How To Split An Atom - Latest Comments in Aggregation Obsession

Re: Aggregation Obsession

shafqat — Sat, 03 May 2008 08:06:29 -0000

Great post. I see your point regarding aggregation leading to stagnation, but I'm not sure I agree completely. Aggregation is something early adopters take for granted. For those of us on this Web 2.0 ride, its essential. However, the power of aggregation and syndication has still not been opened up to the mainstream. The masses still don't know what RSS is or how to set up a news readers. Before we kiss aggregation goodbye, we should make sure we bring the mainstream up the learning curve. If it takes new tools or web services to do that, I think we should continue to encourage aggregation.

Re: Aggregation Obsession

Joe — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:35:28 -0000

Great article, Greg.

Re: Aggregation Obsession

ophelia chong — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:35:44 -0000

One problem I can see happening is that all your tweets, comments, pics are all jetsam and flotsam. One day you just might to gather it all up. But you can't because you forgot the password, username, url etc. So it floats all over the web. And we look out our windows and see it all float by, there is no net big enough to catch it all. So be good, behave and leave only what you would be proud of. All your words and images combine into multiple web feeds, which means it becomes infinite.

Re: Aggregation Obsession

sbspalding — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:47:46 -0000

Great post Greg. My big question is what is the missing link -after- aggregation?

Re: Aggregation Obsession

Maggy Young — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:33:05 -0000

All great posts, but are we to some extent sidestepping the underlying point of the original ? Are we really talking about aggregation, or that the overwhelming preoccupation of web 2 is intensive conversations of an essentially trivial nature between ourselves and that this is dragging the potential of the web down into a huge mire of trivia ? Maybe for now, but the web is still in early days yet !!

Re: Aggregation Obsession

Aidan Henry — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:29:53 -0000

Great article Greg.

I think that aggregation tools are needed to filter out the clutter. The theory is that aggregation saves time and hassle, ultimately revealing the most pertinent content. In the end, we are left with more time to focus on innovation and more important projects.

The big problem is when people let news and aggregation consume their attention. Productivity and focus are lost...

Cheers,
Aidan

Re: Aggregation Obsession

shaif — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:26:20 -0000

Thanks Greg Hollingsworth for asking the question and ontarioemperor for the answer. I learn a lot from both of your post.

Re: Aggregation Obsession

ontarioemperor — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:59:45 -0000

Fine post, Greg, and a good question.

Perhaps it's me, but I look at FriendFeed as more than an aggregator. It includes two key features that go beyond mere aggregation - a commenting feature that allows you to overlay additional content over the aggregated material, and a variety of filtering features that allow you to control the information that you are read (if you don't like my tweets, you can hide them).

Your "I'm not a developer" comment touches on a sore subject with me. I'm not a developer either (unless you count my HyperTalk programming circa 1990), yet some people believe that those without technical knowledge should refrain from commenting on technical issues. I believe, however, that people such as you (and me) certainly have the right to comment upon the user experience, and upon business issues related to the technologies in question (for example, I believe that Twitter's business issues are more serious than its technical issues).