The web is abuzz about Spencer Ante’s article yesterday in which Peter Thiel confirmed that yes, Facebook tried to acquire Twitter. The buzz is not surprising considering that the two companies have been receiving an immense amount of attention from the press over the past few weeks as both continue to post amazing growth statistics.
What was most intriguing about the article was the two statements that “Facebook and Twitter haven’t completely walked away from one another” and that “The two companies continue to talk”. Last week I suggested that Facebook must do something about the Twitter threat. One of those things is to acquire the company and the other is to open up even more.
Currently Facebook is still restrictive with their API service and the status.get method which I suggested would crush Twitter has too much of a delay in responding to requests to compete with Twitter. While Google has been working on “out opening” Facebook, it’s clear that Twitter did a much better job at forcing the company to open up its services even more than it already has.
Those two small statements in Spencer Ante’s article about Facebook still looking for acquisition opportunities puts a lot of hope in many followers of the companies that there is a potential agreement left to be made. Regardless of whether the two companies end up together, I would guess that something big will happen related to the two companies in the coming months.
More likely than not, Facebook will open up a lot more.
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Facebook vs. Twitter? They offer two completely different services and both equally important. Keep them separate. It would do Myspace good to buy Twitter to remain relevant. As a band, I use Myspace mainly as a Business to Business communication tool and sometimes as a Business to Fan. Twitter is slowly becoming what I do on Myspace. Facebook should remain not about business. If it stays that way, it is a hugely powerful advertising tool for a business.
Comment by Tim Litchfield — March 2, 2009 @ 5:44 pm
I believe that facebook should remain personal otherwise it's going to end up in the crapper like MySpace. They can acquire all they like…just don't change anything. My momma always used to say…"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." LOL
Blessings,
Wendy
Comment by Wendy Merritt — March 2, 2009 @ 6:41 pm
Tim I agree there, too many people assume that the status update on Facebook is the same thing as Twitter (or at the very least try and compare them as being closely linked with all this Vs. talk)…since when can you search millions of statuses on Facebook to find keywords of your interest? And that is only one example of the benefits of Twitter as you know.
MySpace went down the pan for me as soon as it became a victim of its own success. I find is full of useless content that I have no interest in, and because of that the Home area is real messy and clunky. Looking at it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I'm glad Twitter is doing its own thing with no influence from someone like Facebook owning it and having its 2 pennies worth
At the moment it has a nice clean simple look and I hope it stays that way (even if I hardly see it as I'm using TweetDeck).
Comment by Stuart — March 3, 2009 @ 1:10 am
I love the simplicity and openness of Twitter. FB is great but is often too cumbersome/time consuming. Twitter exists for a reason – it satisfies a need FB can't/doesn't/won't. Hopefully FB won't just swallow up Twitter and regurgitate it into something we can't use.
Comment by DaleK — March 3, 2009 @ 10:17 am
I don't understand why ppl describe twitter as something revolutionary. It is simply another bulletin board system (slightly different), I wonder if those who feel excited about twitter are old enough to hear of 'bulletin board system'
Comment by sean — March 3, 2009 @ 6:53 pm