Facebook has acquired friend.ly, a start-up that created a Facebook app designed to help users pose questions to online friends.
The friend.ly team announced the purchase in a blog post Monday, but did not give financial terms of the deal. The post noted that although now owned by Facebook , friend.ly will continue to operate as a separate service.
"We're excited about this because we feel the spirit of friend.ly aligns well with Facebook 's vision, and we're thrilled to be joining such an innovative company," the company noted in its blog post. "The friend.ly team will be focusing on new projects at Facebook...
Friend.ly, a two-year-old Mountain View, Calif.-based company with a staff of 10, is geared toward helping people meet other people online and helping them get to know their friends better. The service lets users ask and answer questions like, "If you were a bird, where would you fly first?" and "Are long-distance relationships possible?"
Facebook did not respond to questions about the deal or whether the entire friend.ly staff would be kept on.
"We've admired the team's efforts for some time now, and we're looking forward to having [the team] make a big impact on the way millions of people connect and engage with each other on Facebook," said a Facebook spokeswoman in an email to Computerworld.
Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed . Her e-mail address is sgaudin@computerworld.com .
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