Facebook Takes Steps to Compete With Friendfeed

Earlier today Facebook added a new feature that enables you to import external sites into your newsfeed. This feature currently is limited to importing del.icio.us bookmakrs, flickr and picasa photos and Yelp! reviews. While limited in nature, this is a step toward Facebook opening up to incorporate other site features into their own. Friendfeed, the current darling of Silicon Valley, has been hyped for providing support to many more sites.

While Facebook is currently limited to 4 sites, one can guarantee that we will rapidly see new sites supported via this feature (Harry Huai Wang provides more details). As I wrote this morning, content has been commoditized but the community is where the real value resides. For most of us, our largest community is on Facebook. For others it is on Twitter.

Wherever the community resides, we want to be able to import external content to those sites. This system ultimately reduces the value of many of the sites where the content resides. The Facebook mini-feed and newsfeed both do not currently enable commenting but they could be one step away from adding this feature. Facebook has been selective about what sites can do this but it would be great if developers could add this feature for importing content from their own site as well.

If Facebook opens up the API for the mini-feed importing feature, Facebook will immediately become the largest competitor to FriendFeed and most likely displace it.

Facebook new sharing feature

 



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2 Comments »

  1. friendfeed nice knowing you but seems if this is success its facebook presence whould be reduced.friendfeed implied facebook news feed and friendfeed whould not competing and not worried about facebook (http://www.insidefacebook.com/2008/04/09/is-fri…..) however I can be sure Friendfeed whould be sharping the knifes in responseone improvement they could do to this is 'import stories into newsfeed' feature they group by typeso flickr, picasa whould be in ‘photos/imaging’delicious into favorites (as well as such as live favorites and Digg :) )future import groups suggestions (as i agree it would be expanded surelyvideo sharing: (well youtube, MSN Video particularly)Blogging: WordPress, Live Spaces, Blogger Why not kill off other social networking and have an Social Network groupLive Spaces Friend Feed, Myspace, Hi5

    Comment by Jamie — April 15, 2008 @ 3:14 pm

  2. friendfeed nice knowing you but seems if this is success its facebook presence whould be reduced.

    friendfeed implied facebook news feed and friendfeed whould not competing and not worried about facebook (http://www.insidefacebook.com/2008/04/09/is-friendfeed-a-better-news-feed-interview-with-friendfeed-co-founder-bret-taylor/) however I can be sure Friendfeed whould be sharping the knifes in response

    one improvement they could do to this is 'import stories into newsfeed' feature they group by type

    so flickr, picasa whould be in ‘photos/imaging’

    delicious into favorites (as well as such as live favorites and Digg :) )

    future import groups suggestions (as i agree it would be expanded surely

    video sharing: (well youtube, MSN Video particularly)

    Blogging: WordPress, Live Spaces, Blogger

    Why not kill off other social networking and have an Social Network group

    Live Spaces Friend Feed, Myspace, Hi5

    Comment by Jamie — April 15, 2008 @ 4:14 pm

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