Unannounced Facebook feature uncovered

[budgi3]

Heard that Facebook are integrating Spotify. Maybe that will be 'Vibes'?

Some more speculation here: http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/facebook-said-to-l...

[alexsherrick]

Spotify is for sure being integrated into facebook. Facebook employees have had access for a while.

[dev1n]

Yeah, wasn't there an HN article on Spotify coming to the US recently?

[frankdenbow]

This seems to be the most likely conclusion.

[agscala]

Now that Facebook actually has something to worry about slightly, it's kind of cool watching Facebook and Google both scramble to win over the users with these awesome A+ features one after another.

[jonnathanson]

I am actually hoping that Google resists the temptation to fight a war of feature creep with Facebook. In fact, the sum total of my enjoyment of G+ has come from the cleanliness and austerity of its UX (well, maybe combined with the refreshing Circles concept -- but that's arguably a "cleanliness" measure of a different sort).

Personally speaking, I'm totally comfortable with a social network as simply a credentialing and sharing layer running through my other experiences and touchpoints on the web. I don't need everything in one place. I am willing to admit that I might be an odd man out on this sentiment, however.

[kerryfalk]

It's interesting to watch but I wonder if it's a healthy practice. I don't see many high-performers quickly reacting to competitor's advances.

It signals a greater focus on what others are doing than what the customers need. HP added bling to their laptops, Apple did nothing.

Reading about the "Lockdowns" at Facebook in response to perceived emergencies in the market makes me feel like there's some knee-jerk reactions happening. Or at least this is how it looks from a distance, I am nowhere close to any of the players in the thick of it.

In the end someone who serves a need not currently being filled will win and they'll keep winning if they keep up with how the needs of the market are changing. That's what Facebook did to MySpace and that's what ACME CO will do to Facebook when they stop filling the needs of the market.

Call me crazy but this seems like a very good time to get into the fight.

[smackfu]

Odd to think it will be called Facebook Vibes when the chat isn't called Facebook Peep. Probably just a codename, and it will end up being called Facebook Music.

[masnick]

I would speculate that this could be something like http://turntable.fm built into Facebook.

If so, what a great way to keep users actively using Facebook: I can imagine someone spending a lot of time doing other things on the site while listening to music with their friends.

[hello_moto]

Facebook wants to be the Portal for you :).

[janesvilleseo]

This is exactly what I was thinking as well. Vibe with your friends

[jsavimbi]

speculation => Well, if tt.fm is raising money at a sudden $40M valuation, maybe they're positioning themselves for a quick exit via Facebook.

[sausagefeet]

In all honesty the only feature one social network has over another is where my friends are. I never check the stuff otherwise.

[lojack]

This all seems so familiar...

In a completely unrelated note, apparently Myspace sold last week for around $35 million.

[eiji]

I still woundn't mind some investigation on how the call/video feature works. The post mentions some java. We are not talking about applets here are we?

[redrobot5050]

Yes they are talking about Java applets. However, the technology has improved (a large portion of windows users have a java quick launcher set to run on start up) and if it is anything like Facebook's original "Photo Uploader" (back before they integrated with phones and iPhoto and other apps, they had a Java app where you could browse and add photos. It would also scale/reduce quality of high megapixel photos that otherwise couldn't be uploaded to Facebook -- this was down client side through the app and was still relatively quick.) it won't be so bad.

TL;DR: Yes, it's a java applet. However, if its anything like how Facebook has done java applets in the browser, it will feel quick and lightweight on most systems.

[untog]

Personally, I'm more excited about the fact that it requires an app ID. I'm very interested in users being able to record video from within Facebook and upload it.

Anything to escape the awful Flash implementation of it...

[redrobot5050]

You can already record video with your webcam and upload it directly to Facebook, just like you can with YouTube.

[Qz]

I still don't understand why I would want to pay for music through facebook.

[Kudos]

People who type "facebook" into Google probably would.

[sebastianavina]

I listen a lot of music through Grooveshark.... I guess FB could implement something similar... I can see a future, where the average user lives permanently on FB listening music, chatting, stalking and who knows what...

[ajhit406]

Strange that this was posted on July 4th and is now just getting promoted / submitted.

[flardinois]

I think he got the date wrong. He couldn't have found it until the video chat feature was live.

[bhartzer]

You would think they would use another filename that wouldn't reveal Facebook Vibes.

[The_Igor]

Beautiful! Competition is good for the consumer.

[uvTwitch]

So, Facebook is going the way of MySpace then?

[shimsham]

this will surely be their spotify-based app.

[balakc]

FB giving Google a run for its money

[JacobIrwin]

So what, Jeff is proud of his discovery. So what, he made a few snarks.

I appreciate the info and he's ultimately correct. "[I] heard it here first."