FriendFeed’s Top 250 Most Followed Users

User21 | July 7, 2008 | 9:30 PM

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%
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FriendFeed Has ~75,000 Active Users (Personal Research)

User21 | July 4, 2008 | 10:00 AM

I believe my little research project has gathered enough data to produce some meaningful results. Please read my previous post regarding the methodology and imitations of this analysis. Just to clarify, my analysis covers only active and public FriendFeed users, and only those I was able to discover.

But enough with the disclaimers, let’s see some numbers.

How many FriendFeed users are there anyway?

For now I stopped crawling at about 60K users since I was discovering less and less new users with every crawl until it became clear that I’m discovering users who have just joined or existing inactive users who just happened to post something and went back to sleep. Basically they don’t interest me in the context of this little research.

Factoring in a few technical limitations, API coverage issues and some secret sauce, I assume I’m missing about 15-20% of the users. In fact I could be bold and speculate that FriendFeed has an active userbase of about 75K users. Again, this is based only on partial data and my own interpretation.

What is the public/private ratio?

The total number of users my crawler discovered is 57560 .
49580 of these users are public, while 7980 are private.
So the public/private ratio is about 6:1 .

Who are the most popular FriendFeed Users?

Out of this total of 57560 users, here are the top 20 “heaviest” (most subscribed to) FF users:

User Subscribers % of Total
1 scobleizer 9558 19.28%
2 techcrunch 6393 12.89%
3 leolaporte 4913 9.91%
4 jasoncalacanis 4838 9.76%
5 davew 4201 8.47%
6 laughingsquid 3848 7.76%
7 loic 3787 7.64%
8 petecashmore 3166 6.39%
9 bret 3164 6.38%
10 steverubel 3111 6.27%
11 chrisbrogan 3027 6.11%
12 fredwilson 3014 6.08%
13 l0ckergn0me 2967 5.98%
14 paul 2648 5.34%
15 factoryjoe 2533 5.11%
16 thomashawk 2505 5.05%
17 jzawodn 2167 4.37%
18 veronicabelmont 2076 4.19%
19 louisgray 2060 4.15%
20 elatable 1989 4.01%

You probably didn’t need my help to figure out that Robert Scoble is the most popular user on FriendFeed but my research seems to support this. Almost 20% of the public population I discovered are subscribed to his feed, 13% follow Michael Arrington, 5% follow Thomas Hawk and only 4% are “stuck following Louis Gray“…

What next?

Any suggestions for further analysis are welcome. I have my own ideas but I’m interested to know what others think and if this research has any value. Leave a comment or contact me by mail.

I wonder, maybe I should just let people search this database? You could ask “who follows louisgray” and get a list of users subscribed to him. Interesting.

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Mapping FriendFeed’s Social Graph

User21 | June 10, 2008 | 9:30 AM

While working on a social media trends project (I’ll probably write more about it in the future but for now there’s not much to say or show), I had this idea that I think I’m going to investigate.

FriendFeed lets you see a user’s subscriptions but it doesn’t let you see which users are subscribed to that user. For example, you can see who Robert Scoble follows, but you can’t see Scoble’s followers (the list of users subscribed to his feed).

So, I’m thinking maybe I can crawl the public feed, discover users and read their subscriptions. Each subscription will point at other users to discover and so on. Once I get enough data, I can just look at the list of subscriptions from the opposite direction (from the subscribers point of view), meaning I would be able to see which users and how many are subscribed to a user.

This will effectively give an estimate as to the “social weight” of that user, at least among the active and discoverable users of FriendFeed.

Interesting. I’ll get to work on it as soon as I can and share the results.

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