The skinnier, younger sister of Facebook just hit puberty and everybody seems to be doing a double take. Just like Jamie-Lynn Spears (pre-preggo) and Ali Lohan (pre-Lindsay deciding she might like a girl who looks like a boy), everyone is checking out this cute little number called Twitter. ‘Twitter’ even sounds cuter than ‘Facebook,’ but, like Ali and JL, it doesn’t have the star power of its predecessor.
Two years after that Harvard guy knocked MySpace out of competition in 2004, Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Noah Glass and Biz Stone launched Twitter into the social networking blogosphere. Unlike Facebook, the quad decided Twitter would simply consist of status updates called tweets, and a limited profile, all accessible via web, SMS text and mobile applications for PDAs, Blackberrys and iPhones.
After its 2006 launch, the micro-blogging-meets-social-networking site needed some serious re-vamping to compete with its hotter, more popular older sister. So, Twitter got a makeover and by mid-2007, the site was climbing the ranks to the third-largest social networking site ‘-‘- by 2009, Twitter had 6 million users and 55 million monthly visitors while beating Facebook by 53 percent in higher monthly visitor rates. And with the help of celebrity users such as Britney Spears, Jimmy Fallon and Shaquille O’Neal, news outlets and corporations (The New York Times, CNN, Whole Foods and Jet Blue to name a few),’ Twitter is on its way to being the most popular girl in school.
Tweeters have since become addicted to following their friends and family members, favorite celebs and companies, while updating the World Wide Web on what exactly it is that they’re doing/saying/thinking right this second ‘-‘- in 140 characters or less.
Where Twitter outdoes Facebook is by including more up-to-date news and information. Our web-obsession with staying in-the-loop could get dangerous, but for now, Twitter’ seems like a healthy infatuation.
Much like our favorite celebrity’s little sisters, Twitter’s 15 minutes of fame has probably hit minute five or six and it could very well be an afterthought by this time next year. Hopefully, the jump in interest will create some sibling rivalry and get Facebook to add timely news and corporation features that would allow us to stay connected not only with friends, but also with hot topics, up-to-the-minute news, and controvertial issues.
Speaking of sibling rivalry, doesn’t the recently updated Facebook look a little familiar? I guess it raided Twitters closet for a new wardrobe. Let’s just hope the new duds will fit.
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