Plurk v Twitter: the ultimate social-networking deathmatch

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m being a total geek at the moment playing around with Web 2.0 sites. “Uh, what on earth are you talking about, you dorkus?” you ask?  Well, that link just before explains it in detail (hover for a super quick explanation) but basically, I’m talking about online services which allow people to create their own content, tweek things online in ways that suit the way people want to use the web and communicate online, and generally do all that fun stuff, but in ways that are way cooler than mIRC or stuff you may remember from high school (if you’re my age…).

Facebook will always be my first love, but like everything with the internet and technology, geeks around the world have been working hard to develop cooler ways to do things like simple communication, and if you blink, you might even end up missing a few steps along the way.

Blink!

Last week I was planning on writing a posted snazzily entitled “Are You A Twit(erer)?” in a way to try and get people I know (mainly through Facebook!) to think about singing up to Tweet with me. Not that I don’t adore all the awesome Twitterers I’m following, cause you’re all swell, but I’d be nice to send messages to my mates too. But maybe they’re just not geeky enough. I dunno. But I was hoping it’d catch on the way Facebook seems to have.

What I love about Twitter is that it incorporates my fave aspects of Fb: status updates and Wall posts.  (It’s possible that when the new, cleaner Fb interface goes live I may love it even more, but my biggest problem at the moment is that it’s blocked at work. Boo.) You can “tweet” about what you are doing and you can @[username] reply to people while still in the one main interface. (Check out this post for a more comprehensive overview.)

It’s been called “micro-blogging” because it’s a micro web-log (well… duh) of your life and your little conversations with friends.  Then just this week I found Tumblr, which I think is a greeeeat service, which is essentially “mini-blogging” as you can post things a little more substantial that 140 character posts, and I love that I can integrate my blog and my Twitter feeds into it as well as posting fun pictures and quotes and links I find without having to do up a whole whopping blog-post.

Then yesterday, people on Twitter were twittering about this Plurk thing.

Wait. What?

Yeah. PLURK.  Apparently it’s some new Twitter thing. 

So, because I’m a sucker, I joined (not long after I joined ThisNext…).  I played around… I posted a plurk… I tried to look for people (but couldn’t … apparently they’re not making the search feature live til it’s 100% … or something, see more info here)… played around with customizing my profile… and you know what?

I liked it!

I LIKED IT BETTER THAN TWITTER!

Which totally threw about my plans for that snazzily-titled post about Twitter.

Then I was sitting in Court today without access to anything online (I KNOW! Can you even IMAGINE?) and started doodling (but it’s ok, doodling in a Moleskine) a pro/cons list for Plurk v Twitter (I figured that’s kinda legal related!).  I got back to post about it all at lunch time, when I saw a plurk by one of my new plurk friends saying he’d posted on why he likes plurk better like FIFTEEN MINUTES BEFORE! Damn.

Told you: blink and you’ll miss it!

There is lots of other chatter in the blogosphere about the whole debate which is all really quite clever and much better thought-out that what I have the ability to say, but I just wanted to add my two cents…

My 2¢

The good things about Twitter: it’s really simple to use; there are heaps of other apps you can use to access it (like BeTwittered, which I use on iGoogle); it’s relatively easy to find and follow people.  Blogger updates and links to fun sites are the most useful.

The bad things about Twitter: it fricking crashes all the time; it’s hard to follow lots of people and, moreover, conversations; the @[usernames] uses up characters.

Plurk, on the other hand, makes it really easy to follow conversations, because all the individaul plurksare displayed on a timeline. The flash interface is also really dynamic and fun.

So far, Plurk is really new and they’re working on improving things but here are some things I would like to see:

• the timeline going left to right. But maybe I’m a cultural dunderhead and should apprecite how Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic etc languages read right to left;
• a search function;
• the ability to drag people (or click photos to select them to move) into “cliques” (groups) rather than having to type out names;
• a way to pick specific plurks to follow updates on, instead of being notified of x-hundred new plurks/updates when you log on after a couple of hours.

I had thought maybe there should be groups/plurkmunities so you can join, but I think it makes sense that you plurk your own clique to start a conversation with them, and that you use facebook groups or some other service to organise events and that kinda thing — I realise that Plurk is not the right envrionment for them.

Origionally the “karma” thing irked me, but now it’s not so annoying. And hey, I’m Buddhist — I dig karma 😀

What do you think? Are you on Twitter or Plurk? If not either, do you think you might be interested in joining or or the other (or both)?

The bottom line

I really like being able to follow updates from bloggers and services announcing new posts or happenings on Twitter, but I think I would prefer having people I know well with my on Plurk — there’s more of a “community” thing happening there, and I don’t think I particularly have time to follow random 1-line conversations of people I don’t know well (or at all).

That was more than a line, and now I’m going to get offline and hang out with the people I care about in the real world. Because as cool as the second incarnation of the internet has gotten, there’s nothing better than a real hug in the real world.

Mwah

PS: but despite the above paragraph, I’d love to be you friend on Plurk, so join me 🙂

currently

feeling…

excited to get to use the awesome goodness that is wordpress to write my blog with. Blogger is boring and useless.

reading…

Possession: A Romance by A S Byatt. It has been a while since I read “literature” and this is rich with book-geek goodness. 

playing…

five games of Scrabulous on le Facebook.

thinking…

about going home to do some yoga. But that means I also have to cook dinner.

eating…

Orgran gluten-free tomato soup. Ok, drinking.

waiting…

for Rudd & Swanny’s first budget!

wishing…

all those lost souls from Burma and s.e. China to be well and happy in the next part of their journey.

Sunshine on my window

“Why don’t these photos make the news?” Thanks Fiona.