There is a lot of discussion going on about Facebook, FriendFeed, Twitter, and real-time search. This is to be expected since yesterday it was announced that Facebook is acquiring FriendFeed.
Hitwise has shared some data regarding FriendFeed’s popularity in the UK. It’s growing fast, and has increased by 180% over the last 12 months in terms of traffic. It’s nowhere near what Facebook or Twitter get, but Hitwise’s Robin Goad says that “visitors to FriendFeed are typical early adopters – just the kind of people who were first to embrace Facebook, Twitter and a range of other social media success stories (as well as quite few failures along the way!).”
Hitwise provides a look at FriendFeed’s clickstream in July, and it shows that Google, Twitter, and Facebook are the biggest sources of traffic. Twitter is actually a bigger source based on this data, which should make it all the more attractive to Facebook. It would be kind of like Google getting a good portion of its traffic from Yahoo.
Facebook intends to let FriendFeed continue operating independently. It’s hard to say if Facebook’s ownership will significantly contribute to the traffic of FriendFeed.com. The acquisition appears to really be more about talent, and Facebook will likely begin incorporating FriendFeed’s technology into its own site. Either way, it’s probably a good buy for Facebook.
You can read more about the Facebook/FriendFeed/Real-Time Search Picture in the following articles:
Facebook Just Became More Important to Search
Google Allows Hands-On Preview Of Caffeine Update
Why It’s Not Wise for Your Business to Overlook FriendFeed
Facebook Acquires FriendFeed
Where’s Bing’s Real-Time Search?
