The break down of the micro-socials for the unaware/uneducated
Twitter vs. Pownce vs. Instant Messaging: Twitter.com and Pownce.com are nearly the same thing. Twitter has messages limited up to 140 characters. Pownce has no limitation and has the ability to send files / links / events as well. Pownce has Amazon S3 technology baked in for the file transfers and such. Both have a free service. Pownce has a "Go Pro" that gives you no ads and more file space to send stuff through (250 MB) for $20 a year. Similiar to Flickr, you also have a "pro" badge on your icon.
One would ask, why use Twitter then? It's the oldest and more estabilished in terms of people that use it. The network stability on both leave something to be desired. Pownce is growing, but not fast enough. Proof, Kevin Rose (founder of Digg, co-founder of Pownce) is one of the top ten twitters. I checked to see what he's doing and it appears that he's keeping his social stuff on Twitter and putting his links to files/media over on Pownce. So, I guess even Mr. Rose can't ignore the popularity of Twitter.
Twitter/Pownce live somewhere in between blogging / instant messaging. It's micro-blogging really. Random small shit throughtout the day without necessarily making a blog entry or it's not worth making a blog entry about. It hasn't impeded or impacted my capabilities of posting to LJ (obviously, much to your chagrin, I'm sure).
Twitter/Pownce is not instant messaging. Nor should it be treated as such. Despite that, some people use it as instant messaging. As pig2k3 reminded me on a day I overtweeted, it can get annoying. Instant messaging is more 1 on 1 (or many if you're having a group conversation), but twittering/powncing is for farting in the breeze and not particularly caring who smelled it. There are some direct farting that you can do, but for the rest of the twittering world, it's a one sided fart unless you're friended by both farters.
Both services have an API readily available to get tweets/pownces up on your website if you choose. Both of them have tons of people developing their own Adobe Air Application (Twhirl, Snitter, PownceMonkey, etc) that run as a desktop application if you don't want your browser open all the time. One particular client Twhirl has the ability to rebroadcast to Pownce if you don't feel like re-tweeting/powncing. It does a decent enough job of keeping direct tweets where they belong (on twitter) and keeping generic messages on both.
Why yes, I can ramble on about technology and useless shit. Why do you ask?
One would ask, why use Twitter then? It's the oldest and more estabilished in terms of people that use it. The network stability on both leave something to be desired. Pownce is growing, but not fast enough. Proof, Kevin Rose (founder of Digg, co-founder of Pownce) is one of the top ten twitters. I checked to see what he's doing and it appears that he's keeping his social stuff on Twitter and putting his links to files/media over on Pownce. So, I guess even Mr. Rose can't ignore the popularity of Twitter.
Twitter/Pownce live somewhere in between blogging / instant messaging. It's micro-blogging really. Random small shit throughtout the day without necessarily making a blog entry or it's not worth making a blog entry about. It hasn't impeded or impacted my capabilities of posting to LJ (obviously, much to your chagrin, I'm sure).
Twitter/Pownce is not instant messaging. Nor should it be treated as such. Despite that, some people use it as instant messaging. As pig2k3 reminded me on a day I overtweeted, it can get annoying. Instant messaging is more 1 on 1 (or many if you're having a group conversation), but twittering/powncing is for farting in the breeze and not particularly caring who smelled it. There are some direct farting that you can do, but for the rest of the twittering world, it's a one sided fart unless you're friended by both farters.
Both services have an API readily available to get tweets/pownces up on your website if you choose. Both of them have tons of people developing their own Adobe Air Application (Twhirl, Snitter, PownceMonkey, etc) that run as a desktop application if you don't want your browser open all the time. One particular client Twhirl has the ability to rebroadcast to Pownce if you don't feel like re-tweeting/powncing. It does a decent enough job of keeping direct tweets where they belong (on twitter) and keeping generic messages on both.
Why yes, I can ramble on about technology and useless shit. Why do you ask?