If Twitter's approach to communication in the digital age is short and sweet, it's safe to say that Facebook is trying to establish itself on the opposite end of the spectrum.
Facebook just announced they are once again increasing the maximum character limit for status updates to over 60,000 characters.
To put the new 63,206 character limit in perspective, it's the equivalent to just over 451 tweets! In fact, I'd be able to post this Daily Axioms blog (title and all) more than 44 times in a single status update!
As I alluded to earlier, this is hardly the first time Facebook has increased how much users can post per status update. Here's a quick timeline of the changes:
- Facebook's launch through March 2009: A Twitter-esque 160 characters.
- March 2009-July 2011: More than doubles to 420 characters.
- July 2011-September 2011: Facebook adds an extra half-tweet's worth to make it an even 500 characters.
- September 2011-November 2011: A huge 1000% increase, allowing for 5,000 character updates.
- Today: This latest spike brings the total to 63,206 characters per update.
Granted, just because people can post over 60,000 characters doesn't mean they will. More importantly, will there be a user backlash from news feeds clogged with posts that are long enough to be printed and bound in a library?
How do you feel about Facebook's latest update?