Twitter To Go It Alone, Leaves Facebook Deal On The Table

I have stopped using Facebook, basically. And while my personal preferences in social tools shouldn't really be taken as some reflection of where the population of users are headed, my instincts are that I am a bellwether, an indication of things to come.

Facebook's model of interaction and the user experience has a very established model, one in which Facebook intrudes too significantly, for my taste. So I don't buy the valuation or the plans for its central role as a platform for social applications.

Therefore, I think Twitter -- specifically Ev Williams and his senior team and board -- have done the right thing by walking away from a deal with Facebook, as reported by Kara Swisher and echoed by others:

[from When Twitter Met Facebook: The Acquisition Deal That Fail-Whaled by Kara Swisher]

But, more important, it seems, was a feeling among Twitter investors and execs that the start-up should still take a shot at building its revenues–there are none right now–as well as it had done at building its growth.

I agree that there are many obvious ways for Twitter to start making money, and they should do so, as soon as practical.

Meanwhile, I expect that Facebook's valuation will start to fall. The new millenium's equivalent of AOL, although the econolypse may have burst their growth bubble before they could start gobbling up media companies.