Actsofism

Well, I finally got the hang of FriendFeed and figured out this incredibly cool lil hack and what do you know...
Officer Facebook has crashed the party and threatens to pull the plug.
If you missed it (yeah, right) the Social Networking uber-site announced that they have acquired the barely two year old FriendFeed.

Oh well, this may not last long but it's really cool, so get on it.

I use it as a real-time news ticker and social media notifier. It runs in the background and alerts me to breaking news from my chosen sources, Twitter @replies/searches and Facebook notifications.
But you can plug in any source you want. As long as it has an RSS feed.

Let's Do This:

1. Set up a FriendFeed account or log in here.

3. Create a new Friend List and add the sources you would like to appear in your HUD. I named mine 'Desktop" for easy reference.

News:

I included several of my favorite news source feeds. If a particular source is not on FriendFeed, no problem...
FF allows you to create an Imaginary Friend and import any RSS feed into it. (Click 'Imaginary Friend on the bottom of your Friends Page)

Vanity/Brand searches:

Keep track of Twitter @replies and searches as they happen.
I created a specific Imaginary Friend for searches that I'd like to track in real-time by plugging in the RSS feeds for Twitter searches for @gregsantos, greg santos, Enthuzer, etc.

Facebook Notifications:

Grab your Facebook Notification RSS Feed on the lower right of this page and add it your new Imaginary Friends.

Almost Ready...

4. Download the FriendFeed Desktop Notifier and set the preferences to show updates from your 'Desktop" friend list.

Voila!

Breaking news, social notifications and Twitter searches will now appear on your desktop in real-time.
Until Zuckerberg pulls the plug that is...