Friendfeed shutting down

Internet

FriendFeed was a late 2000s social network that let you stream content from multiple sites into a profile. It was a novel idea in the mid to late 2000s, and set the stage for Facebook walls when the company was bought.

Unsurprisingly, the site has since whithered due to a lack of attention, and is being shut down. Preserved here is their blog notice:

Dear FriendFeed community,

We wanted to let you know that FriendFeed will be shutting down soon. We've been maintaining the service since we joined Facebook five years ago, but the number of people using FriendFeed has been steadily declining and the community is now just a fraction of what it once was. Given this, we've decided that it's time to start winding things down.

Beginning today, we will no longer accept new signups. You will be able to view your posts, messages, and photos until April 9th. On April 9th, we'll be shutting down FriendFeed and it will no longer be available.

We want to thank you all for being such a terrific and enthusiastic community. We're proud of what we built so many years ago, and we recognize that it would have never been possible without your support.

- The FriendFeed team

I used to be cynical about the routine shutting down of social networks that we all contribute to, but I've since realised it's just how the web works. Don't become too attached to (or reliant upon) a website or service, it won't be around forever.

Incidently, this will be the 9th social network that I've scraped and imported into my museum site. One day I'll make this public, if only for posterity.

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Ruben Schade is a technical writer and infrastructure architect in Sydney, Australia who refers to himself in the third person. Hi!

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