Comments on: Pownce Opens Up

By: Heidi Cool

Heidi Cool — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 01:11:45 +0000

I rarely use Twitter, but Pownce daily. I see them as different tools with different uses. While Judi just needs quick easy-to-follow updates, I rely on the longer conversational discussions on Pownce. And while it is social, a majority of my Pownce friends are also in Web related fields. They’re a great resource for idea sharing, brainstorming, the quest for best practices and as a resource to answer questions.

By: veronicaromm

veronicaromm — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:47:31 +0000

I hated twitter and find Pownce a bit better. We will see.

By: João Almeida

João Almeida — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:36:48 +0000

@Nima
That’s probably the 1000000 dollar question right now: how and where Google will integrate Jaiku?

By: Nima Negahban

Nima Negahban — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:59:25 +0000

@Judi

I think you hit the nail on the head , those ‘extras’ that pownce offers is already offered by the myriad of groupware/email services out there.

I think the elephant in the room is jaiku now with google aquisition, already everyone I know uses google docs almost effortlessly , I can see jaiku integrating with google docs and gmail, and gtalk.

In my mind it’s just really hard to compete with google in any sort of broad range collaboration service unless you already have a well established user base.

But best of luck to them! It’s not easy starting your own thing.

By: Judi Sohn

Judi Sohn — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:15:47 +0000

@btard, @Adam, you’re both right. Pownce is nothing like Twitter and isn’t really competition. Pownce is more like Jaiku or even Tumblr in that respect.

But personally, I have no intention of using anything but Twitter. Why? Because I don’t want to share events, files, or engage in threaded conversations in a presence app. For me, in a window floating off to the side that I engage with throughout my day in a peripheral way, Twitter’s 140 character limit and text-only focus is just right.

I’m not sure I see Twitter’s so-called lack of functionality as a shortcoming. Maybe they don’t either. All I want from Twitter is speed and reliability. The 3rd party applications take care of the rest.

By: João Almeida

João Almeida — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:30:29 +0000

Pownce had, until a couple of months ago, a huge handicap: there was no public API, which meant the updates were limited to the web page and the AIR application. That’s the main difference when comparing to Twitter where, along with the much larger user base, you can update it from various different sources: web, messenger, sms, rss feed and a lot more.

By: David

David — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:27:36 +0000

Twitter does seem limited and a bit of a waste of time. Pownce’s functionality is streets ahead. But as has been pointed out until it has critical mass its usefulness is limited.

I was a beta user but as I am outside Silicon Valley\USA nobody I know was on it.

Facebook is really gotten hold of folks here in the UK but even that took a while and we have some of the highest internet use in the world.

I may shoot Kevin et all an email to get the PR machine working over here. I would like to see it catch on.

By: Lisha Sterling

Lisha Sterling — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 07:59:43 +0000

I’m currently using Twitter as a team management tool. I’ve got guys doing tech support and web development. When my boss asks me what they’ve been doing all day, I point her to the Twitter Badge Page that I made with everyone’s Twitter badges on it.

It’s not just a top-down thing, either. Everyone knows what everyone else is up to, and people can offer assistance or send each other relevant information throughout the day. The also know what I’m doing, and when it’s good to call or IM me or when I’m ignoring their IM’s because I’m in a meeting.

By: btard

btard — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:10:39 +0000

@Adam C, agreed with you 100%

By: btard

btard — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:09:26 +0000

pownce is nothing like twitter. i suppose they would be more similar if twitter had the same functionality and displayed the information associated with such functionality.

oh btw the adobe air app was there for a while :)

@josh holmes, sticking to twitter just for the user base? do you have that many “friends” on there?

@matt blodgett, twitter is not at all very well implemented, it’s pretty sucky, but’s thats my non tech opinion.