I like this answer - "Good grief! You know enough to ask this question on Yahoo! Answers but not enough to look through Wikipedia? Come on, you can do better than that!!"
- Kenton
SUMBODY PAGE MICAH WITTMAN I NED 2 NO!
- chrisofspades
The answers are (in order) : yes (sort of), no, yes (sort of), yes (sort of). For all sort ofs (except mayors where it is exactly the same) the names have been changed to but the idiocy is similar.
- Brian Sullivan
Hello sweet boy! He's the second Braden I know - and the name Braden Gray is so money. Congrats to you and your baby mama.
- Corinne L
Welcome to the world, Braden! You're a cute little peanut. Daddy hates those plastic packages with all the twistie ties, but it's for your own good. (guess he forgot to order the frustration-free packaging option. Oh well.) You'll be outta that thing playing and striking a pose with your brother and sister in no time! Just enjoy the spa and chillax for a little while. baby kisses, Love TheMacMommy & her babies - #LD & #KD
- Melissa Davis
Indeed. That is huge by UK standards- smaller houses are cheaper to heat in winter, whereas larger houses are easier to keep cool during the Californian summer. In any case, congrats. And ustream the house warming ;)
- Roberto Bonini
from iPhone
Love the deck up top in front. You don't see that too often these days. To what Mo was saying you could use something shoulder-fired up there. :)
- SAM
WTF. I shit you not. I was just going to look at that house with my wife on Saturday. I won't give away the address, but I'm surprised that it's still listed on Redfin. We live just a few blocks away in an apartment and this is a really sweet deal.
- no name
That's alright. It goes to show two things: 1) the housing market is the bay area is heating up again. 2) the realtime web is friggin amazing. I found out about this before my realator and before any authoritative MLS information.
- no name
Love the Redfin! Mega-congrats to you Louis. Looks awesome.
- Michael Leggett
Friendfeed is your first home. The best system in the world remains un-famous, why is that?
- Thomas Power
Nice looking house Louis! Congrats to you and your family!
- Jeff P. Henderson
I just checked out the listing on RedFin. Very Nice! Very similar to my house in Cambrian Park, SJ. You picked a great area to live in. I grew up a few miles from your new house in Mountain View right on the other side of 85 from where you will be located.
- Jeff P. Henderson
Nice house. The listing is still there. Since everyone here is talking real estate in SV, how tough is it to add on / remodel a house in that area? I see a few places that I could afford, but would be better if I could add a bedroom or two. Is zoning pretty strict?
- Andrew Leyden
The place looks beautiful Louis. Congrats. That balcony looks comfy.
- Adam Helweh
Congratulations! I know the feeling. We were just in the same situation a few months ago :)
- Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)
Enjoy your new home for your growing family.
- Joe Hackman
@Andrew, it is not hard to get a permit to add on to an existing house in most cities in Silicon Valley. There are some neighborhoods full of smaller homes that just about everyone of them have been remodeled. You can check with your Realtor to find out what the process is in the particular area you are looking at. Now is a good time to do a remodel. There are lots of contractors who are looking for work. You should be able to get a pretty good deal.
- Jeff P. Henderson
Good luck in your new place young man :)
- Charlie Anzman
Thanks Jeff. I think that might be the cheaper way to get a house the size I need.
- Andrew Leyden
be careful though: if the pro account expires and you don't renew your subscriptions, all the photos but the 200 most recent won't be accessible anymore until you'll pay again.
- Flavio
Thanks, that is good to know. I found out that I have a pro account because it was bundled with my Yahoo! internet package. So I guess it lasts till I keep using their internet!
- Jay
I had the same surprise when I uploaded pictures from iPhoto. I've never paid anything though.
- MeetingLife
I don't really care about stuff that's outside of my friend group. My friends are already pretty good at bringing me good stuff from outside the group anyway.
- Robert Scoble
This would get rid of all spam and bad actors. Or almost all, assuming you don't follow spammers.
- Robert Scoble
Robert's initial first comment was "be right back", as a placeholder to keep the first slot while he composed his real first comment. Zee was responding to that
- Ken Sheppardson
And it would bring back Techmeme-quality results because it would be based on people you follow and verify. Oh, and even better? The new list feature in Twitter will let you build different kinds of searches.
- Robert Scoble
Ken: but the people I'm following ARE most people and most of them are following too many to keep track of trends themselves.
- Robert Scoble
Most of the 5,000 people you're following are following thousands? I'd love to see the actual numbers behind that... you've done some analysis?
- Ken Sheppardson
want a screenshot of your feed how it looks like?
- ffcode
agreed - that type of search filtering would not only be useful, but the whole point of social network information sharing - using my friends as my distributed search engine for things I am interested in
- Arthur Coleman
ffcode you want me to send you a screenshot?
- Robert Scoble
Ken: informal analysis. I hand followed each of the people I'm following and looked at their following behavior. It is rare to find someone who is following fewer than 200 people now. At least amongst early adopter tech influencers that I like to follow.
- Robert Scoble
Hm... There's an API call to retrieve a list of users a given user is following... would be simple to do a full-blown check....
- Ken Sheppardson
to build a list is also difficult as i have learned from the little experience i have had
- ffcode
StatusSearch did a non-realtime version of this, but they appear to have scratched it at the moment.
- Steve Farnworth
With viewpointapp.com; we are doing real time relevance and filtering within the people you follow. Search and trends sounds like a great idea. We will see what we can come up with!
- Jay
from Cadmus
It would be interesting to see if the trends differ than the trends posted on the Twitter home page. I'm sure it would correlate to the size of your sample.
- Mattb4rd
I might, Robert. Also, I hope the voice you hear in your head when you read my comments here isn't snide and snarky. I'm genuinely curious about this from a tech standpoint. :-)
- Ken Sheppardson
I've wanted something like this for a long time. I guess I just assumed that it was obvious enough that someone (maybe even Twitter) would already be working on it. Maybe we'll take it up as a side project.
- Ryan Kuder
I think this would be very useful. Twitter Times is going in this direction but right now it doesn't have search or trending topics. Their main focus now seems to be aggregating links/stories (techmeme-style) that are popular among the people that you're following. Here's my personalized Twitter Times page: http://www.twittertim.es/mdoeff
- Mike Doeff
What is being overlooked here and to which I believe I heard mention that Twitter was building in-house was the ability to trend against any topic/individual in the network. Perfect for gaining market feedback on competition outside of your network.
- Gregory Hanson
Granted, it's a little off topic as the main point of the thread was for people you follow, but building an open trending app would broaden market appeal.
- Gregory Hanson
That would be a good tool. But wouldn't it be cool if you got a pair of tech guys, built it out and returned to raise VC money yourself? :) Stop giving away your free ideas!
- Louis Gray
Louis: I tried building new app at NPR last Friday and I decided I suck at it. :-)
- Robert Scoble
I've been enjoying the "search my timeline" feature in the Tweetie 2 iPhone app -- looking forward to the desktop client getting that feature as well. Totally agree with Robert, though: It seems like search/trends among the people i'm following has an incredible about of value to a user. A user like me.
- Ryan Sholin
Mike Lizun: Works ok though it'd be better if you made trending topics at least 2 words (trending topics always seem to be 2-3 words). I get a lot of one-words that don't give me much. The trend should follow a longer duration of time as well. I am following 2000+ and only see a few tweets for certain trending terms.
- beersage
yeah, i built out the search concept but saw Twitter announce they're doing it. decided to stick to other concepts and chase the $ elsewhere. thanks for the validation of a good idea though
- Gregory Hanson
Wouldn't something similar be interesting on FB or any social network for that matter? Is Twitter more interesting due to the volume of tweets?
- Dave Hodson
Twitter needs to incorporate this in the API, IMHO.
- Dennis Jernberg
Sounds to me like something Facebook would do if they implemented trends.
- James Harnedy
Good idea about the "Trending" element, Robert. As far as search, really FriendFeed got pretty close if only their import of Twitter friends could have been more complete (not just those already on FF). Stands to reason that the FF guys could have added a trending functionality, Alas... BTW, I just noticed that at ~ 2,500 subscriptions on FF, the "Add To List" pop-up craps out. No more...
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- Alex Schleber
Yeah you r right, there exists no twitter trends just for your tweet stream/tweet inbox (tweets you receive from other people).
- TrafficBug
Actually we have. http://journotwit.com - take a look at the Tag clouds. Also running http://uktjpr.com for the UK technology journalists and PR community so you can see what's happening right now in UK technology.
- Dan Monsieurle
I'm working on useful technology that takes a slightly different approach to searching just your Friends on Twitter (and Facebook is coming soon) with http://refynr.com ... my approach is to allow users to create a List of up to 20 keywords, and then Refynr returns a real-time Stream of tweets only from the tweeps you follow. Also, Refynr auto-saves all relevant tweets that match your...
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- Aaron Longnion
We've been acquired by Facebook! We are really excited about joining the Facebook team. (Note: FriendFeed will continue to operate - see the blog post for details)
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
"FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being. We're still figuring out our longer-term plans for the product with the Facebook team." Those are NOT encouraging things to read as a FF user.
- S of 2C
Sniff... not sure if I'm excited about this. But I have enormous respect for the FriendFeed team... so, I assume they believe in the move as more than an exit strategy.
- Michael Leggett
Coolest web 2.0 site I've ever seen & used. I hope things don't derail. Ads will be coming soon, which is fine, but.... then what 's next? Please no quizzes!
- Ben Hanten
Who would have thought that after Facebook were shamelessly being "inspired" by FriendFeed, the inevitable would have happened?
- Tyson Key
Hey guys, keep in mind that Facebook is blocked in workplaces across the nation. 250 million casual users commenting about last night's party does not intelligent conversation make.
- Hector
yes you have just failed at failing, no it is not a double negative.
- Bahriye
I really can't see how FB would buy FF only to shut it down. There are way too many innovations and features FF has that FB honestly needs. I'm looking forward.
- Harry Wolff
Oh, this does not make me happy. Not at all! I've stayed off of Facebook intentionally and FriendFeed is my favorite social network. This is like when the Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees. :>(
- Larry Hawes
i have stopped using FB for the most part and liked FF alot more. now FF will go the way of FB. screwed again.
- Joe The Sausage
Berge Gazen beat your score in Mafia Wars
- Berge Gazen
Enjoy your fat paychecks, guys. You've sold us out.
- Akiva
Bravo Bret! Been following your successes ever since we had the opportunity to work together on the YellowPages.ca / Google Maps Canada deal. Congrats!
- Sebastien
I wished it was Google or even Yahoo!, instead...
- Tyson Key
i really hope ff stays as it is. fb is kinder carder while ff is a great tool.
- jkkmobile
Not sure what to make of this. It could eiter be a big win or a huge fail.
- dorn
It could have been Microsoft, which would have been worse for everyone. :(
- Tyson Key
Can I take this opportunity to say I HATE facebook?
- Alex Scrivener
seems the only ppl happy here are the ones in the biz or who stand to profit from the merger.
- Joe The Sausage
I guess we should get ready to get poked by our supposed friends and have various shit thrown at us? Plus 5,000 requests by apps that nearly all suck.
- Joey Gibson
Painful. And apparently I completely misunderstood what FF was trying to accomplish both technically and as an organization. I guess Facebook must have dangled a pretty big bag of money in front of them.
- Ken Sheppardson
FriendFeed is Dead! Long Live FriendFeed! :/
- Tyson Key
I will reserve judgement, i don't like or use FB but if FF maintains it's current goodness i don't care who cuts the checks.
- SteVe C
I hope this doesn't turn into an APP filled hunk of crap. I love FriendFeed, it was the untouched gem of microblogging. I don't want Mafia Wars invited in my FriendFeed!!! Congrats on the sale though.
- Jay 'Farmington'
@Philipp: until the new masters start flexing their muscles and bringing in their own people to enforce their own vision.
- Joe The Sausage
I read the blog post and one statement stands out to me "FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being." The time being. This is not just bad, I think it may be #FAIL
- berchman
Facebook obviously liked FriendFeed a long time ago. Why would they have copied so many features (feed item comments and the "Like" action, to name a couple) otherwise? It was only logical for this to happen eventually. Doesn't mean I like it, but acquisition is part of the game. I have the same feeling I did when SocialThing! was acquired by AOL, though.
- dgw
"Relationship Status: It's complicated" comes to mind. ;)
- Tyson Key
Wow, I finally sign up, and read this. This could end up being a very bad thing for FF fans: "Your FriendFeed friend just signed up on this poll, would you like to too?"
- Brian Bommarito
Does this mean that we'll be seeing an influx of webcam spammers, a la Twitter? Along with abolishment of the rooms feature, crappification of the search feature, and more "privacy features" that really just put more nails in the openness coffin?
- Tyson Key
Some people will do whatever their friends request........
- Michael Muller
I really don't see why people would be anything but excited about this Facebook freindfeed deal. Great news as far as I am concerned. The Friend feed team is going to go over facebook and make it that much easier to connect, share... isn't that what the social web is about?
- Kevin Murray
I know a lot of people who use Facebook and enjoy it and that's fair enough. It's just not my cup of tea. The chaps from Friendfeed will get rich and the technology will get absorbed in Facebook but I can't see Friendfeed continuing in anything like it's present form.
- Paul Nash
Don't be so negative, something good might eventually come of this...
- Tarmo Aidantausta
Congrats! I know you all must be crazy excited right now.
- Michele Lorito-Chase
chance for FriendFeed to become more mainstream... congrats FriendFeed team!
- Jeroen De Miranda
Nothing could make me happier than if they integrated the good tools from FriendFeed into Facebook, which is where all my friends are. So a big "yay!" from me.
- Ian Betteridge
happy for you guys, but not for all of us
- Flavio
congratulations. this is going to be interesting.
- Dave Beckett
I think I preferred the non-mainstream version of FriendFeed...
- Tyson Key
I'm turning on my black shirt, my black trouser, my black socks, my black shoes. Although I probably must be happy for you.
- Ton Zijp
NASTY NASTY BAD BAD. But we'll see...
- Daniel Morgan
I don't know, Like it? or dislike it?
- Ömer Balamir
What happens to all the content that we've created and imported here, and the associated metadata? Will all that disappear into the ether?
- Tyson Key
If the FriendFeed guys can make FaceBook useful and responsive again, this seems like a pretty positive step!
- Robin Barooah
I have big loss of data concerns. See http://ff.im/6pHjo Is there any way to archive all my FriendFeed posts, likes, comments, and pictures (friendfeed-media.com) off-line? Can some Archive.org-like snapshots of FriendFeed be made (Once a month starting Sept 2009)? I'd like to see the cross-links between my posts & other people's posts, even in 2020. -
- Mitchell Tsai
Mitchell: the FriendFeed site is not shutting down. Your data will not go away any time in the near term future - we are committed to our users.
- Bret Taylor
I just overheard a coworker mention FriendFeed. This is how the world ends...
- CannonGod
Then provide us with a way to easily make a back-up of all of our posts and all of the posts we have Liked and Commented on.
- Akiva
Same question as Mitchel Tsai. How do I export my data? I don't want it to be handed off to Facebook.
- zio bonino
I don't see good things coming from this. Although I like Facebook, I liked Friendfeed more. Partly because of the environment and the smallness of it. That is now going to be ruined. So, 10-1 odds that Friendfeed will be no more within a year after it gets intergrated into Facebook?
- Mathew™ aka Youngblood
I doubt it Robin. Bret can only give us assurances about the "near future." Here's what I think will happen. Just like Twitter acquired Rael Dornfest and his awesome web services, Stikkit and I Want Sandy vanished (and so did he), Facebook will acquire all the talent from Friendfeed, shut this service down and Facebook will continue to suck.
- Vicarbott
Same question as Mitchel Tsai. How do I export my data? I don't want anything to be handed off to Facebook. And I don't want to lose anything.
- zio bonino
Congrats obviously, but im not sure about the feeling,, different user groups which can not integrate but collide.. hope there wont be an huge integration in the future.
- Yunus Tunak
I'm happy for FriendFeed! But, at the same time a bit worried about the future. Hope you guys convince FB to not be evil too.
- Vishal Verma
I can't believe it! damn! facebook tos will apply to friendfeed too? should i start to move to another service? why anyone would think that facebook public is friendfeed public?! damn! friedfeed was my favorite! I can't understand this move! they want to kill friendfeed or what?
- paula simoes ☃
"I bet I can find 1.000.0000 people who dislike this deal."...Welcome to FriendBook.
- Jacque
Well, huge congraulations to you and your team, you deserve every success. To be honest I had presumed this would happen sooner or later - the only business model cool little startups have is to hope they get bought by someone bigger for their brains and technology. I'm going to be in San Francisco in a couple of weeks and was going to stop by your office to bring you a cake and thank you for a great product - maybe I still will if you're still there and there's still a FriendFeed!
- Alex Lomas
"Your data will not go away any time in the near term future - we are committed to our users" There's a bit of a contradiction in your statement, Bret. Nice try though.
- JCunwired
Grats Bret and the rest of FF. To all the naysayers... Lets see what happens before we start bitching....
- Rasmus Lauridsen
Just great. I'm certainly not very happy about this. Let's just hope FB doesn't ruin FF. Ugh.
- axolote
Who cares? Nothing's gonna change in our pitiful lifes.
- bluretina
This ties in nicely with the fact that you soon will have the opportunity to make your Facebook profiles public and get followers there.
- Michael Netsch
I don't mean to be negative but there's got to be a win-win logic to each merger&acquisiton. Audience high in only quantity is clearly not a win for friendfeed in the long term by considering its unique selling points. Let's wait and see who will benefit from friendfeed's death now.
- ayca
Seriously, what is this? It's like Bret just announced that he's killed all your mothers or something. It could turn out good, it could turn out bad, but at the end of the day, who cares, it's just a website (I mean honestly, come on). I could see it going either way, but in the near term, this is a pretty big win for the FF team, so congrats guys.
- Chieze Okoye
To be honest, my heart sank a little but I am happy to congratulate you and the team for building such a good brand. Well done.
- Kevin J Hatton
Wow, I specifically use friendfeed b/c it is not facebook. Sounds great for the friendfeed team, but not necessarily for friendfeed users.
- Evan Parker
Born to be sold, like in the old "new economy" era. Remember the late nineties?
- Federico Bolsoman
Sudden desire to check out Strands again... but hey, kudos on the incoming $$ for FF team
- Leslie Poston
This is wisdom. Bracing for Google Wave is a good idea.............
- Kevin J Hatton
this is clearly a talent aquisition... why am i not excited about this? could it be because facebook has been blatantly stealing features from friendfeed shamelessly. Likes were clearly not an original facebook idea...realtime feeds is another i could go on...
- Tate
While I'm sad, because I suspect this means the best things about FF will disappear or I'll be forced to use FB in some way, if the buyout was for some awesome amount of money, I can't say I blame 'em for taking an offer -- I would.
- Andy Bakun
I came to FriendFeed because I don't like facebook. Now the question is, will facebook become more like friend feed? or will they just take friend feed and turn it into facebook?
- Tom Ray
FF could be a good R&D arm for facebook.
- Andy Bakun
Fucking morons. FriendFeed is doomed now. Think logically. Facebook has NO REASON to keep FriendFeed alive. It will simply take FF's best features, suck the life of out of it, then trash FF. Way to go, FirnedFeed, damn.
- Jeremy Buff
This announcement should have been held off until the plans for Friendfeed were known. Regardless, this is *bad* for FF users. Best case: it continues on, but with stagnated feature development. Worst case: it's gone.
- tollie williams
I don't want my FF feed on Facebook :( I use both, but maintain both profiles separate
- Leandro Ardissone ⍨
Sigh... Happy for the team if this is what they want, but baffled by the move. The users that are going to leave because of this will make FF a graveyard and the users it gains, well... Hello spam? Sorry, but I don't like it.
- Vince DeGeorge
from iPhone
Dang, and just as I was starting to get used to how FF works. FF is useful on it's own. I hope this only improves FF's system, rather than having it disappear into Facebook's wake.
- Don Faulkner
My big question to everybody here is this: What are the potential downsides / upsides to this acquisition? I mean on paper I just don't see what the pros OR cons are. I don't care for Facebook but I don't see how them acquiring FF is going to change everything.
- Nicholas Kreidberg
furthermore they are 2 different things: I follow a lot of people here that are not in my facebook list, which is for IRL friends!
- Flavio
I don't know where to go next either. I had just settled down to make imaginary friends for all my non-FF tweeps, etc. now, I'm not sure if I should bother.
- Don Faulkner
from IM
I hope friendfeed continues to operate normally but it does not look good.
- Ashish
integrate best features of ff to fb, then try to innovate in fb if possible, then kill ff... that's it, cheers, all the best. grrrr...
- Kemal Y.
niczak has good points. FF & FB aren't exactly competitors, but they aren't orthogonal either. Let's hope FB's smart enough to see the difference and improve both platforms.
- Don Faulkner
from IM
Nicholas: The upside for Facebook is they just bought an engineering team that's built many of the feature's Facebook's going to need to stay competitive. The upside for FriendFeed's engineering team is $$$ and the ability to build system for a wider audience. FriendFeed's user base is small enough that it'll either get absorbed into Facebook or move on, and FF will become a footnote on the Internet timeline.
- Ken Sheppardson
first tr.im (heard about it yesterday), now this. I wasn't a heavy tr.im user (yet), but sad to see it go, even if I think url shortening is silly.
- Don Faulkner
from IM
As FB said they're interested in the people and not in the site, what if the community will keep running FF without its current staff?
- Flavio
I'll have to go with Flavio's position too. Given this news (plus tr.im and who knows who's next), I'd tend to favor community supported or federated services for things like this in the future.
- Don Faulkner
from IM
I am purposely not on facebook because I don't really want to talk to people I have not talked to in 20 years.
- Andy Bakun
trouble is (from my perspective), that the philosophies of the two platforms are at odds. FB wants to bring people to the site and keep them there, while FF is a hub, bringing people in and then sending them back out. (That's part of why it's hard for the newcomer to understand, IMHO.)
- Don Faulkner
from IM
Quote «Taylor and Cox say that the Friendfeed product will live on independently, and eventually Friendfeed will be merged into Facebook. But the Friendfeed team is not being kept whole. Some employees will now report to Cox, others to engineering head Mike Schroepfer. In my opinion that means, long term, the Friendfeed product itself is unlikely to be a big priority.¶ But Facebook is...
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- Philipp Lenssen
+1 Kol for the techcrunch article!
- Don Faulkner
from IM
techcrunch: "Cox agreed, noting that Facebook is focused on being a platform and a service, and not just a destination site." I certainly hope so!
- Don Faulkner
from IM
Brilliant move by both Facebook and friendfeed. Congratulations!!! I have theories of what they have planned, but I doubt you would verify any of them. This is going to go so well with their SocialTV which they have been developing. I'm so happy for you!
- Michael Fidler
I don't see what's so bad about it since no one knows right now what the outcome will be, everyone is just making assumptions that could possibly be wrong..... Might help just sitting back and seeing what happens first before complaining.
- ChaCha Fance
Nooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrghh! I´ve resisted getting a facebook acct for so long...
- ɯɥøq sɐɯoɥʇ
I wonder how the discussion over on facebook would compare to this?
- Don Faulkner
from IM
Congrats, FF! I'm approaching the situation with cautious optimism. A lot of my friends only share stuff via the Facebook wall/feed, so if Facebook is able to make their feed more like the FF feed (i.e. good, instead of sucktacular) through this acquisition, it's mostly a win for me in the end.
- Brian Chang
/me pokes Rutger. (just getting in practice. ;)
- Don Faulkner
from IM
Where will we go for the FFunderCats, bacon memes, and angry artists fighting over photo reshares now? ;)
- Tyson Key
If anybody has doubts as to what happens to the FriendFeed community or our stored information here, read this statement from Bret (in this thread) "Your data will not go away any time in the near term future - we are committed to our users". Now maybe you can see "whats so bad about it" and curb your optimism. Not good.
- JCunwired
@josh: do you think FB will throw away all the crap people use? various quiz, pick 5 and so on?
- Flavio
@jc: our data will not go away in the near future. what will be in few months? in a year?
- Flavio
Let's see if you can do a bit better than just not being evil this time around.
- Tim Tyler
Wooohooo!!, seems like we are being sent back to "good" old Facebook. Congrats Bret!!
- DanDan
Looks like I'm going to repeat the same thing many others did. My first reaction was "Oh my..." I have refused to join Facebook due to its philosophy while I have been with FriendFeed from the beginning for its. I'm sad and somewhat apprehensive.
- Sean Leather
Please say that facebook.com will be shutting down, and the combined company will still be called FriendFeed... I bet it won't happen, though.
- Tyson Key
"Regarding FB/FF - Here's how it's [probably] going to work. You will most likely have an account merge, all of the services FriendFeed supports will now be aggregated on Facebook, and all of your FriendFeed friends will be in a "list" on Facebook. The FF Groups will become Facebook Groups. The FF lists will become Facebook Lists." http://ff.im/6pNxq
- Ozgur Uckan
Nothing like an early retirement payout :)
- Owen Greaves
Congratulations Bret. For me this merger makes a lot of sense. Facebook will provide the "quantity" of users, which friendfeed deserves :).
- Karthick R
FriendFeed + Facebook... Oh noes FriendFace is coming (http://www.youtube.com/watch...)! Now sorry for that link, and seriously, thanks for your work, guys. Please don't let the spirit of FriendFeed to be blown away =)
- Anton
hey, that is great guys! interested to see how you integrate.
- Brian Walsh
Mind blown. Never expected this. I'm also disappointed, yet optimistic at the same time.
- Angus Burton
Kinda curious to see how this will all pan out...although i wouldnt want the friendfeed stuff just integrated into facebook. I feel like im among a group of people who i genuinely share interests with here...dont want to lost that.
- Cass
Best case: Facebook will continue to support and develop FriendFeed. Worst case: this is great news for Amplifeeder.
- David Gaw
Well done, well deserved, I hope FB's means and infrastructures empower your guys to even better things. But if quizzes appear in "my" friendfeed, evil things will haunt you and your descendents for 3 generations.
- Iphigenie
♪ ♪ This is the end.... beautiful friends ♪ ♪
- All for design
Well, I don't see the point of sticking around here if I have accounts in both and this is going to get swallowed whole into Facebook anyways. Put simply, goodbye.
- Micah Collard
The social community that has been behind FriendFeed creators have built a wonderful product. Only problem is, we don't have Zuck's checkbook :(
- JCunwired
friendfeed is a beautiful product, only god knows what facebrook will do to it. Hopefully the ability to upload files (such as mp3s) will not be removed. Zuck is a tool.
- Nibi
Congratulations. I'm sorry to say that I don't plan to move with you.
- Lars Juhl Jensen
Facebook is lucky to have such a talented group of people ... Congratulations FriendFeed!
- Rob Kurrus
doesn't look like a bad joke, better be for the good then, but... Well congrats anyway guys, you did something AWESOME now let's see where Mark takes it
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
That's too bad. Liked the openness if FriendFeed, and the lack crap that is on Facebook. Once FriendFeed dies, it will be Twitter only.
- Mike D.
Congrats, but concerned that FriendFeed and its tools may disappear. Merging the tools with Facebook seems impossible.
- Mike Reynolds
So, what does the acquisition of FriendFeed by Facebook mean to us, users of both websites: Can I make a friend request from FriendFeed, and be approved for both, on one click
- Reyna Carlos
Exciting news guys. I am actually looking forward to your collaboration with / work for FB. No matter what people may or may not like about FB, it does succeed in reaching a more "diverse" audience compared to most other Web 2.0/social web companies. Paired with your team's excellence in realizing features that succeed in pleasing the geekiest of Web 2.0 affine individuals, I think you are steering towards exciting waters :)
- Mustafa K. Isik
*heart sinks* actually a bit of shock - I think that Facebook will leave Friendfeed as-is but I don't think there is hope for future innovation in Friendfeed since their best superstar team members will be pulled onto 'more important' Facebook issues...
- Pon
:-) + :-( very happy for the team, huge achievement, hoping to see export of innovation but not a shut down of this unique community and location
- Majento
Congratulations, and best wishes for your future together! :-)
- Ruchira S. Datta
Wow, I was beginning to use Friendfeed as my defacto social site...Facebook is more for real life friends. They'll just take what makes Friendfeed great, add it to Facebook and slowly kill this site.
- Manuel Mas
What is the big deal? I think it'll make FF bigger and better. You should be happy about that!
- orionstarr
I am disappointed. I don't want to have to go to Facebook to do what i do here. I can not imagine they will port over all the features we enjoy here. We lose a lot for only a slight benefit to Facebook.
- Robert
It could be worse, myspace could've bought them lol...
- orionstarr
Awful news for users but congratulations to you guys. Ideally, FB will run FF as a distinct service but I'm not hopeful. I don't want the diversity and noise that facebook brings - people doing quizzes on which movie star they resemble and playing silly games. I also wanted to keep my day to day social activity distinct from the targeted information and discussion I use FF for.
- Rajit
Only just started taking a serious look at FF after hearing acquisition by FB. Sounds like I'm laggard rather than a leader in use of web 2.0
- ManojRanaweera
I think how Pon said it is what I'm feeling: *heart sinks*.
- Andy Bakun
Congratulations, i am really happy for you guys!! :)
- Mona Nomura
I'm not a Facebook fan, but can't begrudge the FF gang their chance to reap the rewards for all their hard work. However, it would be a shame if FB ruins the good thing we all have going here.
- Ken Morley
Congrats to the FF team... I hope the service doesn't disappear into a fold of light and heat.
- Brandon
if all the things that make FF great are brought to FB then I'll be happy to use it
- Mike Chelen
The community won't be there. Been on FB longer than any other, don't have nearly the relationship or sense of community there that I do here or on Twitter.
- Karoli
Karoli: that is due to the effectiveness of the FF platform and interface, which help to join conversations and find interesting people more so than FB does
- Mike Chelen
Mike: I suspect that FB wants FF for the search possibilities, not the community-building aspects. But we'll see.
- Karoli
i guess congrats are in order, but I'm going to now go and remove everything I have that feeds into FF, and I have to ask -- do I have any rights over my archive? I have a private feed, and I have no interest in offering up my lifestream to the FaceBook data-miners. I hope the FF folks get what they hope for out of the deal, but my FriendFeed experience has been effectively killed.
- RudĩϐЯaЯïan
I just learned about the FF acquisition by Facebook - WOW~! Congratulations Bret, Paul and FF team!! holy cow ........Mooooooooo! Where's the FF Acquisition Party? :)
- Susan Beebe
RT @alirizaesin FriendFeed, R.I.P. Home tweet home!..
- Ozgur Uckan
Congrats to facebook. Now, Twitter is the best.
- miocaro
Congratulations to the FriendFeed guys on the Facebook Acquisition. Not a big fan of Facebook, so I hope my favorite Uber Aggregator, Realtime Social, Microblogging site of awesomeness is not entirely absorbed into the Facebook infrastructure. I wait with baited breath to hear what "normally for the time being" means ;).
- Tom Horn
Can I now have comments propagate in both directions as far as Facebook/Friendfeed is concerned?
- Piaw Na
*checks date*. Damn .. not April 1st, must be for real. While I'm happy for the FF team, since I guess this is what they wanted (congrats guys!), I can't help but think this is the beginning of the end for a great service and a vibrant community. There are reasons I don't spend any time on Facebook and do spend lots of time on FF, and some kind of "FF integrated into Facebook" just won't cut it. I hope this service will live on for at least a few more years.
- Andrew Perry
Gratz to the FF team but as a user I'm not completely happy. In short, I like the FF team/product much more than I like the FB team/product. Best of luck to all.
- timepilot
Dang! I've killed another site! Sorry guys... FF was doing fine until I started coming here again! Same with Pownce! Went there and liked it... went underground for a spell... came back and still liked it, so I stayed. A few months later... BOOM! I have the touch! (I'm thinking I'll start devoting a lot of time to Twitter... maybe I can kill that one, too!)
- Mark J
Bret, congrats on the acquisition. You guys put in a lot of hard work to create this community. I just hope you learned the mistakes Pownce made, Jaiku etc, and ensured that you didn't sell out your community, but that you helped it evolve into something as great as this into something better. Good luck in future endeavors!
- Mike Lewis
Yay for you guys, I mean that seriously, I 'like' what this means for you personally, but -1000000 cool points for doing it with FB. Sad day.
- Threepwood
Karoli: FF search is so useful because it is integrated with all the other great features that help to find relevant content. if FB wants to have a similar capability, they must also develop the underlying architecture.
- Mike Chelen
from IM
shakeel, the reasons for friendfeed to join facebook are probably about other things besides money, since many of the FF staff left high-paying jobs to join in the first place
- Mike Chelen
from IM
Congrats, team! It's bittersweet, though.
- Anne Bouey
So now we will have FriendFeed blocked at work too. Darn.
- Mark Scrimshire
"Your data will not go away any time in the near term future" is not exactly inspiring for the long term for those of us who came here to escape Facebook for a) it's walled garden and b) privacy concerns. Nice for the Founders to make a pile of cash but for the many of us, it feels like we got sold down the river. Sad.
- Sally Church
cacarr: updates for FB have progressed rapidly in the past, count how many months since new features such as api calls and site redesigns have have been implemented
- Mike Chelen
from IM
Congratulation to the FF team! You guys deserves this. I just hope that Facebook does not change the directions of FF.
- Vinko
I hope this means better integration: liking here will auto-like on fb and such :D if that's the case, I won't mind the ads *wink* *wink*
- Friendfeed's Francisco
Franc, cant stand facebook ads in their current format, hope they will be fixed eventually :P
- Mike Chelen
from IM
Grats, dont spend it all in one place.....
- Robert Higgins
congrads. I think it will be good for BOTH companies.
- Logan Lindquist
Congratulations to all the FriendFeed team. I hope you'll be able to keep the FriendFeed spirit up at Facebook. Kudos for all the great work you've been doing.
- Paul Papadimitriou
I use FriendFeed and Facebook so it would be awesome to see FF features in Facebook. Congratulations!
- krzychukula
from IM
judging by the nearly 600 comments as i type this, including my own earlier one, FF could use a Don't Like button as well. or would, if we were going to be using it much longer.
- kelly
Nice, i like to wish you all the best for your new job (and it's really hard, i know). I'm happy, but... don't let die FF!!
- ''Ignobile''
Hope FriendFeed remains open. Love the spirit of FF
- Bernaldo Barrena
Seriously, what a coincidence! Just on Saturday I claimed to be both twitter- and facebook-free. I loved FF product and personally helped to bring at least a dozen of my friends into the community. I'll stick around for a while though.
- ✔ ǝuǝƃnǝ
This deal makes sense, now fb developers do not need to figure out how ff does it because they can just ask! Congrats facebook and ff!
- Garin Kilpatrick
I suppose Facebook had to do it, with Twitter and Google Wave as competitor...
- Alexander Kruel
I am noticing a lot of people going to re-esumate their lifestream.fm account now!
- Flavio
I don't think FB acquiring FF is bad. But I don't think it's good either. We'll see. :-) In the meantime, keep up the good work!
- Alexander Gieg
How long until ex-FriendFeed employees start jumping ship from Facebook? I wonder...
- Tyson Key
Thomas Power still believes that Facebook/FF/Linkedin (2010) will be acquired by Apple (2011) and this is a transitional acquisition in the SN market cycle. The world is shifting to Mac, iTunes, iPhones and FB own the next generation. Apple have $29bn of cash on deposit price is not an issue. Google must jump for twitter while MS fiddle in the sticks with Yahoo. BillG will be back at the MS helm 2012.
- Penny Power
:( Happy for FF people, sad for the service. Was going to move from fb to ff this week..
- Martynas
Flavio: never heard of lifestream.fm before, but I'm going to go check it out. I'll reiterate, though, that I'm now shy of any service like this, since it can disappear just as it's getting good. I heard about sweetcron.com last night (via http://ff.im/6pR2w). Maybe it's time to move from centralized to distributed again.
- Don Faulkner
Just finished setting up my lifestream.fm at http://lifestream.fm/dfaulkner. Lifestream does what it says, and no more. FF's search blows lifestream away. FF is more flexible about adding source feeds, but lifestream does fine without the flexibility I suppose. FF still wins, or would, if I thought it would be sticking around. :P
- Don Faulkner
I also hate facebook, not because of their silly quizzes and pokes, but because I suspect they would like to maintain massive user base as the determining factor in choosing a social network. I would love to switch to orkut as I use so many other google services, but I can't because nobody else does. That should not be my criteria.... I thought friendfeed would try to make social networks work together.
- Ru Viljoen
I don't understand why everyone is so negative about the situation?
- orionstarr
@orionstarr - it's like Starbucks buying your neighborhood coffee shop and saying it still cares about the customers. You know it's just not going to be the same as what you've come to love.
- Robin Barooah
Presumably FF will go on the back burner - and the team will try and "fix" Facebook.
- Tim Tyler
I've watched Facebook morph from a relatively organised and well implemented social networking tool into the hulking mess it is now - and I really, really hope that a similar thing doesn't happen here with the inevitable changes this will bring about.
- Leslie Moore
Come on guys, out with the long-term game plan, this is tedious.
- Andrew Eglinton
Teach Facebook how to be FriendFeed. Let the small but fast teach the big but slow. Don't forget what Paul says - don’t be evil.
- whatidiscover
Friendfeed is not as huge as Facebook but you're doing such terrible work on it. Friendfeed is facing so many many problems these days though facebook doesn't seem to have one. Why?
- Sing For Absolution
Ever since antiquity, thinkers have associated creativity with psychopathology--the classic idea of the "mad genius." By looking at historiometric, psychiatric and psychometric research one can conclude that exceptional creativity is often linked with certain symptoms of psychopathology. Nevertheless, this relationship is not equivalent to the claim that creative individuals necessarily suffer from psychopathology.
- Jay
Give yourself a gift this holiday season - create a FriendFeed List that contains key FriendFeed searches. Just pipe your FriendFeed search URL's into a public Google Reader tag/folder. Then create an imaginary friend in FF and use the tag/folder URL as "Blog". Then dump into your FF List.
Indeed, trickery. The cool thing is that adding new keywords only involves adding the FriendFeed search results URL to the proper Google Reader tag/folder. Results then automagically appear back on FF.
- Mike Reynolds
Good idea Mike, I was trying to figure out how to bring ff searches into a list, but of course, they don't allow their own feeds to be put into rooms/lists. This should solve the problem! The ff search is very powerful.
- Kelly Johns
Yes, the benefit is having key searches available with one click.
- Mike Reynolds
I did that for FOOD - my own "search" dumps as an imaginary friend - my "food" buddy --- dumps into a ROOM....yummy place
- Susan Beebe
Clever, Mike. I've been searching for something like this.
- Sean McBride
Don't feel bad Gregory. While I generally understand why something would be useful, I wish I were geek enough to do actually implement these fancy things myself. http://www.growmap.com/can-a-q...
- Internet Strategist
Thanks for this Mike. Works well. I'm trying Google Alerts as well.
- Kol Tregaskes
Chris - I'm tracking hundreds of things via Google Reader. Good for trend spotting. One thing I track is the theme park industry trends given that I work for Disney Parks, with Twitter being the ultimate resource. In economics, I like to track "gdp projections", "inflation" and "deflation". And how about you?
- Mike Reynolds
My father said: "If you can't gain acceptance into a top tier university, you might as well die and I won't shed a tear at your funeral." I thought about suicide, but I couldn't let the Chinese education system drive me to insanity. I hate my father, but not really. What I hate more is the Chinese education system and how it drives parents and relatives to measure people solely by grades and numbers.
- Jay
Yesterday felt like Sunday. Kept thinking I had to get up for work. But, alas, I didn't!
- Just Katie
weird, huh...no complaints though, i love the extra days off!
- Susan Beebe
I'm not really accustomed to 'real' weekends. 2 days without really working nor thinking about some projects.. today 's like monday
- Thierry R. Andriamirado
What order winners does IE offer to a user who could be using Firefox, Chrome, or Safari?
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Ask them how they deal with all the negative talk that surrounds IE in general and the steps they are taking (if any) to rebuild their image.
- Jay
ha. was going to type, "ask him when are they gonna come out with a patch for the damn 0-day that's out there now" but it looks like it's scheduled for tomorrow: http://isc.sans.org/diary...
- Karim
What plans does IE8 have to push forward microformats in the browser and make them useful to user.. e.g. Links to maps from hcard
- Ben Hedrington
I wish I had seen this earlier. I'd love to know why they don't plan to support canvas. They didn't answer that question at Web 2.0 Expo NYC.
- Matthew Gifford
@Robert Scoble IE6 used to have only one box for both URLs and search. then Firefox came out and everybody started asking for a dedicated search box in IE. :-)
- Franci Penov
from twhirl
Yeah but the IE6 search didn't default to google or include the cool ? operator linked to ctrl-K.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
"I won’t be surprised if it is, as we are talking about Bugatti Veyron here. Up for sale on Craigslist is a 2006 Bugatti Veyron, which has gone just 874 miles. The superfast car is listed on the Los Angeles CL site and is located upstate in Benicia, just north of San Francisco. With a stunning blue exterior and Bardo interiors, the car with 1001 horsepower can sprint from 0 to 62 mph in just 2.5 seconds and go past the 200 mph mark in a mere 24 seconds. While a new Veyron goes for around $1.4 million, it’s interesting to see that this 2006 Bugatti Veyron is listed with an asking price of $1.3 million. It looks like credit crunch hasn’t hit everyone. The name Bugatti exudes exclusivity, luxury, elegance and amazing design, and this listing on Craigslist is no exception."
- FFing Enigma
from Bookmarklet
Mmmm...Veyron... I feel like it's being sold at the Flea Market by being on Craigslist. I mean, it's the fastest and most powerful production car in the world...
- xero
Wow, Craigslist is moving up in the world if this is for real.
- Kenton
Maybe we can go in on it with fractional ownership? I'll buy 1 horsepower.
- Todd Hoff
Love the Veyron. Am guilty of actually going to the Bugatti web site a few months ago and doing the "configurator" and everything. *sigh*
- Anthony Citrano
can i get it in candy-apple red? i'm ready to buy, but the color is important to me
- Morgan
F*ck the color Morgan. Just ask them to knock $199 off the price, since Earl Scheib is such a bargain. :-)
- Ladyepiphanybug
A few months ago, I'd seen a Triumph TR-7 in British racing green, and was drooling over it. I related to a coworker, "I would slee-- I mean, I would do *anything* for a ride in that car." Alas, he caught the slip. I would do *anything* for a ride in THIS car. :-)
- Ladyepiphanybug
Earl Scheib this car? I don't think soooo. Plus, I need to get to over 200 mph faster than 24 seconds. This 'slug on wheels' just isn't what i'm looking for I guess... :-)
- Morgan
At least I wasn't the only one that did this...
- FFing Enigma
Remember, don't drink and crawl. Oh, and I'm suddenly reminded of the Mike's Hard Lemonade "Dad's oversight at Tigers game lands son in foster care" ordeal http://www.freep.com/apps...
- Micah
There's a similar pic of me like this in the family photo albums... I even remember that I was holding a wiedemann beer. mmmm beer, you gotta get 'em young.
- Heidi Blanton
just as a note, this is why i had to let him go from CN... i can't have drunk employees on the job!
- Allen Stern
Advice - don't let Scoble take him to Vegas. :)
- Ontario Emperor
Wait a second. Louis doesn't drink but his babies do? That's weird.
- Robert Scoble
That baby is drinking the same beer I'm drinking right now. You have good taste in alcohol, kid.
- David Wilson
careful these days a photo like this could get you in trouble....LOL
- R. Ferguson
KLAXON SOUNDING! KLAXON SOUNDING! Allen, that's a serious HR violation! Oh, no, the fighting will begin again :O [aside to Pete: write EVERYTHING down!]
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
Matthew and I will get along JUST fine. Sooooo can I babysit? ;)
- Mona Nomura
Oh - beer makes you pee. I hope Matthew's potty trained.
- Mona Nomura
Mona, you do realize you're harming your chances of getting a babysitting gig, if you don't even know that a baby who can't crawl (last time I checked) cannot use the potty ;).
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
How do you know Matthew can't crawl yet, MiniMage? It's LG's kids. I wouldn't be surprised if they're already blogging hahha
- Mona Nomura
I don't, actually, it's been weeks since Louis posted the video of Matthew trying to crawl and failing. I wouldn't be surprised if the kiddo got the hang of it while I wasn't looking :) [edit: "failing" sounds so harsh; how about "not quite succeeding?"
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
I love the Youtubes of Sarah 'talking'. I can't believe how BIG they're getting. <3
- Mona Nomura
Personally, I suspect that Matthew's programming by now. Perhaps he and Sarah are developed Android applications. :)
- Ontario Emperor
Well, at least he has good taste; Stella FTW!
- Lis
@Mona and all: Neither Matthew nor Sarah are crawling yet. Both roll front to back. Sarah rolls back to front and rolls everywhere. Matthew is a chubster and hasn't figured that out. Both are great at balancing and standing while leaning on me, so we figure we just might as well get them walking ahead of crawling... but when they do, you will see.
- Louis Gray
As for the alcohol, it was courtesy of a friend of my wife at a holiday party tonight. Nobody in our family drinks. Note the female hand on the bottle and my wife's smile in the top right.
- Louis Gray
I was nine months old before I could sit up. I couldn't walk until I was nearly 2. My maternal grandmother gently informed my mother that I was [obviously] retarded. Things I did later in life hid the truth of how right she was!
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
No kidding, Jay; I was thinking Matthew ought to get the hang of walking before he's pulled over and told to walk a straight line ;) (no, of course that would never happen; he's a good boy)
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
Like a good marketeer, I refused to take the photo until the label was properly displayed.
- Louis Gray
3. I can't stand having too many tabs (or even applications) open. Guess it goes back to my Windows 3.1 days, when having two apps open at once was just an invitation to a crash.
- Ladyepiphanybug
"Barry Sanders is, in my mind, possibly the greatest running back of all time. Certainly there's a case to made against me suggesting that, since I'm under 30 years old and wasn't cognizant of much more than drool for the majority of Walter Payton's prime. But, hey, I saw Emmitt Smith. And Sanders was way better. So it shouldn't be surprising that his son, Barry Sanders, Jr., is pretty decent. Enjoy the touchdown run."
- Mathew™ aka Youngblood
from Bookmarklet
"The Z-Nano is the word's smallest optical mouse, about just as large as your fingertip. When not in use, it can be stored in your ear canal or nostril. $60."
- FFing Enigma
from Bookmarklet
Markus Frind's story is awe inspiring. The whole process he went through to get his site to where it is today is amazing. The scaling lessons adds to the list of things we can learn from his experience.
- Jay
"Feel good story of the day: Josh Persky, a laid-off MIT grad who wore a sandwich board advertising his services has found a job. According to peHUB, Persky will take up work as Weiser LLP, an accounting firm. Good news for Persky, but he's not the only one out there looking for a job this way. In November, we wrote about "Paul", who depressingly advertised that he had been laid off and was almost homeless. Erin Griffith suggests this is probably not a good longterm strategy for job seekers, since the shtick gets old quickly. And in fact Persky was mainly hired because of his blog on finance and accounting issues, which you can read here."
- FFing Enigma
from Bookmarklet
So apparently sandwich board + blog = PROFIT. I KNEW IT!!!!
- FFing Enigma
Sometimes rediscovering older technologies, or ways of doing things can get you noticed.
- Alistair (alpinefolk)
i don't know i might have too much pride to parade myself in a sign all day like that and literally lose my integrity. the squeaky wheel gets the grease i guess
- Cee Bee