Larry Magid: New Twitter Interface Looking More Like Facebook
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — Twitter users be warned, your page will soon be getting a new look—that is of course how you define "new" as it may appear very familiar.
It looks a lot like Facebook. Many of my colleagues have noted this so I went to see for myself and I have to agree—it's shockingly similar.
Twitter now has a photo header, like Facebook, that user can choose themselves. In addition, they will begin to prioritize tweets like Facebook does with posts; however, users will still be able to see all their tweets—but the "best" ones will appear larger.
It's definitely more photocentric and I daresay: user-friendly. But I think I know why that it is. Let's face it, Twitter has been far more geeky than Facebook. That's all changing now as the new Twitter is far more consumerist than it has ever been before.
The two major social networks,Twitter and Facebook, are locked into a competition. Both companies are run by smart people and they keep a close eye on one another but Twitter has a real issue on its hands with its 230 million active users versus Facebook's 1.2 billion. In order to grow and justify its current stock price, Twitter has to get friendlier—like Facebook. There's no law against emulation but clearly imitation is a form of flattery.
Facebook should be flattered.
Larry Magid Tech Report: New Twitter Interface Looking More Like Facebook
The two social media products are still different from each other in that Twitter is still limited to 140 characters but the ability to post photos does make them a lot more similar. But everything is photocentric these days; it's hard to imagine any app that doesn't allow users to post images.
I think Twitter will stay more focused around news and public events but who knows? We may see change there too, over time.
