Facebook secures patent for News Feed

According to [1] All Facebook, the social networking giant has finally secured a patent for “Dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network” (i.e. news feed) , first filed with the US Patent Office in 2006. The full approved application ac be viewed online at [2] patft.uspto.gov, and will undoubtedly have far-reaching consequences for sites such as Twitter and Google Buzz, and many others. Other sites using anything remotely resembling the techniques outlined in the patent document could see themselves embroiled in lengthy and costly legal wrangling if they wish to use the technology without agreement.

The patent credits Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, along with other top Facebook executives with the invention. To what ends this will affect the social networking community is unknown as yet, and can only be speculated at, at this time, as the details contained therein read as being general and ambivalent.

The resultant fallout ensuing from the publicizing of this document will no doubt play out over the coming weeks and months.