Penguin: Facebook’s Future Twitter App?

Posted by Hassan Alsheikh in Articles

We know that Facebook has recently been changing its privacy features and adding new features to open up its stream in a process we like to call Twitterification. And while Facebook’s adopting more and more features from its microblogging rival, we’re finding out that the reverse may also be true. Could an official Facebook Twitter app be on the horizon? Well, a penguin is fueling speculation. Specifically, Penguin FB, a Twitter application that’s being tested on...

We know that Facebook has recently been changing its privacy features and adding new features to open up its stream in a process we like to call Twitterification. And while Facebook’s adopting more and more features from its microblogging rival, we’re finding out that the reverse may also be true. Could an official Facebook Twitter app be on the horizon?

Well, a penguin is fueling speculation. Specifically, Penguin FB, a Twitter application that’s being tested on Facebook’s development servers. A tweet by Blake Ross, Facebook engineer and one of the founders of Firefox, is riling up suspicions about an official Twitter app from Facebook.

The tweet, which we first learned about via Inside Facebook, is a test tweet from the unknown application. Adding to the intrigue is the fact that Blake has deleted his tweet.

Luckily for us, though, Twitter Search does not delete tweets. And thus, we can learn a little more from the original tweet. Well, actually only one thing: that Penguin Fb resides on development server mgummelt.devrs008.facebook.com, which really isn’t all that helpful to deciphering the new app. This could be anything from a personal app to Facebook’s next big thing – really, we can’t tell yet.

We’ll ping a few people over at Facebook and see if we can’t get more info on the penguin app. We want to stress that we’re unsure about the real story behind Penguin Fb – the buzz could be about nothing. However, if Facebook does indeed release an official Twitter app, it could quickly dominate Twitter chatter, which could have some interesting side effects and spark some heated debates.

---

Reviews: Facebook, Firefox, Twitter

Tags: facebook, penguin, twitter

Read more here:
Penguin: Facebook’s Future Twitter App?

Related posts:

1. Google v. Facebook? What We Learn from Twitter.
2. Bing and Ping: Share Search Results on Facebook and Twitter
3. Want to Delete Your Facebook Account? Be Prepared For a Guilt Trip
4. Facebook Connect Adds Foreign Language Support
5. Facebook Advertising: It’s All Local