Tweetdeck today made it possible to access Facebook Friends Connect, bringing a Twitter and Facebook love in all the more closer. And why not? Twitter is now rivalling Google in terms of one to one searches and with 7 million users, is growing at 1,382%.
The new function allows you to send your tweets to both Facebook and Twitter, or one or the other (much like Ping.fm and a host of other multi-client update tools). But, do we actually need it?
The first thing however you need to ask is, who is the we, referred to in the question?
When I say we, I am assuming we is are the people who are getting to know Twitter as a friend, not just a fun application or tool. And, this is shortsighted.
I expressed my glee at being able to inform this discovery this afternoon by yelling incoherently across the Spook Towers office at my boss “Look look! They’ve made Tweetdeck and Facebook integrated! It’s great, oh no wait, I don’t need to use that, I’ve got a million different other apps I can use instead It’ll never work.”
Marshall then made the enlightening point that it’s not necessarily for people who are already engrained in twitter’s nuances. It’s a wonderful tool for people who are new to Twitter, and in particular Tweetdeck, who have never played with this sort of multi-client service updating type thinger before (yes, I’m paraphrasing).
So when I say we, as in do we really need Facebook and Tweetdeck to play nicely, the answer is, in short, yes.
It’s all about bringing together different communities – what’s happening here is the amalgamation, gradually, of two entirely different groups of people through one medium (look at Facebook’s all of a sudden slant towards a Friend Feed aesthetic), which will hopefully be of benefit to everyone.
