Its started again.  No sooner has a new social media tool hit the headlines the rumours are out about acquisition, merger, and how the latest social phenomenon is going to destroy the competition in one way or another.

Im obviously talking about twitter, the latest social tool to be all the range in the digital world, and big news in the mainstream media as well.  I expect the purchase rumours, twitter needs it if it is going to stay ahead of the game and solve its infrastructure issues.  But it seems every second article I read now is about why twitter is going to replace Facebook, or why it is the tool to end the search engines dominance online, but I am not really buying it.

I use twitter, I am on Facebook, I use Google and pretty much any other online tool of any great use as well, and I can safely say, no one of those which I use has reduced the amount I use the others or replaced them in any way.  I use Google for my search activity (or live search if I get bored), I catch up with old and distant friends on Facebook, and us twitter for industry news and general commentary on life.  So why does everyone want to merge them, compare them, or pit them against each other in a social media/online battle?

Fresh Egg ponders whether twitter might take business away from Google, techcrunch taks about Facebook stealing twitters market (although suggesting it isn’t likely) and many other bloggers and social commentators debate why and who twitter is going to replace.  Can they all not co-exist on their own merits without the desire to imitate, acquire or destroy one another?  Or is it just a symptom of the evolving social world we live in where every new venture is set to be bought by one of the more established players?