Feedheads, the Facebook application that adds Google Reader shared items to your profile, and displays the most shared items and feeds in a way Google still hasn't figured out how to duplicate, is growing rapidly. At its current pace, the application should reach an installed base of 10,000 by end of day Sunday, or early Monday.As of 10 p.m. PST on Saturday, the total number of subscribers sat at 9,991. (See Mario Romero's stats)
The Graph as of Saturday Night Showing 10,000 Imminent
While Facebook's come under significant fire for its controversial Beacon program, and the vast majority of applications still seem trivial and childish at best, some developers, including Mario, are finding success by leveraging the social network's platform to deliver tools that big companies like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft are not.
Feedheads seamlessly ties in my Web activity with my Facebook profile, breaking through its walled garden. In fact, it not only tracks the feeds I share most frequently, but also has created a tag cloud of those topics I share.
You can see my profile here:
http://apps.facebook.com/feedheads/sharer.php?fbID=589638695
Congratulations to Mario on building a successful application that's gaining real traction and real benefits for users. I'm happy to include myself among the 10,000.
Previous Coverage:
LouisGray.com: Facebook Google Reader App Rebrands As Feedheads
Scobleizer: Feedheads: my Favorite Facebook application
UPDATE: Feedheads, thanks to a boost from this story, and Scoble, reached 10,019 Total Users as of 7:30 a.m. Sunday. Also you can Digg this story to push that number higher!
Wow - never heard of that. Just signed up, thanks.
ReplyDeleteI also just got my AIM and gtalk contacts into gmail. How nice is that to bring together those worlds. Google is really doing a nice job of keeping itself open and folks are always building things to close these gaps.
I also just found out about scrabulous. Too much fun on one intertron :)
I like the application - I just added it. I just wish there was a better way to integrate it with the profile. For example, I'd like to have that feed higher on my profile than the mini-feed with all of my silly friends tossing pirate bombs at me. :-) I think more customization of your profile will be important as Facebook expands into more business needs.
ReplyDeleteNikole, good point. In this case, Feedheads integrates with the Mini Feed, so if your friends are nuts who through pirate bombs, they get equal ranking with your shared items. :-)
ReplyDeleteFacebook's opening up the API was a great first start. I never had any interest in the service (and still have limited interest) before they opened up. We'll see how much further they take it.