Facebook has plans to buy a web service named FriendFeed, which is similar in functionality to Twitter. FriendFeed allows its users to see what their friends are doing on other social media sites and is apparently bridging the gap between a host of social media applications. FriendFeed could be Facebook’s answer to the Twitter challenge.
Bob Marley sang about a timeless truth that big businesses are facing more every day: “You can’t please all the people all the time.” The folks at Facebook understand that 250 million users is an enormous, and diversified, audience to keep captivate, especially as they have watched millions of their own users join Twitter. From junior high school kids to major media personalities, so many people are tweeting.
Where is the allure with FriendFeed? The real-time search capability that FriendFeed offers is an attractive feature, not only for its users but also to its soon-to-be parent company, Facebook. More importantly, both companies share similar core values – building technologies based on user feedback and fashioning those technologies to leverage relationships, according to Facebook’s VP Chris Cox. The 12 employee company of FriendFeed is purported to stay intact during and after the merger of the two companies, which should allow for a seamless integration of cultures and technologies. So what’s next for the users of Facebook? Tweeting or Feeding?
Author: David Meacham
