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05 Dec 2011 21:44

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Tech: Facebook’s Gowalla buyout was for the talent, not the company

  • While Facebook isn’t acquiring the Gowalla service or technology, we’re sure that the inspiration behind Gowalla will make its way into Facebook over time.
  • A statement from Facebook • Basically emphasizing that they bought out Gowalla’s staff, not its service. It apparently was a marriage of mutual ambition: “It became clear that the way for our team to have the biggest impact was to work together,” said Gowalla CEO Josh Williams. The statements effectively play into what many have figured about the Gowalla team — they’re a very good company at design, but ultimately, their product was an also-ran in the market, one increasingly surpassed by Foursquare. They shouldn’t feel bad, though — Facebook was an also-ran at location-sharing, too. source

02 Dec 2011 20:22

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Tech: Gonewalla? Facebook buys location-sharing service Gowalla

  • The sum? Undisclosed. In what’s probably Facebook’s highest-profile acquisition since it scooped up FriendFeed in 2009, the social network bought Gowalla, a popular location check-in service that’s probably the most notable competitor to market leader Foursquare. Facebook had a location check-in service of its own called Facebook Places, which it discontinued back in August after it flopped in the market. So, two questions: With Facebook’s backing, can Gowalla get a kick in the pants? Or is it dead entirely? (For what it’s worth: FriendFeed is still online, though it hasn’t been actively developed in years.) Either way, if you don’t want Facebook to have your Gowalla data, location check-in fans, check out TheNextWeb’s guidesource

10 Aug 2009 20:42

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Biz, Tech: FriendFeed and Facebook more than friends, feeling each other up

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  • What Facebook gets Interesting technology that they can use in future redesigns and upgrades, and – well, let’s not kid ourselves, this is the main reason – access to some really, really bright minds. The founders of FriendFeed are responsible for helping to create Google services you use every single day, like Google Maps and GMail. They’re worth it.
  • What FriendFeed gets Exposure. FriendFeed’s root idea – the combining of social streams into a single feed – is a good idea that didn’t have the PR manpower of Twitter or Facebook. Facebook could push the service really hard. Or this could go down like Geocities and Facebook could drive it into the ground. We’re betting the latter.
  • Our feelingThis merger makes a lot of sense. Facebook has been mimicking FriendFeed’s best features for ages, even moreso since the last redesign. And we’ve had a link to our FriendFeed on the site for months to basically no response – which tells us that unless you’re Robert Scoble (or know who Robert Scoble is), you don’t use it. source

08 Jun 2009 10:20

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About: Friendly reminder of the ways you can follow us online

  • one Great news! We recently switched to a Facebook page – great for those who want news while defacing their boyfriend’s wall.
  • two We also added a new FriendFeed account. Don’t know FriendFeed? Well, they’re like the Velvet Underground of social networking.
  • three And as we’re sure you may know, we have a Twitter account that we update several times a day. Yes, we swear, we actually have a life.
  • four Finally, if you like the content but hate going here, we have a pretty awesome RSS feed that is constantly updated. Woot.