Can Twitter Beat Facebook and Google+?

iOS 5 Twitter integration already a huge benefit for company

by Chris Crum of Web Pro News

As you might imagine, there’s been a lot of talk about social networks at the Web 2.0 Summit, and particularly the escalating three-way battle among Facebook, Google and Twitter. While Google and Facebook have had their fair share of announcements recently, Twitter just added some major firepower to its arsenal, courtesy of Apple.

One thing does seem clear. Deep Twitter integration with Apple’s iOS is huge for Twitter.

“The iOS integration is going to be absolutely huge for us, even better than we thought it was,” CEO Dick Costolo is quoted as saying at the Summit. “I didn’t realize how frictionless this would be. It’s so native.”

As far as Costolo is concerned, it is Twitter’s simplicity that is its biggest weapon against Facebook and Google+ (although I’d say that iOS integration is a pretty helpful weapon). He says part of the reason that Twitter has become so popular is because of its simplicity, and the fact that they’ve refrained from adding too many features, implying that this will continue to separate them from the pack as competitors continue to add more and more features.

That’s an interesting point, because Facebook and Google are basically in a “feature race” as Google’s Bradley Horowitz recently put it. In fact, Google CEO Larry Page touted the fact in the company’s earnings call last week, that Google+ added 100 features in 90 days.

Facebook certainly keeps changing things up.

Costolo’s comments are also interesting considering that this year, Twitter has perhaps added more features than any other time in Twitter’s history (since co-founder Jack Dorsey returned to the company). Dorsey, by the way, has recently even been called “the next Steve Jobs,” and by an early Apple employee. He does also run Square, which many see as a revolutionary product in the payments industry. It can’t hurt Twitter to have this kind of leadership at the core of its product development.

Perhaps the more important battle, however, is that for identity, rather than features, and that’s another area where that tight iOS integration might come in handy for Twitter. Apple announced that in its first 3 days of availability, it sold 4 million iPhone 4S devices (which run iOS 5). iOS 5 is also available for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad, iPad 2, iPod Touch 3rd generation, and iPod Touch 4th generation. Word is that a third of eligible devices have already been updated (which means potentially 2/3 more could still be upgraded), and Costolo says daily iOS Twitter sign-ups have already tripled due to the new iOS integration.

The description of the Twitter integration from Apple says: “iOS 5 makes it even easier to tweet from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Sign in once in Settings, and suddenly you can tweet directly from Safari, Photos, Camera, YouTube, or Maps. Want to mention or @reply to a friend? Contacts applies your friends’ Twitter usernames and profile pictures. So you can start typing a name and iOS 5 does the rest. You can even add a location to any tweet, no matter which app you’re tweeting from.”

Once iOS 5 was finally released last week, Twitter wrote a blog post about it saying: “Simply enter your Twitter login information into your device settings, and you’ll always be connected to your Twitter account. This means you can tweet directly from Apple apps like Camera, Maps, Photos, Safari and YouTube, along with third party apps, such as Chomp, Flipboard, LivingSocial, Instagram, MadPad, PopSugar, Showyou,SoundTracking and Zynga’s Words with Friends.”

And it’s not as if you have to use iOS to use Twitter.

“We think we can reach every person on the planet, we think the way to do that is to simplify it,” Costolo is quoted as saying. “Over time, Google+ and Facebook will be more and more different than the experience we want to pass onto our users.”

On that note, the Telegraph has some interesting words from former Facebook President Sean Parker (who is still a shareholder), most notably, “The strategic threat to Facebook is that power users have gone to Twitter or to Google+.”

That doesn’t mean that all (or even the majority of) power users have abandoned Facebook entirely, but if a lot of them are using these competing services more, that means less time spent somewhere.

You know who else seems to be using Twitter more and more? The young.

Back to that topic of identity for a second. There is a lot of controversy about identity and the Internet. Facebook and Google+ both want your real identity as your identity with their respective services. I’m Chris Crum in real life, so they want me to be Chris Crum on Facebook and Google+ (Google is even stingy about what pics it lets authors use on their Google Profiles). On Twitter, however, I’m CCrum237. If I wanted, I could be anyone else I wanted to be (as long as the name wasn’t taken). There are valid points to both sides of the Internet anonymity debate, but the reality is that our online identities are being tied much more to the real world. It’s not just about status updates and picture sharing anymore. It’s about paying for goods at a store (among other things). At least that’s the direction we’re headed in. But that’s a conversation for another article.

4Chan founder Christopher Poole is quoted as saying at the summit that Facebook and Google approach to identity “degrades humanity,” and that “Facebook and Google do our identity wrong, Twitter does it better.” He’s just one man, but you better believe there are quite a few people who share similar views, and that is one clear differentiator of Twitter compared to its competitors. That’s one thing you can get with Twitter that you can’t get with Facebook or Google+. And that’s just another piece of the puzzle.

Twitter is currently worth $8 billion according Costolo, who is quoted as saying, “Let’s just call it an even $8 billion.” I have a feeling that number is going to go up substantially.

According to Costolo, Twitter users are sending out about 250 tweets per day. I’d be surprised if that number hasn’t increased significantly in another month.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say Twitter will be dethroning Facebook as the most-used social network in the near future, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen one day. Remember when Myspace was on top? Either way, it’s going to be an interesting battle to watch, especially now that Twitter is heavily integrated with the ultra popular iPhones and iPads.

What do you think? Will Twitter ever be able to surpass Facebook?

Facebook changes creeping out some customers

Mark Zuckerberg showing off Timeline at F8.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

At the F8 conference last September 22, 2011, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed off some of the most drastic changes ever made to the company's service. And though Zuckerberg is excited by those changes, many folks across the Web aren't so quick to celebrate.
The fear among some users relates to what some say could become a potentially worrisome privacy situation on the social network, led by Timeline and changes to Open Graph.

Timeline provides users with a way to view "the story of your life," according to Zuckerberg, including a collection of all the "stories" uses have shared on Facebook over the years, as well as the pictures they've posted and the applications they've used.
Facebook's updated Open Graph will make the social network far more "sticky." Zuckerberg said users will have the ability--thanks to Timeline and a new addition, Ticker--to see what a friend is doing, like watching a movie on Netflix or listening to a song on Spotify, and engage in that same activity from within the social network. The Facebook CEO said he believes the improvements will help create "a completely new class of social apps" that will let users share every single facet of their lives on the social network.

"All those activities people perform with these apps--listening to a Bjork tune, reading about same-sex marriage laws, cooking Arroz con Pollo, running four miles, donating to Amnesty International--will be stored permanently and made accessible (if the user allows it) on a greatly enhanced profile page that will essentially become a remote-control autobiography," Wired's Steven Levy wrote about the update.

It's that concept of Facebook becoming an "autobiography" that's scaring some folks.

"Is there any way I can upload my browser history, bank statements, and medical records to Facebook?" Twitter user @adrianshort asked today. "Might as well do this properly."

Those sentiments were echoed earlier today by CNET commenter "OneAmazedHuman" who said that the social network's additions are making some people consider leaving the site.

"Frankly, after this last round of messing around with Facebook, there are a whole lot of us thinking seriously about dumping it," OneAmazedHuman wrote. "[I] hate everything they threw at us lately. What happened to 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it?'

"Facebook is getting too intrusive and sneaky," OneAmazedHuman continued. "If I can find another place to play Scrabble, I'm probably out of there. I can live without it nicely. When it was fun, it was fun. It isn't that anymore. Thanks, Zuckerberg. Why didn't you just create something new to mess around with and leave Facebook as is?"

Mark Zuckerberg talks about Ticker and the Open Graph at F8.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

However, there are some people who have already left Facebook because of the changes. One Twitter user, @qwghlm, tweeted earlier today that "after F8 last night, I decided to finally quit Facebook." CNET commenter "JamesOnTheWay" said that he too dropped Facebook and has moved over to Google+.

Drastic measures aside, there are some who are taking a wait-and-see approach to Facebook's changes. Twitter user @JulesHanna tweeted that the F8 presentation "reinforced my belief that Facebook's becoming the operating system of the human Web. Brilliant, yet alarming in its implications."

Though the outcry over Facebook's changes is strong, the company has survived such complaints in the past. In 2009, following a major redesign of the site, the social network was hit hard by users who complained about the changes. At the time, a Facebook app that polled users on their thoughts about the changes found that hundreds of thousands of users were upset by the move. And like now, many of those folks said that they would leave the social network.

That said, at that time, Facebook had more than 175 million users. At the F8 conference, it was revealed that Facebook now has over 800 million members worldwide. So if those departures did, in fact, occur, they certainly weren't crippling to the social network.

Prototype of the new Facebook Timeline
(click to view larger image)

Also playing into Facebook's favor this time around, there isn't near-universal outcry over the changes like there was in 2009. In fact, there are some people that are quite pleased with the company's modifications.

"Got my new Facebook timeline looking good," Twitter user @angelarenee09 tweeted today. "Love these fun changes!"

So, while that might just be one opinion, it's quite clear that in the social world, everyone has a different idea of what's good and bad. And Facebook--for better or worse--is learning that all over again today.

Facebook did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment on user reaction to the changes.

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