AOL Inc. said it has acquired Thing Labs, Inc., whose Brizzly family of web-based social software makes it easy and fun for users to create, share, explore and enjoy content. The Brizzly team will play a key role in helping AOL provide consumers with the best possible venues to discover and share content with each other. Over time, AOL expects to integrate aspects of the Brizzly service into its popular Lifestream product, its social aggregator and publisher, and AIM, AOL's flagship messaging platform. The Brizzly team will join AOL's Consumer Applications Group, where Thing Labs Founder and Chief Executive Officer Jason Shellen and Christopher Wetherell, Vice President of Product and Engineering, will lead the AIM product suite, including Lifestream.
"AOL is a different company than it was even a year ago. We have to fundamentally change the way we think about the consumer experience and the team at Thing Labs has a vision and a track record of success that we think will help truly transform the messaging space," said Brad Garlinghouse, President of AOL's Consumer Applications Group. "The team represents a great combination of vision, product knowledge and experience building innovative social products and we believe their contribution will further complement the exciting work that the Lifestream and AIM teams at AOL are doing."
Founded in June 2008 and based in San Francisco, CA, Thing Labs creates web-based software that encourages and inspires users to share great content. Its applications include Brizzly, which allows users to view and post updates to Twitter and Facebook; Brizzly Picnic, a group chat site; Brizzly Guide, a site dedicated to explaining social media trending topics in real time, and Brizzly for iPhone. Prior to founding Thing Labs, Shellen and Wetherell were instrumental in creating Google Reader, which allows users to aggregate their most important content.
"AOL is a different company than it was even a year ago. We have to fundamentally change the way we think about the consumer experience and the team at Thing Labs has a vision and a track record of success that we think will help truly transform the messaging space," said Brad Garlinghouse, President of AOL's Consumer Applications Group. "The team represents a great combination of vision, product knowledge and experience building innovative social products and we believe their contribution will further complement the exciting work that the Lifestream and AIM teams at AOL are doing."
Founded in June 2008 and based in San Francisco, CA, Thing Labs creates web-based software that encourages and inspires users to share great content. Its applications include Brizzly, which allows users to view and post updates to Twitter and Facebook; Brizzly Picnic, a group chat site; Brizzly Guide, a site dedicated to explaining social media trending topics in real time, and Brizzly for iPhone. Prior to founding Thing Labs, Shellen and Wetherell were instrumental in creating Google Reader, which allows users to aggregate their most important content.
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