So Facebook just announced they were making statuses available through a new API. Allfacebook broke the news with an article titled Facebook Opens Status API, Say Goodbye to Twitter. It is hard to argue that Facebook is not enabling a Twitter-like experience to its users through this API (which was almost already the case before opening up the API). However, there is NO WAY that Facebook opening up statuses means Twitter is dead.
It’s the network!
Facebook provides a well-connected, spam-free social environment. Because friendship approvals are mutual, it generates trust and transparency. Facebook’s social graphs strongly resemble the offline reality.
Twitter is a hyper-connected, self-serve social network. Shrunk messages make room for more voices, profiles are more thematic than personal, and social ties do not have to be mutual.
In other words, I connect with my family and liked acquaintances on Facebook to keep in touch with them. On the other end, I connect with interesting folks on Twitter to share good tips, news or opinions on anything new tech.
Tweeting with my family would not make sense, and sharing what I share on Facebook with my Twitter friends would not make sense either. Even if I can create groups of friends on Facebook (thus create a Twitter group for example), I don’t see how I could make sense out of blending the two social platforms.
The Twitter execs team wouldn’t have rejected Facebook’s purchase offer if all it takes to destroy them is a status API.