• Read Write Web, Wednesday, April 16, 2008 11 AM

Facebook is introducing a new tool that lets users import content from non-Facebook sites to their news feeds and the news feeds of their friends. The service currently supports content from Flickr, Picasa, Yelp, and del.icio.us, and more content partners like Digg are rumored to be on the way.

Facebook calls the new feature "lifestreaming", but it's not a new concept: in fact, Read Write Web said the service "pales in comparison" to its competitors. "The limited amount of supported services only highlights what a great service this could be if done well," said RWW. What does "done well" mean? For starters, users should be able to take that feed and put it where they want. "Two of the most valuable sources for information about the activity on Facebook - the mini-feed and the news feed - still don't offer RSS feeds for users to subscribe to," RWW said, "and it's looking like this much desired feature may never arrive." As one Twitterer points out, this is ironic given that Facebook supports data portability.

At least FriendFeed, a lifestreaming competitor offering 35 services, gives users the ability to export their stream via RSS or through its FriendFeed Facebook app. Hmm, wouldn't it be useful if Facebook let FriendFeed users import their stream into Facebook's feed? Don't count on it.

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