Dear Facebook, you have been busy this week.

To recap, first they announced their acquisition of FriendFeed. If you haven't heard of it, FriendFeed is the real-time aggregator that lets you gather info from around the web (think Tweets, social network stuff, blogs and your original discussion threads too), and create your own feeds to share with mates.

Swiftly after that, Facebook popped out the launch of their real-time search. They say it will trawl through the last 30 days of news feed activity (for photos, status updates, links, videos, etc), plus public profiles and fan pages, to give you the most up-to-date, and presumably more relevant, results.

This is interesting for a whole host of reasons. By teaming with FriendFeed, who already have a powerful real-time search themselves, Facebook have aimed an explosive shot over the bows at Twitter.

For some time the two companies have engaged in polite fisticuffs for the top 'social media' spot. By acquiring FriendFeed, which generates more conversation, Facebook have revealed their intentions to go after a hot slice of the discussion pie. Of course, the irony is that right now, Tweeting about Facebook and FriendFeed is rife. It speaks volumes about Twitter's seemingly unassailable position as the first choice for breaking news and conversation. No wonder Facebook want to chase them down.

Food for thought, but let's go back to that Facebook/Twitter rivalry. The third momentous piece of news this week is the impending arrival of 'Facebook Lite'. Designed to be a stripped back version of the current Facebook service, the (official) intention is to allow people in countries with very slow broadband speeds – like India, China and Russia - the opportunity to network like the rest of us. It's not a million miles away from the mobile version of Facebook that we use now and it's simple bare-essentials look will surely lend itself even better to access on a handset.

So far, so plausible. But thanks to Mashable, we've looked at screenshots of Facebook Lite and call us crazy, but it looks a lot like Twitter to us. Whether this is the intention is beside the point; this simply looks like the complete hat trick of gauntlets thrown down for Twitter's benefit.

So. The question is, what will the impact of this be for us all? At The Feed we're excited by the implicit promise of a richer online landscape. New ways to search the web via desktop, laptop or mobile; creation of content; sharing and discussing it with friends and strangers alike; surely that's what it's all about?

Tell us what you think in the comments, we’d love to hear.

Bing.com: climbing every internet mountain? The jury is out

Earlier this week Microsoft launched their search engine Bing.com. Dubbed the 'Google killer' the software giant has high hopes of challenging Google's search engine market monopoly.

The question is, will it work? We invited people to get on the soapbox and tell us what they think. Let the digital diatribe begin...

"I quite like the image search and the never-ending page is cool. Layout is nice and clean, although the shopping search doesn’t seem integrated into main search. I think it’s important that other companies are still developing search. It’s easy for us to become too reliant on one company."
MD

"Sponsored search looks exactly like Google Ads now. I don't think it's a threat to Google. I like the preview content box though, when you hover to the right of the listing."
Lucie

"I like the idea of having sub categories on the left hand side, but visually it looks a bit busy. although Microsoft aren't known for keeping things clean, easy to use and pretty to look at are they?
Conor

"I think people stick to what they know. A friend of mine still uses Yahoo just because that's what she's always used. I don't see consumers changing with what they're comfortable with, although Google may lose some market share when Microsoft no doubt make Bing the default search engine on their browser."
Dimitris

"I'd say Bing is a poor man's Ask.com. Not a Google competitor."
Jason

"Takes more than a slightly pretty, web 2.0 derivative interface and some nicely ordered results to topple Google."
Nik

"I don't have a problem with Bing, but I have found myself asking a question: why have they bothered? Google dominates this 'clever search' market and I reckon it's quicker and more streamlined too. Microsoft would, in my mind, be better off spending their millions of research dollars on taking things in new directions, rather than trying to compete on a playing field that already has a benchmark brand calling the shots. I won't be 'Binging' - I'll keep 'Googling' thank you very much."
Ian H

"Is the idea that people start saying 'Bing it'?! I like that the related searches automatically come up on the right hand side, saves you sifting through the pages in google normally. I'm used to my iGoogle page though not sure I would switch to this just now... weird choice of background image for a search engine too."
Lisa

So is Bing.com a grand yet unnecessary reinvention of the wheel? A pointless challenge to compete with a household name that had the search market sewn up years ago? Or do you think Microsoft have cracked it by giving us more choice?

To help you make up your mind you can try Black Dog which compares the Google and Bing search results on a topic, side by side.

Tomorrow we'll be asking the experts what they think from an industry insider point of view, but in the meantime, tell us what you think in the comments.

Since coming to the UK, Google Street View has been causing a stir.

Controversy has followed the unique mapping tool, which gives panoramic photographic views of streets in cities across the country.

Some have leapt to defend an arguably useful tool that captures some weird and wonderful images to entertain us all.

Others question Google's interpretation of the privacy laws, following on from reports that some people have requested that their image is removed from the site.

Have you spotted yourself on Google Street View? Perhaps you think Google have overstepped the mark? Or have you had fun using Street View and intend to keep on doing so?

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Today's web trawling hauls up another social networking site that demands what we say fits into a virtual nutshell.

Launched last year, Blippr.com lets you review books, movies, games, applications and music using no more than 160 characters. Or you can post a video, so technically no characters at all there. You can integrate it with other social media including Last.fm, Twitter, FriendFeed and your online email account.

SMS might be the Grandaddy of concise communication, but we've seen Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook updates and now Blippr, all hitch a lift on the short 'n' sweet bandwagon with great success.

Curious as ever, we signed up, sent a few blips and looked at some reviews. And you know, it's ok. But there's something niggling us...

We love a terse turn of phrase as much as the next Twitter-addict, but can 160 characters tell you anything of use? Shoehorning thoughtful opinion into a cramped space is difficult, and it's uninspiring when reviews read like a series of empty shout-outs.

If you're looking for an effective next-purchase endorsement, Blippr isn't the place for you. And unless its popularity goes stratospheric, reviews will rarely leave the safe confines of mainstream entertainment. Which means anyone looking for something a bit different will be forced to go elsewhere.

Having said that, you can join a multitude of conversations, so perhaps the appeal of Blippr lies in connecting with other movie/book/gaming/music/app fans. We're also sure that once your mates are signed up too, it's another way to stay in touch, talk about common interests and practice a little self-editing.

The bottom line is that 300 page novels, two hour films, or games that take months to complete, require more than a cursory 160 characters to do them justice. (Amazon reviews, you're not finished yet.) Perhaps text message-length analysis would be better suited to sounding off about sandwich fillings. Now that's what we call a proper soundbite ;-)

Are you using Blippr? What do you think? Do you think we'll all be hooked before the year is out? Give it a try and get commenting.

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Language is a wonderfully pliable thing and the use of text speak (or txt spk to the diehard texters among you) is testimony to that.

Last year we pondered the ways we have adapted language to suit mobile. We maintained that rather than being damaging to learning, changing language to suit the way we use technology actually requires a high level of literacy.

This seems like perfect sense, so we were chuffed to read about a new study which sets about confirming our conclusions.

Researchers from Coventry University studied 88 children aged between 10 and 12 to understand the impact of text messaging on their language skills. They found that the use of so-called "textisms" could be having a positive impact on reading development.

Now with Twitter and social networks growing in popularity, shortening language to suit digital formats is becoming a way of life for many of us. It's a language revolution that is led from the front by teens. Having said that, we know some interesting types who insist on labouring with full sentences, even throwing the odd semicolon into their messages.

So many of you responded with thought and gusto last time, so what do you think now? Are you convinced by the study, or do you still think textisms are a heap of old nonsense?

Get busy in the comments and for an added challenge, write it in a textism if u like ;)

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In the run up to Valentines Day this Saturday, we were astonished to see a report from The Telegraph citing a survey that suggests technology is killing off romance.

Conducted by the National Trust, the results maintain that a shockingly low one in five of us have ever written a love poem or letter, preferring to send a quick text instead.

That may be true of traditional pen and paper, but we think technology is in fact allowing romance to flourish, and we're not the only ones. There's many ways to send sweet nothings, without using some parchment and the postman.

We can use short and sweet texts and Tweets; long emails bursting with poetic sentiment; private blog posts dedicated to the object of our affection... the list goes on. And of course, we can all pick up the phone and tell someone we think they're wonderful in an instant.

Now if that isn't giving romance a helping hand, we don't know what is. So which method will you be employing to send a heartfelt message this Valentine's Day?

Technology connects us all each and every day, enabling us to access information, voice our opinions or just share a picture of our favourite pop star falling over on stage.

Thanks to this connectivity, more of us are using technology to capture moments in history and if the mood takes us, we can share that moment with friends, family and even the whole world.

As Ria's post highlighted last Wednesday, the snow prompted people across the country to capture an individual moment and share the information online to create the bigger picture.

Twitterer Janis Krums was aboard a ferry when a plane crash-landed in New York's Hudson River last month. He sent the first pictures of this on his mobile and uploaded them through TwitPic, perfectly illustrating ordinary people in extraordinary situations using technology to share experiences with the world.

Nowadays baby pictures are snapped minutes after birth and sent via MMS or uploaded to Facebook faster than ever, making the new arrivals instant stars with friends and family.

So thanks to technology, eye witness reporting is now so quick, it's beating the newsdesk. Historically we've gone through official channels to hear or read the eye witness accounts, as aggregated by reporters and editors.

Now the Twitters and bloggers of this world are sometimes leading the press pack, which makes for an interesting reversal. Does this mean we're all able to be 'reporters' in a sense now? And how does this effect the importance of official news channels versus eye witness accounts?

We believe the two are equally important in creating the broader picture - have your say in the comments below.

Yesterday Facebook celebrated its fifth birthday. They sure do grow up fast those social networking sites.

A brief glance at the numbers tells us Facebook has more than 150 million active users, the average person has 120 friends, more than 850 million photos are uploaded every month and over 140 new applications are added every day. It's come a long way in a short time.

At The Feed we believe birthdays are a good time to reflect on how things are going, and Facebook should be no different. We canvassed the opinion of friends, colleagues and a few unsuspecting commuters, to ask this: Five years on, what do you love - or loathe - about Facebook?

Here are the occasionally controversial, in-yer-face honest, sometimes funny, but always illuminating results of our voxpop.

"I hate seeing how much fun ex-girlfriends are having."
Anonymous

"Well, I like it cos I'm a nosey so and so..."
Marcus

"It's good because it has allowed me to re-establish old contacts. On the flipside it's another way for me to inadvertently upset people. Regular Facebook users expect responses and I just don't pay that much attention."
Jack

"I thought it was great initially, I was catching up with people I'd been out of contact with for ages. But then the people I had successfully managed to avoid for years started getting in touch. Bah humbug!"
Liza

"It was better before my Dad was on it."
Anonymous

"Good because it reminds me to get in contact with people I don't see very often and gives me the odd insight into what they are up to. And they're all in one place."
Al

"I don't use it because ex-girlfriends will track me down (why do you think I live on the other side of the world...)"
JB

"Strange that there's now so much shared information between extended groups. Interesting also that a new generation are emerging who have never known any different."
Lucie

"I think it's the best example to date of an effective social media platform. The privacy controversy is all quite frightening for the future."
John

"There's a reason I don't keep in touch with you anymore, and now Facebook is making it socially awkward to ignore you."
Mike T

"Love being able to see everyone's photos from around the world and seeing what people are up to on their status."
Claire

"I don't trust them but I'm a geek who has night terrors about internet privacy. From a technical point of view, Facebook rock. They've built an extremely capable and massive website."
Nilesh

"Good for finding people you lost touch with. Bad because I don't want to aggregate communications with friends, but people insist on contacting me there."
Andy

"I cannot bear people writing on walls what should be private messages. We do not need to know! Although to be fair that is a function of my grumpiness, not Facebook itself." Benjamin

So there you have it. They've had their say, now it's your turn. Get commenting.

Image courtesy of Andrew Eick.