Comments on: It's Very Sorta Twitter (Facebook, That Is)

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:28:00 +0000

Nice job with your “Coke II” Facebook

By: xSiteable

xSiteable — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:07:16 +0000

I do agree with Lance and others here... FB is more user friendly in my mind - as I know immediately (email, notifications within FB, home page feed) when friends/contacts communicate or post photos, videos, links and other interesting info.

I'm still learning about Twitter - but the stream of information is seemingly endless and there seems to be no notification of an @reply - I have to consciously check this?

Each has a purpose and I'm even considering severing the connection I recently installed between Twitter / Facebook.

By: Lance Walker

Lance Walker — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:46:38 +0000

Only been on twitter a few weeks and I have to say I view them as two different things and would like them to stay that way – I wish FB wouldn’t try to be like twitter. I mildly don’t like the redesign visually (larger type, rounded corner photos) but I also feel something of the depth of experience has been lost. I’m not doing too well with the words, but Chris William summed it up very nicely here http://tinyurl.com/d6kq63. Had a lot of “aha that’s what’s wrong” moments while reading this.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:08:37 +0000

Why Twitter feeds are better than Facebook feeds:
- Bias towards content
- Follow interesting strangers
celebrities, thought leaders
- Unfollowing accepted --> easy to keep feed relevant.

Why Facebook feeds are better than Twitter feeds:
- Keep tabs on wider group of friends (breaks down when # friends too high)
- Richer functionality: threading, embedded videos, link information.

Facebook now allows you to filter your feed by any grouping of friends you define, fixing what's been one of my biggest frustrations and a lot of what drove me to Twitter recently. So much less junk.

Pages (where you can fan someone) allow you to get updates in your feed from people who aren't your friends. So now you can follow interesting strangers on facebook too.

Facebook's status update window now reads "what's on your mind?" - a subtle way to shift status towards content IMO (twitter oddly, still says "what are you doing?").

Net/net: my "why twitter is better" argument just got a lot weaker.

By: Abdullah Anwar

Abdullah Anwar — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:12:34 +0000

While it sounds like a good move from Facebook's point of view, it isn't the same for its users. I don't remember using the site for anything but to stay in touch with friends and family. They are making it into something that the site isn't. For instance, from being a college only site, it became a site for anyone, then now opening up the profile, they are copying twitter's "openness." If this keeps continuing, I am sure users will start dropping. They are ignoring their average users.

Take a look at the comments, you'll know what i mean:

http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=60186587130

By: Ole Eichhorn

Ole Eichhorn — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:46:50 +0000

Unlike many of you [apparently] I was/am a Facebook user but not a Twitter user. And I don’t like the changes at all. If I want to Tweet or be Tweeted, I’ll use Twitter. Facebook used to show me more information about my friends, static information rather than dynamic. Now it is down to just showing me what my friends are doing *now*, and that isn’t as interesting to me. Net net I think this was a mistake, Twitter already exists and Facebook shouldn’t try to be Twitter, they should keep being Facebook.

By: flo

flo — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:34:18 +0000

Everybody is complaining about the new fb hp being not twitter, but that’s exactly why it’s better.
Personally I never got the appeal of “following” total strangers. I have an account there (mostly dormant) but still now and then I get messages like “XY is following you on twitter” uh, talk about creepy, there are no updates to speak of to this account, it doesn’t use my real name, nor anything else interesting, so they’re either weird advertisement twitter people or creepy. On facebook I’m at least 95 % or more only connected to people I know.
So this makes the whole “sharing experience” much better. Also, for ppl who don’t want “realtime” it’s not like you can’t use it for normal status updates. Also the sharing functionality, is really awesome, give it any webpage, it will atumatically select the photo it thinks you want to go along with it, or you can choose another one with the arrows underneath the photo. awesome. So, personally, I’m much more likely to use fb more because of this, not switch to twitter or use it less. Also fb’s privacy options outrank twitter’s by far I think.

By: DScibetta

DScibetta — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:50:16 +0000

Bottom line – You said it, facebook is NOT twitter and I (as well as my friends) feel that the new version is lacking!! I am personally, not a fan of the layout, the threaded conversations, or the minimal setting options. Finally, I am definitely NOT a fan of FB changing their layout and policies every 2 months.

By: Jose Luiz

Jose Luiz — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:03:39 +0000

Since I’m not a regular Facebook user, that won’t make any difference to me. Actually, I had activated a Twitter app on Facebook a time ago and it was exactly the same. Copy #FAIL ahah!

By: Endre Jofoldi

Endre Jofoldi — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:42:47 +0000

I am quite lost so far, but I am trying to convince myself if its better.
More than that, but ironaically it convinced me to start to use Twitter.