QMeme Day One

It has been 24 hours since I whipped together and announced the still very much alpha version of QMeme, The Inquisitr’s (and by extension my) very own memetracker based on data from FriendFeed. Aside from acquiring XML and Java for dummies from Borders today I haven’t made any further progress on a native WordPress version so it’s still running via Sprout, with both the positives (easy to design) and negatives (can be slow) that provides.

I was initially concerned as to how the XML feed from FriendFeed may be parsed in terms of updates, I’m happy to report that the page refreshes in full and provides ongoing updates in order as well as providing new stories as they reach the list (vs placing the new stuff on top like the same raw feed does in Google Reader).

I though I’d compare the list on QMeme as I write this post to Techmeme. Now I love Gabe and I’m still a Techmeme addict, but at the dawn of the personal memetracker there are some significant differences in what one delivers over the other in terms of my personal likes.

Lead stories

The top story on Techmeme now is about Google developing an ISP throttling detector. The top story on QMeme is Chris Pirillo saying that he’ll never use BrightKite and that he values his privacy. Now remember QMeme is based on the best content on FriendFeed as voted by my friends, associates and others I follow, so not surprisingly I much prefer the Pirillo item. It’s a little bold, out there, but more importantly there is a really interesting discussion on FriendFeed as well (the link in this case is a FriendFeed entry). Google measuring Comcast throttling BitTorrent traffic…bit to nerdy for me.

Next Two posts

Techmeme: yet another Microsoft-Yahoo post, this time Tim O’Reilly having ago at Michael Arrington, then Andrew Sullivan trying to argue that Google makes us all brain dead in the Times of London. Qmeme has two FriendFeed posts: one discussion based on people’s positions for their name in Google, then an item about reciprocal following on FriendFeed. Honestly none of these overly excite me, however I got more out of the two in QMeme because the discussion was there. But admittedly it was tight call.

4th
Steve Gillmor on TechCrunch seeing dead people vs Scoble responding to people suggesting that he is a paid shill. Scoble wins hands down.

There are more I could compare, but testing this in the middle of the weekend isn’t really fair on either because fluffy items tend to rise to the top when news is quiet. I might try this again mid-week when big stories are breaking to see whether Techmeme has the upper hand.

Not everyone will like content on QMeme as they won’t like the content on Techmeme, but as we enter the age of personalized memetracking there will be many more QMeme style memetrackers out there than there will be versions of Techmeme. FriendFeed users already have this feature from within FriendFeed now, I’m just the first person to take it out of FriendFeed to share it with the world, and I most definitely won’t be the last.

Update: if anyone would like a QMeme widget for their own site or homepage there is now a 300×250 on the right hand side here on The Inquisitr. Click on share for the various options, including support for iGoogle and Netvibes.