FriendFeed’s Top 250 Most Followed Users

I’m still fine tuning my crawler but below you’ll find the top 250 most followed users as calculated from data collected at the end of June. All previously mentioned limitations still apply. The percentage is calculated against the active public users discovered in this crawl, which is 52137 users (8143 users are private, and the current grand total is 60280).

Terminology

I changed my terminology from “active” to “most followed” as it better describes what this is all about. When I use the term “active” I mean “discoverable”, and it doesn’t matter if a person actually does anything on FF as long as his feed keeps flowing in. If she streams her twitter activity to FF but doesn’t set foot in FF, she will still be picked up by my crawler because her twitter activity contributes to her FF feed.

Margin of error or coverage limitations

Occasionally FF users mention how many followers they have. I tried comparing these numbers with my limited data and it seems to fit well within the estimated 15-20% margin.

For example, take a look at this entry and notice the numbers reported there by Susan Mernit and Jeremiah Owyang. Susan reports 1290 followers, I was able to discover 1055. Jeremiah reports 1979 followers, I was able to discover 1578.

Also, as far as the “big guys” go, I’m sure I’m missing a lot more than 15-20% which is natural given their popularity. There are probably a lot of dormant/inactive users who simply follow Scoble and Arrington without contributing anything to the feed (which makes them non-discoverable by my crawler).

The top 250

So, here is the top 250 list. As you can see, it goes “long tail” pretty fast.

User Followers % of Total
1 scobleizer 9889 18.97%
2 techcrunch 6626 12.71%
3 leolaporte 5240 10.05%
4 jasoncalacanis 5068 9.72%
5 davew 4347 8.34%
6 laughingsquid 3966 7.61%
7 loic 3884 7.45%
8 petecashmore 3277 6.29%
9 bret 3222 6.18%
10 steverubel 3199 6.14%
11 chrisbrogan 3131 6.01%
12 l0ckergn0me 3092 5.93%
13 fredwilson 3090 5.93%
14 paul 2690 5.16%
15 factoryjoe 2582 4.95%
16 thomashawk 2558 4.91%
17 veronicabelmont 2221 4.26%
18 jzawodn 2211 4.24%
19 louisgray 2095 4.02%
20 elatable 2025 3.88%
21 dbfarber 1932 3.71%
22 marshallk 1711 3.28%
23 dsifry 1628 3.12%
24 jeffjarvis 1608 3.08%
25 jowyang 1578 3.03%
26 jessica 1354 2.60%
27 rafe 1294 2.48%
28 brianoberkirch 1278 2.45%
29 kevinrose 1265 2.43%
30 shellen 1239 2.38%
31 kfury 1160 2.22%
32 ambermac 1144 2.19%
33 jeffpulver 1121 2.15%
34 smernit 1055 2.02%
35 waxpancake 1006 1.93%
36 chrisheuer 982 1.88%
37 andrewbaron 973 1.87%
38 bfeld 927 1.78%
39 chris 889 1.71%
40 johnfurrier 852 1.63%
41 davemorin 847 1.62%
42 niniane 837 1.61%
43 joi 835 1.60%
44 ricmac 825 1.58%
45 sanjeev 796 1.53%
46 duncanriley 793 1.52%
47 spin 766 1.47%
48 monstro 762 1.46%
49 erick 758 1.45%
50 chapman 756 1.45%
51 gaberivera 753 1.44%
52 kwerb 746 1.43%
53 keso 744 1.43%
54 daveman692 741 1.42%
55 barackobama 736 1.41%
56 davidhornik 690 1.32%
57 nicolesimon 688 1.32%
58 tomforemski 686 1.32%
59 problogger 669 1.28%
60 davemcclure 669 1.28%
61 sacca 667 1.28%
62 trishussey 660 1.27%
63 eddale 631 1.21%
64 orli 630 1.21%
65 costolo 626 1.20%
66 ana 620 1.19%
67 mparekh 606 1.16%
68 jim 593 1.14%
69 evhead 592 1.14%
70 quixotic 591 1.13%
71 jimturner 590 1.13%
72 kteare 581 1.11%
73 andybeard 579 1.11%
74 stevegarfield 573 1.10%
75 sethgoldstein 567 1.09%
76 mhmazidi 561 1.08%
77 tamar 552 1.06%
78 mathewingram 551 1.06%
79 donlbe 547 1.05%
80 tariqkrim 511 0.98%
81 rohit 511 0.98%
82 gapingvoid 510 0.98%
83 warrenwhitlock 509 0.98%
84 briansolis 509 0.98%
85 parislemon 505 0.97%
86 ijustine 498 0.96%
87 marismith 496 0.95%
88 kanter 490 0.94%
89 stoweboyd 487 0.93%
90 misteroo 484 0.93%
91 sarahintampa 483 0.93%
92 karen 482 0.92%
93 charleneli 482 0.92%
94 dweekly 480 0.92%
95 leahculver 479 0.92%
96 philipp 476 0.91%
97 corvida 473 0.91%
98 cathybrooks 470 0.90%
99 pacificit 466 0.89%
100 bwana 459 0.88%
101 marccanter 457 0.88%
102 patobryan 457 0.88%
103 kamangir 457 0.88%
104 missrogue 455 0.87%
105 tempo 451 0.87%
106 vanderwal 450 0.86%
107 rindawahmhoff 449 0.86%
108 saulklein 439 0.84%
109 cspenn 434 0.83%
110 drewolanoff 431 0.83%
111 msaleem 430 0.82%
112 schlomo 427 0.82%
113 mihai 425 0.82%
114 websuccessdiva 423 0.81%
115 rklau 421 0.81%
116 bgolub 419 0.80%
117 weblaunches 419 0.80%
118 giovanni 415 0.80%
119 domino 414 0.79%
120 emilychang 413 0.79%
121 veen 412 0.79%
122 zadi 410 0.79%
123 iankennedy 408 0.78%
124 staenman 406 0.78%
125 rumford 405 0.78%
126 technosailor 401 0.77%
127 biznickman 400 0.77%
128 labnol 399 0.77%
129 stevegillmor 398 0.76%
130 genuine 398 0.76%
131 doshdosh 391 0.75%
132 engtech 391 0.75%
133 theinfluencer 390 0.75%
134 susanbeebe 387 0.74%
135 katson 382 0.73%
136 dimitrihage 382 0.73%
137 carls 380 0.73%
138 dahowlett 379 0.73%
139 drsuccess 378 0.73%
140 robocallaghan 376 0.72%
141 maryam5063 375 0.72%
142 alireza1356 373 0.72%
143 jaffejuice 370 0.71%
144 vjmario 364 0.70%
145 doughaslam 364 0.70%
146 evernote 363 0.70%
147 andykaufman 362 0.69%
148 rebeccabriggs 361 0.69%
149 bamdadi 359 0.69%
150 bourne 359 0.69%
151 sbooth 354 0.68%
152 howardrheingold 353 0.68%
153 whitecrow 352 0.68%
154 mjesales 352 0.68%
155 rizzn 352 0.68%
156 garyvaynerchuk 352 0.68%
157 williamlong 350 0.67%
158 eldon 349 0.67%
159 hardaway 347 0.67%
160 alexiskold 346 0.66%
161 willpate 346 0.66%
162 justinkan 346 0.66%
163 jerrym 346 0.66%
164 dotben 342 0.66%
165 christinelu 341 0.65%
166 peter 341 0.65%
167 anjrued 341 0.65%
168 mager 340 0.65%
169 danraine 337 0.65%
170 alexdc 336 0.64%
171 dhinchcliffe 335 0.64%
172 jeffnolan 334 0.64%
173 nlbctim 332 0.64%
174 mattcutts 332 0.64%
175 shermanlive 332 0.64%
176 dannysullivan 331 0.63%
177 ryancarson 329 0.63%
178 gartenberg 329 0.63%
179 creativesage 328 0.63%
180 e3r 326 0.63%
181 stevenhodson 321 0.62%
182 artbushkin 320 0.61%
183 mazoox 319 0.61%
184 foadsa 318 0.61%
185 charlieanzman 317 0.61%
186 bhc3 316 0.61%
187 susanbratton 315 0.60%
188 1938media 315 0.60%
189 jjprojects 309 0.59%
190 andycarvin 307 0.59%
191 shey 307 0.59%
192 dsearls 307 0.59%
193 aydin 307 0.59%
194 pmarcablog 307 0.59%
195 shankman 305 0.58%
196 evanwolf 304 0.58%
197 chrisgarrett 303 0.58%
198 alexw 302 0.58%
199 georgesharik 301 0.58%
200 mbites 300 0.58%
201 zefrank 293 0.56%
202 1fathi 293 0.56%
203 vahid 293 0.56%
204 chrisabraham 292 0.56%
205 gregarious 292 0.56%
206 webleon 291 0.56%
207 hunterwalk 290 0.56%
208 geoffliving 290 0.56%
209 rycaut 289 0.55%
210 peiman 288 0.55%
211 sarahcuda 287 0.55%
212 jabancroft 286 0.55%
213 rexhammock 284 0.54%
214 shashib 284 0.54%
215 jasonw22 282 0.54%
216 derek 282 0.54%
217 kashani 282 0.54%
218 kosmar 282 0.54%
219 jasongoldberg 282 0.54%
220 digidave 280 0.54%
221 mommycast 280 0.54%
222 ckieff 280 0.54%
223 davidjhinson 279 0.54%
224 divedi 279 0.54%
225 adamostrow 279 0.54%
226 moniquebriand 278 0.53%
227 philrosenberg 275 0.53%
228 dkaye 275 0.53%
229 sthayden 275 0.53%
230 fenng 273 0.52%
231 vakster 273 0.52%
232 waynesutton 272 0.52%
233 ginger 271 0.52%
234 olegus 271 0.52%
235 kriskrug 270 0.52%
236 sanford 270 0.52%
237 baratunde 269 0.52%
238 kveton 269 0.52%
239 altaide 269 0.52%
240 rohitbhargava 269 0.52%
241 aglick35 268 0.51%
242 davidberkowitz 267 0.51%
243 benyoskovitz 267 0.51%
244 maryamsharif 267 0.51%
245 tomraftery 267 0.51%
246 mspeiser 265 0.51%
247 andybeal 265 0.51%
248 cherylwhite 264 0.51%
249 mikejones 264 0.51%
250 ontarioemperor 264 0.51%

31 thoughts on “FriendFeed’s Top 250 Most Followed Users”

  2. Nicole Simon

    You have me with 688, while FF reports to me 836. I assume with me you have something you do have with most non english based users: the non english part is not visible to you. I seldomly like or comment on german items, because it will irritate my english only subscribers.

    Seeing that kosmar seems to be the other German user in here (it is early in the morning without much coffee) and not many other non english natives I guess that is the cause as usual. You should though be able to find a lot more of them though when you crossscan the rooms as well? Ping me and I can five you a list of users you are probably missing out on.

  3. User21 Post author

    Nicole, my crawler is language agnostic. It doesn’t look at the content. All it does is crawl the public feed (where you’ll find all public entries regardless of their language) and looks for users posting, commenting or liking. When it finds a user it looks at its subscriptions list and goes on from there.

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  5. Nicole Simon

    I know that it is language agnostic.

    Do you believe me when I tell you that by experience crawlers like this have a language biased problem due to user behaviour adapting to the insufficient functionality of the software? :)

    They are in a separate bubble. And only as long as the people living in the other big bubble subscribe to them so you can follow them, your crawler will discover them. :) Now, chances are that you have most users like for example technorati did blogs (back in the day when it actually worked) – but still numbers for non english blogs where always way more down than they should have been.

    Example: I post German content to a German room only and nearly never comment / like something from a German user. Similar to that, other German users use the German room as well. Also most German users do not like / comment on english entries. Room entries do not appear on the users time line. How then does your crawler discover them?

    Which is why i suggest you do cross check with the rooms as well.

    [The room in question is http://friendfeed.com/rooms/germany – saying your crawler is not language biased, you should have 100% of the active users in there in your database. ]

  8. Susan Beebe

    Hey this list idea is awesome, thank you! Any way to keep the list updated? Currently, this follower info is outdated… This list shows me with under 400 subscribers, when in reality I have nearly 500 followers, so I should be ranked in the top 100, not 134. ;-)

    Thanks!

    Susan Beebe
    @smbeebe

  9. User21 Post author

    Alexander, as much as I’d love the crawler to able to do linguistic analysis on the content and decide if a certain entry is German, English, Farsi or Hebrew, unfortunately this would take it to a whole new level of complexity which is unrealistic in this case.

  10. User21 Post author

    Susan, I’m thinking about setting up a site where you could see this data updated.
    Regarding your specific ranking, assuming the same 20% margin of error applies to most other users (except maybe the top 10 where the margin is much higher), if I had the real numbers for every user then the list would probably be similar. Higher numbers but similar ranking.

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  18. User21 Post author

    John, the crawler cannot find all users and subscriptions so any stats I produce will never be accurate. There will always be a “coverage margin”, currently estimated at ~20% (in your case 22%). However I am working on better covering the public feed and maybe discover even more of the userbase.

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  29. tinustuff

    @Don, I have 304 but I didn’t make it either. If you scroll up one comment, you’ll see it’s probably the bot.

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  31. Some Guy

    I won’t mention my login, since leaderboards don’t matter to me. But I should be mid-list, and the bot has missed me altogether.

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