Socialmedialand

Can’t get away from these giants this week.

Facebook is updating its homepage to include more real-time functionality and sharing mechanisms which has the whole industry a flutter with rumors that Facebook is trying to “crush” Twitter, Google is ignoring Twitter’s true capability, and what Twitter’s response will be.

I have the exact same message I had about email and IM v. Twitter: No one is going to beat anyone.

*Disclaimer – this is my opinion, I have no crystal ball to base my prophesy on*

I don’t think that people truly understand the major differences between all these online services.

Twitter - Mass, short messaging to a large group of people allowing others to join into public conversations and quickly share small doses of info.

Email - One to one (or One to a few) messaging where you can send information, content, attachments, etc to a specific set of interested people and thread the discussion and back and forth of said information/content.

IM - Direct (normally short) messaging, one to one (or One to a few). Allows short term sharing of content, information and conversation. (I say short term because normally you sign off and that conversation is over where email lives in inboxes and folders for longer)

Facebook - Advanced content sharing, profiles and community building. Rather than quick messages, Facebook lets you share (visibly rather than through links) video, longer message, photos, notes, blog posts, messages, audio with your friends or post to your profile to share with anyone who visits you.

Is there some cross over? Yes. But is the functionality of any of these identical? No. Can anyone of these fully replace the other? No.

The real-time messaging in Facebook is weighed down by the amount of content that is also shared through the network. The real-time messaging of IM is not public. The real-time messaging of Twitter is confined to 140 characters and links. The real-time messaging of email is not public and with too many messages/day can get cluttered.

My prediction is that all these forms of communication continue in their separate ways, but that a new platform is developed to connect them together so the user can easily flip between them and their respective functionality. That’s the idea with the upcoming Palm Pre’s combined messaging and I see that evolving in subsequent smart phones and migrating to the desktop.

What do you predict? Take a glance at your crystal ball and let me know if I’m missing something (also feel free to mention the winning lottery numbers if you see them…)

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