Question: What do Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Nine Kittens Bobbing Together to a Song, and PayPal Co-Founder Peter Thiel Have in Common?

Answer: Stories about them were recommended to pals of FriendFeed cofounder Paul Buchheit last week, according to The New York Times.

Following the feeds of people you like and admire, these companies say, allows the serendipitous discovery of needles in the information haystack. "Friends are likely to have some similar interests and tastes. Just the fact that your friends find it interesting should make it more interesting to you," said Paul Buchheit, one of FriendFeed's four founders, all of them former Google engineers.

Last week, for example, Mr. Buchheit's followers on FriendFeed were treated to what he himself had discovered and found valuable online: links to interviews with the investor Peter Thiel in Reason magazine and the Google co-founder Larry Page in Fortune, an article about Justice Antonin Scalia's views on torture on a political Web site, and a YouTube video of nine kittens moving their heads in rhythm to a song, among other Internet ephemera.

Read "Friends May Be the Best Guide Through the Noise."

Comments

Dave | May 5, 2008, 2:30pm | #

And after all that, they couldn't link us to the kittens video?

johjackson3rd | May 5, 2008, 2:31pm | #

I hate feeds and I hate the use of all the social blogging tools- all an incredible waste of time.

Cosmotarian Overlord | May 5, 2008, 2:46pm | #

I wonder what "political website" talked about scalia and torture last week? It must have been one of those racist conspiracy theory sites.

Alan Vanneman | May 5, 2008, 4:45pm | #

The Scalia link takes you to the NYT, for a story that is not about torture, unless you think that Linda Greenhouse being snide is "torture."

Mad Max | May 5, 2008, 5:09pm | #

"Question: What do Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Nine Kittens Bobbing Together to a Song, and PayPal Co-Founder Peter Thiel Have in Common?"

Liberals want to put them all in a sack and drown them in the Potomac?

Just kidding, some of my best friends are liberals.

Luke Johnson | May 5, 2008, 6:42pm | #

And after all that, they couldn't link us to the kittens video?

Might be the link in my name.

Dave | May 6, 2008, 7:39am | #

"Might be the link in my name."

Well, it's about time!

Thanks!