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When Twitter changed its feature set to exclude a favorite opt-in feature (See All @ Replies), Twitter erupted. As one of the people affected, I wanted to get my thoughts on paper. I started a bit of a back and forth via email with colleague Alexander Howard about that change and the other changes Twitter made (email notifications, indexed search and URL tracking). In the spirit of Slate and other magazines, I thought we’d post our discussion about it here.

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Big news yesterday included the rollout of the new FriendFeed beta, coupled with a day full of Fail Whales, Unscheduled Maintenance Caterpillars, Just Chill Ice Cream Cones and Backwards Birds for Twitter. The two big questions of the day were what was causing Twitter to have such spotty service, and whether or not FriendFeed was copying Twitter in the hopes of being seen as a viable Twitter alternative for loyal Twitter users.

I don’t know the answer to the Twitter downtime question, though I do have a working theory that FriendFeed’s default CC:Twitter setting on posts was a significant contributor to a service already being taxed by the pressure of going mainstream at the speed of light after two years of being able to operate its infrastructure at a certain level for a certain number of users. To go from a steady rate of growth to an exponential one has to be wreaking havoc behind the scenes, though I’m sure it is the best kind of chaos for Twitter’s success.

As for the second question, is FriendFeed copying Twitter with an eye to being a viable Twitter alternative (or in some cases even a replacement)? I would have to say yes. From the addition of Direct Messages to the live, automatically refreshing stream of content on the Home page, FriendFeed has definitely gone into the microblog platform’s territory with its eye on the prize. In a few instances, FriendFeed even upped the ante a bit, challenging Twitter with the addition of threaded messages and the ability to send Direct Messages to multiple people, as well as to search Direct Messages after the fact - all things that Twitter users have been hungry for over the last year.

In spite of a solid effort and a much improved design over the original utilitarian appearance, FriendFeed still lacks a certain something that Twitter seems to have. It is a great microcontent and content discovery site, but it remains difficult for people to connect. It is the easy connections you can make on Twitter that continue to keep it on top as it faces challenge after challenge. FriendFeed’s improvements make it prettier to look at and made it a better feed aggregator and content system, but make it harder to see and connect with new individuals easily.

The Home stream moves at the speed of light, especially if you have hundreds or even thousands of people you subscribe to. Luckily there is a Pause button to handle that, but it would make more sense to me to slow down the refresh rate a bit to give people time to connect. As it stands people using FriendFeed in earnest will need to create and rely upon filters. You are automatically set up with a few filters in the beta already, for your discussions (a handy improvement), your own posted items and messages, the best posts of the day as determined by comments and “likes”, and a few others.

I do like the filters, as well as the ability to create feeds. In fact, if you are wondering where your Rooms went in FriendFeed, they have become feeds now. It feels less private, and several users have commented that they used the Rooms as a way to get more personal with people about chosen topics, and that the feeds feel more impersonal. I’d have to agree. They are a more efficient content delivery system sorted by interest or topic, but foster less new connections.

Can you meet and get to know people on FriendFeed? Absolutely. Lasting friendships have formed there, with real life connections. However, if FriendFeed wants to be a real Twitter replacement or even a contender, they need to make the connections easy and intuitive. There are many valuable conversations or debates that group around a topic on FriendFeed, but the question remains: where do they go from there? Not as many on FriendFeed make it into real, effective, concrete associations as compared to Twitter, where the trust network and conversation-like interaction make it easy to take things to a new level quickly.

Over all I’d have to say I agree with Adam Ostrow from Mashable that FriendFeed is trying to copy Twitter. Louis Gray has a nice write up of the nuts and bolts of the beta, with a good glimpse at the behind the scenes reasoning behind it, over on his blog. For me, I’d have to say that so far I am feeling nothing but positive about the FriendFeed beta upgrade. I use FriendFeed and Twitter for very different things, so it won’t replace Twitter for me, but I find it much more palatable to spend more time there now. That can only be a good thing.

Words of Caution: Currently, Direct Messages on FriendFeed default to public. Be sure to check your settings and unclick “My Feed” to precent this from happening. Also, the check box for posting to Twitter defaults to checked. You may want to click the settings button next to it and change that the next time you post, so that it then defaults to send messages to Twitter only when you tell it to.

If you are looking for the latest in election news today, on this momentous occasion, look no further than your Twitter stream or the internet. Several interactive, real time sites have sprung up to help report the vote, prevent voter fraud and generally keep you updated on the election results as they happen.

TwitterVoteReport gives live tweeted voter reports from all over the country. The site gives detailed instructions on how to use various hashtags to report your vote or any problems:

How to participate

It’s simple. We voters are using Twitter and other texting tools to report on how the vote is really going during this election, and we’re urging everyone to use the common word (or “hashtag” in Twitter lingo) of #votereport as they do so. If that happens, we’ll all be able watch on maps and graphs how the election is going across the country.

Including “#votereport” in your tweet is enough to get your report tracked by Twitter Vote Report. But the more details you can stuff in, the better. So, for example, include in your Twitter post:

* #[zip code] to indicate the zip code where you’re voting; ex., “#12345″

* L:[address or city] to drill down to your exact location; ex. “L:1600 Pennsylvania Avenue DC”

* #machine for machine problems; ex., “#machine broken, using prov. ballot”

* #reg for registration troubles; ex., “#reg I wasn’t on the rolls”

* #wait:[minutes] for long lines; ex., “#wait:120 and I’m coming back later”

* #early if you’re voting before November 4th

* #good or #bad to give a quick sense of your overall experience

* #EP[your state] if you have a serious problem and need help from the Election Protection coalition; ex., #EPOH

Voter Suppression Wiki is out there for those who are more of a Wiki fan than a Twitter hound. This is an interactive wiki set up to report and track incidents of voter fraud. To participate, go directly to the wiki site.

For Citizen Journalists with cam corders, flip cams and camera phones, you have Video The Vote. This gives you a place to upload footage of your own vote, machine incidents, bullying, and other issues. Please make sure your state allows video voting so that you don’t get fined or arrested, and please follow common decency and do not intimidate other voters or otherwise ruin their experience by being intrusive.

Voting is personal and private, but also important. These tools and others not listed here give you the power to make sure your vote counts. See you at the polls!

If you’ve been following the online buzz with Congress using social media, Dr. Mark Drapeau’s series on Government 2.0, political campaigns online and more, then you know that the use of social media tools for government and military purposes is a hot topic right now. Dan Bricklin sat down with Vice Admiral John Morgan recently to talk about how the military uses technology and social media tools.

The interview touches on the many ways our military has incorporated social technology and software over the years, both internally via chat rooms and externally via use and observing of the tools we all use everyday. I found much of the interview fascinating, especially hearing about the use of chat rooms and other technology to both assist in efficiency and, on occasion, to expedite a solution by enabling a direct route to the right person, bypassing traditional paper-based chains of command.

Another intriguing concept from the interview is the burgeoning refocus in the military from a mentality of “decisive win” and defeat of an enemy to one of collaboration and global solutions that benefit more global citizens. Social media and the technology behind it is inherently geared for collaborative efforts, crowdsourcing, information gathering, information sharing and finding joint solutions to complex problems. That the military is taking this into consideration is a good thing going in to the next stage of our future development.

One example of social media in a strategic military application is the use of chat to direct a missile campaign. From the transcript of the podcast (John Morgan speaking):

John: [5:44] Let me give you a very specific military example. You are right, I brought the Enterprise Battle Group south through the Straights of Hormuth on the night of the 10th of September, and on the 11th of September we watched the events unfold in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania and the reaction around the world and we pressed up off the coast of Pakistan.

[6:05] But, when we launched the first strike in Afghanistan we did so by firing Tomahawk cruise missiles. And here’s the technology example: We directed all those Tomahawk cruise missiles by means of a chat room. It’s staggering..

The entire podcast fascinated and intrigued me. On one hand, I love the idea of the global society benefitting from a more collaborative strategic approach instead of a combative one. On the other hand, to hear that whole missile campaigns can be directed via social technology (such as the use of chat rooms, monitoring and use of Twitter and similar applications) is a bit staggering as a concept. I highly recommend you check out the podcast and transcript, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the military and strategic uses of social media and technology in the comments here as well.

The importance of being real has never been more apparent than right now. Even when television first brought political candidates and Hollywood stars into our living room, there was still a glass wall separating us. Computers in the home brought the world closer still, especially once the Internet became widely used, but it still seemed somehow removed.

Microblogging and microsharing applications like Twitter have broken through that barrier like nothing has before. This means that your company has only one chance to change how your customers perceive it. Jeremy Pepper of Pop! PR Jots talks about that one chance at establishing your corporate personality in his blog with the article Twitteriocy.

He makes several valid points in his article about what he calls Twitteriocy (Twitter + idiocy). The first, and most important, is not to let someone else try and interact in your place. I tell this to all of my clients, and it is so true. You must be genuine to be embraced in this new media frontier, and having a PR firm or another outside source that isn’t familiar with your corporate culture blog for you is a mistake. People online and active in social media can smell “fake” quicker than dogs sniff out garbage. It just won’t work.

His other points include not having to follow back everyone who follows you, using the right tools (he recommends TweetDeck, but there are a plethora of options out there to suit your individual needs), engaging with people who engage with you (this is key - why be on a conversation and community service if you act like a loner?) and choosing the right social media platform (similar to the “Twitter is not for everyone, pick what works for you” mantra I repeat to everyone I bring into the social media space).

I’m not a fan of putting too many rules on something that works well mainly because it is so a la carté, but this post offers a great guideline for those who do better navigating new things with a road map, and it will help keep corporations from wasting their time with social media strategies that flat out won’t work. The point is to bring your customers closer not drive them away, after all. The post is full of great takeaways to be a better corporate microsharer and engage with your customers in a more meaningful and productive way. I highly recommend you check it out.