Loving the Wimpy references! I remember going to a Wimpy birthday party in Edmonton. Crazy days

Facebook used to be my main ‘virtual hangout’ but I’m spending less time there in favour of Twitter. People are already moving on to FriendFeed as their main hub. I think aggregation tools like FriendFeed is the future. Combines Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc all into one.

Facebook has been brilliant at introducing a new method of communicating to a mainstream audience. Granted, we were all familiar with email but the concept of sharing photos, videos, links, etc. has been made popular via Facebook. It succeeded where sites like Flickr and MySpace failed – it made things simple.

As for Twitter, it is making conversation even simpler. By stripping down the rules of engagement. 140 characters, no detailed sign-up, limiting communication to text-only, etc.

It will undoubtedly develop, adding more complex features in the same way Facebook has but what makes Twitter so endearing today should stay at the heart of any product development.

Like the blog, by the way.

It gives me tools to share stuff like videos and photos. I can let people know exactly what I’m doing, with who and how.
I use facebook on my cell phone which means that i can always stay in touch. But i’m not real friends with the majority of my facebook community. a lot are just people i met once at a party or through a friend.

What will Facebook look like in five years’ time?

I hope it won’t change too much. i like facebook chat but it it a bit buggy. hope they sort this out.

What will Twitter look like on its fifth birthday?

don’t use it.

It’s gone from being a photo storage site to being a spam tool for companies.

I’ve gone back to email.

Twitter is interesting but again – lots of spam.

2. In 5 years, Facebook will hopefully still be around but I think it will be bought out by someone soon. Most of the world will have a profile and every company will connect to customers through their fan pages.

3. Twitter will definitely need to have more than 140 characters to go mainstream.

Great post. What i think is that FB will not be around in 10 years in its current form. it will have been bought by a giant like microsoft or google (or micro-google!) and will incorporate email, VOIP, TV, etc.

I am a big fan of fb. not sure about twitter.

I thought about your 3 questions and here is my response to each of them:

1. Facebook is one of the best ways I stay connected to the friends, companies, brands, tv shows that I am most interested in following. They have brought my entire network closer which is an amazing thing. It’s done this because it enabled people to share things in easy way.

2. Facebook will be completely connected with applications, web sites, devices, any interactive experience you have can be then shared with everyone. The process has started with Facebook Connect and I think we will see greater adoption within a 5 year period. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess but I personally would like to see ecommerce/payment platform built on top of Facebook.

3. Twitter progresses at much slower pace then Facebook so I don’t think Twitter itself will be very different then it is now. I know monetization will be important to them so we could see Ads or Twitter Pro by then, but I am not sure. That said, Twitter’s API allows for great flexibility so it will be up to outside developers to leverage that and push how we interact and use Twitter by their 5th birthday.