Ping's Disappearing Facebook Mystery

[Maura]

CNET's Crave blog asks the question today, where did Ping's Facebook support disappear to? It would seem that the Facebook feature has mysteriously disappeared from iTunes' new Ping social networking feature, which Apple launched yesterday. According to Crave, when Ping was demoed to the press at yesterday's Apple media event, the screenshots clearly showed a Facebook feature, which did not appear to be there when people started using Ping today. As Crave says, having the facility to connect with friends via Facebook would greatly enhance the Ping experience, as the user would then be able to import Facebook friends as well as export Ping activity. Crave also notes Ping's lack of a Twitter connect facility.

Crave and many other websites and blogs have scratched their collective heads to come up with an explanation as to just exactly what did happen with Facebook and Ping. Apple CEO Steve Jobs apparently told All Things Digital that Apple had been negotiating with Facebook about Ping, but the two companies failed to come to an agreement regarding any sort of partnership, and they quote him as saying that Facebook demanded "onerous terms that we could not agree to."

Curiouser and curiouser!

Source: CNET Crave