The big news yesterday, taking the tech world by storm, "Facebook Acquires FriendFeed." This news totally trumped the previous technology news when it was announced that bit.ly was interested in acquiring tr.im who were ending their operation of shortening URLs. As Facebook becomes ahead of the Social Media game, nearly killing defeated MySpace in battle and taking FriendFeed's hand in friendship, or marriage for that matter, one has to ask: will Facebook continue to dominate the social media world?
I was introduced to FriendFeed just a few months ago and I admit, I wasn't comprehending the full capabilities of the site. It wasn't until recently that I got chance to use the site and get ultra excited about its effectiveness. See with FriendFeed, or FF, you stay connected with several media outlets and all of your feeds can be embedded into your profile. With FF, I was able to feed my various networks without missing a beat. Everyone of course has their networks set up differently. With mine, I was able to update FF via Youtube, Google Reader, Del.i.cious, and Twitter. With my permissions, FF would update my Google Talk status as well as Twitter and then when the feed hits my Twitter Status, Tweetpo.st (a great tool!) would then in turn post my FF feed to my Facebook. Are you still with me? I hope so.
With this latest acquisition, the game has definitely changed.
Am I upset about this? I can't give you a definite answer. I am definitely concerned about a potential Facebook monopoly. Mind you, unless they have already, Facebook hasn't announced their future plans for FriendFeed. We're not sure whether it will continue to run as a stand alone site or merge with FaceBook's site. I am sincerely hoping though that FaceBook would begin the works of allowing FriendFeed to have a mobile app, preferrably for BlackBerry (in the event that it's stand alone site).
The news is indeed surprising and I doubt anyone saw this coming; I know I didn't. But this indeed gives the rest of the Social World something to be worried about. Facebook has the resources and the power to be a force to be reckoned with. According to reports
What are your thoughts on this latest news? I'd love to hear from you.
