Responding to the growing popularity of Internet sites like Facebook and YouTube, a group of former Google executives has launched Friendfeed.com, a new Internet site designed to help users track the activities of their friends and colleagues on a host of popular social networking sites.  The company also secured $5 million in venture capital funding.

Friendfeed Inc.’s founders, all former Google vets who helped launch Google Maps and Gmail, include Bret Taylor, Jim Norris, Paul Buchheit and Sanjeev Singh. 

Benchmark Capital and co-founders Singh and Buchheit contributed to the investment round.

Friendfeed, based in Mountain View, Calif., enables users to automatically track the activities of their friends and family on over two dozen popular social networking sites like Flickr, Facebook and LinkedIn.

In other venture capital news:

• Nistica Inc., a provider of optical modules for high bandwidth applications, recently ree­led in $10 million in its second round of funding. Financial ba­ck­­ers include Batelle Ventures, Novitas Capital, Tech­nology Ven­ture Partners, Fini­sair Corp. and the New Jersey Eco­nomic De­velop­ment A­u­th­ority. Ash­ish Veng­sarkar is the chief executive officer of the Princeton, N.J.-based Nistica.
  
• Peanut Labs, a market research firm focused on the Internet social networking market, recently caputured $3.2 million in its first round of funding. The round was led by Leapfrog Ventures and BV Capital. Peanut Labs, based in San Francisco, conducts research and online surveys to help social networking Internet sites generate greater revenue. Murtaza Hussain, a former television host in Pakistan, is the CEO and co-founder of Peanut Labs.
  
• Software provider Bluenog Corp. recently secured $4 million in venture funding. Newspring Capital led the funding round. Bluenog, launched in 2006, focuses on the development of enterprise infrastructure software. Kuppusamy Suresh is the chief executive officer of Piscataway, N.J.-based company.
  
• RazorSight Corp., a provider of financial audit software for media and entertainment companies, recently reeled in $4 million in additional funding. Sierra Ventures led RazorSight’s initial $10 million funding round in 2005. The funding comes on the heels of an announcement from the company that it increased revenue by 605 percent over the last five years. Sundeep Sanghavi is the chairman and founder of the Fairfax, Va.-based RazorSight.