Facebook has recently changed its format. Some are mad, others delighted, and the rest don't care.

The new format is a microblogging format that allows you to engage in a more "community" type feel with your network. Status updates used to offer this type of interstitial messaging, but Facebook decided to make it the main focus of its network. There is limited text limits update, so all of you JMC majors will get good exercises in producing concise messages. There are even highlights of what's the more important things that are happening within your network. The problem is, you never know who is choosing them, and ironically enough there are surreptitious ad placements and a whole myriad of consumer feed back options. Rather than continuing on with arbitrary pros and cons of the new format, I'd like to explore exactly why Facebook decided to head in this direction.

As of last fall Facebook has been having talks with Twitter, expressing their interest to buy out the microblog site. The two sat down under a month ago and continued talks, but Facebook failed to capture Twitter's interest in the deal. The issue was a matter of stock value. While recent economic changes have devalued stocks via inflation, companies are tending to overprice their shares. While Microsoft once saw Facebook stock to be at an estimated $15 billion, its recent open-market value was placed around $3.7 billion. Facebook even offered Twitter $500 million upfront in cash to sweeten the deal, but Twitter has other focuses on expanding their own network instead of selling.

So if you can't beat 'em, copy 'em. Facebook now has decided to compete within the same networking format. Most likely, they will succeed, that is if their users do not voice enough concern about this change. Also, where else are their network users going to go for a college orientated networking experience? It may just be time for us to get down to the knitty gritty and polish our writing to work within new microblogging confines.