Twitter and the Downfall of Social Networking
One of the great things about the folks at Twitter is that they really stick to what they’re good at and they let the community define what they want out of the service. So much so that they’ve responded with some really great community-driven Twitter services.
MySpace
The downfall of MySpace started when users were given too much control in design their profiles. Then the spam started pouring in like crazy. Everyone had a MySpace account, even corporations, and they were all collecting “friends”. Profiles became bloated and ugly; and shortly after that, a viable alternative came along and users started migrating over to Facebook in an attempt to flee the spam.
Facebook solved the MySpace design problem by removing that level of control from the users. Then (maybe to make up for it) they opened up to customizations through user-created applications. And the downward spiral began, yet again.
Users began abusing the apps and we were all subject to invites to Mafia teams and Vampire squads.
It’s gotten so bad that I can’t log into Facebook without some sort of asinine notification or spam coming from one of these wonderful apps generated by the “community”. You know there’s no way Facebook will step in and take control of the apps, so we just have to find ways around them as they add in (false sense of) security features.
Unfortunately, when we look at these 2 monsters of social networking, it appears that the problems all start with giving users too much control.
Do they actually want control?
Where’s the problem? Is it a perception of the user? Or is it that I’m way off base here, and the user actually wants a web site they can be totally engulfed in all day long? I’m not convinced users want the amount of control sites like Facebook and MySpace give them.
I know millions of people use Facebook apps, but maybe they’re just using them because they’re available. I don’t get the feeling that if all these apps never existed anyone would really care. I didn’t hear anyone complain about lack of control in Facebook before the apps came along; not a single person. They were just happy to get out of MySpace.
Look at what Twitter’s done so far:
- They’ve stripped down user profiles – no one cares
- They gave you very controlled design options – there’s been no outcry
- The pretty much made your personal Twitter page useless – I’m not even sure anyone has noticed
- They allow almost anyone to follow your updates – so what?
If anything, the Twitter model is showing us users just want some core functionality. They really don’t want a place they can list their favorite books, movies and TV shows; it’s all just fluff.
Telling the user no
Twitter’s found a way to let us know that what we want isn’t a priority for them. And by using a “Do it yourself” attitude and releasing a well thought out and flexible API, we love them for it. It’s a little twisted, but it’s working really well. They’re picking and choosing what users have requested they want to address.
By releasing an API with so many options Twitter’s essentially hired thousands of developers for free to build add-ons to their site that are completely independent from Twitter (that have nothing to do with pirates OR vampires). And it allows them to really focus on features they think are important like search and giving a false sense of control.
Telling the community “if you want it, build it yourself, but keep it out of my site” accomplishes something Facebook really fails at: keeping out the crap. By forcing these user apps to be external you can cut out the spam and let users find them on their own. Of course, we’re already starting to see the much anticipated “Twitter Trends” starting to get hit with spam.
Great services that came from the community
Giving power to the community is a good thing, but if we learned anything from MySpace and Facebook it’s that this power needs to be well thought out and controlled in a way where the users don’t feel like they’re being controlled.
Whomever can come up with that will come out as the real social networking giant.
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Amen.
Good post, very thought-provoking. As the dude responsible for UX + IA, I often want to provide users with a sense of control and the actual means to control stuff.
Your words here resonated really well with me – sometimes (often?) users actually just want to get in and out quickly, and the less config, settings and overall tweaking they have to do, the better.
Thx
It was supposed to be a post about neat twitter add-ons, but it quickly ballooned into something a little bigger.
Glad you enjoyed it!
That’s brilliant! All I need to succeed is to create a Twitter app that includes one or more of the following:
vampires
zombies
pirates
ninjas
mafia
Why has no-one else thought of this yet?! I’ll be back in week when I’ve taken over the Twitter world
LOL! You have a point there
I agree wholeheartedly!! Facebook, MySpace, etc. are so cluttered with friend requests and application notifications that the experience is just unbearable. The number one thing that people wish they can take back is saying “yes” to the on pouring of requests. By the way, nice re-design!
I don’t think MySpace or Facebook will be dying off anytime soon. For every person that hates vampire requests there’s like 3 more people that love those stupid apps. It’s all about demographics. Just because you don’t like Facebook doesn’t mean it’s going to die off anytime soon.
Did you even read the article? That’s not what he’s saying at all. He’s talking about user control.
I’d argue that it’s somewhat “apples and oranges”. Twitter fills a different niche than Facebook. FB wants to be a one-stop shop for anything you might want to communicate to anyone in any way (including, among many other features, a status update). Twitter is ONLY a status update. It’s a giant Swiss Army knife vs. a toothpick. Both have their uses.
I officially dub this article “refreshing”
How can i frame work before template create
testing out the new comment form!
I agree that spam and ugly profiles destroyed Myspace. Facebook messed up by having people make suggestions of apps to other people and also by having apps constantly pop-up on your notification bar. While Twitter is okay, I have found that it is only a good tool for those trying to receive attention. While this is okay if you are an artist (like I am), it seems somewhat awkward to communicate on. Between keeping the flow of conversations going (a thread style would be more suitable) and trying to RT and answer someone back with the limitations of 140 characters, it’s annoying.
Ha, it’s all about communication right? We won’t die without any of it! Twitter, Myspace, Facebook is all just something to keep us with something to do… but I dig it.