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Facebook Acquires Beluga

51 points by hornokplease 16y ago

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
graceyang 16y ago
Congrats to the main team. I started using beluga this weekend for a ski trip and was impressed with it's speed and ease of use!
tuhin 16y ago
Correct me if I am wrong, but while the talent acquisition makes sense because the execution from the Beluga team has been brilliant, but why the technology? I mean are not they using Twilio's API for the most part of the service?
- ryanwaggoner 16y ago
  Zuck has stated several times that Facebook only acquires for talent. So if you love your product, don't sell it to Facebook :)
  - finiteloop 16y ago
    http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2277570 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2277570
    - nl 16y ago
      I suspect the author of this post may be a little better informed about Facebook's intentions than most other HN posters.
      - j2d2j2d2 16y ago
        Finiteloop = Bret Taylor, CTO of Facebook
        nl 16y ago
        hence a little better informed about Facebook's intentions :)
        j2d2j2d2 16y ago
        I was clarifying since you didn't say so explicitly. Best to be clear.
    - skeletonjelly 16y ago
      Where have you been for the last 98 days? Or has there been no Facebook articles on HN since ;)
- geoffc 16y ago
  Beluga doesn't use SMS for the transport layer they use TCP. Groupflier (me) and Groupme use SMS and Twilio. Congrat's to the Beluga team!
  - cmdrkeene 16y ago
    GroupMe 2.0 (released today) uses either SMS or Push/TCP in the iPhone and Android apps.
    - geoffc 16y ago
      Yes I saw that announcement. Our iPhone app also uses TCP, the goal is to to switch SMS traffic to TCP traffic over time.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
justin 16y ago
Beluga is an amazing app. I hope it's functionality gets left intact or someone clones it immediately :)
- iloveyouocean 16y ago
  Huddl.me seems to be very close to a clone.
- frofro 16y ago
  I use Beluga all the time. However, I have a feeling it'll be killed off soon.
- finiteloop 16y ago
  We bought Beluga because we love it, too. We bought it because we love the functionality and the team. So I wouldn't stress too much :)
zmitri 16y ago
Reminds me of http://frid.ge/ http://frid.ge/ which is also a nice, simple, and good looking product.
JakeSc 16y ago
Congratulations, Beluga team! Please keep us posted on how things go with Facebook.
oldstrangers 16y ago
Both Google and Facebook are on the hunt it seems. Google just buys Zynamics, Facebook buys Beluga.
gaborcselle 16y ago
Congrats Lucy, Ben, and Jon!
eob 16y ago
I know many reports claim that many iPhone apps "steal" your private information. Beluga is the first iPhone app I've ever used where I've actually seen it happen before my eyes. I signed up for Beluga while on a ski trip with a bunch of friends. I used it for the weekend -- it worked pretty well -- and then forgot about it. A few weeks later, I started getting notifications on my phone: "Firstname Lastname is now on Beluga". The only problem? I had no idea who Firstname Lastname was. But I had a suspicion. See, I had synced my iPhone contact list with my Google Account, so unfortunately my iPhone has just about anyone who has ever emailed me inside it's address book. I checked the address book and, sure enough, the person Beluga was notifying me about was in there. So here's the thing: iPhone notifications are push, not pull. Which means a Beluga server pushed this notification to me. Which means the Beluga server knew this person was in my address book. Which means the Beluga app uploaded my address book to their servers. I know that in this day and age, practices like this are becoming commonplace, but I think downloading someone's address book without asking permission is wrong, even if it is contractually allowed by Apple's TOS and the API.
- ashishg 16y ago
  However, they're not doing anything harmful with your information, and they're just addressing that information to you. Many iPhone apps do this with your address phone book as well - such as Viber. I'm not too sure what's going on in the backend system, but I doubt they're able to look through your whole contact list. In any case, turn off the Push notifications if you don't enjoy them. Where it gets harmful is when they use your information for something else - then I agree with you. If the information is meant to serve your needs, it should be fine.
  - torpor 16y ago
    >they're not doing anything harmful with your information, You don't know that. It could be harmful for me if I don't want my contacts connected together.
- BarkMore 16y ago
  Beluga uploads a SHA-1 hash of the email addresses. http://community.belugapods.com/beluga/topics/privacy_concern_with_friends_using_beluga http://community.belugapods.com/beluga/topics/privacy_concer...
ewoks 16y ago
I heard they paid $9000 for it.

51 points by hornokplease 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

Congrats to the main team. I started using beluga this weekend for a ski trip and was impressed with it's speed and ease of use!

tuhin 16y ago

Correct me if I am wrong, but while the talent acquisition makes sense because the execution from the Beluga team has been brilliant, but why the technology? I mean are not they using Twilio's API for the most part of the service?

ryanwaggoner 16y ago
Zuck has stated several times that Facebook only acquires for talent. So if you love your product, don't sell it to Facebook :)
- finiteloop 16y ago
  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2277570 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2277570
  - nl 16y ago
    I suspect the author of this post may be a little better informed about Facebook's intentions than most other HN posters.
    - j2d2j2d2 16y ago
      Finiteloop = Bret Taylor, CTO of Facebook
      - nl 16y ago
        hence a little better informed about Facebook's intentions :)
        j2d2j2d2 16y ago
        I was clarifying since you didn't say so explicitly. Best to be clear.
  - skeletonjelly 16y ago
    Where have you been for the last 98 days? Or has there been no Facebook articles on HN since ;)
geoffc 16y ago
Beluga doesn't use SMS for the transport layer they use TCP. Groupflier (me) and Groupme use SMS and Twilio. Congrat's to the Beluga team!
- cmdrkeene 16y ago
  GroupMe 2.0 (released today) uses either SMS or Push/TCP in the iPhone and Android apps.
  - geoffc 16y ago
    Yes I saw that announcement. Our iPhone app also uses TCP, the goal is to to switch SMS traffic to TCP traffic over time.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

justin 16y ago

Beluga is an amazing app. I hope it's functionality gets left intact or someone clones it immediately :)

iloveyouocean 16y ago
Huddl.me seems to be very close to a clone.
frofro 16y ago
I use Beluga all the time. However, I have a feeling it'll be killed off soon.
finiteloop 16y ago
We bought Beluga because we love it, too. We bought it because we love the functionality and the team. So I wouldn't stress too much :)

zmitri 16y ago

Reminds me of http://frid.ge/ http://frid.ge/ which is also a nice, simple, and good looking product.

JakeSc 16y ago

Congratulations, Beluga team! Please keep us posted on how things go with Facebook.

oldstrangers 16y ago

Both Google and Facebook are on the hunt it seems. Google just buys Zynamics, Facebook buys Beluga.

gaborcselle 16y ago

Congrats Lucy, Ben, and Jon!

eob 16y ago

I know many reports claim that many iPhone apps "steal" your private information. Beluga is the first iPhone app I've ever used where I've actually seen it happen before my eyes. I signed up for Beluga while on a ski trip with a bunch of friends. I used it for the weekend -- it worked pretty well -- and then forgot about it. A few weeks later, I started getting notifications on my phone: "Firstname Lastname is now on Beluga". The only problem? I had no idea who Firstname Lastname was. But I had a suspicion. See, I had synced my iPhone contact list with my Google Account, so unfortunately my iPhone has just about anyone who has ever emailed me inside it's address book. I checked the address book and, sure enough, the person Beluga was notifying me about was in there. So here's the thing: iPhone notifications are push, not pull. Which means a Beluga server pushed this notification to me. Which means the Beluga server knew this person was in my address book. Which means the Beluga app uploaded my address book to their servers. I know that in this day and age, practices like this are becoming commonplace, but I think downloading someone's address book without asking permission is wrong, even if it is contractually allowed by Apple's TOS and the API.

ashishg 16y ago
However, they're not doing anything harmful with your information, and they're just addressing that information to you. Many iPhone apps do this with your address phone book as well - such as Viber. I'm not too sure what's going on in the backend system, but I doubt they're able to look through your whole contact list. In any case, turn off the Push notifications if you don't enjoy them. Where it gets harmful is when they use your information for something else - then I agree with you. If the information is meant to serve your needs, it should be fine.
- torpor 16y ago
  >they're not doing anything harmful with your information, You don't know that. It could be harmful for me if I don't want my contacts connected together.
BarkMore 16y ago
Beluga uploads a SHA-1 hash of the email addresses. http://community.belugapods.com/beluga/topics/privacy_concern_with_friends_using_beluga http://community.belugapods.com/beluga/topics/privacy_concer...

ewoks 16y ago

I heard they paid $9000 for it.