Ok, maybe it's too early for me to say this (having only registered with
Plurk this morning and still in the stage of calling it Plunk) but I just cannot see how Twitter can compete with it in the future.
If I had to name one thing about Plurk that kills Twitter it would have to be the ability to reply to plurks (or tweets, as old-fashioned people call them). It sounds simple but it truly is a wonderful way to interact with people, and the user experience works. It REALLY works. You can keep track of conversations easily and enjoy a truly interactive experience.
Twitter does what it does really well, but Plurk is better at doing it. You don't have to load page after page to catch up on conversations and you can see replies to your tweets easily - in Twitter it's nigh on impossible sometimes. Add in a host of downtime and huge delays in tweeting and suddently Twitter doesn't look so clever.
The acid test? I now check Plurk before I check Twitter. My conversations are much more in-depth and interactive and the whole thing hasn't turned into a URL dumping spam fest (yet - give it time!).
But I'm a balanced kind of guy. How about a reason why Plurk won't be able to take over from Twitter?
Plurk needs people to move from Twitter, and if the people on Twitter cannot face the move to another tool (and I had serious reservations about doing it) then Plurk will die. Twitter's only saving grace is the sheer number of people in its user base. Plurk has an uphill battle to convince people to move from a still, very cool tool, to a new tool which is currently unproven. But I do wonder if we've reached a tipping point in the last couple of days.
Criticisms? The tag line doesn't work for me. What on earth does 'My life, on the line mean?'. Am I going to die if I register? Geez!
So what's my advice? Check it out. If you don't like it then go back to Twitter. But give it 30 mins and interact with a few conversations and I reckon you'll be hooked.
Twitter, it's been fun but it's time to move on. I'll still be with you because you have loads of cool people tweeting, but once they come over to
Plurk then it's going to be the end of a beautiful, but rather short-lived relationship.
Check this article out on ReadWriteWeb for a review of Plurk (opens in new window).
And if you need a friend to make you look like the coolest of the cool then I'm here:
http://www.plurk.com/user/gspowart (opens in new window).
Print | posted on Thursday, June 05, 2008 12:41 PM