<p>Hot Potato informed fans of the takeover; just two days after Facebook threw the switch on a new feature that lets US members of the social networking service share their whereabouts with friends while on the move.<br /><br />"We're excited to confirm that we recently acquired Hot Potato, a service that helps people socialise around live events and share what they're doing with friends," Facebook said in an email response to an AFP inquiry.<br /><br />"We've admired for some time how Hot Potato is tackling this space and look forward to working with them to bring Hot Potato innovations to Facebook."<br /><br />Hot Potato about eight months ago launched a social networking service that lets users "check-in" to let friends know what they are thinking, watching, playing, attending, listening to, or otherwise doing.<br /><br />Hot Potato's approach distinguished it from the growing field of location-based social networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla that let people check into places such as a specific restaurant, park, or theatre.<br /><br />Whereas Foursquare might let people know a friend checked-in to a local pub, Hot Potato prompts users to complete thoughts including "I'm listening to" and "I'm thinking."<br /><br />The Hot Potato approach is reminiscent of a private-circle version of Twitter, the hot microblogging service that lets people share thoughts and moments at any time in the form of terse text messages.</p>
<p>Hot Potato informed fans of the takeover; just two days after Facebook threw the switch on a new feature that lets US members of the social networking service share their whereabouts with friends while on the move.<br /><br />"We're excited to confirm that we recently acquired Hot Potato, a service that helps people socialise around live events and share what they're doing with friends," Facebook said in an email response to an AFP inquiry.<br /><br />"We've admired for some time how Hot Potato is tackling this space and look forward to working with them to bring Hot Potato innovations to Facebook."<br /><br />Hot Potato about eight months ago launched a social networking service that lets users "check-in" to let friends know what they are thinking, watching, playing, attending, listening to, or otherwise doing.<br /><br />Hot Potato's approach distinguished it from the growing field of location-based social networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla that let people check into places such as a specific restaurant, park, or theatre.<br /><br />Whereas Foursquare might let people know a friend checked-in to a local pub, Hot Potato prompts users to complete thoughts including "I'm listening to" and "I'm thinking."<br /><br />The Hot Potato approach is reminiscent of a private-circle version of Twitter, the hot microblogging service that lets people share thoughts and moments at any time in the form of terse text messages.</p>