Facebook Acquires Web OS Startup Parakey

By admin July 19th, 2007

Facebook announced its first acquisition today –Â a low-profile and unlaunchedÂ Web OS startup by Firefox founders’ Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt calledÂ ParakeyÂ – for an undisclosed sum (tens of millions?).

Parakey was founded in 2005 and, though unlaunched, was to be a platform of tools that could manipulate ‘just about anything‘Â on your hard drive, closely bridging the gap between yourÂ desktop and the web. The startup received early seed fianancing from Sequoia.

The obvious impact of this acquisition is the Facebook Platform. Ross and Hewitt are reportedly going to be immediately joining Facebook, and if it is anything like it sounds, we can start expecting some really cool stuff from Facebook soon.

According to TechCrunch’s rumour radar, Google was a bidder for Parakey but couldn’t compete with its pre-IPO stock (or at least, possiblities.) AnÂ officialÂ press release should be issued sometime soon.

Josh Miller

Facebook seems to be making lots of headlines these days. A newsletter released this morning on sitepoint.com goes very in-depth and makes as good point about the future of web 2.0 social projects. Namely, the open platform and what that means to developers.

A very interesting read… both this article and the link I’m about to paste. It leaves me wondering, why can’t people be this social with their neighbors?

http://www.sitepoint.com/newsletter/viewissue.php?id=3&issue=169
http://quetzal.over-blog.org Pierre

This open platfomr project is very interesting. Josh has a point in asking : why can’t people be more social with their neighbors ?

Well, in fact, Web 2.0 can be an enhancer of local social relations with neighbours. In Paris, web sites like http://www.peuplade.fr and http://www.onvasortir.com are helping hundreds of people from that metropolitan area to meet at cafÃ©s, concerts, picnics, etc.

I am sure the same exists in other big cities around the world. So let’s not oppose virtual social networks to real social relations. The former can be a tool for the latter…
http://www.blahblahtech.com/ Wayne Smallman

No disrespect to Sid, but the comments are more interesting than the story…
http://www.rev2.org/2007/07/24/commentary-social-networking-whats-next/ Commentary: Social Networking – What’s Next? – Rev2.org

[...] its peeps, they’ve clearly expanded outward, and still have a long way to go — if their acquisition of Parakey points [...]
http://sv2.mhlists.net/~wwwblah/index.php/2007/07/23/social-networks-for-the-real-world/ Social networks for the real world

[...] purely incidental as the comment was to the story, Josh Miller over on Rev2 asked a closing question in relation to a story about a recent Facebook acq…: “A very interesting read… It leaves me wondering, why can’t people be this social [...]
http://www.ilinkshare.com/tagged/parakey User links about “parakey” on iLinkShare

[...] saved by matthawes 18 days ago3 votesParakey: OS Meets the Web>> saved by aidaaya 25 days ago1 votesFacebook Acquires Web OS Startup Parakey>> saved by felipebmelo 26 days ago4 votesParakey, and Emerging WebOS Ideas>> saved by mdc 26 days [...]
http://www.postsaver.org/tags/parakey Websites tagged “parakey” on Postsaver

[...] – Facebook Acquires Web OS Startup Parakey saved by ryry6272009-07-21 – Parakey vs. iPhone vs…. saved by davidcarrington2009-07-16 – Will [...]
dailyfriends

Hi,
There is awesome difference between real and virtual social relation. Never forget that a virtual contact session is, at first glance, just you in front of a screen and a keyboard.

There is also http://www.dailyfriends.com (UK version http://en.dailyfriends.com ) can help people to socialize in big city.

Rev2.org