The battle between the three big social networks is really hitting new heights these days, with Facebook, Twitter and Google+ all vying for our time. With so much choice in a world which was previously dominated by the one real option, Facebook, all three contenders are now fighting to find ways to differentiate themselves from the competition to give users a reason to use not just one network, but two or maybe all three for different reasons.
Take Facebook and Twitter as an example. Facebook has always been centered around family and friends and this is borne out in the way the site handles images, video and information.
Twitter by contrast is more of an echo-chamber. Designed as a way to bark content out to whoever will listen, Twitter’s creators took the decision to limit updates to just 140 characters, the same as SMS was back in the day.
Then there is Google+.
Google is clearly trying to find a halfway house between the two extremes of Twitter and Facebook, and as such they have a much higher character limit to Twitter, giving users to option of using Google+ as a surrogate blog. Why go through the hassle of keeping a separate blog updated when you can just update Google Plus?
Now Facebook has joined the ranks of the social networks offering huge character limits by upping theirs to a mahoosive 63,206 characters. Yep, that’s a lot of space to tell the world what you’re having for your dinner!
For comparison, Google’s character limit is around 100,000 characters, after which the system simply says something has gone wrong and asks you to try again. Still, we’re fairly sure you can get everything off your chest inside 100,000 characters.
But why the odd number of 63,206 you ask? Well, the answer is suitably geeky, according to Facebook’s Bob Baldwin.
I set the exact limit to something nerdy. Facebook … Face Boo K … hex(FACE) – K … 64206 – 1000 = 63206 :-).
Yep. That’s pretty geeky alright!
We’re still not sure which of the three social networks is our favorite, or even if we have a favorite. Add Path to the equation with its very impressive iPhone app, and things are really hotting up.
(via ZDNet)
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