Facebook vs. Twitter: How will you stream your world?

The future will be streamed. And streamed some more.

Earlier this week, Facebook unveiled a few notable product revamps: "fan pages" for brands that look and act more like regular member profiles, and a redesigned home page that emphasizes a real-time version of the site's iconic news feed. The keyword here is "streaming," encouraging an even more extensive flow of information with a status update prompt that asks, "What's on your mind?"

Needless to say, "What's on your mind"--which also allows the posting of links, videos, and other content to news feeds--bears quite a bit of resemblance to Twitter's "What are you doing?" prompt. So, especially in light of more rumors and reports about Facebook's spurned attempt to acquire Twitter, expect comparisons between the two services as means of ultra-customized media consumption to escalate.

When Facebook unveiled its redesign I predicted that we'd hear a lot more about the news feed as the new personal portal. That's sort of what many prolific Twitter users have turned the microblogging service into, too. Our Twitter feeds, after all, deliver a whole lot more than updates about what kind of beers our friends just ordered at happy hour: Depending on what you subscribe to, you can get ski reports, links to news headlines and blog feeds, mini-recipes, and celebrity-stalking intel.

But for all the talk about brands building presences on Twitter, Facebook may have gained a slight lead here. I spoke on Thursday to Dan Hart, senior vice president and general manager of MTV Digital, about how the Viacom-owned entertainment brand is using the new Pages to push out more content to members' news feeds. For the first time, brands using Fan Pages can set "status" messages, too, which MTV plans to use for news and updates.

"The status update function is effectively becoming a publish function, and that publish function is text, photos, video, a variety of media," Hart said, "and that media is experienced more as a real-time stream by a Facebook user, and the Facebook user has more control over what occurs in that stream."

That's basically what media companies do with Twitter accounts. And Hart said that MTV has no plans to abandon its presence on Twitter. "I don't think it's a zero-sum choice at all," he said. "We've done really interesting things on Twitter."

But Facebook's advantage is that the revamped news feed can handle different types of content, too: it'll have actual photos and event listings instead of TwitPic and TinyURL links. Filtering controls won't require a third-party app like TweetDeck. On the other hand, Twitter is obviously more open-ended. The messages on it are public and accessible, rather than hidden behind a log-in wall. As useful and innovative as the Facebook news feed may be, it's not searchable--and Twitter clearly hopes that its search feature, which it built in with the acquisition of Summize last year, will be a sort of secret sauce. (Maybe it'll even make money with it.)

Honestly, though, with the amount of buzz about both Facebook and Twitter as the future of real-time information, I give the advantage to whichever one can make all this content less of a mess.

On a related note, this gives aggregation services like FriendFeed a run for their money--why join an external "all-in-one-place" service when the same content is available on Facebook? FriendFeed is better optimized for longer discussion threads, true, but you don't hear a whole lot about marketers jumping on the feed-aggregator bandwagon. If anything, I see FriendFeed moving more toward a message-board role rather than another player in "the stream." But that's a tale for a different day.

[ddhboy]

Simple, Facebook has an app developed by twitter that syncs the two services, and updates on both sides when you post on twitter or use twitter's app on facebook.

[Mweaver2k9]

"But Facebook's advantage is that the revamped news feed can handle different types of content, too: it'll have actual photos and event listings instead of TwitPic and TinyURL links"

That is a clear winner, and I am anxious to see how the iPhone app will handle it

[pmizota]

I think the big picture story is being missed here. The new version of Pages combined with the real time nature of News Feed will bring RSS-like capabilities to the masses. While Twitter can also do this, it is not nearly as mainstream yet as Facebook is. http://tinyurl.com/amj5jn

[Eballs]

Twitter is stupid. No one uses it except for serious geeks. Facebook defeated Myspace, so don't expect Twitter to prevail.

[opiapr]

hey fanboy facebook may have overtaken myspace on traffict but no where near revanues. where myspace leads 3 to1. and myspace is evolving each day (as facebook and twitter) so why don't you get out of the sandbox and see the big picture. all 3 have great potential. i had all 3 and pretty much have them sync so what I update on one site gets posted on the other. but for me a myspace twitter combo is better than facebook. and yes twitter will prevail as a stand alone or via a merge that can come from your god facebook or may be google or myspace or someone else becouse prospective buyers are lining up becouse they do see the potential not like you fanboy.

[carpevis]

If the word privacy mean nothing today, imagine what it will mean tomorrow when the smallest detail of your life is known by complete strangers. Sorry, but I'm not so concerned with the inner worlds of my friends and relatives that I have to be kept on the bleeding edge of events in their lives. Maybe one day, people will learn to live their own lives and catch up with the events in their friends lives when they actually meet them face to face, or suffer with letters, e-mail and phone calls when they can't. Wiht this tweeting stuff going on all the time, it makes one wonder what they'll ever talk about in the off chance they actually do meet in the first place.

[urr_quasdim]

Yes, the computerized dehumanization of mankind... It won't be long before two people will be texting each other, not realizing that they are sharing the same table at a restaurant!

[Shimull]

Face book is different type of entertainment,i m intended to enjoy these advantage with put my actual photos , information and events also request to others to do the same.

[Jayemmbee]

facebook does everything twitter does and more so theres no reason to even go, i have myspace but thats so cluttered and ads that are too big, facebook has everyone and your mom on it so it very convenient, and the other stuff like events, and other stuff like that just makes thing a breeze

[Harrison912]

I'm on MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter and other social sites to socially market my safety and security web site and raise awareness for the products through interaction with friends there. Maintaining too many sites can be a challenge so I'm considering working mainly with FaceBook and Twitter . I think they will serve my purpose best.

[extempernet]

I update facebook via twitter :D

[marshreed]

Oh, Carolyn. I love groupies like you. You make me giggle like a little girl.

Twitter is "hot" and that's why you've jumped on the bandwagon. Be objective, though. What in god's name does it have to offer? Really nothing. It's useless unless you want to plug your business or follow a celebrity. Once the celebrities get bored with Twitter, it's done. No one really gives a rat's ass that President of Company X was quoted in the New York Times except for President of Company X and his wife.

I give Twitter until early next year and something will replace it. Twitter will be long forgotten by 2011. Mark my words.

[Trent-Partridge]

'On a related note, this gives aggregation services like FriendFeed a run for their money--why join an external "all-in-one-place" service when the same content is available on Facebook?'

The question is for organic Search Engine Optimization(SEO) which aggregation work best? Currently Friendfeed beats Facebook