Pownce Opens Up
January 22nd, 2008 (11:00am) Mike Gunderloy 16 Comments
We’re so used to the web sites and services we use being in perpetual beta (GMail anyone?) that it comes as somewhat of a surprise when one actually launches. But that’s what happened today with social network Pownce: it’s not a beta service, and now anyone who wants to can just sign up and join without an invitation.
Along with the official launch comes a new version of their Adobe Air based desktop client, as well as a few new features on the web site (notably including import of your social network from Digg, Facebook, Flickr, or Twitter). The core functionality of Pownce remains unchanged, with simple sending for messages, links, files, and events, and the ability to post messages to individuals, the world, or specific groups of your friends.
Ultimately, though, Pownce adoption continues to be held back by the same factor we identified in our original review: most people see Pownce as a direct Twitter competitor (even though the Pownce folks continue to insist otherwise) and right now the critical mass of attention and users remains with Twitter. Until Pownce does something striking to change this perception, or Twitter stumbles worse than they have so far, the sort of incremental improvements Pownce has been making seem unlikely to attract substantial mindshare.
Does the official launch of Pownce make a difference to you? Are you waiting for Jaiku to rise from the ashes of its Google acquisition? Happy with Twitter? Or do you just think all of these services are too silly to use?
16 Comments Post your own comment
T says: January 22nd, 2008 11:29am
Twitter (and Pownce) are pointless and do nothing but waste time.
Margi says: January 22nd, 2008 12:45pm
I can *almost* see the usefulness of these services in a work situation. If I squint and tilt my head to one side.
Otherwise? I see them [Pownce, Twitter, et al.] like MySpace. Social networking. Not so much work networking. Too young for me, but a great way to keep up with my teenagers. (The novelty of an Old Lady on each is enough for my own amusement.)
Josh holmes says: January 22nd, 2008 12:46pm
Twitter and Pownce are only as valuable as the people that are there. Twitter still has the momentum – so I’m sticking with Twitter. It doesn’t really matter what new bells and whistles Pownce adds until they get more poeple in.
Matt Blodgett says: January 22nd, 2008 12:49pm
I love the idea of Twitter, and I use it all the time, but the implementation is _horrible_.
I’m really hoping that Jaiku/Google will eat Twitter’s lunch.
Komra Moriko says: January 22nd, 2008 6:09pm
I use Twitter all the time and find it useful to point me to new resources I would never have found, webworkerdaily.com being one I found through communications on twitter. I’ve installed Pownce, but as such have no current use for it, though I am interested in the events search/sharing…
Adam C. says: January 22nd, 2008 9:06pm
Pownce is not just another Twitter clone. It’s much MORE than Twitter.
Tell me.. Can you do the following on Twitter with-out having additional, outside the service help:
* Write a note greater than 140 characters
* Share a link with-out having to shorten the URL
* Share a file
* Share an event
Let’s see… No, No, No and No. On Twitter, if you want to write more than 140 characters, you have to write on a blog, or in more than one tweet… URLs, well, if it’s less than 140 characters, but then there’s no room for a description… Files? Nope, you need an FTP site to put them on. Events? I don’t even know how you’d share it.
The point is, Pownce is not a direct competitor to Twitter. It’s in a whole different league. I don’t see any reason the two services can’t co-exist. Besides, through the use of Twitterfeed, I can get my Pownces into Twitter.
btard says: January 22nd, 2008 9:09pm
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.
btard says: January 22nd, 2008 9:10pm
@Adam C, agreed with you 100%
Lisha Sterling says: January 22nd, 2008 11:59pm
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.
David says: January 23rd, 2008 5:27am
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.
João Almeida says: January 23rd, 2008 6:30am
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.
Judi Sohn says: January 23rd, 2008 7:15am
@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.
Nima Negahban says: January 23rd, 2008 7:59am
@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.
João Almeida says: January 23rd, 2008 9:36am
@Nima
That’s probably the 1000000 dollar question right now: how and where Google will integrate Jaiku?
veronicaromm says: January 23rd, 2008 7:47pm
I hated twitter and find Pownce a bit better. We will see.
Heidi Cool says: February 3rd, 2008 5:11pm
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.