Using FriendFeed’s Public Links

Maybe you haven’t joined FriendFeed yet, but that’s no reason why you still can’t enjoy the resources it provides. A handful of links from the service can act as your own personal information filter for finding out what’s currently hot on the net without you ever needing to sign in. How is that possible? By using the publicly available links for the services on FriendFeed.

Here are a few examples:

http://friendfeed.com/public?service=stumbleupon

http://friendfeed.com/public?service=blog

http://friendfeed.com/public?service=googlereader

http://friendfeed.com/public?service=flickr

http://friendfeed.com/public?service=digg

With 35 services to choose from, that’s a lot of pre-filtered content you can access. What’s even better is that each link like those above has an RSS feed attached to it. And again, you can access those feeds without needing to have a FriendFeed account – just scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the orange RSS icon.

For example,

StumbleUpon RSS: http://friendfeed.com/public?service=stumbleupon&format=atom

Blog Posts RSS: http://friendfeed.com/public?service=blog&format=atom

Google Reader Shares RSS: http://friendfeed.com/public?service=googlereader&format=atom

Flickr RSS: http://friendfeed.com/public?service=flickr&format=atom

Digg RSS: http://friendfeed.com/public?service=digg&format=atom

Even if you are already heavily involved with FriendFeed, subscribing to these public links will give you a glimpse of the community’s action outside of your circle of friends. But be warned – these feeds aren’t for those that fear the unread count in their RSS reader. As FriendFeed gains in popularity, the number of postings will grow even more so than it is now – which is quite a lot. However, the feeds might be a nice addition to your iGoogle homepage – something to glance at when you’re there, but not something you need to constantly read. (thanks, Jeetblog)