Facebook last week announced that it will be making easier for Facebook status updates to be accessed outside the platform. This has led some to suggest that it might be the first step in tackling the Twitter-boom.

Mike Butcher has a very strong counter-argument over on TechCrunch.

It is an interesting move. Facebook remains very much a walled garden, a network. And rightly so. There is so much information on a personal Facebook profile that you wouldn’t want to share with the whole world.

Twitter is very different. It is based on the fact that everything is open. As Mike says:

“Twitter totally changed the model in social networks. Previously the model had been “friend” someone. Facebook requires consent for ‘following’. Twitter totally switched it to ‘Follow’.”

Facebook opening up a little bit will help add some of the functionality of the Twitter model but, in many ways, the two are like chalk and cheese.

Facebook is great for sharing content and ideas with those you know well. Twitter is a great way of communicating with a wide range of people who you might or might not know in ‘real life’.

As Jemima Kiss suggests, the real battle for both networks won’t be trying to win one over on the other, rather find a way to truly monetise their success…

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