Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mbrubeck 4099 days ago
> Even if I used Twitter, it wouldn't be hard to just go find all the same people on Facebook or whatever and follow them there.

The fact that Twitter overlaps with other services like Facebook doesn't mean it's not valuable. For example, to take one of your own examples:

> If Google decided to start charging $10/mo for search? A lot of people would pay it.

"Even if I used Google, it wouldn't be hard to just go enter the same searches on Bing or DuckDuckGo and find web sites there instead."
2 comments
copsarebastards 4099 days ago
> "Even if I used Google, it wouldn't be hard to just go enter the same searches on Bing or DuckDuckGo and find web sites there instead."

Okay, go try that and compare the results.

It's not about overlapping, it's about it being equivalent. Bing and DuckDuckGo are not equivalent to Google. They are inferior products. That may change (I hope it does) but for now that is how it is.

link
mbrubeck 4098 days ago
You could make the same counter-argument about Facebook and Twitter. If you really think they're interchangeable, that just tells me that you don't value the things that many of their users do.

Edit: Downvoted your original comment by accident, and there's no undo button. Sorry. :( Maybe someone else reading this can fix that?

link
copsarebastards 4098 days ago
> You could make the same counter-argument about Facebook and Twitter. If you really think they're interchangeable, that just tells me that you don't value the things that many of their users do.

I don't think you could. Facebook doesn't offer an inferior product to Twitter, it offers products that are effectively the same, and come packaged with other products.

I really don't think many people value the 140-character limit, which is the only core difference between Twitter and Facebook feeds.

I can totally identify with the criticism that I don't value the same things as Twitter/Facebook users (I don't have accounts on either service). But I think I'm capable of empathizing with them and extrapolating what they value from each product.

link
army 4099 days ago
Even if Toyota went away, it wouldn't be so hard to just go and buy a Mazda or whatever and drive that around.
link