- Facebook lied, which would benefit them if the lie wasn't exposed since it would give people more incentive to develop Facebook applications. Except it would be silly for Facebook to start random applications like "Where I've Been" and hope that one catches on so that they can lie. So, as the comment below says, this possibility is out.
- Someone else lied hoping it would catch on and make Facebook look bad.
- Someone for no reason started the rumor that Craig was bought when in reality he wasn't, and insideFB picked up the story.
- insideFB lied about it for the sole purpose of gaining traffic to its site.
I hope Craig settles the issue soon.
"There have been some rumors in the market that we have sold our business. These rumors are not true. Our future development plans, combined with our robust community of users, current growth rates, and the attractiveness of the travel vertical, have led to a number of strategic discussions with potential partners/acquirers, but we have not agreed to any deals and we are committed to building Where I've Been into a sustainable and profitable standalone business."
Inside Facebook live-blogged the AppDevCon (http://www.insidefacebook.com/2007/08/15/live-from-appdevcon...) and @ 3:23 PM, they quote Naval Ravikant from Hitforge as saying "The value of a Facebook user is going up - at first users were being sold for $0.10, now it's $0.60-$0.70. TripAdvisor just bought Where I've Been for $1.50/user."
There's no indication that anyone who was there was shocked or surprised at this statement. Instead, it seemed like it was presented rather matter-of-factly, like it was common knowledge.
