Realtime Web is the new Attention Battle-Front
August 6, 2009
On Wednesday, the Google Reader team announced that shared items would be published via PubSubHubbub hub, meaning that anything I share will now how up on – for example – Friendfeed within seconds (there’s a great video in that post showing this behaviour in action). Louis Gray followed up with a post about he depends on Google Reader for sharing a colossal number of items from an equally colossal number of feeds, but ended the post with this:
Now, with PubSubHubbub, if there is any slowdown, it’s clear it’s with me, because Google has the gas pedal pushed all the way to the floor.
This got me thinking. My Reader stats (right) are far lower than Louis’, and yet there are times when I feel swamped by the amount of information I’m trying to filter. The volume of information scrolling down my screen right now on Friendfeed is such that the first page often refreshes before I’ve finished reading one article.
Although PSH solves the problem created by the latency of RSS-client polling periods, the next challenge is making sure that we don’t miss the stuff that really interests us. As consumers of shared items, blog updates et al, we will need to get smarter about making sure that the “interesting”stuff bubbles to the top of our attention stream.
How do we do that? How can we define “interestingness”? Can we build attention flags into our software tools in such a way that we don’t lose sight of why we’re wading through our real-time river?
At the moment, I rely on a combination of Google Reader – although I find Feedly to be a more configurable, usable top layer for Reader – Friendfeed and Lazyfeed. Even then, I’ll come across articles on one or other of those services a day or so after the fact and wonder, “how did I miss that?”.
Maybe I’m not using the filtering capabilities offered by my chosen services to their fullest; maybe there are other services that are worth taking a look at. If you’ve got any insights about you filter your feeds for the interesting stuff, do share them in the comments, below.
Posted in communication, publishing, tech
August 6th, 2009 at 11:59 am
New blog post: Realtime Web is the new Attention Battle-Front http://bit.ly/wt5k4
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
August 7th, 2009 at 1:00 am
You are invited to take a look on a new service my6sense – http://www.my6sense.com
Please find Louis Gray post which describe the service: http://www.louisgray.com/live/2009/07/my6sense-iphone-app-for-feeds-with.html
Would love to share more info if needed.
Barak Hachamov
Co-Founder & Visionary Geek
my6sense
August 7th, 2009 at 2:44 am
new?
This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed
August 7th, 2009 at 2:46 am
Realtime Web is the new Attention Battle-Front | andrewterry.com http://ff.im/-6gqxW
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
August 7th, 2009 at 2:49 am
heh agreed – been the new theater for Attention for quite some time
This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed
August 7th, 2009 at 2:49 am
Another interesting point is none of this discussion will make it to the source blog post
This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed
August 7th, 2009 at 2:53 am
what’s yr point Chris. This object is the interesting one.
This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed
August 7th, 2009 at 2:55 am
We need filtering!!! RT @louisgray Realtime Web is the new Attention Battle-Front | andrewterry.com http://ff.im/-6gqxW
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
August 7th, 2009 at 2:59 am
Realtime Web is the new Attention Battle-Front http://ff.im/-6gCjl
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
August 7th, 2009 at 3:02 am
"New" in that it’s more possible now
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August 7th, 2009 at 3:05 am
[uh, yeah] Realtime Web is the new Attention Battle-Front | andrewterry.com http://ff.im/-6gqxW (via @louisgray)
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
August 7th, 2009 at 3:07 am
RT @erickschonfeld: [uh, yeah] Realtime Web is the new Attention Battle-Front | andrewterry.com http://ff.im/-6gqxW (via @louisgray)
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
August 7th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Steve – I guess my point was that now Google is taking steps to integrate real time into it’s services, it’ll start to become more mainstream. For the predominantly geeky audience on Friendfeed (and I don’t mean "geeky" in any pejorative sense), yes, the real time web has been a discussion topic for a while now; but, outside of the influencers, idea makers and infrastructure builders, I’m not sure your average user would know what real time web will mean to them.
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August 7th, 2009 at 10:56 am
(as aside; Chris – I use the Backtype Connect plugin to import any comments back to the source)
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August 7th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Reading: Realtime Web is the new Attention Battle-Front http://bit.ly/i80rj
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
August 7th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Use Saved Searches + Lists + notifications. And recognize the fact that you’re going to miss some things, the real-time is faster than you. It’s a waterfall, and all you’ve got is a bucket
This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed
August 7th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
RT @AndrewTerry Realtime Web is the new Attention Battle-Front | andrewterry.com http://bit.ly/Gk31P
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
August 8th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Good advice, Ahsan, and your waterfall/bucket analogy is spot-on. I guess for a "web consumer", getting used to missing some things won’t be too hard; I wonder how the high-profile bloggers will adapt, though? Will the perceived need to be among the first to write about a subject evaporate as the flow rate of the waterfall increases?
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August 9th, 2009 at 3:05 am
Nope, people will never abandon their need for speed
Writing quality might suffer as a result 
This comment was originally posted on FriendFeed