Enough with Twitter vs. FriendFeed vs. Plurk Already
Yes, that’s right! Enough with it! Why do we have to make all these comparisons between these services, when sometimes it just isn’t the case?
For the past month my RSS reader has been literally filled with Twitter posts, FriendFeed posts and now it’s time for Plurk. Each blogger tries to find the next big microblogging platform, “the Twitter killer”. I always love a visionary post, but sometimes we need to take a step back and analyze the facts. Twitter is not going to disappear any time soon.
Yes, Twitter had, and still has problems, but I can bet it’s a temporary thing. We’re talking about a huge financial investment here, and no investor will sit and watch his money flowing out the window. Further more, many communities have been built on Twitter. People have spent lots of precious time growing their number of followers, no one is going to give that up so easily. Beyond that, Twitter has a value that only few realize: it’s a great instrument to help you develop your writing skills by focusing ideas in concise, 140 character long, messages.
Twitter has the advantage of time and awareness. That’s one advantage that FriendFeed and Plurk don’t have. And no, I’m not writing this post because I’m some sort of Twitter fanatic or evangelist. On the contrary, I know I’ve never used it at its full potential due to time limitations. Further more, I really enjoy participating in discussions over at FriendFeed, but I’m not a Plurk user, and probably won’t be any time soon. I find it awkward for my taste. And sincerely, I prefer a bird instead of a headless animal.
Why I don’t believe in the reality of this “war”
The biggest problem with this “versus” hype resides in the fact that these services are different, providing different user experiences, at least Twitter and FriendFeed. A few days back I was watching ShoeMoney’s videocast, co-hosted by Jennifer Slegg. I asked them what do they think of FriendFeed. Jeremy’s answer was pretty straight-forward: “I’ve never used it”, and when it was Jennifer’s turn to answer I got the following: “I’ve signed up a few days ago, but I’m not convinced. I prefer Twitter.” (These are not exact quotes, but since I don’t have a transcript, I tried to reproduce them.)
So, here goes something that I did not expect from Jennifer, a confusion between 2 different services. Otherwise, I don’t see how Twitter popped into her answer. While Twitter is clearly a microblogging platform, if we really need to find a term for FriendFeed, the most appropriate should be “microforum“, in my opinion. How can we compare them? We should not, but unfortunately, this is the reality that’s been spreading lately.
Letting the numbers speak
If people are so eager to find the service that will grab the crown from Twitter, maybe we should take a look at some facts, for example the funding that these 3 services received (according to TechCrunch):
- Twitter – $5.4M + $15M (May 2008)
- FriendFeed – $5M
- Plurk – This I couldn’t find
Higher funding does not necessarily guarantee better services, but it surely creates more premises.
Further more, let’s study the latest levels of traffic, including the last month, when Twitter was down and all the FriendFeed & Plurk hype began.
Is Twitter dying?
You tell me. The numbers say that despite their technical and communication problems, all this hype has boosted their traffic way above the competition. From where I stand, Twitter is going to be around for a while, and I can see a nice future for FriendFeed too.
What do you think?
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great info twitter i hope is not in trouble
I have a twitter account, got it recently, but never really use it. Since all the bloggers out there do use it, there must be something to it.
It’s pretty difficult to over take the heavy hitter on the block. The heavy hitter has to either really mess up (really mess up!) or the replacement has to be of a higher caliber. If those two considerations do not happen, it’s unlikely anything will top twitter.
Look at the myspace vs. facebook war. Most believe facebook will overtake myspace in time. Well, in my opinion, this makes good sense as facebook is a much higher quality platform.
Excellent description Alex. Yesterday I experienced a ‘temporarily maintenance‘ from tweeter, but it’s surprising though, regardless of issues Twitter is going through, I see people joining it each and every other day.
A great showcase you made.
P.S. I’ve subscribed here
@Bamboo: You’re sharing my exact opinion.
@Arian Xhezairi: We all experience them lately, but regardless of them Twitter is still growing, and I’m thinking it’s because of two main reasons:
1. Authority bloggers promote through their posts ways to transform Twitter into a marketing tool (like Darren Rowse did lately).
2. Smaller blogs write about it more because of trying to keep up with the hype, but only a few times express original ideas or opinion. Most times it’s just a rewrite or an article of the “I agree with X” type. This also generates buzz for Twitter, because in the end, bad publicity is still publicity.
P.S. Welcome back and thanks for subscribing!
Why not try them each out and see which one suits the users individual fancy. I have had a Twitter account for awhile, but don’t really use it. I probably don’t understand it that well. I also have a FriendFeed account, and love it. Mostly because it automatically tracks what I’m already doing. I don’t have to go make a post unless I want to. I just now got a Plurk account, too soon to make a judgement.
I do like that Twitter and Mixx are working together.
@Eric S. For me, the first impression is very important. Took a look at Plurk and felt like it’s not “me”. I enjoy FriendFeed a lot, too and keep Twitter for more casual conversation. Anyway, would be interesting to read your opinion on Plurk here after you get to use it more.
@Bamboo: (and Alex): Oh hey. I’m in the same exact boat – I signed up for Twitter about two weeks(?) ago, and I think I used it for about two days to talk to a friend I have in Alabama. Think I’ve logged in once since.
It’s not that I don’t like these things; I think it’s more what all these webapps are suffering from, and that’s “done it before.” Even being able to mention three off the top of your head is a major problem, and that’s even leaving out Pownce.
I hear so many great things about these sites, and I put them on my “I’ll try it” list, try it, and then don’t really see anything particularly impressive. Maybe it’s just because I’m not a huge fan of “microblogging” (in case you haven’t noticed, I like to talk… a lot.).
But most likely it’s because I hear so many things about how great X is and how it’s better than Y and Z, but I don’t really want to take my foo over to yet another bar, if you know what I mean. It’s happened with digg, del.icio.us, stumbleupon… I’m trying really hard to return to these things, but I just don’t have the patience.
I’m also not the biggest fan of this whole “Web 2.0″ buzzword thing we’ve got going on. It’s not that I’m not enjoying the buzz just as much as everybody else. It’s just that it requires a lot of effort to keep up with, and I’m lazy beyond reason.
Maybe I’m just getting too old for this stuff, when I’m just now nearing the edge of 18? Is it possible to be jaded with the internet?
Good post, thanks. I agree that the debate is not about one versus the other. These services are different, will appeal to different demographics and will evolve in different directions. Maybe one will come to dominate, as Google emerged to dominate search (there are parallels in the evolution of this technology). But another possibility is a consolidator function which will allow a user to microblog one time and send that to all the various applications.
@Roger: That service that you talk in the end of your comment wouldn’t surprise me even a single bit. It’s the current trend in social media (networking and bookmarking) to create services that expand above the most popular platforms.
You are absolutely right in that FF is not the same as Twitter. FF has a “twitter-like” feature, but that’s part of it — and even that is different. FF offers aggregation and messaging inside the interface for the most part.
In my opinion, FriendFeed is the next ruler of micro-blogging. Twitter is good but it is not as specialized and stable as FriendFeed. FriendFeed is quickly establishing itself as a professional and stable social networking service. I believe that people will quickly move from Twitter to FriendFeed because through FriendFeed they can better communicate with their friends as compared to Twitter.