Tweetdeck and Seesmic: The Twitterization of Facebook Comes to the Desktop
Now that Facebook has rolled out its new real-time homepage, which in many ways feels like a crossbreed between Twitter and FriendFeed and has allowed third-party developers to access status updates on the service, it only makes sense for developers to try to bring some of these functions to the desktop. After all, it was the rise of the early desktop clients that fully revealed the potential of Twitter to its users, and a lot of developers are hoping to do so for Facebook as well. Seesmic released a dedicated Facebook application last week, and Tweetdeck just released a new version of its popular Twitter client today that now integrates Facebook status updates.
Tweetdeck
The developers of Tweetdeck just released a new beta version of their popular Twitter client that now integrates updates from Facebook, and allows users to post messages to both Twitter and Facebook. In the new version of Tweetdeck, your Facebook updates get their own column, and when you post updates to Twitter, you can choose to route these messages to Facebook as well. 
One nice feature of Tweetdeck's Facebook integration is that it puts a little green dot next to your friends' profile pictures when they are online, which allows you to initiate a chat with these users directly from within Tweetdeck.
If you are already using Tweetdeck, the update will automatically be pushed out to you in the next few days, but if you want to try it out now, you can download it from here.
Seesmic for Facebook - Just the Beginning
Seesmic's Facebook client is currently very straightforward and reminiscent of the earlier Twitter clients in that it only presents you a form for writing your updates and a column with your friends' updates. This, however, is only the first iteration and we have heard that Seesmic is planning to combine both apps (and drop the Twhirl name in favor of Seesmic) in the near future. Seesmic also plans to integrate other social networks like MySpace in the near future.
Currently, Tweetdeck's Facebook integration is a bit more fully-featured than Seesmic's, but both are still at the beginning of their development cycles and we will keep a close eye on both. We also expect to see more Facebook applications in the near future.
The Twitterization of Facebook - A Culture Clash?
From what we have seen, both Seesmic and Tweetdeck are clearly interested in taking the twitterization of Facebook to the next level, though it will be interesting to see how Facebook's current userbase will react to this. Facebook's and Twitter's cultures are still very different and Twitter users have developed their own set of rules over the last year or so (think '@' replies, retweeting, etc.), while status updates on Facebook have a very different feel and don't necessarily invite two-way communication the way Twitter does.
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I have only been on Twitter for two weeks, and must say it's seem to be in another league than Facebook seen from a business perspective.
Going back to Facebook is like shifting from a Ferrari to a VW Beatle.
Integration could be a nice thing, but I feel the nature of Twitter is very much different. But then again maybe Facebook will change towards Twitter.
I have to agree with Steen. For those of using Twitter (and I access it daily on my webtop) - going back to Facebook is next to impossible for this kind of social networking! I will still continue to use Facebook for personal reasons, but it will never replace Twitter. That being said, I do have some friends who have yet to try Twitter, who may view this as some cool new functionality. Perhaps if they start using Tweetdeck it will be an introduction to Twitter for them!
The odd thing here is that as Facebook becomes more Twitterlike, they're first going to become more Jaikulike. Jaiku took twitter and added threaded conversations and media sharing options, so there's now a pretty striking similarity between Jaiku and Facebook. Thing is, Google (Jaiku's parent co) just released the Jaiku source last week, so now you can sorta bulid your own Facebook.
Posted by: Ken Sheppardson
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March 16, 2009 12:48 PM
Jaiku running on AppEngine + OpenSocial = Your own Facebook
Posted by: Ken Sheppardson
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March 16, 2009 12:49 PM
thank you for your Seesmic mention Frederic, indeed 2009 will be a very interesting year!
I am a twitter-devotee that is now spending less and less time on Facebook as a result. The problem with Facebook is that the information that it streams is largely useless (what your friends are up to, who is in a relationship with who etc etc); Twitter has improved on this by provoking users to speak their minds and post useful information that one can actually benefit from.
not bad for a social networking super site like Facebook. It could be the next Google, with it strong mainstream buzz and rapid growth, the site has lot of potential. Its massive web traffic are considered goldmine, Facebook only problem here is implementation. This could be a milestone for Facebook.
I am glad people are using Facebook less, Twitter is booming and grows everyday. Alot of people are also cashing in on the Twitter Boom!
Bape Nerd | Official A Bathing Ape Nerd
I have linked my Twitter account so that my updates get automatically posted to Facebook.
I get onto Facebook only to check once in a while if there are friend updates or if someone is online.
I do hope Tweetdeck / Sesmic adds chat support to the app. Then it's really worth using.
It's only twitter to the monkeys that only use twitter.
Posted by: Richard Azia
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March 18, 2009 2:20 AM
I tried to do facebook like twitter and ended up annoying the hell out of my facebook friends. But from my view they are two different types of users. I have a lot of non-tech savvy friends on facebook who have either never heard of twitter or have heard and are not interested.
We always try to connect with something I guess so I find one
Good Stuff
thanks
It could be the next Google, with it strong mainstream buzz and rapid growth, the site has lot of potential. Its massive web traffic are considered goldmine, Facebook only problem here is implementation.
not bad for a social networking super site like Facebook. It could be the next Google, with it söve strong mainstream buzz and rapid growth, the site has lot of potential. Its massive web söve traffic are considered goldmine, Facebook only problem here is implementation. This could be a milestone for Facebook
Ben heyecan gibi facebook yapmaya çalıştık ve yukarı benim facebook arkadaşlar dışarı sataşmak cehennem sona erdi. Ama görünümünden kullanıcıların iki farklı türü vardır. Olmayan bir çok teknoloji anlayışlı arkadaşlar