FriendFeed accepts Facebook friend request

We are happy to announce that Facebook has acquired FriendFeed. As my mom explained to me, when two companies love each other very much, they form a structured investment vehicle...

The FriendFeed team is extremely excited to become a part of the talented Facebook team. We've always been great admirers of Facebook, and our companies share a common vision. Now we have the opportunity to bring many of the innovations we've developed at FriendFeed to Facebook's 250 million users around the world and to work alongside Facebook's passionate engineers to create even more ways for you to easily share with your friends online.

What does this mean for my FriendFeed account?

FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally. We're still figuring out our longer-term plans for the product with the Facebook team. As usual, we will communicate openly about our plans as they develop — keep an eye on the FriendFeed News group for updates.

What about the FriendFeed API?

The FriendFeed API will also continue to operate normally. As above, we will let you know as we settle on our plan to more fully integrate with Facebook.

Check out the official press release for more information.

141 comments:

nicefishfilms said...

Congratulations. Thank you for bringing a real sense of the real-time community to life.

Mustafa Tan said...

:(

Jennifer Leggio said...

Congrats, guys!!

chris24 said...

Congratulations!

Randy Pollock said...

Horrible decision, just ...wow...speechless

Unknown said...

Congratulation, but I am crossing my fingers for the future.

Chris Charabaruk said...

Augh! One of the things I liked most about FriendFeed was how it wasn't Facebook, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt that way. For folks like me, this is a kick in the teeth!

I hope that despite the purchase, you guys get to stay an independent service. Becoming just another part of Facebook will make you lose what made FriendFeed so great.

Unknown said...

This makes me sad... from the technology point of view. An awesome technology that will go down in history (and in Facebook).

But still happy for you guys. Congrats!

Eric Logan said...

Congratulations Thanks for providing a great learning environment.

Anonymous said...

herzlichen glückwunsch!

Niketas said...

Great job, folks! Wish you happy relations with Facebook guys.

Davis Freeberg said...

You guys deserve it. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the site once Facebook takes over.

kosso said...

Great news for "social multimedia networking"!!

[disclosure: I built 'Phreadz' which often gets compared to FF and FB - though has a different 'angle']

congratulations!!

Francine Hardaway, Ph.D said...

Bret and Paul,

Congratulations for developing something so valuable in such a short period of time. It's a wonderful outcome for you. Now go be stay-at-home dads:-)

Anonymous said...

It's good for you and I hope you make some money but it's not for me so I'm off.

Jason Kintzler said...

So cool. Congrats! This is just what Facebook needed - and I'm guessing FriendFeed too at some level. With ample funding there's no telling what you guys will come up with. Can't wait to see what's next!

Unknown said...

Now innovate officially ;)

Nada said...

I sure hope FriendFeed will have it's own life and site after this OR that Facebook turn into FF UI. Facebook with closed, integrated FF, no thanx. Anyway congrats.

Randy Pollock said...

Someone call Leo and Scoble we got to stop this...

Oğuz Serdar said...

congrats!

Afzal Khan said...

Congrats!

I hope, I'll continue using Friendfeed, only if Facebook is not going to impose any more new T&C for using Friendfeed.

It will be real pain if such thing happens.

www.SiliconANGLE.com said...

Congrats to you guys this is a home run. Now imagine the amount of data that will be available from the facebook environment.

You guys built a great product and this is a great integration opportunity and certainly validation.

Gaith Saqer said...

friendfeed listens to its users, Facebook enforce its well on them if FF changes that great policy I ll not be happy :(

David said...

Congrats to you guys, of course... but I've so often thought of FF as FB without all the CRAP.

guruvan said...

WooHOO! Great job guys! I think this is a great move. Definitely makes sense if you ask me.

Foomandoonian said...

Interesting move. FriendFeed certainly deserves the mainstream adoption that Facebook will make possible. I'm very disappointed personally though as I find using Facebook a horrible experience, and I can only imagine that FriendFeed's ultimate destiny is to become buried deep within Facebook and be unappreciated by the masses that use that platform.

Hope I'm wrong.

Steve Rubel said...

Congratulations! Great great move for all involved.

pallian said...

Feel free to use http://justbought.it to make it official on twitter :-)

lchoquel said...

Bravo les gars !

HCPL Techincal Trainer said...

Congrats to the folks who built FF from the ground up.

Please, Please Please keep FF unlike facebook. Thank you.

And keep my data private. Unlike facebook.

Burak said...

If you were Optimus Prime, Facebook was like Unicron and she ate us all!

Hope the acquisition would be worth it because you broke our hearts.

דן said...

Bravo Bravo
Love friendfeed!!!

Good Luck!!

Jake said...

Facebook & FriendFeed: don't cross the lifestreams! D:<

Sam Soffes said...

Congrats guys! This will be great. I think the masses will really enjoy using your technologies and Facebook offers the vehicle to accomplish that.

Onur Değerli said...

this is the worst news i have ever heard in the my web life!

Unknown said...

I'm never in favor of consolidating, diversity and choice is what makes the internet so amazing. What will ultimately happen is that Friendfeed will be sucked into Facebook and FF will ultimately disappear, a real kick in the teeth to all the users who supported it.

champura said...

Wow, you guys had something really great going and you decide to just let it get absorbed into the Facebook hell hole. What a huge disappointment.

Sampad Swain said...

Congratulations guys. Great deal!

Aaron said...

Congratulations to the FriendFeed team. This is great news!!! It has been a pleasure working with you.

Furkan Haydar said...

"As my mom explained to me, when two companies love each other very much, they form a structured investment vehicle..." You are talking like a broker.

Onur Değerli said...

where is ff? it lives in our hearts!

ernmander said...

Not sure that this is good news

Unknown said...

Congrats! It will be interesting to see where things go from here.

Robin Ashford said...

Arrgh!! This news really bums me out...I may have to quit the Internets :( I know I've always been in the minority but I just do NOT care for facebook...way too social for me.

Unknown said...

Congratulations awesome achievement from simply brilliant software literally the best on the web right now.

Abhishek Sharma said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lucas Herrera said...

Congrats

Abhishek Sharma said...

Congrats guys.
There is an possibility of great synergy.
Both are wonderful products in there own right and both are best in the breed. An amazing deal can be accomplished if the integration happens in open and precise manner.
The only problem area i see is that Friendfeed is an inherently open system whereas Facebook is all about walled garden.
I just hope friendfeed somehow doesn't turn into a walled garden.

Nonethless its a great strategic move.
Good Luck to all :)

Annette said...

I use each service differently and I really don't see how this can be good for FriendFeed. Please don't turn into facebook..

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, team!

Rolando A. said...

Facebook NO respeta la privacidad, esto es malo para FriendFeed, ni modo, tanto que me gustaba FrienFeed :o(

Kim Elmose said...

Congrats - but don't let the same thing happen to you as to the team behind http://jaiku.com - bought by Google who then did nothing to develop the service but let it go down the drain - just to get the brainy team behind jaiku.com.

So - hang in there, guys

best

Kim Elmose

The Corsair said...

Good stuff, man.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...I left Facebook over a month ago because I didn't like the environment it made. Friendfeed was my "alternate" for posting content to interested readers.

Please don't screw FF up so I have to change yet again!

On a more positive note, perhaps development will get faster with FF and the search will improve dramatically.

Anonymous said...

congrats!

Riaz Kanani said...

congrats! and fingers crossed on friendfeed showing up even more in facebook!

Mark Aitken said...

Well done guys Lot's of mixed feelings out there, but genuinely pleased for you all.

Weskus said...

Friendfeed the Facebook plug-in .... what a shame ... I hate the Facebook clutter.

ColorCat said...

this is bad day :(

Randy said...

congrats! great technology that Facebook needs.

Unknown said...

What an horrible decision!

Tau-Mu Yi said...

Well, you guys sold out both literally and figuratively. From a financial standpoint, I can't blame you.

To me, FB is only one step from joining the axis of evil, I mean Microsoft.

AdamTest said...

Congrats! Now go give FB a good, friendly kick and get them to continue opening up the service more each day :)

Unknown said...

Wretched news - I can understand you did it for the money - but your souls??

Unknown said...

Neat!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Why? :(

patrickdh said...

©2008 - was that the year you decided you needed a plan to avoid getting burnt out. What a lame blog this was anyways. Good luck

Dan said...

Congratulations, folks. Just please keep FriendFeed FriendFeed, too.

Adrián Prado said...

hehehe... sharing candys and kisses in ff?

Anonymous said...

Facebook sucks. I'm extremely sure that this will make FriendFeed suck too because in the long run FB will suck off ("integrate" - yeah right, like someone'll buy that BS) FriendFeed and it won't exist anymore.

I'm really sorry for the pessimism but I can't see this as good news.

Why didn't you published with the title like:

"FriendFeed. Now, we actually do suck."

or even maybe

"FriendFeed. Now with 100% more evilness."

rob. fraser said...

I'm glad that there will be a large increase in the use of FriendFeed, and the increased support/funding the FF team needs. Just PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, do not let Friendfeed simply merge the two. I like them separate!

Clarke Thomas said...

congrats on the acquisition; but....I do worry....

I do not like FB's terms of sevice; & most of my FB friends wouldn't like the content I post here.

Mário Valente said...

Congratulations.

Now could you please explain, preferably in a blog post for everyone's benefit, how one can export their FF stream so one can leave the service and pass on joining the Facebook clusterfuck?

kthxbai

-- MV

Carlos Lorenzo said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Carlos Lorenzo said...

Business is business and in that sense, congratulations. Probably I would have done the same being in your shoes. Whether we are gonna like it or not is a different thing. I understand Facebook delivers quite an amusing service and covers a lot of stuff that help you part with your friends and "friends", but I certainly hate the guts out of it. I mean, you were like Firefox to IE, or Wordpress to Blogger. I still can't believe my eyes. All of a sudden I am losing all of my interest. Sorry about that. Please try to make it look like there's no interference in your nice work.

Chris said...

Congrats FF team! Your product is now validated, and the added bonus is that FB no longer has to steal your ideas and innovations. :-)

Unlike many here I'm not unhappy with this. Facebook is working more toward opening up, and FriendFeed already is, so the push in the *right* direction can continue. In other words, FB haters, FF *should* make FB better.

Bret and team, my best wishes to you. Celebrate!!! Oh, and never stop innovating - y'all are extremely good at it! :-)

DonDepresor said...

I dont think this is a good idea. Most probably i'll be leaving Friendfeed.

burtonator said...

Sweet.... congrats guys!

Convince the Facebook guys to create a fully open API with RSS and Atom and SUP feeds for all public Facebook posts

:)

aindreas said...

omg :-)

Unknown said...

Ugh,
I use friendfeed for the very reason it is not facebook. No Quizzes, no games, no crap. Friendfeed delivers me the info I want.

Sorry guys, but if you start being intergrated into facebook, I'm gone.

Anonymous said...

What the…

So, while FriendFeed is still itself for time being, can we at least get the Facebook status stream back into FriendFeed too ?
Facebook killed that one during their previous update

Mário Valente said...

http://friendfeed-api.com/v2/feed/me?pretty=1&start=0&num=99999 (it will ask for your username and API key) doesnt seem to provide the full list of a users entries.

The API docs dont seem to provide a way to do that.

Anyway know a way to do it?

kthxbai

-- MV

Unknown said...

It's your company, you can do with it what you want. Just don't give us that "good news" stuff, when you know it's just good news for YOU. Again, I say "go for it"; it's your company and you have to make the bucks. Just don't expect us to join in on the celebration. We all know this means drastic changes to the service at some point.

Shitij said...

Woah awesome! Definitely wanna check out FriendFeed now lol

Colar said...

"As my mom explained to me, when two companies love each other very much, they form a structured investment vehicle..."
Say that to Netscape.

Bye bye friendfeed.

Mark Ivey said...

Congrats and good luck. You'dve done some great work and hope the spirit and innovation continues under FB's wing.

Unknown said...

I really hope FriendFeed stays as its own site. Fully integrating it with Facebook would be a huge mistake. I love FriendFeed the way it is right now.

20bit said...

Happy new friend/.

adamson said...

This is terrible.

I hope you guys get paid off of it, though.

Franklin said...

Congrats!

Anonymous said...

Congrats and..........good-bye! Best of luck to you.

Threepwood said...

Happy for you from a personal perspective because I've watched you struggle to make FF the most responsive, involved and user driven site on the web and I really feel you deserve your payday. But FB?? Guys, that's like being assimilated by the Borg! Very sad day.

Nilesh said...

:(

Akhmad Fathonih said...

Please please please. Stay independent. I love the way that FF is not FB, and vice versa. It prevents network cluttering. Congrats for FF!

Ellery said...

Happy & surprise to know that.

That means if I am a facebook user I can access FriendFeed, right?

macAlba said...

Good for you! Bad for me.

I liked Friendfeed (a lot) because it wasn't Facebook. I (selfishly) hope it doesn't change too much.

Unknown said...

Congrats, Bret, Ana and the rest of the crew! Hope you can share FF's sense of openness w/FB!

Mathew Ballard said...

I want to be happy for you guys, but it is very hard to be.

Facebookmania said...

LOL! ♫ ♫ "ooh, take the money and run"!! ♫ ♫ ;)

mergen said...

Always wanted to try out FriendFeed. I guess now I will just be able to use it on my Facebook account.

Here's a toast to happy marriage/future!

Assaf said...

This is a sad day for open web standards...

王子宵,Woodear Z. Wang said...

中文FF用户发来贺电!
恭喜!
不过大部分喜欢FF的中文用户还是不大喜欢facebook。
http://ff.im/6pKJe

Unknown said...

Good bye, FriendFeed. I enjoyed you while it lasted. I think it will be best if I part now before I see what you become firsthand.

Cem Tonguç said...

@mustafatan :)
@ff congrats
@facebook clever :)

Jay Money said...

Congrat guys!

Michael Murdock said...

Someone's gonna get a new car and pay off a few bills with that cash :) Congrats! Could not happen to a nicer group of people. Seriously.

Mike

Anonymous said...

Surprising.. yes. Congratz for the succee!

Via said...

I didn't see that coming. Did anyone?

Like many, I liked ff because it wasn't F, which is an inane headache.

I'm sure you got an offer you couldn't refuse, and possibly you've been angling for this money moment. Who would blame you. (Rhetorical questions need no question mark.)

Here's hoping you can keep an incarnation of ff that is completely separate from the big F. If not, then thanks, it was fun while it lasted.

Daniel said...

Congratulations with the merger. I hope you are able to harness all the potential synergies.

Minnesota Hotdish said...

Personally, I'd like to see the FriendFeed version of groups adopted by Facebook. FF groups are far superior.

Gert said...

First thing I did after hearing this was deleting my FF account.
I try very hard to stay away from FB and anything that has to do with it.
Good luck to you FF guys, it was probably the best thing to do for you.

Unknown said...

I think it's fair to say that the FriendFeed users where the last people considered when the decision was taken. Sadly.. does a social networking site that put its owners first and its users last have any future ?

Hugh said...

I'm looking forward to what this will bring.

viralavatar said...

only 50 milions? :(

Unknown said...

:((

blogger said...

down with you, i don't like facebook but whtever love i had for friendfeed is diminishing.well now twitter rules...simple yet beautiful

vishnuprasath said...

This is very useful information at provide at community of our life

milden said...

Congratulations, just don't mess up my FF account! :-)

Unknown said...

In $ terms i guess it makes sense ... I hope a lot of sense ...!

From a service point of view I hope you are going to keep it alive because you guys made it where facebook utterly failled ... You provided complex integration and delivered it beautifully simply to the user putting the complexity behind the interface ... not in the face of the user for him to manage it and eventually despair ...

I hope Facebook will adopt your philosophy and design not the other way round ...

If facebook cannot learn from you I hope they will allow you to keep this service alive !

Krish said...

Congratz. Will miss good ol' FF!

Gnuboss said...

Congratulations on making a new (albeit rather large) friend.

I wish both of you all the very best and look forward to the cool stuff that I'm sure is going to be surfacing soon.

nafnosseb said...

Weren't you guys going to team up with twitter and google reader and all the other smaller networks and create an open alternative?

Pilippe Pinault said...

Congratulation!

Anonymous said...

We will see, this id good or not

Unknown said...

Bebo went for 800 million. Should have held out for more money, guys.

SS said...

check out he reviews about this on....http://news-revuez.blogspot.com/

now said...

Good stuff, they've been yoinking a bit off you guys for a while now.

Did you see the picture of Mark in the Guardian?(http://www.thoughtden.co.uk/blog/2009/08/12/facebooks-50million-planning-permission/)

Thought Dan
http://www.thoughtden.co.uk/

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Duszołap said...

This is sad. I left facebook for Friendfeed - even deactivating account process in Facebook is irritating (with many more things I don't like) and now I am pushed to the wall with tis news - I am really afraid that Friendfeed will evolve into facebook clone with all this not-so-user-friendly interface and completely NOT friendly support. Too bad you have lost you independence;/

Fabio Malamocco said...

Sono contento per questo accordo!
Congratulations from Italy!

Unknown said...

Congrats. How can CitySocialising use FriendFeed cos we really want to get our members and offline community on this thing. Plus we're all about meeting new friends too (real world ones) so it would be a perfect collabo

James Holcomb said...

absolutely horrible

Rich Palmer said...

I've yet to figure out how to use FriendFeed. It has escaped me even from the beta. Just don't cross-pollinate these two services. I don't see how they can benefit each other. That's likely because I don't "get" FriendFeed.

Debbie Williams said...

Congratulations, I hope this will be a really positive move for both FF & FB and am glad to hear that you guys are taking your time to work out the integration issues rather than simply jumping in and making any changes too fast.

Debbie Williams said...

Congratulations, I hope that this will be a really positive move for both FF & FB and am glad that you are taking some time to work out the integration issues lol :)

Good move

Unknown said...

Damn you Steven Perez!

A said...

Now facebook has even more ways of infringing on users privacy..even those that choose not to be part of facebook..goodbye friendfeed

Jigar Shah said...

This is good new if its gonaa bring new services to FF. I am worried about its API, I hope FF remains independent service and FB adds features of it on it. I am worried about API, Looking for another lifestreaming service if it decides to close this. I hope they don't ask me to recreate app in a month.

Unknown said...

my hearty welcome to FF & FB. I hope this will be reach high position. thanks for to bringing here.

Anonymous said...

good for you and good for us (i hope so)

congrats guys!