I just had a thought about how interesting it would be to have a feed reader that was no longer focused on individual blogs, but instead, it was focused on subscribing to individuals like journalists and bloggers—the people who create the content. This would put more emphasis on the content creators, and that, in my opinion, is a great thing. But it then dawned on me that this was such a ridiculous idea!

FriendFeed, my newest and favorite obsession, is pretty much the “people reader” thing that I was just referring to. It is already here, and I didn’t even realize it—it took me nearly 30 seconds after the initial thought to have FriendFeed come to mind. It is easy to forget, but FriendFeed’s impacts are very important to the future of content creators and consumers.

When you consider where we have come from since the beginning of the printing press, it is just astounding that it has taken this long for a change. What change am I talking about? Well, first let’s evaluate what has, for the most part, been happening for the longest of times.

Newspapers / Magazines

Before the internet, there was a majority of print-oriented readership. Most of us were focused on the actual publications instead of the authors. Everyone who has picked up a newspaper has read the articles, but how many of you can name those writers who have contributed to that newspaper? If you have an amazing journalist or editor, you might recall a name or two—you might even remember an article that this person has written—but my money is on the idea that you don’t remember who wrote what. It was just some journalist, right? Same thing with magazine articles. Beyond the occasional well-known contributer, it’s mostly the content and the magazine that gets the recognition.

It might have been a lack of being able to get down to more of a personal level with the author, or it might have been the fact that few readers cared about who actually wrote the content. Regardless, it is interesting to note that book authors have had a very different experience.

Book authors have always had the pleasure of getting most, if not all, of the credit for their works. When they release a top-selling book, the author was and still is usually well rewarded with money and fame. Newspaper and magazine journalists, for the most part, simply earned themselves an opportunity to write for the publication again.

Of course, people will argue the fact that only a single person (or perhaps a few co-authors) writes a book while newspapers are a collection of dozens of journalists, but it doesn’t change the fact that the authors are rarely well recognized.

I do believe that all this is unfair to the author. Put yourself in their shoes. If you wrote an amazing article for the New York Times, wouldn’t you be upset if everyone was praising the New York Times instead of you, the author? Trust me, it happens more than we can imagine.¹

When you consider how the Internet has brought about so much change and so much information, it can be mind boggling how old habits stay the same, but tools and services have been developed that are shifting the focus entirely.

People

It is funny how within only a month or two ago I created two folders in my feed reader, NetNewsWire, labeled “Journalists” and “Bloggers.” Since doing that, I rarely add blogs to my feed reader; instead, I add people to my feed reader. This usually correlates to a person’s personal blog, but you get the point. However, FriendFeed does a better job than NetNewsWire could possibly do at this current point in time, and that is why I believe FriendFeed is so popular with so many people.

While I recently wrote about how people should make sure to maintain their personal blogs, I didn’t place nearly enough emphasis on the fact that tools like FriendFeed could be far more valuable than any personal blog. It changes how we see content and people. We still see these blogs, but we now place greater importance on who wrote the content instead of the actual content itself.

It is almost an everyday occurrence for me to read a great article and find out if I know that author. If I don’t, I will search for more content that the author has created. It is a genuine interest in learning more about the person, and I never fully realized how great it is to want to do something like that.

For me, this change only began happening late last year. I really started paying attention to who I was reading instead of what I was reading. But now, after becoming heavily involved with Twitter and FriendFeed, I feel like this is the way it should have always been.

I believe that FriendFeed is directly contributing to this idea that it is not the publication, the article, nor the site we should be focused on, but instead, it is all about the creator. It encourages conversation on a personal level, and it really gets you in tune with the author.

Louis Gray, author of LouisGray.com, recently opened my eyes to this concept after I constantly saw his name and content mentioned throughout my FriendFeed account. At first, I didn’t have a clue about who he was, but, without even viewing his blog, I began understanding the type of person he was. I ended up becoming much more interested in him as a person, above all else. So, by the time I actually read his blog for the first time, I already knew what to expect, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Nowadays, if I want to learn about Windows, I go to Paul Thurrott. If I’m feeling the Apple, I’ll visit John Gruber. If I want tech journalism, I’ll read some Saul Hansell. If I want to get my game on, I’ll talk to Chris Kohler. If I want to learn photography techniques, I’ll admire Thomas Hawk. And, finally, if blogging has been complicated, Darren Rowse has my cure. The list just goes on and on.

For me, this was not possible around two to three years ago. The change is amazing.

The Shift

I believe that this kind of transition is good for the blogosphere. I also believe that this will help keep the blogosphere healthy. The circulation of great content will continue, and the amount of bloggers who will become well-known should increase. (As most FriendFeed users who read this would probably agree.)

My emphasis has slowly shifted away from focusing on the site or blog itself—it is now about the individuals that I know have things in common with me that I want to be friends with. These are the people who I would want to have discussions with about the topics I care about. These people are who I would prefer to be my audience, no matter where on the web I am writing.

This was—unquestionably—an epiphany. I hope that anyone reading this article realizes how human nature can really evolve with the help of technology. This is one of those moments where I believe technology has really done good for a group of people who rarely got the attention they deserved, and it allows the readership to get involved as well.

If anything, my appreciation for services like Jaiku, Twitter, Identi.ca, Facebook, and, of course, FriendFeed has increased immensely.