Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on April 24, 2007 by CyberNet.

No one can argue about Twitter’s recent explosion in popularity that started around March. However, you’ll find plenty of people arguing over whether or not it will last.  Many are saying that this is just a fad, that’ll be over as quick as it started, others are saying this is just the beginning.

I tend to think that this is just a fad, and its days are numbered, and one of the biggest reasons for that is Facebook’s recent changes to their “status” feature. Facebook has had the status feature for about a year now where users update what they’re doing Twitter style. I.E.: Ashley is writing an article. But, viewing the updates from your friends wasn’t nearly as convenient or accessible as Twitter.

Their recent improvements make it a lot more Twitterish because now they’ve added a page so that you can view all of your friends’ updates. It aggregates all of the updates into one page, and shows their picture, the update, and how long ago the status was changed.  Just click on “Friends,” then “Status Updates” and you’ll be updated with what all of your friends are up to.  The example below shows what this looks like (names blurred).

What makes it even more like Twitter is that they’ve taken advantage of RSS and text messaging.  Now you can subscribe to your friends’ updates via RSS or you can get updates via SMS.  You can even update your own status right from your phone by sending SMS to Facebook.

Facebook has been on a steady uphill climb which got steeper in April.  With millions of people already updating their status on Facebook, I don’t know how much longer Twitter will be able to climb the charts with their service.

Some of you are probably thinking about all of the cool add-ons available for Twitter that are missing from Facebook, however, Facebook has been pretty friendly with the developers, giving them access to the API and promoting development. It’ll only be a matter of time before the developers get to work and hammer out similar applications.

Things aren’t lookin’ so good for the little guys lately.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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