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When Houseparty was at its most vulnerable, Facebook came knocking. Fidji Simo, head of Facebook’s video efforts, contacted Mr. Rubin, according to people familiar with the contact. She wanted to talk about live video, the people say. It was the first sign Facebook was scrutinizing Houseparty. Mr. Zuckerberg is sensitive to anything that might disrupt Facebook, even the teeniest startup, say current and former executives and employees.

Houseparty, which has one-million-plus daily users, compared with Facebook’s 1.32 billion, is determined to beat Bonfire, he says.

In other words, if people have a question, they will decide which webpage to go to based on (1) how likely it is that the page will provide an answer to their question, and (2) how long it’s going to take to get the answer if they go to that page.

In layman terms, information foraging explains why people don’t scroll mindlessly or click on every single link on the page: because they attempt to maximize the rate of gain and get as much relevant information in as little time as possible.