After Facebook fielded an unsuccessful bid for Twitter in late 2008 it appears that Facebook has decided that if they can’t join them they are going to try beat them at their own game.

The fresh redesign from Facebook annouced today has an undoubtable likeness to the trendy app that has everyone from journalists, celebrities, marketers and politicians Twittering.

Some of the new changes such as major shifts in the design of home page, profile pages, and activity streams outlined in the Techcrunch article show a marked emphasis towards the real-time microblogging platform most frequently associated with Twitter.

So does this signal an end to blossoming growth of Twitter which saw growth of nearly 800% in 2008?

Their estimated user base of approximately 5 million monthly unique visitors is still dwarfed by the reported 68 million monthly unique visitors of Facebook.

However I believe Twitter’s size might just be their greatest advantage in the showdown.

The initial aversion to Twitter is usually followed by the comment: “Why would I want to know what everyone is doing all the time?.” The reality is that Twitter is not for everyone and you have a great degree of control over who you recieve updates from.

Through Twitter I connect with a tight knit community of people that are thinkers and I use it as a back channel to develop my thoughts and ideas. In order to develop that community I have been selective of who I choose to follow and get updates from.

The new design of Facebook in principle is a great idea, however the community I have in Facebook is very different from the one I contribute to through Twitter. I connect with friends, organise my social life, share photos and stream much of my online and offline life through Facebook but the audience and the level of thought engagement I get from Twitter is completely different.

I am really concerned that microblogging on Facebook will become an overwhelming experience with the addition of real-time status updates from people I met in elementary school, Facebook Connected websites, company Pages, miscellaneous relationship status changes and lol cats.

Facebook will do a great job exposing many people to micro-blogging but Twitter will continue to grow as a community for thinkers.

The noisyness and broadness of the social graph of Facebook will continue to make Twitter an attractive option for individuals who are looking to connect and engage with a focused community.

Facebook might become the most effective microblogging platform for Britney Spears but Twitter will continue to evolve as the platform for thought leaders.

Photocredit, Techcrunch