Facebook has announced its acquisition of real-time social network site FriendFeed. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
This is unmistakably a move to become more “real-time” and more competitive with Twitter. FriendFeed never caught on with the mainstream public like Facebook has, instead being used by passionate tech fans the world over. The social network was the first to deploy true real-time updates – which didn’t require a page refresh to update information. It did so all while maintaining a very clean interface. Sites like Facebook regularly “adopted” (read: aped) these features.
As part of the deal, FriendFeed will continue to operate on its own and all FriendFeed employees will join the Facebook team. Most importantly, Facebook will be able to call on FriendFeed cofounders — ex-Google executives – Bret Taylor and Paul Buchheit. As Facebook realized the true power of real-time networks (real-time search), it tried to acquire Twitter. That deal fell through.
I expect FriendFeed to operate independently for the next six months to a year, at which point the stand-alone service will be discontinued and FriendFeed’s features be rolled into those of Facebook. To become more relevant in the land of real-time, however, Facebook will need to do much more on the side of mobility, giving users a bigger incentive to plug information into the social network on their cell phones. Currently, Twitter dominates that space, with an abundance of mobile apps for multiple mobile platforms.
Full press release: Read more »
Posted in
Acquisitions,
Business,
Decisions,
Facebook,
FriendFeed,
Social Networking,
Start-ups,
Web 2.0
How strong are your passwords for cloud services?
Cloud computing is awesome? Don’t think so? Here’s some information that might change your mind: computing is steadily becoming – if not has already become – dependent on internet-based services (cloud computing for all you buzz-work lovers). So, unless you’re a “hater” of cloud computing or John C. Dvorak, who seems to have trouble coming to terms with today’s “cloud reality”, there are certain things that require attention as data moves to the cloud: besides well-known issues with cloud-computing (such as the needs for security, redundancy, and off-line access, to name a few) the issue of authentication is becoming the most important, yet is not getting the coverage it deserves. So let me break it down: ever forget which user name and password combination you used for a web service? So have I. I have come to the conclusions that, as users make the migration to the cloud, they are led into one of the following bad habits: Read more »
Posted in
Cloud Computing,
Solution,
Web 2.0
I’ve been testing (more like playing around) with Plaxo Pulse – Plaxo’s social-networking/life-streaming service. I added the Pulse feed/badge on the bottom of the left column and depending on how it goes, it might crop up to the top of the page.
Plaxo now solves one big problem: life feeds. It takes all the web feeds of online services such as Flickr, Twitter, Pownce, Facebook, Jaiku, and so many others, and consolidates them into one life feed. This way, my friends don’t have to go to ten different web sites and services to see what I’m up to: they can just go to one.
I heard Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur talk about a similar service – Friend Feed – on Net at Night (episode 45) and I just happened to come across Plaxo Pulse before giving Friend Feed a try. I will do so soon. Also, Plaxo still does the thing that it does well at its core: connects you with people in your address book. It takes this info and syncs it back to your address book on the desktop and mobile. And it does this for other PIM data like calendars, tasks and notes. Come to think of it, Plaxo is doing everything really correct here: it leaves an online version of the apps and gives you the ability to sync them up and down to your desktop apps while sharing all of this PIM stuff with your friends and colleages.
In any case, this entire social networking aspect is new for Plaxo and I really like it so far. I will be writing more about it after I explore it some more.
Posted in
Social Networking,
Software,
Status Update,
Web 2.0
