Facebook gets an update, growing similar to Twitter

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Today, Facebook rolled out an update to their platform which allows users to "@" reply to their friends, in a very similar fashion to that of Twitter.

Over the last year, Facebook has appeared to be trying to copy Twitter, the ridiculously fast growing social network service. Twitter allows users to post "status messages" that are 140 characters in length, and let others know what is on your mind, and Facebook is imitating this action more and more - mainly using the Twitter styled "stream".

Last year, Facebook even admitted it was having to change its model to be more "stream focused" as announced on their blog:

"As more and more information flows through Facebook, the need for people to easily discover the most recent and relevant content has grown. That's why when we redesigned the profile last year, we focused on the Wall—the stream of information telling you what is going on with a person—rather than the previous profile style of boxes containing unchanging information. This was a big step in our evolution because it moved Facebook in the direction of helping people share immediate experiences with one another: a thought, a status, a photo, a note, a feeling."

The new feature, which is called "tagging", is as easy as it is on Twitter. Just type the @username/full name and your friend(s) will be tagged in your status! The feature will help Facebook to give even deeper connections, especially when users want to say what they're doing at the moment when they're with friends.

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#1 kikumbob on 15 Sep 2009 - 00:37

Twitter is not spelled with an F.

#2 +xiphi on 15 Sep 2009 - 00:48

They should work on fixing the bugs before adding new features. The glitches range from error messages to display issues (news feed not updating, chat windows glitching like hell). Can't seem to go a day without getting several of them.

(1 reply) #3 305 on 15 Sep 2009 - 00:49

I don't see Twitter users jumping boat for FB.
Twitter is already too well integrated into many social sites. Everyone and their momma's use it so..

#3.1 Shadrack on 15 Sep 2009 - 20:08

305 said,

I have 1 RL friend on Twitter (that I now of). Over a hundred that use Facebook, so...

(1 reply) #4 jwil1 on 15 Sep 2009 - 00:53

Twitter has 140 characters messages, not 160

#4.1 Owenw on 15 Sep 2009 - 00:56

jwil1 said,

Thx lol

(2 replies) #5 BetaAddict on 15 Sep 2009 - 00:54

...and this nails the coffin shut on twitter.

#5.1 Pharos on 15 Sep 2009 - 01:08

...says who?

#5.2 mikefarinha on 15 Sep 2009 - 03:14

Pharos said,

BetaAddict... duh!

(2 replies) #6 Demian on 15 Sep 2009 - 01:02

twitter is cool, but facebook just sucks

#6.1 iamwhoiam on 15 Sep 2009 - 05:11

They both suck. Anyone that constantly posts things like, "I woke up and had sex with my g/f", and then others making a conversation out of it, really needs to get a life. It's a tad pathetic when one's personal life revolves around a social networking site.

#6.2 Shadrack on 15 Sep 2009 - 20:10

iamwhoiam said,

What is more pathetic. A personal life revolving around a social networking site? Or one that revolves around posting comments on news about social networking sites? (I guess I'll take both...ahh the irony!)

#7 asim0 on 15 Sep 2009 - 01:21

not working in opera for me

#8 Frank Fontaine on 15 Sep 2009 - 01:22

I can't stand twitter, Facebook's design is far better

(3 replies) #9 Adamodeus on 15 Sep 2009 - 01:23

Cool. And what's the point of that?

P.S. Nobody (still) cares about twits.

#9.1 Shiranui on 15 Sep 2009 - 02:24

Adamodeus said,

Yeah, but only twits care about Facebook....

#9.2 Jebadiah on 15 Sep 2009 - 05:28

Shiranui said,

And "Twit"ter.

#9.3 +dave164 on 15 Sep 2009 - 13:23

*tweets

(1 reply) #10 lflashl on 15 Sep 2009 - 01:36

working for me in New Zealand...

#10.1 Owenw on 15 Sep 2009 - 02:16

lflashl said,

Me too!

#11 gazebee_ on 15 Sep 2009 - 02:19

I like it =)

#12 +Iakobos on 15 Sep 2009 - 05:53

Nice addition to facebook I think

I really can't get around twitter, in my opinion it's rather crap. I rarely post updates on facebook either actually

(1 reply) #13 mdunner28 on 15 Sep 2009 - 06:26

People that hate Twitter really just hate that they either have nothing interesting in life to share with others, and/or they have no one to share with. :-)

#13.1 Chonson on 15 Sep 2009 - 07:50

It's definitely too easy to put too much merit into what you'd believe is "interesting" and this seems to happen all too often on all social networking sites to be honest.

#14 forcer on 15 Sep 2009 - 08:30

I like facebook for photo's and i rely on it for advertising and promotion... but i actually find it hard to use the site for 'social networking'

#15 Victor V. on 15 Sep 2009 - 09:54

Why should anyone say that is copying twitter? That has been global language to reply/message someone for years before Twitter.

#16 Antaris on 15 Sep 2009 - 12:20

Instead of adding new features, they should be concetrating on all the performance and usability issues that have been cropping up as of late. I can no longer leave Facebook open for a prolonged perioud of time without Facebook chat dying. messages don't get delivered. It starts showing me news feed items from weeks before.

Facebook is just not as good as it used to be

(1 reply) #17 C_Guy on 15 Sep 2009 - 15:15

So by that logic, Burger King should be changing their hamburger to be more and more like a Big Mac until they are so simialr that you can't tell the difference.

Like we need another reason to delete our FB accounts. I am getting really tired of waiting for them to un-retire the Old Facebook. But it's nothing like Twitter so obviosuly that can never happen. Micro-updates or nothing, right Facebook? Keep telling us what we want!

#17.1 Shadrack on 15 Sep 2009 - 20:13

C_Guy said,

I think Facebook and Twitter are both whatever the user makes out of it. It isn't like anyone is forced to "micro-update." One reason I like Facebook is I can easily hide someone who is micro-updating too much w/o kicking them off my friends list.

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