 15 friends, which make Twitter a VERY consumable thing.
The same goes for FriendFeed.
Just because you’re using Twitter *wrong* (or better: unnatural) doesn’t mean that a whole “Web 3.0″ will be needed to fix it.
You’re using it not the way it is thought to be used, but it’s part of your job, so stop complaining.
Where the heck did You guys get twhirl v.0.7.9 from (as seen in the screenshot)? According to their website such a version does not even exist yet! Very odd…
Oh, and isn’t trying to follow more people than one can comprehend even counterproductive to begin with? Until there actually is some sort of hyper-interpreting super AI that knows what I want to hear and read even better than me (plus how much random fun stuff I can bear depending on my stress level etc.) I’d say it is advisable to limit the amount of data that gets to You in the first place, no matter how much You desire to hear the world (as in every single person in it). DOES NOT COMPUTE!
I fail to see the point of knowing what everyone is doing all the time anyways. Get a life.
what i sort of imagine is a fully customisable pseudo-bayesian filtering for lack of a better description. take what research has been progressing in the world of spam filters and other applications and apply them to configuring a tailored & customised user experience.
part of the challenges are:
1. automation: r&d towards more programmatic intuition algorithms to appease any regular manual intervention (more adaptably automated given the circumstances) and
2. manual input: a highly effective user customisation with consistency tailored close as one can get technologically to their desired output(s).
it may require a certain level of psychological profiling in a trusted computer base in order to have the algorithm understand what the user wants and filter the results accordingly -inclusive of mood and other factors.
it must be acceptably practical and simple enough for most users to understand. most of this is probably best implemented in a framework structure that is adaptable to the user’s interests/needs.
we’ve come from data processing in the early age now towards information distillation, where security and r&d are essentially important and continuing themes.
Dear Erick:
Are you stupid?
It’s called RSS.
This post is a problem looking for a solution — one that was invented YEARS AGO.
Get with the times. TechCrunch is where I first heard of RSS. Maybe you should read your own magazine.
Web 3.0 will be about real-time, language 2 language IMing!
New data everyday, social networking brings new personal data everyday.
Information Architecture concepts can help set a baseline (group, catalog and then label).
If the data continues growing this way, the web will auto-destruct, this seems already started.
sound’s like you need to follow less friends.
Web 3.0 will be about people realizing they don’t need to know what every person in the world is doing at any given moment.
Web 3.0 won’t do it.. web 4.0 mightbe, when artificial intelligence comes into play.
Web 3.0 would be the true start of datacosm… and web 4.0, valuecosm.. in between, there’s only youcosm, and mecosm, which are real, plus this mycosm, which is virtual…
Amen.
As much as I love Lifestreaming, I agree that there needs to be a better way to filter the firehose of data we are now subjecting ourselves to. Several services have become successful at doing this with RSS. Lifestreaming needs to be next.
ISS (Instant Syndicating Standards) is a set of open standards that helps people to get news and information that matters to them the most by letting people themselves express what matters to them at an individual level. Each individual connects with their own personal social network to receive and disseminate information. The cascading of trustful social networks works as a world wide distributed recommender system perfectly tuned to output a very personalized journal. This trustful network filters out irrelevant information, while still letting good information pass through.
I fully agree that there’s too much to track at any given time. You might want to check out Mark Hurst’s book Bit Literacy.
From the site: “There’s finally a solution for information overload. Bit Literacy, the new book by Mark Hurst, describes how to manage e-mail, todos, photos, a media diet, and other sources of stress for people today.”
“Bit Literacy is written for normal, non-techie users, and it doesn’t require any special software or computer skills. Read the book and you’ll start working more productively, so as to live a fuller life outside of work.”
I agree with this post for the most part, but I think the real problem is that people are just trying to keep up with too many sites/people at once.
I just started using twitter recently and am only following 4 people, techcrunch being one of them because i actually give a shit what Michael has to say, and he doesn’t post a billion messages per day like Scoble or Calacanis. I originally added both of them to my feed as well but they both just post a bunch of bullshit that doesn’t matter. Calacanis sometimes posted interesting things but for the most part he won’t shut up about Mahalo Idol and giving away stupid GPS receivers, so I cut him off.
The fact that Scoble is following 20,000 people is just ludicrous. Why would anyone do that? There’s no possible way to get anything meaningful out of that much blabbing.
So the solution is just not to subscribe to so much stuff. Most people just say the same shit that other people have already said. So just subscribe to the people and sites that really matter. Everything you need/want to know will eventually be said by one of them.
i completely agree, erick. you can almost imagine a sort of behavioral profiler for users which figures out based on your activity, personality, etc the things that you need to know the most and automatically recommends services and then filters information within those services that are deemed most relevant. once the dataset is large enough, you can build smart algorithms that get good at this sorta recommendation filtering.
Isn’t this where attention data processing comes in?
It’s really your own fault, you see. If you follow many people, you will get lots of updates. If that becomes unmanageable, then prune, baby, prune.
A lot depends on what your goals are with social media. You either pursue a desire to “get out of the fishbowl” or keeping your content only in specific channels. You can’t have it both ways.
My $0.02.
Make it a great day!
Here’s a Yahoo! Pipe to help with the Social Media Firehose: http://pipes.ya...media_fire_hose
Even Mike can’t handle this, he asked in the past for application similar to what you need for all his emails.
Here’s a nifty idea… Unsubscribe to the feeds or twitter posts you don’t want to read.
The web has grown into what it is today because we all asked for more information in more portable formats. You signed up for all that info, and praised the web for being able to give it to you.
Now, you want the web to anticipate what you really want to read, and weed out what you don’t?
Not only is that extremely ironic, but it’s the epitome of laziness.
Will you add your screenshot to our Flickr group – Project Netpop?
Images of the digital age and how it is changing our lives.
@29
Amen.
I long for the day where we can reduce the noise. Get better data, not more data.
-Jeff
http://edmodo.com
Twirl can filter stuff easily. There’s an icon right above the update box. It’s supposed to be a filter, but it looks more like an inverted plunger to me. Type in what or who you want to read, and it pares away all the other tweets.
Better yet, don’t follow anybody and just use the Search function that connects with Tweetscan – it’s in the drop down menu below the update box. Just look at the stuff you’re interested in, and ignore the rest.
And check the preferences box for showing summaries for more than 3 tweets.
Uh. You asked for it.
I hate to break it to you, but you’ve got MySpace Syndrome.
You’ve turned your Twitter account into a mobile whore of a MySpace. Way to go!
Why don’t YOU defriend more people on Twitter?
Or, why don’t you make a Yahoo! Pipe to split your Twitter feed into feeds of different priority.
A person with 5 friends on Twitter can share more information and be more productive than a person with dozens, hundreds, or in the case of Mr. Scoble, thousands of friends on Twitter.
If you want to use Twitter to do productive things, then you need to restrain how you use Twitter.
Better yet. Why not ditch Twitter and stick to Facebook. It’s more powerful than Twitter. You can have thousands of friends and still only get to the information that you want. Mobile updates? Reply streams? Grouping of contacts into lists? Configurable updates? Oh. And you can seemless update your Twitter feed from Facebook with Twitterfeed. Facebook has a lot of features that people want in Twitter.
I can understand the position that it may be information overload, and that you only want to see the information that’s important to you. But this can be brought down to a simple case of ‘control’. Many who badmouthed Facebook for being no better than MySpace with it’s application spam – it’s a simple case of regulation. You can forever block applications on a Facebook for example, so you never get bothered again. Many who despair and have left these networks probably never understood the control they actually had over this information. My first attempts of controlling this onslaught of Bacn was to create rules & filters – namely through my Gmail. It would be great if you could get what you want, when you want – but nothing in life is for free. I’ve probably spent more time getting my preferences set than actually reading them – but this is a long term investment that will pay off (a bit like buying double-glazing!)
Projects like Yahoo’s PIPES (http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/) looks set to be a really interesting news outlet for many different sources of information. The ability to filter RSS etc. for key topics I’m interested in means I can scour the net for only the most relevant information to me – with only a few rules needed to be made. The best part is the ability to share your own setup with other people, something I’ve been wanting for a while (though mine involved general browser/plugin etc setups!).
Web 1.0 saw us connecting to everyone in a largely unregulated & unstructured mess. Web 2.0 seems like it’s worked at creating the means to connect to each other, and make that connection meaningful in someway. Web 3.0 will probably see the recombining of Web 1 & 2 – taking users away from the recently developed, socially incestuous ‘friends only’ exchanges and putting us back in touch with everyone in the world – but this time in a structured and meaningful way.
Btw, anyone else look at the Borg in Star Trek and think – jesus, THAT’LL BE US!
The startup is called “not using these stupid services.”