Facebook buys FriendFeed: Is this a big deal?

(CNET) -- Surprise! Facebook has acquired FriendFeed, a Bay Area-based social-network feed aggregation start-up.


FriendFeed consolidates updates from social media and bookmarking sites, blogs and RSS feeds.

"Facebook and FriendFeed share a common vision of giving people tools to share and connect with their friends," FriendFeed co-founder Bret Taylor said in a release.

"We can't wait to join the team and bring many of the innovations we've developed at FriendFeed to Facebook's 250 million users around the world."

TechCrunch reported the news on Monday, a matter of minutes before Facebook confirmed the acquisition.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it: This is not as ridiculously huge of a deal as the Silicon Valley hype machine is going to have you believe.

Basically, FriendFeed has been coasting on a lot of hype and not a lot of mainstream recognition, and it's not a bit surprising that it would be seeking an exit at this point.