Competition is getting heated in the real time search space, with monster social network Facebook snapping up FriendFeed for an undisclosed sum on Monday.

FriendFeed is a small but innovative Californian startup that allows dynamic content and information sharing between users. It is probably best known for its real time search capabilities, which rival those of Twitter.

The company has some pedigree – its four founding members are all ex-Google employees that had a hand in the creation and development of GMail and Google Maps.

Facebook failed in its bid to buy Twitter last year and some pundits see this latest move as Facebook going after the consolation prize. FriendFeed may not have the user base that Twitter does, but there are analysts that rate is technology, and those that rate its talent pool even more.

“Although FriendFeed has not experienced the explosive growth that Twitter enjoyed, its technology is arguably an order of magnitude better,” said Gartner analyst Ray Valdes. “Facebook is acquiring FriendFeed for its talent pool (world-class developers who could learn PHP in a day if they wanted to), and more importantly for its sense of mission: to open up “walled garden” social sites and shift the world to the distributed social web, a web of interoperable sites that share data in real-time.”

In this sense Facebook now looks to be gunning for Twitter, Google and just about every other social and search-focused service out there.

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