The big news this week in the web is that Facebook bought Friendfeed. Do I hear a chorus of who, what, why?

Well, Facebook is probably the biggest social network on the web with 400 million users, and Friendfeed is Twitter on steroids, no limitations on the number of letters you can use and has grown fast with its ability to interact with other networks. So why is this big? It means Facebook has a way of offering a Twitter service and achieving real time search capabilities.
This is valuable for Facebook's business users as it allows them to monitor in real time the conversations taking place about their products and services; a great advantage of using social media in business. It allows you to talk to your customers and for them to tell you what they think, what they need and when they need it.
The thing with the real time web is… well its real time. You put in a search and sit there watching stuff come in; not finding it later on. This means if someone is saying something good about you, you can thank them, and if they are saying something not so good, you can deal with it before it possibly becomes a firestorm of bad publicity. If you think that's an exaggeration, have a look at this story. www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2009/07/08/united-breaks-guitars.html