Legal Research

Will Facebook Kill Twitter?

Facebook is currently testing a real-time search tool with “a small group — just a fraction of a percent of the people on Facebook”. Will it spell the end for Twitter? I’m thinking not. (Just like Twitter isn’t a Google-killer.) But I’m not a Facebook fan, so I’m biased. But I feel that Twitter’s simplicity gives them somewhat of an advantage here.

FWIW what struck me about their post was Facebook’s obvious (and clumsy) attempt to grab some of Twitter’s halo effect for their Iran coverage:

“I’m interested in the latest updates on the aftermath of the Iranian election. By entering the term ‘Iran’ in the ‘Search’ field in the upper-right corner of any page on Facebook, I will see up-to-the-minute results from my friends and the Facebook Pages of which I’m a fan, not to mention people who have chosen to make their profile and content available to everyone. I’m able to discover what blogs and news sources my friends are following, what my friends are saying about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and how people in general are reacting to the election results.”

Full post as published by Jenkins Webblits on June 17, 2009 (boomark / email).