I was just looking about on codeplex and came across this project WTVWatcher by Paul Bruce.  It almost has me shaking in my seat for it’s simplicity and ease of use.
- Simon May
Seattle is a great place, and famed for its influence on Tech. This sites shows you the sites, I wish I'd had this a couple of years ago - hopefully I'll go again soon
- Simon May
What? No lawyers in suits? Mark's setting a pretty low bar on the dress code for this sort of thing...:)
- Tomas Remotigue
Our lawyers were wearing shorts actually -- no air conditioning at their office on Sundays I guess.
- Paul Buchheit
Zuckerberg's the only one from FB who could be bothered to show up?
- Andy Bakun
American big business such a formal affair
- Robert Higgins
Contrary to popular misconception, lawyers don't actually enjoy wearing suits. Haul us into work on a Sunday, and we'll definitely be dressing comfortably. :)
- Brian Chang
Andy, the person on the left is Vaughan Smith from Facebook. Sanjeev (the fourth FriendFeed founder) is not pictured because he was boarding an airplane.
- Paul Buchheit
Paul, that's so awesome. FB's an awesome company to do business with.
- Jesse Stay
Hey Paul congratulations - FriendFeed has been leading the way since its inception. Are the photos you've posted copy-protected or could I use them in a story on the deal?
- Mitch
...congrats.can't wait to see what happens with both FF and FB as a result of this.
- .LAG liked that
Please try to keep Friendfeed like it was if they let you. Either way, congrats on the financials!
- Josh Haley
from iPhone
Congrats and best wishes for the future.
- Jeff Stannard
For $50m you could at least have hired a photographer who doesn't shake so much. :)
- Rodrigo Jaroszewski
FF was the cutting edge whereas FB is quickly becoming the mainstream. Unfortunately, the mainstream does not necessarily equal innovation and pushing the envelope. We all suffer when innovation is chilled. But on the other hand, congrats to the FF crew. They made their money!
- laosan
Whatever the outcome, Friendfeed is terrific. Congratulations.
- ashish
LOL, click through if you want to see pics of newly rich geeks in casual wear.. ->
- Alex Schleber
congratulations! keep the innovation coming...
- ozlubling
VERY happy for you guys. Possibly even owe you one or two. Are we getting FriendPhone next?? Think Mark should seriously think about 'Friendbook' :)
- Charlie Anzman
Congratulations to you and your team.
- Maria Niles
just showed the pictures to my students and they were like, "they look like normal people!" Congrats on the deal, onward and upward!
- xxx xxxxx
Congratulations, Paul -- to you and everybody at FF.
- Eric Johnson
Congrats Paul, Bret and the rest of the team, this is awesome news! The big question on everyone's lips is: Who gets to have http://facebook.com/paul? :)
- Fenn
Congrats, and thanks for taking us all on such a terrific ride! Big ups. :)
- Pete Delucchi
You've done a great job! You deserve this and more... Congrats!
- Ricardo J. Valle
now this is what a deal term meeting should look like - file under inspirational -
- mediaeater
Congratulations to everyone at FF. Whose house was the deal made?
- seman
I am sad .. !!! I do not know .. why .. for me its not good news
- Nayan
I call this pic... "Six Happy Dudes & 1,000,000+ Pissed-Off FriendFeeders"
- Brad Williamson
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
- Mathew™ one of a kind
Looks like Mathew™ has found a UI bug by flooding contiguous characters.
- Jay Cuthrell
I don't get the negativity - did no one realize FriendFeed was a business? The object of a business is to sell eventually (either privately or publicly). We should be celebrating their success. This is a huge win for them, as well as Facebook. I personally think it's a huge win for the "loyal users" as well. So now we stab them in the back when they do something huge?
- Jesse Stay
Not to mention we know *nothing* about what this will mean for both services. These guys haven't let us down yet, have they?
- Jesse Stay
Congratulations Paul, you should have got more, but I guess $50m is nothing to sneeze at. Have a great wedding anniversary too, I'm sure you both deserve it. Much happiness - :)
- Chris Loft
Those are the kind of business meetings I could get used to - no suits... but selling to Facebook? Hmmm... Good for someone of course but I suppose we'll see where this ride takes us.
- ChangeForge | Ken Stewart
congrats on building an amazing product and incredibly passionate community! I was mad at first, but then realize that the technology was most likely sold, not the community. I'm hoping ff community will stay somewhat untouched and features that have been built into ff will be ported to fb.
- Derek Coatney
Congratulations, FriendFeeders! I'm anxious to see what changes this will bring. FriendFeed is my favorite site to visit, so hopefully y'all will find a way to maintain the FF spirit somehow.
- Keith Pelczarski
No matter the type of big change, there are those who will not like it, often simply because it's change. I for one am very pleased that two of the services I use most are joining forces, and am eager to see the new developments that come of this acquisition. Congrats to EVERYONE on the FriendFeed team. You all deserve it! You've done a great job with a small company. Now lets see what you can do with a large one :)
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
@Jesse Stay re: "the objective of business is to sell eventually" : Ummm, the objective of many businesses is to become profitable by providing a valuable experience to their users. Businesses that feel they can't do that are the ones that sell.
- Shane Gibbons
Congratulations to everyone involved. Well done.
- Darius Dunlap
This is a very sad day in friend feed history. It is horrible because I like friend feed for how it's different from face book. I use facebook but I find it really annoying and I wouldn't use it if my friends and family weren't using it. So if Friend Feed becomes another facebook then i donno if I will keep coming to friend feed.
- Colide81 (James)
from iPhone
Congrats to the FF staff, but you'll have to pardon my lack of exuberance. I have mental pictures of being forced to use the FB UI and it makes me sad =(
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Very happy for the Friendfeed team. These pictures say it all.
- Christian Burns
from iPhone
Where are the photos of everyone celebrating? No beer or champagne?
- Shane
Great match-up guys ! The Fabulous Friender Boys ! - Let's see some integrated mashups and extensible apps and FF UI. Given Google and Twitter a run for their money... Looks like they are going to have to "hook-up" now !
- Mike Schmidt
Congratulations Paul and the team! Hopefully we'll still get the same simple UI for FriendFeed. I'm sure however that no matter what you do, things will turn up nicely.
- Ovidiu Predescu
NOOOOO! I _LOVE_ friendFeed and this will change it forever. Yeah - this will improve Facebook. Great deal guys - I can not wait to see how this works out
- Ric Johnson
@Scobleizer: Come on you're a genius and can not realize future of FF? Turkey was one of important countries which is using FF! They asked no one about this! We hate fcking morons and stupid people on facebook, and I'm sure that this post will be real, just read it: http://ff.im/6pRmM
- Ahmet Alp Balkan
But Ahmed you are still being an ass about it, trying to rain on their good times. Go find a hole under the bridge where you belong. You can be sad and not have to come out all bitchy about stuff. Clear thoughtful comments instead of going all into "fuck you" mode.
- Rasmus Lauridsen
OK, that's great. I hope you can be successful at Facebook Dev Team and enjoy spending that money.
- Ahmet Alp Balkan
böyle önemli bir iş için fiyat açıklanmadı ama 50 milyon $ deniyor. Bu kadar lakayt bir ortam olur mu yau. Uzaktan baksan gençler eğleniyor dersin
- Fatih Hayrioğlu
Şİmdi yorumları okumadım ama çok kişisel bişi söyleyeceğim. Bu gençlerin milyon dolarları çeviriyor olması durumuna şaşıyorum. Bizim memlekette bu seviyeye gelecek mi veya? Kaç sen uzaktalar bizden bu gençler?
- mustafa can
Bizim şirket sahipleri konunun belli saatler arasında, belli kıyafetlerle ofiste oturmak değil, yapılan işin niteliği olduğunu analdıkları zaman gelir tabii. Ama bence bu gavurların dediği gibi "When the hell freezes over".
- özlem ercan
bu postu türkçe commentlerle doldrmak süper fikir.. sarcasm diil ciddiyim
- MobilAdam
Bakmayın böyle güldüklerine arkada buyuk yatırımcılar olmasa batar gider bunlar..Adamların yatırımcıları işi biliyor...
- Zeki Pehlivan
Great result Paul. In such a short time, millions of users, 1 new interface and a marriage with internets' celebrity. This is a period which you should write down to make it as an on-line business case. You people are really wise businessmen. Nice job, congrats! :)
- Olcayto Cengiz
Not happy happy congrats bullshit from me-I used FF.
- frankiecarl
Frankie, a lot of us use FriendFeed and are concerned about where things are going from here. As I said in my comment above: I'm happy for the staff but displeased with who they chose to sell to. I'm perfectly capable of feeling both emotions at the same time.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
wonderful so normal so ordinary so simple
- Thomas Power
MZ looks like he has just returned from the gym
- Joe Dawson
These guys represent the most talked about entreprises (Ok even more so by geeks in the case of Friendfeed) and they're still in their 20s. We're talking millions of dollars and look how relax they look and casually they're dressed.
- lelapin
Awesome, nice to see they are actually in fact human still.
- Robert Schultz
Great photographs showing the very reason why 99% of all people start their own business - money! Well done and good luck for the future.
- David Jagger
this is so great! congrats paul! im really happy for u guys!
- Jason Pollock
Business is Business and we can only move forward with social-media applications as we herald a new interactive platform. Albeit thanks to the Mothers of all Mothers, Google. Frank Burns
- frank burns
this does not surprise me. i have spent a lot of time in industrial companies and email is the most advanced tech that has traction. can't even get secure sharepoint sites to get traction with execs!
- Jeff DiStanlo
Were you surprised? It amazes me how few people (in general) know about these....especially Twitter.
- Vinny
I am not surprised. The day these and other such folks get onto social media, social media will be passe ;)
- A. Prem Kumar
People don't know about Twitter?! What!
- frank barry
Ya i suspect by end of 2009 it will have hit mainstream consciousness, but still obscure now.
- Brian Carter
not surprised. even some of my friends in tech doesn't know twitter
- AJ Batac
I just can't believe it. Do these people live under a rock?
- Happy
It would have been a surprise if they had. Good job Robert is on hand to spread the word.
- WorldofHiglet
There was a seminar on social media and communications in Toronto last night and a few people had never heard of Twitter, either. Is it really surprising or are we just to immersed in it?
- Bonnie Dean
It took me years to get around to wanting to use Twitter. I read about it regularly at Coding Horror (ex: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog...) for at least a year but I just didn't see the point. I finally registered because I wanted to reply to a friend's tweet. I think for a lot of people it's more of a reticence to join social networks than plain technophobia.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
This is not surprising. Recall that John McCain does not even use email. And I am sure most, if not all, of these "top" executives are part of McCain's generation.
- Joe Lima
I haven't touched Qik/Seesmic/Kyte because I can't work out the difference. Not surprised most won't have heard of them or Twitter
- Luke
Robert, send them an invoice for innovation consulting! ;-)
- masa media - Martin
Make a list of top execs who do know about social media.
- stefan hyttfors
Not Surprising, I'd consider myself fairly Tech savvy and although i've been registered for ages i only just started Tweeting. Although given the publicity it's had in the last few weeks i'm slightly surprised.
- Jamie Vidamour
but i guess they know about Facebook ? well, i think twitter is more for more tech people
- Junal Rahman
Do you think their assistants know about those technologies? My understanding of CEO responsibility is that they have to think on a super broad and strategic level. Many of those technologies are about integrating tiny pieces of information into something bigger. Since that's not really their job, I would think those services would be off the CEO's radar until they have an impact at that high level. Right?
- David Wynn
from fftogo
Our CMO @BestBuyCMO relayed a similar experience at a CMO dinner he was one or two of 10+ who knew about the tools and he certainly was the top user of them.
- Ben Hedrington
It's not surprising, if you think about it, but it's still unfortunate. Top executives are hardly "the mainstream" and if they're not in tech or marketing, those types of communication are not foremost in their minds. I know one chief exec. of a Fortune 1000 company who still has his "important" emails (as determined by his assistant) printed out and put on his desk every day.
- Robert Clockedile
from twhirl
This does not surprise me in the least. Yes, awareness is growing but anyone who assumes that our social media world has "made it' to mainstream is unclear on the concept.
- Cathy Brooks
from twhirl
I've never expected top executives to have a clue about anything. They're just a figure head for the company. They pay others around them to do the grunt work.
- Chris Luckhardt
What a surprise!! Here in Brazil I've asked to my friends and coworkers and nobody knew about Twitter. Well, some of my friends don't even check e-mails account daily...
- Flavio Knopp
it goes to show that twitter, kyte, friendfeed, etc... haven't really hit the mainstream yet... user adoption will always be a problem no matter what platform or software is out there.
- Dejim Juang
What is the point of Twitter, Kyte etc when hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs and we are in global economic crisis? Don't these top execs have bigger issues at hand? Are we drinking too much social media coolade in these times?
- Andy Oliver
Dejim: I would not consider 30 executives not knowing about Twitter to equate to these services not being in the mainstream. It you ever worked with "top" executives, you'd be amazed by how much "mainstream" knowledge they really lack.
- Joe Lima
That's not suprising. I still have to ask "Do you know what Twitter is?"
- geekazine
from twhirl
I'm doing a Social Media 101 seminar in a few weeks for entrepreneurs who haven't touched linkedin.com, facebook, or twitter. Seminar is full. We'll likely do 2 or 3 more. I'm not surprised at your group's ignorance.
- Shelley Cadamy
I'm a publisher in medical technology market data and I continue to be stunned at how much behind the tech curve my audience of medtech companies is. Their rate of adoption of social media, like their adoption of new information technologies, lags at the same rate as physicians, who are traditionally slow to adopt any new technologies other than medical technologies.
- Patrick Driscoll
Top *executives*? No surprise there, unless they're *tech* executives. Gates or Dell not knowing would be worrying, but should a boss at Exxon or Rolls-Royce (the aero engine company) know or care any more than we'd know or care about distillate refining or FADEC aero engine controllers?
- James
I don't think we are drunk on social media when we say that in spite of the downturn and maybe because of it, we need to look at the enormous possibilities of social media at the very least as a brand loyalty mechanism(ie I am more apt to subscribe to products from companies/ people that I have a more intimate relationship with).
- Phillip
The other issue with non tech executives not tuned in is their reluctance to accept ideas that don't have a direct and obvious connection to ROI. I have to admit (and I'm not blowing my horn) that during the pre-internet heydey, I felt like Tom Hanks in "Big" raising my hand to say, "I don't get it". Then, I couldn't understand why website traffic mattered more than revenue.
- Patrick Driscoll
Recently, I spoke with a colleague of mine, a university professor of linguistics known as geek. I asked if someone is studying tweets' peculiar language and style from a scientific point of view. "Twitter?" he said, "Microblogging? never heard before". A geek, they say. Well...
- PaperDoll
There's a whole tendency in social media toward rapidly accepting what's at the front edge of development, while at the back end, product managers, sales/marketing and other grunts are just struggling to hit their numbers. They don't live and breathe the latest info tool -- they live and breathe their own product.
- Patrick Driscoll
OK, I'm hogging the airwaves, but one last point. When I look at new medical technologies emerging in the market, I have to bring in two very important perspectives: the opinion-leading early adopters (docs at universities or highly visible MD-consultants to industry) and the regular practicing physician working in the trenches of daily care. Social media evangelists would have me pay much more attention (I'm simplifying a bit) to the opinion-leaders.
- Patrick Driscoll
I can understand that they don't know about Qik or Kyte, even I don't and I spend a lot of time on Twitter and FriendFeed...
- Odi Kosmatos
I don't think that social media is so important that everyone MUST take part in it. If I had more of a life (was a busy doctor or exec.), twitter and friendfeed would be the last thing that I would do in my spare time -especially twitter.
- BEX
Ok, twitter might be something they need to know, but Kyte? Qik? Far too early for both of them to be at executive level of a non-tech company.
- Steven Cains
Carol Bartz doesn't use Flickr and she's Yahoo's CEO. Her daughter does use facebook to post photos though.
- Thomas Hawk
Our organzation is doing well w/Facebook with more plans for expansion after receiving demographics that show a high number of professional level participants and 30 and up crowd. I always considered FB for kids.
- R. Ferguson
I can belive Qik and Kyte. But Twitter. That is tough. Of course my CEO doesn't know what SEO is.
- John Flynn
Robert, that does seem strange. But then I see smaller co's. and non-profits jumping into Twitter, FB,etc. faster. My theory is because start-ups and NP's are open to the pool of university student volunteer workers, interns, and beginners out there who are more saavy in this area.
- Melanie Reed
Maybe it's the name...? Maybe they would prefer using something called The TwitCorp Group
- Catherine Ventura
robert - did you talk to them about zoho, zocdoc, gomobo, freshbooks, etc ?
- Allen Stern
They must not have any kids... or watch CNN <grin> Nice one, Catherine - love The TwitCorp Group
- Cheryl Allin
from twhirl
OMG there's a world OUTSIDE of Twitter and Soc Nets?! :P
- Mona Nomura
cmon mona you should know by now that in the valley there are only a few products that can be talked about outside the valley by those inside the valley - scoble just doing his job :) ha!
- Allen Stern
And to think, we just had an amazing tweetup in the Raleigh area last night of more than 200 tweeps. Triangle Tweetup was awesome.
- Angela
Non-tech CEOs is not surprising. However, depending on the kind of executive not knowing at least 1 like Twitteer may be troubling. For example if they are media companies or telecom companies then that is a more troubling thought than say the executive for a manufacturing company. Ultimately the lack of knowledge is a reflection of the type of talent they recruit and how that impacts their corporate culture now and in the future.
- Altan Khendup
Did those same guys also show ignorance about Facebook- then we will know that we live on different planets - google,facebook,twitter are all helping to re-shape the way we communicate with each other- rgds- hiro bachani- http://www.merlin-me.com -Merlin Magical Gadgets
- hiro
Amazing how a generational gap can preclude users from a given technology. I bet none of their friends are on Twitter either
- Jameel
Unsurprising to me. I think the only interesting item might be how a company without a revenue model continues to raise money! In *this* economy, that is a story.
- AJ Kohn
The elementary school I work at has started to hear about Twitter. It is going mainstream very quickly.
- MarkCarras
My fiancée has heard of Twitter and she does her damnedest to avoid all this high-fallutin' technology.
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
Not a good mood if you want to build up goodwill and awareness of your brand. I mean, unless you're McDonald's or something.
- Mike Nayyar
very small % of top exective in japan knows twitter either.
- Yasuyuki Goto
Do they need to know? Is twitter going to get them out of their problems? Maybe their marketing managers do know?
- santiromero
Why would they know or care about Twitter, Qik or Kyte? What's the business case?
- Francine Hardaway
did they know about facebook - for global mainstream business leaders that at least should be known?
- mike "glemak" dunn
Using our difficult economic circumstances to dismiss the tools of Web 2.0, be it Twitter, Facebook, or something else is to embrace the status quo. And if you hadn't noticed, the status quo isn't working. Web 2.0 offers a unique opportunity to reach out to customers, be they current or would-be customers, and engage them in a way previously not possible. As for me, I work for a...
more...
- Lee Allgood
did they know about computers? how about the internet? ebay? facebook? trying to quantify the time lag between reality and executives.
- Dino
not surprising....met an IT guy at Panera on Monday who never heard of twitter or microblogging...now that's scary
- Brian Appleby
does that say something? twitter and all these things are not the most essential parts of businesses. these things are fun but there's lots of people i know who have no idea about twitter. people who invest so much time and effort in these things have to realise this.
- Terry O'Fee
when things get really really tough these "social media experts" in the businesses will be the first to get the axe, sadly.
- Terry O'Fee
what is more significant/startling... that some do not know about twitter et al, or that some know and do not understand the value either personal or business wise? and believe me i know plenty people who know about twitter et al and just do not get the value. nor the point. which tells me social media is in its infancy still - we all know that of course. then again it took me 2-3 years to figure out email way back when ;)
- Pascal Bouvier
the value of twitter? i know lots of successful businesses who would never even look at this kind of stuff. it's not as important as a lot of you people think.
- Terry O'Fee
You people? Who you calling 'YOU people'.
- Chris Saad
Thats the problem. You NEED to look at it before you understand its value, both for personal use and as a corporate tool.
- jcunwired
you people = the people who think the world would end if twitter shut down tomorrow...
- Terry O'Fee
This post is a complete and utter déjà vu for me. Robert, did this happen another time upon which you posted a very similar statement. For a second there, I thought FriendFeed glitched and reissued an old entry. Maybe I'm just tired.
- Micah Wittman
seems that twitter will have 30 more users.
- pala
Um. I work under people who thinks blogging is new and uncharted territory. I'm in marketing.
- myron
nonsurprising.. some of my teammates don't know about twitter. none of them know about qik. and i never heard of kyte!
- Ihar Mahaniok