michael arrington

duh - Pat Hawks

were you able to confirm that pfizer and nabisco are not in the running as well? - MG Siegler

i have no information on the rumored nabisco/phizer transaction :-) - michael arrington

What about TimeWarner, Michael? I heard it was TimeWarner. - Ken Sheppardson

Nabisco may still be in the running. Only because someone on Friend Feed started the rumor. :) - Candace Holly

You guys give smoking crack a bad name - Kip

I'll have to tell the meat packer at the local piggly-wiggly that they need to up the cash if Pfizer is involved. - Jason Shultz via twhirl

To be fair, it's no secret MS is currently scouting for small to mid web properties, I've heard of 3 firms already. With MSN now paying people to search, how long before it pays people to index? ;) - Cains

There you go Michael, playing the responsible adult that takes all the fun out of what otherwise could have been a 24 hour FF comment frenzy. What could have been a day filled with sheer joy for Jason has now been lost with this so-called truth telling on your part. Besides, I heard it was Kraft that was thinking about a JV, Mahalo Mac & Cheese or was it their Oscar Mayer brand cheese filled hotdog? - Dave Martin

sorry was a social media expert esperiment - Fred Grott

I have insider information that Nerf is buying Sun Microsystems for 4.5 million tons of foam. It's Nerf or nothing - The Geek Media

What would MS provide to Mahalo that it can't self provide? - jonn

They could rename it "MSN Windows Live HotMahalo Desktop SP1" - Pat Hawks

@Pat Hawks - a "HotMahalo" sounds like something you'd order from a beach bar in Cabo... - Kevin Briody

You're thinking of a Fuzzy Calacanis - Pat Hawks

wtf? fred, you just made it up on the spot? loser. - michael arrington

This just in, MS also not buying Apple, Nike, Rwanda, My blog and a Hot Dog from Eddie's cart in front of the court house. - Brian Norwood

Loser? No way. Was it crap he made it up? Yes. However, he generated quite a buzz on this little corner of FF getting the attention of some important people. In under an hour that comment got Lon Harris (from Mahalo) to reply and Robert Scoble twittered Jason Calacanis to ask for confirmation. Think of what something like that could generate by someone else. What if you wanted a "rumor" to "leak out". Grab a random FF subscriber, feed them some info and run with it. You sit back, watch the buzz go and then start to confirm it bit by bit. His little made up comment shows that it can get the word moving along pretty fast. - Candace Holly

Wait a minute. Now we are having mixed reports re: that hot dog from Eddie's. - Brian Norwood

(Its called herding behavior folk that means FF can be used as an unofficial pr tool..that also means that the Brand strength of Mahalo is quite big. - Fred Grott

@Fred - "Herding behavior" means that people are following a trend. Posting a rumor and getting a discussion out of it is not creating a "herd behavior" , it's "creating a buzz". Any social media network is used as a PR tool but, the question is being able to use it effectively which many companies are starting to figure out. - Candace Holly

mike, YOU ShoUld ChecK your sources more carefully next time. - Hao Chen

Be with us next time when Fred goes to a sold-out opening night of The Dark Knight and twenty minutes into the movie shouts FIRE. Just the social experiment needed to test that old canard once and for all. - Dave Martin

I heard MSFT is buying TC !! - Peter Dawson

Fred didn't make it up on the spot. There was a conversation fragment elsewhere on the web where people were reacting to Jason Calacanis' post re Summize/Twitter [1], and this was a reaction to that. Just another chapter in the Jared/Brian Eno/random rumor propagation drama. I wonder what happens next time when there's a (less widely traded) public company involved... [1] http://friendfeed.com/e/c55fd4... - Ken Sheppardson

the most interesting part was the interaction and how fast tit spread, do not worry its a one run experiment no nee dot run it again.. - Fred Grott

When you throw in the fact that we've got new social networks coming on line every few days and each time there's a land rush for people to grab their own (and others') identities, things could get very interesting at some point. - Ken Sheppardson

Fred - "the most interesting part was the interaction and how fast tit spread, do not worry its a one run experiment no nee dot run it again" don't worry, you spent your credibility capital, doesn't matter if you do it again. - michael arrington

all you did fred was make bloggers and journalists do work for no reason - that's silly - Allen Stern

I'm sure Mahalo will be just fine. - AnotherⓃⓄⒶⒽ

Fred - Thomas Hawk (and others) have a vision for Gabe linking to FriendFeed threads from Techmeme. I'm guessing your "experiment" set that back a bit. Would you shout FIRE in a movie theater when there was none and then exclaim "the most interesting part was how fast they ran out of here" as you were being arrested? - Robert Seidman

allen, i certainly didn't do work on this one. unless leaving sassy comments on friendfeed counts as work. - Eric Eldon

eric i didnt do work on it either - ms buying mahalo would make zero sense at this point. i was speaking in generalities - Allen Stern

I did work. I made one neuron fire. It took that one to figure out that anyone can say anything with absolutely no source and still be heard on FriendFeed. I want my neuron back. - MG Siegler

i don't get it with Mahalo. You know i have never once been directed to a link on their site by anyone apart from Jason C. Nothing against him but thats the truth. - Zee from WeDoCreative