In this edition of the Weekly Wrapup – our newsletter summarizing the top stories of the week – we report on and analyze the acquisition of lifestreaming company FriendFeed by Facebook. We also explore a new trend that may route around both companies: distributed social networking. In other news this week: Facebook announced that user updates will be searchable, Google unveiled a faster search infrastructure, Microsoft and Nokia announced a partnership around Office apps, Gartner released its latest Hype Cycle, and social networking statistics were revealed suggesting that younger generations keep track of their online friends better than offline ones. We also check in on our two new channels: ReadWriteEnterprise (devoted to ‘enterprise 2.0’ trends and products) and ReadWriteStart (dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs).
The Weekly Wrapup is sponsored by Raptivity, create interactive websites:
Subscribe to Weekly Wrapup
You can subscribe to the Weekly Wrapup by RSS or by email (form below).
RWW Weekly Wrap-up Email Subscription form:
Purchase The ReadWriteWeb Q2 2009 VC Funding Report
Our Second Premium Report for Businesses
We’re excited to announce the availability of ReadWriteWeb’s Q2 2009 VC Funding Report, our second premium report powered by data from ChubbyBrain. We have been tracking early-stage investment in Internet, mobile and SaaS since the financial crisis in September 2008 and we believe that this report is unlike anything else you’ve seen.
Our Report gives you the facts on 240 deals closed in April, May and June – who invested, in what company, how much they invested and when. Read on to see what’s included in the guide and how to purchase it.
Web Products
Facebook Acquires FriendFeed for $50 Million
The big news this week was Facebook acquiring popular lifestreaming company FriendFeed for about $50m, $15m in cash and the rest in Facebook stock. According to a post by Bret Taylor on the FriendFeed blog, FriendFeed will continue to operate normally for the time being while the two companies figure out the long-term plans. The purchase makes sense, as Facebook had continually copied parts of FriendFeed’s feature set – including the ‘like’ feature and Facebook’s new focus on the real-time stream.
Facebook Users: Here’s What FriendFeed Brings to the Family
It’s going to be a little like the Brady Bunch, this union between Facebook and the just-acquired social networking service FriendFeed. Both families will influence each other a lot, though Facebook is far, far bigger. FriendFeed was co-founded by Paul Buchheit, the man who invented GMail, and by Bret Taylor, who co-founded Google Maps. Here’s what they bring to Facebook; it’s probably going to change Facebook a lot.
Facebook Updates Are Now Searchable
Also this week Facebook announced that it’s opened up search across all status messages, notes and shared links that users have marked as public. Searching across all users, whether you know them or not, requires a couple of clicks – but the availability of the feature marks a dramatic turning point in the history of Facebook. For months the company has been pushing users towards being more public and less private. This is why.
10 Ways to Archive Your Tweets
Did you know that your tweets have an expiration date on them? While they never really disappear from your own Twitter stream, they become unsearchable in only 1.5 weeks. That’s bad for users and it’s definitely bad for data-mining. Unless Twitter corrects this issue on its own, we have to find another solution for archiving tweets ourselves. Here are 10 ways to do so.
Caffeine: Google Tests New Search Infrastructure
Just as Facebook announces internal search for public notes, Google counters with an effort to improve on its existing services. In a blog post, the company unveiled its new Caffeine search infrastructure to web developers. The question is, will Caffeine enhance performance or lead to user anxiety?
See also: iGoogle is Now Social: Google Launches Social Gadgets
Tiny App Confuses, Delights: Check Out Robo.to, Next-Gen Animated GIFs
From “massively small products” shop Particle, itself a startup newly out of stealth mode, comes a new app: Robo.to, pitched to us as a digital calling card. Although the app first struck us as a skinnier Retaggr with an animated GIF-esque Flash avatar slapped on the top, something quirky and cute drew us back and elicited deeper digging.
SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY
A Word from Our Sponsors
We’d like to thank ReadWriteWeb’s sponsors, without whom we couldn’t bring you all these stories every week!
- Mashery is the leading provider of API management services.
- WeeBiz, a business community where you can find and share new business opportunities.
- Domain.ME, the official registry for all .ME Domains.
- Codero, Dedicated Hosting with Backup & Managed Services.
- Mollom, stop comment spam and build your community.
- Crowd Science gives you detailed visitor demographics.
- hakia is a semantic search engine.
- Rackspace provides dedicated server hosting.
- Aplus provides web hosting services for small business hosting needs.
- IronScale, Managed Hosting. The Cloud Gets Physical.
- MediaTemple provides hosting for RWW.
- SixApart provides our publishing software MT4.
ReadWriteEnterprise
Our channel devoted to ‘enterprise 2.0’ and using social software inside organizations. Sponsored by Socialtext.
Microsoft & Nokia: Not Just Office, It’s the Whole Mobile Enterprise
This week news broke that Microsoft and Nokia were announcing a partnership that would take Office outside of Windows Mobile for the first time. It’s now clear that this isn’t just Word, Excel, and PowerPoint slapped onto Nokia smartphones: the world’s largest cellphone maker will now support a whole slew of key enterprise software from Microsoft.
ReadWriteStart
Our channel ReadWriteStart, sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark, is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs.
VC Series A Web Tech Deals in July
We have been tracking Series A deals in Web technology since the market mayhem in October 2008, and since May we have been working with ChubbyBrain, which tracks this kind of data full-time. Early-stage funding is important for the whole economy. The executive summary for July: steady progress and a lot of deals in the Boston area.
SEE MORE STARTUPS COVERAGE IN OUR READWRITESTART CHANNEL
Web Trends
Is a Perfect Storm Forming For Distributed Social Networking?
Maybe it’s better to host your own. That’s the thinking coming from a growing number of early technology adopters as service after service goes down, sells out or otherwise frustrates the users. The prospect of a distributed, interoperable, self-hosted network of publishing, reading and discussion tools is nothing new – but the idea is gaining a lot more support as more people react to recent news like FriendFeed’s sale to Facebook, Tr.im’s up and down and Twitter’s denial of service attacks.
Gartner Hype Cycle 2009: Web 2.0 Trending Up, Twitter Down
Analyst firm Gartner released its latest Hype Cycle white paper this week, detailing some of the biggest trends in technology this year. According to the report, cloud computing, e-books and Internet TV are at the “Peak of Inflated Expectations,” while this year’s biggest hit Twitter is said to have “tipped over the peak” and is just about to enter the infamous “Trough of Disillusionment.” Interestingly, web 2.0 is deemed to be nearly past the Trough and entering the “Slope of Enlightenment.”
Product Managers & Marketers: What The Internet of Things Means For You
Some of you may be reading our series on the Internet of Things and wondering: what use is this to me in my daily work? So one day my fridge will be able to tell me when the milk has run out, when I travel my luggage will have an RFID tag and not be lost, my home will be automated via Twitter. But will it affect your job? If you’re a product manager or marketer, read on to find out how this will affect you.
Your “Real” Friends are Your Online Friends (or so Says Gen Y)
Is it easier to talk to your online buddies than your friends out there in the “real world?” Do you feel like you know more about what’s happening in the lives of your Facebook and MySpace friends than with those who don’t have accounts or don’t bother to update them? According to a recent UK MySpace study, these sorts of feelings are common among today’s younger generation.
SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY
That’s a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.
