How Facebook Could Kill Twitter Overnight

Re:How Facebook Could Kill Twitter Overnight by iamdave on Saturday January 03, 2009 @12:26AM (#418155)

Right now a call to Facebook’s Users.getInfo API call will return the user’s [...]profile...if Facebook added status to this method, Twitter would be destroyed.

No it wouldn't.

I'll say this as simply as I can for anyone who ever plans on saying how Facebook will kill/destroy/et al Twitter: Don't. Facebook and Twitter cater to complete different tastes of two almost entirely different audiences.

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Re:How Facebook Could Kill Twitter Overnight by biznickman on Saturday January 03, 2009 @12:36AM (#418163)

I have to disagree with you completely (then again I wrote the article :) ) ... Twitter is just a feature for the most part ... you could instantly port Twitter to Facebook in a day or two with a little bit of programming

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Re:How Facebook Could Kill Twitter Overnight by calambrac on Saturday January 03, 2009 @01:08AM (#418189)

It's "just a feature" (I don't agree with this, btw - it's a service) with about a billion separate implementations (brightkite, facebook status, jaiku, friendfeed, tumblr, etc, etc), and yet it still exists as the market leader in the space even though pretty much all of these sites do it "better" in some way.

Did you write this article simply as linkbait, or do you really believe it?

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Re:How Facebook Could Kill Twitter Overnight by iamdave on Saturday January 03, 2009 @12:45AM (#418168)

Simply showing up and saying you can migrate data from one into the foundations of another doesn't at all sustain any sort of argument that a distributed Facebook Status model will "kill" Twitter. The modus operandi is drastically different between the two sites. Twitter isn't a "feature", it's a "service", a highly extensible and mobile service. The fact that it is focused on such a simple protocol as telling people what you are doing, imo will ensure its longevity.

Given that people look at Facebook statuses as a mere extension of a user's profile, versus a Twitter timeline actually serving as your profile, simply distributing your Facebook status on a web page isn't going to phase Twitter one bit.

And I still stand by what I said earier: Facebook and Twitter users aren't the same. Mark might update his status on Facebook "Mark is at the ball game" but on Twitter, he'll probably say "Local sports team is up by 4! Go team!". The inherent purpose and utilitarian value of the two sites are completely different for one to arbitrarily overthrow the other, just because the one (Facebook) mimics the distribution of the other (Twitter)

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Re:How Facebook Could Kill Twitter Overnight by natrius on Saturday January 03, 2009 @01:38AM (#418212)

Statuses on Twitter and Facebook are just text fields, although Facebook's starts with your name. The differences between how they are predominantly used are results of socialization, and many people use Facebook statuses like you've described Twitter's and vice versa.

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Re:How Facebook Could Kill Twitter Overnight by dcurtis on Saturday January 03, 2009 @12:44AM (#418167)

My Twitter network is completely different from my Facebook network.

That is why Facebook can't easily kill Twitter.

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Re:How Facebook Could Kill Twitter Overnight by biznickman on Saturday January 03, 2009 @12:49AM (#418172)

Add Facebook Connect and a way for people to import all their twitter updates in 1 minute and you've come up with an easy way to kill Twitter

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Re:How Facebook Could Kill Twitter Overnight by arockwell on Saturday January 03, 2009 @01:07AM (#418188)

Twitter is a really easy service to underestimate. If Facebook could wipe out a competitor that easily don't you think they would have done this already?

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Re:How Facebook Could Kill Twitter Overnight by iamdave on Saturday January 03, 2009 @12:55AM (#418181)

Okay, I will prove my point using what you've just said: if people are importing their Twitter feeds into Facebook, instead of letting Facebook status serve as their alert beacon for friends, what do you think that says about the user value of Facebook status updates?

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Re:How Facebook Could Kill Twitter Overnight by justindz on Saturday January 03, 2009 @08:16AM (#418352)

For some people at least, Twitter beats Facebook simply by only doing statuses and not exposing you to all the other crap.

With Twitter, I don't have to waste my time ignoring the latest Knighthood Invitation or the Group Created to Get Enough People in the Group to Advance Cause X w/ No Substantive Effort Invitation.

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Re:How Facebook Could Kill Twitter Overnight by jhancock on Saturday January 03, 2009 @09:54AM (#418387)

It would take more than a day or two. There are good points that can be made as to how FB could take on Twitter. FB has enough cash to do the job well if it wanted to. FB could also decide to become open in certain aspects and stay closed with other features. Anything could happen. I only want to see Twitter stick around to see more competition. Otherwise I could care less.

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Re:How Facebook Could Kill Twitter Overnight by colgur on Sunday January 04, 2009 @12:00PM (#419307)

Facebook and Twitter cater to complete different tastes of two almost entirely different audiences

This is the important point. Facebook will never be as succinct as Twitter. Facebook will never fit in the palm of your hand the way Twitter does. I use Twitter-Facebook integration. No one comments on my tweets in Facebook.

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