Facebook has announced the acquisition of internet startup firm FriendFeed.

The service, which allows users to share media with their friends in real-time, is to be purchased by the social networking site for an undisclosed amount.

All 12 FriendFeed employees will become part of Facebook's team and its four founders will be given senior roles on the engineering and product teams as part of the deal.

Co-founder Paul Buchheit, who previously helped develop Gmail for Google, said that the company is "extremely excited" to be joining the Facebook team.

"We were impressed by the open, creative culture they've built and their desire to have us contribute to it," he stated.

Founder and chief executive officer of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg described the FriendFeed service as "simple and elegant", adding that the acquisition shows Facebook is "a place where the best engineers come to build things quickly that lots of people will use".

Many commentators believe the move signals Facebook's intent to challenge Google in the area of 'real time' search, an area in which it has already expressed an interest.

In June, it conducted a trial allowing a small number of users to find content as it is uploaded.