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Who Needs Twitter When We Have Facebook?

By: Dane Moody | 09/11/2009

Since my freshman year of college when I discovered the Web site, I've considered myself a huge supporter of Facebook and have always been willing to fight its battles. I've defended its policy changes, its layout changes, the inclusion of high school students and the creation of the Facebook platform for applications. I always went out of my way to support this site that took over my life in college and hasn't released it since.

But after Facebook's most recent announcement, my support is being challenged.

Yesterday afternoon, Facebook announced yet another update, similar to the hundreds they announce during a given year. But this announcement struck me; not as an exciting or innovative move, because it is neither of those two things. In my opinion, it's just wrong.

Facebook announced that users are now able to tag their friends in status updates. We've heard the term "tag" from Facebook before; the site revolutionized photo-sharing through tagging. But doesn't this whole concept of tagging friends in a status update sound familiar? I feel like there is another place in cyberspace where I've been "tagging" friends in status updates, mentioning people when they are relevant to what I am doing or what's on my mind.

Oh yeah. Twitter.

The new tagging feature in Facebook status updates is such a blatant rip-off of Twitter's mentions that even I, one of Facebook staunchest supporters, can't bring myself to say it's a good idea for Facebook. Don't get me wrong. It's a great idea: a great idea that has already been developed and integrated into the backbone of another social network.

Maybe I've been falling behind on my "Facebook's #1 Fan" newsletters, but I'm starting to question the integrity of this move. Perhaps it was a mistake reading Ben Mezrich's "Accidental Billionaires," a book that takes you behind the scenes of the early years of Facebook through the eyes of those whose ideas were allegedly stolen to create Facebook and those strong-armed from the company when it exploded in popularity.

And it isn't as if Facebook's developers went out of their way to innovate "tagging" (or "mentions," if you prefer the language of the Twitter's creators). In order to tag friends in Facebook status updates, you type @ plus their name. Does this sound familiar?

Maybe I'm making too big of a deal about this. Maybe Facebook and Twitter have an understanding that allows Facebook to use this concept. Maybe Twitter sold the idea to Facebook. Or maybe this is another strong-armed move by Facebook in light of its recent play to purchase Twitter in 2008. Regardless, Facebook hasn't even tried to differentiate itself, copying Twitter's technology and using it in the ongoing competition between the two sites.

So, why does this bother me?

Social media has always been a space of innovation - it's revolutionized our personal lives and the way businesses operate. Personally, I've always been a Facebook fan because of its forward-thinking and innovative ways. But this doesn't really feel like innovation. In fact, it reminds me of the neighborhood bully beating up on the defenseless younger kid.

Maybe this announcement was intended for me (and probably many others) to ask the million-dollar question: Now that I can mention friends in my Facebook status, why would I ever return to Twitter?

Posted in Digital Communications