I’ve been asked this time and time again; “Gordon, Twitter or Facebook, Which one’s better?” Even recently on Twitter by my friend and fellow blogger Ruthibelle.  My Answer?  Twitter is Facebook’s status updates on drugs, albeit you are limited to 140 Character on Twitter which you are not limited to on Facebook, but that’s twitter’s job…status updates and they do it well.   Twitter does what it’s supposed to do great, which is “microblogging” and facebook does what it’s supposed to do well, which of course is a full blown “social network.”  Of course twitter is social in a sense, but nowhere near to Facebook’s level of “socialness”

Twitter Vs. Facebook

When you add someone as a “friend” on facebook in contrast to you following them on twitter is two different things. Facebook offers you the ability to view  picture of the person, they’re religious views, interests,video and a myriad of other things while twitter is much less formal, offering you only  a short blurb about the person and a link to they’re blog/website with status updates.  If you’ll notice when you add someone on facebook you are much more likely to know more about them compared to when you add them on twitter( assuming they provide they’re info on fb).

Twitter is good for collective thoughts and it can give you an idea of what is on the masses’ minds. That is where “Trending Topics” come into play, facebook does not provide that. Another favorite of mine is Twistori, twistori shows you what people love, hate feel, think, beleive and wish which is all made possible with twitter’s status updates and there API. Facebook provides more robust stuff like say quiz applications, games etc. I could go on and on about the usefulness of both but i’m guessing i made my point ( or not?).

Ultimately they’re both great and DIFFERENT coomunications services and i will use both.