Facebook is already the big boy of social networks, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that the company really feels threatened by Twitter. Just look at some of the things they’ve done in recent memory.
Obviously, there was the move to the real-time news feed. Then they started highlighting the ability to receive SMS updates when your friends post status updates. This has long been one of the most appealing parts about Twitter to many people.
The other day, Facebook announced new settings for the publisher box, which allow users to control who gets to see their updates – including everybody – kind of like Twitter. Now, as Nick O’Neill at All Facebook has pointed out, if you look at your email notification settings, you will see a new option to receive a notification every time a user “connects to me as a fan.” Keep in mind, this is separate from “adds me as a friend.”
O’Neill connects this to the merging of Pages and profiles. “The combination of profile fans and the new granular publisher controls will help complete the twitterfication of Facebook.”
It’s understandable that Facebook would worry about Twitter invading its market share. It kind of did the same thing to MySpace. Facebook does have a movie on the way, which should keep the social network fresh in people’s minds when its released. Meanwhile, you can’t turn on the TV without someone mentioning Twitter followed by a light-hearted chuckle. You can’t turn on the radio without hearing what somebody has tweeted. Then there’s the online world.
Should Facebook worry about Twitter? Should it continue to expand upon its own “twitterfication?” Comment here.
