credit: TechCrunch
Facebook’s acquisition of FriendFeed appears to have caught most folks off guard. While Facebook has lifted some of FriendFeed’s features over the last year, Facebook was in no danger of ever being eclipsed by FriendFeed’s ugly UX and general lack of adoption. So just why did Facebook acquire them?
How about just to spite Twitter? Sure Facebook can take a few good ideas from FriendFeed but for the most part they are the same in terms of their closed, permission-based follow culture. Twitter, on the other hand, is a wide open social media stream that does not usually necessitate getting permission before being able to drop in and listen to people’s thoughts (hello lurkers!). So who really needed who to benefit the most?
If anyone should have acquired FriendFeed it should have been Twitter. Considering Twitter’s one-dimensional service, being able to build out Twitter with FriendFeed’s robust menu of social networking functionality would have enabled Twitter to directly compete with Facebook. Facebook can take a lift a few more ideas from FriendFeed but for the-most-part they are the same in terms of their closed, permission-based follow culture. Twitter, on the other hand, is a wide open social media stream that does not usually necessitate getting permission before being able to drop in and listen to people’s thoughts (hello lurkers!). With this one acquisition, Twitter could have jumped headfirst into directly competing with Facebook’s strong suit.
Today’s move by Facebook is a masterful one and helps keep Twitter at bay in their need to piggyback and build off of a strong social media platform that was dying to be integrated into an existing, stronger one. Your move Twitter.
