[gehant]

Facebook is copying Twitter's syntax...if anything it shows that Facebook is playing catch-up.

Twitter's advantage is still very distinct: public, compact thought streams that can be easily sliced and diced.

So why is Twitter in trouble? Facebook has semi-public, disparate data that is difficult to parse

[madebylaw]

Twitter is in trouble because a website with more features (photo albums, apps, blah blah) and a larger community has been consistently adding all of twitter's 'killer' features to their own site. Question: What's to stop facebook from adding public status updates or any other distinct twitter feature? Answer: nothing.

[gehant]

What's to stop facebook...

Their users - they expect privacy. Facebook, like its predecessors, is a walled garden.

[unalone]

Public status updates were already introduced.

[TrevorJ]

And blogs had 'more features' than Twitter too, but as they have proven, artificial constraints can make something popular. The minimalism is pretty much the point.

[unalone]

Can't a site copy another site without it being an attempt to destroy that site? Facebook and Twitter are used very differently, and it would take a lot of backpedaling for Facebook to begin to usurp Twitter's userbase—which is doesn't have to, since the average Twitter user has a Facebook account.