NOWSOURCING

If you too got fed up with the whale carrying birds, then you must have turned you attention and free time to another micro-blogging platform. First came Jaiku, then Pownce, after which people started turning to Twitter. When the whale failed ashore, we turned our attention to Plurk. Not a new player has come into the scene by the name of Identi.ca.

So after hearing people talking about it, I too decided to create an account just to claim my username. It is named by many “the Twitter killer” and they are right on a certain level. It allows the federated use of the service (laconi.ca), it comes equipped with Jabber IM and OpenID support. More upcoming features include SMS, URL shortening or cross posting to similar platforms. In theory, the service is a great, reliable alternative to Twitter. Ping.fm even included their service in their system, so that you can update all the services at once.

So why haven’t you heard more of it? Why hasn’t everyone moved there? Plurk is still going strong, with traffic increasing daily, updates coming at a steady rate. Twitter works by leaps and bounds, but it does the trick at least half of the times. However, twitter has what many other similar services don’t have: the numerous active users. They might leave for a brief amount of time, while Twitter uses the newly appointed funds to improve its platform.

I for one dislike the simple interface of Identi.ca, resembling Twitter’s. I am updating my Twitter profile less and less since Plurk came along. All in all, the platform you use depends on what kind of user you are: for providing updates about your blog or simply sharing information, use Twitter; for keeping in touch with your friends on a daily basis and building your relationship, use Plurk; when others fail, Identi.ca is the backup option.

About the author:maxyRO is a social media maven, web 2.0 enthusiast, passionate writer and blogger since he first came across digg or stumbleupon. Find out more about him by checking out his blog or profiles.