Daryl Baxter.

Facebook Camera, The End Of Instagram?

I first signed onto Instagram way back in August, and I thought it was a good idea, but i could do the same thing on Twitter without a filter.

When Facebook announced they had bought Instagram, a lot of friends suddenly signed up and jumped on the Instagram bandwagon. By the way, this just shows how much of an influence Facebook can incredibly be.

I’ve been using it a lot more since i actually know people this time that i’m following, and i’ve started to use it much more than Twitter now, which i’m only using as a kind of RSS Feed.

But yesterday as i’m walking through London town, i read that Facebook have brought an app of their own, much similar to Instagram.

At first it was confusing, why have two similar products, of which one is in the processes of being officially acquired?

But then i realised of two things, they’ve been trying to redo photos on Facebook the same way Timeline has been to profiles, and it’s the start of the transition.

Now, viewing photos on a PC has changed significantly in the past year. Instead of clicking on a photo and being able to easily go to the album, a black background surrounds the selected photo, and dependant on the privacy setting, it’s either going to be the only photo you see, or you’ll see an album.

Also uploading photos. The feature that has stood out for me has been facial recognition as soon as the photos are uploaded. To be fair, 80% of the time, it’s tagging a robot as a lad i know from years ago, but the idea is still promising.

This would be the work of Sofa and Push Pop Press, acquired a little over a year ago, and presumably started work on the Facebook Camera app.

Anyone you know uploading photos on a mobile device from Facebook knows that to even think of uploading an album you may have stored on your device is just asking for trouble.

Then the ‘transition’ i spoke of.

I believe that as soon as the Instagram deal closes, which is, all the investors and board members agree and go through all the paperwork, it’s not a simple ‘yes we’ll buy you’, these two apps will merge, bringing Facebook’s users over to Instagram, and when a user is clicking the ‘Photos’ tab to their left, they’ll also be given a link below to an ‘Instagram’ app, which will be able to import all your photos from your account, to your Facebook profile.

Maybe we’ll see this by the end of 2012, but i don’t believe we’ll be seeing 2 apps this time next year.

Buying Instagram, the Zuckerberg way.

On the Friday & Saturday, he and the CEO of Instagram, Kevin Systrom, negotiated the small details, and on the Sunday, he told the board of directors he was going to use $1 Billion to buy them, no questions asked.

It was the first the board heard of what, later that day, would become Facebook’s largest acquisition ever, according to several people familiar with the matter. Mr. Zuckerberg and his counterpart at Instagram, Kevin Systrom, had already been talking over the deal for three days, these people said.

Negotiating mostly on his own, Mr. Zuckerberg had fielded Mr. Systrom’s opening number, $2 billion, and whittled it down over several meetings at Mr. Zuckerberg’s $7 million five-bedroom home in Palo Alto. Later that Sunday, the two 20-somethings would agree on a sale valued at $1 billion.

Mr. Zuckerberg ditched all that. By the time Facebook’s board was brought in, the deal was all but done. The board, according to one person familiar with the matter, “Was told, not consulted.”

If you want something, just go get it.

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