Since the announcement earlier this week that Facebook is acquiring Friendfeed,  Steve Rubel wonders whether he’s seeing a trend:

[…] I have seen an uptick in friend invitations on Facebook, with these individuals specifically saying they follow me on Friendfeed. Now I don’t know if this is a trend or not, but some others are seeing the same. […] This presents a bit of a dilemma. To date on Facebook I have only let people into my network who I have personally met or corresponded. I don’t make all of my Facebook content public. Meanwhile, on every other social network, I open my content to all and/or accept every friend request.

I’m also a member of Facebook as well as Friendfeed but I’ve not experienced an increase in friend invitations on Facebook. One reason could be that I’m hardly active in that network so I’m probably not noticed by others most of the time.

In contrast, I use Friendfeed a lot. And since the announcement, I’ve seen a large increase in people connecting with me there (and, conversely, that stimulates me to also connect with more people there).

In addition, there’s the FIR Room in Friendfeed, the community place for listeners to the FIR podcast that I co-present twice a week with Shel Holtz: that’s also getting an increase in people wanting to join (it’s a private room so you have to request access).

Is all this anything to do with the Facebook/Friendfeed deal? I have no idea. And likewise, I have no idea if it’s a trend or not.

Steve’s dilemma on whether to open up his accessibility is an interesting one. I wonder what he decides to do.

Tagged as: Facebook, Friendfeed