Facebook is run by someone who is comfortable with the way the pieces fit together in software, where Twitter can't manage what seems a fairly simple corner-turn. Twitter needs to evolve a new higher-level product, where the current Twitter is the machine room, the newsroom, the table in the conference room off to the side of the newsroom. They have the news system of the future, all they have to do it experiment with a variety of different styles of presentation. They would have gotten there a lot sooner with less risk if they had left the developer community alone, but they could still do it if they had a flexible, gutsy sort of Zuck or Gates at the helm. That was the power of Gates, he didn't mind shipping a shitty product, and then completely changing the way it worked based on what they learned in the market. Twitter needs to do some of that. Zuck, with a lot more to lose, seems willing to roll the dice. This seems like a replay of Microsoft versus Lotus in the early 90s. Anyway, I'm rambling (no 140-character limit here). Go read Ryan's piece. It's really worth it. #