Facebook borrows from Snapchat for a new live streaming feature

Mark Zuckerberg might have 1.49 billion users to his name and a new baby on the way, but he's not going to stop experimenting with what Facebook can d and the newest innovation is live event streaming.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, users in the US can visit the Lollapalooza event page to see photos, videos, posts and updates from the festival, both from friends who are there and bands and artists.

"This Lollapalooza experience is just one of the many ways Facebook is trying to help people get the feel of an event when they're not there," Facebook told the WSJ in a statement.

Everything in its right place

The new feature builds on the Place Tips screen Facebook introduced in January - that's the page that shows you relevant photos and reviews from friends whenever you check into a place. The 'live' aspect is new, though.

Of course this is a lot like the Our Story feature that Snapchat has, where you can tap into live events and distant locations to see what's happening. Facebook says it's offering differs by including content from your actual friends.

Whatever your opinion of Facebook, you can't accuse it of resting on its laurels - the company is busy getting into artificial intelligence, news publishing, internet drones and of course virtual reality just in case the old social networking strategy doesn't work out.