Facebook patents the news2010-02-26 10:04 by DanielaTags: Facebook, Twitter, social networks
Social networking site Facebook has been awarded a wide ranging patent for displaying news feeds from social networks. The patent which was initially filed in August 2006 finally got approved by the US Patent Office earlier this week. It revolves around a news feed being generated from user interactions within the social network; basically a formalisation of what users have been seeing for years now. It is the news feed a feature that was initially derided by a number of users which, according to Jaime Schopflin speaking to Digitalbeat was a "pivotal moment in Facebook’s history". Back then Facebook was still used by students, primarily in the US. Of course once it allowed non academic email addresses to sign up, user figures shot through the roof. Other social notworking sites will surely be whipping their patent lawyers into a frenzy trying to find holes in what appears to be a relatively wide ranging patent. One potential causality could be current flavour of the month, Twitter. The patent was originally filed very close to the time Twitter first broke cover in 2006, and it's clear that once logged in, the user gets a similar news feed to that of Facebook. Read more -here-
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