SpectatorBytes

The phenomenon of Twitter and Friendfeed seems to have regained momentum over the past couple of weeks. Early adopters are increasingly fascinated with these applications’ ability to broadcast information across the Web to a community of followers. The recent incident involving a US citizen arrested in Egypt, who used Twitter to ask for help, demonstrated the potential broadcast power of these tools (see here).

Although these types of tools have not become mainstream yet, they most likely will. It may not to be specifically Twitter or Friendfeed that do so. It could be a similar tool or the next generation version. The reason for this assertion is that I see these tools representing a new breed of “discovery” tools for the Web. These tools help empower users to become broadcasters of content (by way of sharing their activity and messages with their community). These broadcasters could be a user’s “friends” but also could be influential figures, experts, journalists and even brands. As followers or audiences , we are able to use the activity of these broadcasters as a new way to filter and discover new content on the Web.

The need for discovering information efficiently on the Web is increasingly important given the Web’s rapid rate of expansion. Current discovery tools such as search or topical blogs seem to be less efficient nowadays in helping us discover new content. Aggregator tools such as Digg and Stumbleupon have certainly enjoyed some success in leveraging communities to help us discover new information and sites. However, their reach has remained somewhat subscale.

I expect this new generation of people-driven discovery tools to prove more effective long-term given their ability to tailor to specific individual interests. These tools take “sharing” to the major leagues. Twitter and Friendfeed have some way to go. Yet, they seem to be the first manifestations of a new way to discover content on the Web. I expect many new companies to emerge that seek to further build on these capabilities.

It used to be that past generations rely on the broadcast news anchors to help them learn about new topics of interest. These new discovery tools will likely provide this service for the Web generation.