Twitter is Twitter–neither Google nor Facebook

Farhad Manjoo of Slate has done it again by laying out the reasons why the media hype that has recently been surrounding Twitter is all-too-simple. And let’s get this right, people associated with Twitter, including Evan Williams, who recently appeared on the Charlie Rose Show, have fanned the fumes. See his interview below:

Naive questions abound such as:

1. Will it be a Google-killer?
2. Will it be a Facebook-killer?

Manjoo deals with each pretty handily, beginning with the Twitter vs. Google notion. Many, including Twitter people, have been suggesting that Twitter-search is a better “search” than Google because it allows you to search in real-time. Hence, when that plane landed on the Hudson, whereas Google did not have much in the way of links on that particular event since it was unraveling so quickly.

In a recent blog post, John Borthwick, one of Twitter’s investors, explained the value of such a service. Imagine that you’re waiting in line for coffee, and you overhear some people talking about a plane landing on the Hudson. When you go back to your desk, you search Google—and come up with nothing. “The day of the incident there was nothing on the topic to be found on Google,” Borthwick writes. “The same holds for any topical issues—lipstick on a pig?—for real-time questions, real-time branding analysis, tracking a new product launch. On pretty much any subject if you want to know what’s happening now, search.twitter.com will come up with a superior result set.”

Here’s Manjoo’s critique:

…Twitter’s search engine, at the moment, is extremely crude. It sorts results only chronologically, so the best answers are easily swamped by silly ones and people repeating silly ones. Of course, Twitter could improve its search engine. But so could Google. Twitter, remember, is a public database. Everything on Twitter is on the Web and can be analyzed by any other firm—in fact, Twitter’s own search engine began as a startup unaffiliated with Twitter. (Twitter bought that company, Summize, last summer.)

Touche. In other words, Twitter search sucks and Google also indexes tweets from Twitter. But additionally, he asks a question about the very culture of Web search.

How often does anyone need “real time” information on the Web? Yes, in the first few minutes after a plane has landed in the Hudson, Twitter might be the best place to find news. But its advantage is short-lived. By the time TV helicopters begin circling overhead, Twitter becomes decidedly slower and noisier than other media—now you’re much better off going to CNN, where, in addition to a live picture, you’ll find comments from authorities, structured interviews with eyewitnesses, and other old-fashioned journalistic information.

So what about Facebook? We have all seen the recent attempt by Facebook to change their home page UI. But again, Manjoo raises skepticism towards the value of real-time data, which Twitter doesn’t do. It provides real-time sociality. These two are rather different, I think.

In a sign that it recognizes the appeal of Twitter, Facebook announced that it will soon change its home page to allow for immediate updates. You’ll be able to see what your friends are doing right now, just as you can on Twitter. It’s a good move, but probably not revolutionary. Again, I think people overestimate the appeal of “real time” data. There are some instances in which real-time interactions will improve Facebook—when all of your friends are watching the State of the Union address, for example, you might want to watch everyone’s status update change as the speech progresses. But will we be much more satisfied to get our friends’ status updates immediately rather than have to wait 10 minutes? Some people may be overjoyed; most likely won’t notice the difference.

…It’s possible that Twitter could do very well—but probably not as a social network, and probably not as a search engine.

I agree! Can we stop trying to frame Twitter within a paradigm that already exists? And I’m talking to you too Twitter investors and creators. Ya’ll need to quit this Twitter as search business because it’s clearly…what’s the word…desperate?