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Twitter Alternatives – Plurk Or Pownce

6 June, 2008

Social Media, Start-Ups, Twitter, Web 2.0

plurkvspownce Twitter Alternatives Plurk Or PownceIt’s no surprise that twitter can be a bit unstable from time to time. Twitter is probably the only service I know that’s almost more down than it’s up, and still have a loyal fan base and increase it’s number of users.

But what are the alternatives?

There are a lot of similar micro-blogging services out there, but can they replace twitter?

If you take a look at the various alternatives to twitter are they really an alternative?

Pownce:

About a year ago I wrote a post about Pownce and twitter. I compare the two services, but what really hit me was, that a year ago I wrote that twitter is unstable.

Twitter is still unstable and Pownce hasn’t replaced twitter. Why is that?

Pownce doesn’t have the simplicity of twitter. No one (except a few) has really bothered making any services for Pownce either and perhaps Pownce is just too feature-heavy?!

As always you are welcome to friend me on Pownce.

Plurk:

The brand new microblogging tool is called Plurk and everybody are talking/blogging about it. It’s probably the closest thing at the moment to twitter.

The timeline is very different and takes a little getting-used-to. However when some of your friends plurk, you can respond directly to their plurks by just clicking on it.

Plurk has a clever little extra thing that might be addicting to some users. It’s called Karma. It’s a score and the more you plurk, respong to plurks and add friends, the more Karma you get.

All the big blogger people are plurking. If they like it might breakthrough. Perhaps they should have waited and launched Plurk at some big blogger conference. That’s what twitter and Friendfeed did.

Add me as a friend on Plurk.

Some might also see Friendfeed as an alternative to twitter, but honestly I haven’t really jumped on the Friendfeed bandwagon yet.

I’m still not sure what to do with Friendfeed, but I would love to know, so if you have any advice or ideas, please don’t hesitate to share.

Which tool do you see as an alternative to twitter? Will you stick with twitter or move to another microblogging service?

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About Dennis Bjørn Petersen

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  • Harry

    I like plurk so far, though it’s having it’s share of stability problems. The thing that makes pownce a non-contender for me is the lack of IM integration. Others may feel that SMS is more important, but IM is far and away my preferred method of interfacing with these kind of services, to both post entries and get notified of other’s.

    Of course, both twitter and plurk’s IM bots are down at the moment, so….

  • http://mrsmicah.com Mrs. Micah

    I might well use these. There are so many people on Twitter and the twhirl desktop app works really well for me (unless Twitter is crashing) so I don’t want to switch. I find it a useful networking tool and a way of feeling connected when I’m working from home. But it’s not critical to my work so I can do without it.

  • http://minute44.com Dan

    Nice comparison. You know I think you hit the nail on the head when you said Pownce is too feature heavy and complicated for just quick 10 second microblogging.

    Plurk sounds really good and I think I’m gonna give it a go. The one click reply thing is nothing new to Twitter users who use Twhirl/Snitter/Twitteriffic etc but this Karma thing actually sounds pretty cool. Are there any clients for Plurk? I don’t want to have to open a new FF tab to post updates…

    Dan

  • http://www.thebetanews.com Dennis Bjørn Petersen

    @Harry: I’ve never really used IM to post on twitter. Do you get your replies in your IM-client too?

    @Mrs. Micah: Welcome to TBN. Good to have you here! Twhirl is definitely my favourite desktop app too. Now if only twitter would remain stable it would be even better ;)

    @Dan: Plurk’s biggest drawback at the moment is the lack of an API. I want plurk in twhirl.
    So for now you need another tab in FF :-/

  • Harry

    @Dennis – yup, when it’s working, both tweeting and receiving followed tweets occur via IM (assuming you set that device on).

    I’ve been playing with ping.fm and it allows me to post to both twitter and plurk via IM (to ping.fm’s bot) and that get’s me halfway there, but not being able to receive is a bummer – I feel like I’m talking to myself.

  • http://minute44.com Dan

    I used Plurk for a week and then noticed people just getting pissed off with it and leaving. Twitter is a forgiving old bird…. taking you back after you’ve cheated on her.

    I also was quite put off Plurk by the number of 13 and 14 year olds on it.

  • http://thesimiandowntimeanalyst.com The Simian Downtime Analyst

    Rejaw.

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    Very interesting post. Will definately bookmark this blog to check back later.
    Thanks!

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    Nice post. Have added you on RSS to keep myself updated.

  • http://patentsfromru.com Russian Patents

    I am now favoring Plurk for the following reasons:
    1) The community seems to respond faster and in bigger groups to Plurks.
    2) Interesting interface that makes it easy to hold multiple conversations.
    3) So far, the down time I’ve noticed is minimal and when it does happen, the service snaps back quickly.
    4) Filtering system which allows you to group your Plurks in several different ways.
    5) Fast responsiveness of the system and real time updating.

  • http://www.grandonk.net grandonk

    plurk is better as twitter alternatives
    have used it for few weeks and i'm happy with the result

  • http://www.thebetanews.com Dennis Bjørn Petersen

    What did you like about plurk? I'm still not used to it

  • http://www.bethelshopfitting.com.au Shop Fitting

    Pownce looks like a fierce competitor to Twitter. It's about time Twitter had a run for the money.

  • http://xtremax.com SEO

    Plurk has really come up with good innovative idea.. But I guess still it won’t overcome twitter.. May be the reason is that people have become addicted towards twitter and it would take a long time to make its position stable in the market.. But if they keep on bringing new innovations in their application, no doubt would soon cross twitter..

  • cheap_textbooks

    Nothing will ever beat twitter lol

  • http://www.hotel-booking-bangkok.com Hotels Bangkok

    Twitter is an established website and even if new sites are better they simply can't replace the older more established website.