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BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS

Facebook vs. Twitter: It’s On!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Steve Smith

Any doubts that Facebook has Twitter in its sights were laid to rest yesterday as the most popular social network announced very Twitter-like changes to its Publish feature. Users now will be able to send messages to “Everyone” and not just their network of subscribed friends. This makes messages visible to Google searches and other Facebook feeds or people who are not subscribed as friends.

Twitter’s micro-blogging model is famously public. While users can publish to a select circle of “followers,” the tweets are also easily broadcast and searchable via hashtags, for instance. Clearly, Facebook is trying to erect a more flexible model that counters Twitter with a greater range of broadcasting options and multimedia.

In an update yesterday at its corporate blog, Facebook explains that the new model lets users customize how various pieces of the content mix are shared with others. Facebook’s new Publisher features are in beta now but eventually will let a user make a post that is accessible to anyone, just to friends and networks, just to friends of friends or just to one’s own circle of friends. Users also will be able to create a custom list of recipients on the fly for any message.

Part of the Facebook model is to give users more granular control over their posts and their privacy. Obviously, Facebook has the advantage of being able to integrate Twitter-like micro-blogging with a user’s other media and profile. But so far the company has not shown that its model is a spry as Twitter as a broadcast mechanism. Part of Twitter’s charm is not only its simplicity but the ease with which users can create communities on the fly through hashtags and pull the Twitter feeds into third-party applications and sites.

If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com

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