The Inquisitr » plurk

Plurk the election, win $5000

Duncan Riley — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:51:25 +0000

Microblogging service Plurk is running an election competition where users can win a share of $5000.

Plurk the Vote offers a central election focused page for Plurk users. The Election timeline aggregates all messages from across Plurk that contain related keywords like “Obama” or “Mccain”. Plurks highlights plurks about Obama/Biden in blue, and McCain/Palin in red.

Users get their own Mock Election page at www.plurk.com/vote/username, which they can share with friends, and encourage them to vote. The user with the biggest Mock elections on Plurk wins a share of $5,000. Plurk will also be giving away 30 $25 Amazon.com gift certificates over the course of the next 30 days to one voter each day who has voted in a mock election.

Full contest details here.

Plurk latest: photo uploads, improved layouts, new tools

Duncan Riley — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:55:14 +0000

Plurk may not be getting the headlines it was getting post launch, but the microblogging platform with a difference is still going strong, and the team is still adding new features.

Top of the list is the ability to share photos locally on Plurk. Users could always share photos on external site, but like FriendFeed they are now able to upload a photo for hosting on Plurk itself. Improvements to the friend and fan navigation panel include 3 tabs offering mutual friends, people I follow, and my fans.

Along with changes on the site, Plurk has launched Plurk labs, “a special area where the A-Team shows off some cool things that are coming down the plurkline.” The first Plurk Labs creation is the Word Cloud and Qualifier/Very Analyzer. An example of the word cloud is available here.

Plurk also has an official wiki for the first time, offering a one stop destination of all things Plurk.

More details on the Plurk blog here.

Plurk

FriendFeed adds support for Plurk and Identi.ca

Duncan Riley — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:27:25 +0000

FriendFeed has added native support for microblogging platforms Plurk and Identi.ca, bringing the two services into the FriendFeed stream.

Previously, users could import messages from both services via RSS feed and marked as a blog, where as now both services are clearly defined, allowing users to hide feeds from both, should they so desire, without the hide affecting other feeds. Unfortunately, responding via FriendFeed to both services, a feature currently available for Twitter, isn’t available yet.

Before users of both services rush in to add their feeds, one word of caution. If you are using the excellent Ping.fm service, importing your Plurk and Identi.ca streams will see that message repeated on FriendFeed, and there’s no quicker way for a hide than doing that. I switch between Ping.fm and using Plurk (via Plurkair) and Identi.ca (via Twhirl) directly, so I’m not adding my accounts on both just yet.

It’s another sign of the growing popularity of both Identi.ca and Plurk, and the move will be welcomed by users of both services.

(via Paul Buchheit on FriendFeed)

FriendFeed

First look at new microblogging service YouAre: Twitter 2.0?

Duncan Riley — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:53:36 +0000

Spanish microblogging service YouAre has moved into private beta after a year in development.

A lot has happened in the microblogging space in the last twelve months, but Blogs Media, the company behind YouAre has maintained a steady as she goes, get it right development approach. The private beta is planned to last anywhere between “several weeks to several months” until such time the Blogs Media time thinks the site is right to launch.

So what does YouAre offer over the growing sea of competitors?

YouAre combines Twitter, Tumblr, Linkedin, Del.icio.us and the sites “secret ingredient” (their definition). At the basic level YouAre offers 140 character limited short messaging, complete with user profiles, support for @replies and DMs, and the ability to follow friends. The next layer of YouAre (and that’s the best word I can use to describe the feature sets) is Pownce and Tumblr like. Users can share video or pictures, although notably the site doesn’t offer hosting of either at this stage.

The next layer goes off into an unexpected tangent: LinkedIn style professional bios, including support for schools attended and work experience. Layer four takes us into what they describe as De.licio.us territory, but it’s part FriendFeed; yes, users can import external feeds into YouAre, although at this stage the choices are limited to De.licio.us, Flickr and YouTube.

But wait, there’s more! because YouAre also supports manual geolocation, so you can connect with others within your same area, based on the location based in your profile, or if you were visiting somewhere it’s as hard as placing /country/city after YouAre.com.

So what is it? Well it’s not a cake, or even an onion, despite the many layers. My very first impression is that unlike some of the other services I’ve reviewed lately, YouAre wins on name and aesthetics. It’s a great name, and Blogs Media has really thought about the looks of the site. It’s not OMG this is amazingly gorgeous great, but it’s pleasing to work in.

If I’m forced to label it as something, I (with some hesitation) would perhaps label it Twitter 2.0, or even a more professionally focused version of Twitter. It builds on the key concepts of Twitter, and adds to them in a way that isn’t overly complicated, or in a way that has a polarizing effect in an effort to be different (eg Plurk). Any user of Twitter will be able to sign up to YouAre and feel right at home. Although the various layers of the service sound complicated, in practice it feels like a safe, natural progression in this space.

As mentioned above, I don’t have a date as yet for when YouAre will open up ~~nor do I have any invites yet~~(see below). There’s work to be done, but despite entering late into the space, here’s what I like about YouAre already: these guys are determined on launching this as a fully fledged, working platform:

Right now, our priorities are: launching a desktop widget for Windows and MAC, freeing the API, and optimizing the mobile interface, now that the site works on cell phones and smartphones without javascript support.

Yes, they won’t be launching until all the various parts of the service jigsaw puzzle are in place. In an age of half arsed product launches, isn’t it refreshing to see a company focused on launching a complete package.

Screenshots and YouAre’s spreadsheet below, and I’ll be following YouAre closely as it continues to be developed.

Update: we now have 25 invitations for Inquisitr readers. The first 25 people to email with this Subject: “The Inquisitr Invitations” get in. Also I forgot to add that coming in the next couple of days will be the ability to import contacts from external services, including Gmail and Twitter.

| View | Upload your own

Plurk Update: the quiet achiever

Duncan Riley — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 02:35:20 +0000

Plurk is continuing to grow, even at a time many first adopters have written it off. Regular Plurk users are noticing that the mix on Plurk is very much different to what you see on services such as Twitter. Darren Rowse noted during the week that “one of the things that I love about plurk is that the top user is using it to talk about knitting – no web 2.0 cool crowd but real people.” While I don’t believe that first adopters aren’t real people, the quote does sum up the mix on Plurk really well: the Plurk crowd is far more mainstream then the mix you see on other services.

Here’s some of the latest Plurk related tools and news since our last big Plurk update late June.

Plurkair still going strong

I typed Plurkair into Google the other day and it returned over 9,000 results, which is completely insane. Despite the unofficial Plurk API launching, I haven’t seen an API based replacement yet. If you’re finding the Plurk time line a barrier to entry, and would prefer a Twitter style interface, head on over to the Plurkair post here, and download it. A new version is being worked on.

SocialThing Supports Plurk

FriendFeed style service SocialThing has added support for Plurk, while FriendFeed itself is dragging the chain. SocialThing is embracing a lot of two way interaction at the moment so it’s worth a look, and I need to revisit it shortly myself.

Plurk Updater for WordPress

You can now update your Plurk account with your latest posts from WordPress with this WordPress plugin. My suggestion, as with the Twitter plugin, is that if you are writing a lot of posts, that you think twice about spamming people with links as it’s an quick path to losing followers.

State of the Web

State of the Web created the image above, that sums up how many Plurk users are feeling about the Twitter/ Plurk split at the moment. More here.

Plurk Widgets

Get your own Plurk Karma widgets or follower widgets here and here. The one thing that annoys me with Plurk is Karma, mostly because I don’t have a lot. I gave out the direct link to my profile when I first started writing about Plurk, and despite having introduced a pile of people to the service, I’m showing none introduced and therefore have a lower karma score than if I’d handed out the special link.

Plurk Greasemonkey Scripts

The full list here, but some highlights: Plurk Translator, Plurk Time Machine, Plurk Rich Edit and more.

Positive Press

Two posts of note: InsideCRM says “Plurk: A Welcoming Microblogging Community” and Smart Boy: “Why Plurk Rules The Micro-Blogging Universe.” Sucomments also has a solid three part series on using Plurk that starts here.

Plurk by the numbers

Things are looking good, particularly with Compete

You can also sign up, or follow me on Plurk by clicking here.

Plurk

Is Kwippy yet another microblogging service?

Duncan Riley — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:07:57 +0000

OK, so the headline is a little sarcastic, but microblogging services are quickly turning into fast food outlets, so many to choose from, so little with any substantial benefits over the others. Kwippy is another microblogging service that has launched into closed beta, and Steve Hodson was kind enough to invite me in (also read his review here).

The qualitative differences: Kwippy, according to the folks behind it, is “a micro/nanoblogging webapp + IM status logger + social network.” The main focus of Kwippy is based on links in to instant messaging platforms, with support for Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger. Like Twitter, the service consists of updates (called rather cleverly Kwip) and can be made from an IM platform, or can be fed back to it.

Kwippy does however lack a lot of features users have come to expect in microblogging platforms. There’s no character limit, but there’s no mobile version or support for @ (although you can reply to messages). There’s no audio, video or picture support such as with Utterz, nor is there any new about the layout, which is straight out of the Twitter play book.

Kwippy claims the service will scale because they’ve built in using Python, Django, Memcashed and Linux (note, their list), and yet I see the term MySQL and I automatically think database, content management, and perhaps some of the same problems Twitter is facing. Smart people keep telling me that treating services like this as content management platforms is the inherent problem before you even start, but I’ll leave that debate to others.

I avoid IM like the plague, and although I have a Google Talk account via proxy through a gmail address, I rarely touch it. I also don’t have an active Yahoo Messenger account, so the links in to these services delivers zero appeal to me. However IM is still immensely popular among younger internet users, and anything that hooks into these services is bound to at least have half a chance of finding an audience. I’m going to give it a shot for a while, mostly because Steve Hodson told me I should, and see how it goes. One day, one of these services is going to be the magic Twitter replacement/ killer, and I’ll keep on trying to find the one that is. The quest for the holy grail of microblogging continues.

You can follow me on Kwippy here, and I also have 25 invites in for those who want them. I need your email address though to send them, so if you can work out a way to give me your address, feel free to do so. Also everyone who gets in gets 25 invites, so there will be lots of sharing going on as well I’d think.

Plurkair: A Basic, Open Source Desktop Client For Plurk

Duncan Riley — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:12:43 +0000

Despite showing a lot of promise, and more recently obtaining unofficial API support, microblogging platform Plurk has lacked desktop tools to compete head on with competing platforms such as Twitter, Pownce and Jaiku.

I’m no AIR expert, but I can hack my way around code enough to have created a very basic Adobe AIR client for Plurk: Plurkair. You can download and install it here (68k). Note this is tested under OS X 10.5.3, but should in theory work on Windows machines running AIR as well.

Plurkair uses the Plurk mobile interface to offer a desktop client that displays the Plurk timeline Twitter style. It’s a first release, so it may still have bugs, but it offers reasonable desktop functionality. Note also the app in its current release will show as unsigned, ignore this and install anyway, no nasty stuff I promise.

I thought I was catering for an unmet need but as I was testing Plurkair I mentioned AIR apps for Plurk on Plurk and somebody responded that someone has done a similar thing: Plurk It. I can’t describe the feeling of spending hours working on something to only later find someone else did nearly the same thing two days before, but it’s not their fault. They were first, so by all means feel free to use Plurk It instead of Plurkair. The only noticeable differences is that Plurkair uses the entire space and doesn’t add links or otherwise within the AIR window. Plurkair is also set to refresh every three minutes (standard, and not yet customizable…sorry), I think if Plurk It does refresh it’s less frequently.

The code for Plurkair will also be released under the GPL v3 public license. I haven’t uploaded it to Google Code yet, but it will be there in the next 24 hours. Coding it was remarkably simple, and I look forward to playing with the API for future versions, although Loic Lemeur coming out and offering Plurk support with Twhirl would be my preferred choice.

Update: link on the download box fixed plus tested under Windows XP and working. IE7 treated the AIR file as a ZIP file and opened the contents without running it in AIR. I have no idea why as I’m a long lapsed Windows user. It did however install immediately and with zero problems under Safari for Windows.

Interesting Things Learned From Google Trends

Duncan Riley — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:51:07 +0000

Now that Google has entered the Alexa space with Google Trends for Websites, the general public has some access to hidden traffic data from Google’s vaults. The service get its numbers from a combination of sources including search traffic, anonymous Google Analytics figures and other third party marketing data.

The emphasis is mine, but the Google Analytics figures are critical here.Google Analytics is widely used by many sites, so in theory these figures in the mix should deliver reasonable results based on fact.

So what can you learn from Google Trends for Websites?

Omnidrive joined the deadpool in January

Despite Nik from Omnidrive claiming that May was a record month for Omnidrive, Google Trends shows the site flatlined in January. I checked the front page of Omnidrive: the service is using Google Analytics, so if there was any traffic it would be on this graph.

Propeller is now the number two social voting site.

Propeller (formerly Netscape) moved ahead of Reddit in April for the first time, giving Propeller the number two spot in the social voting space. New comer Mixx is still a fair way behind, but is growing well. If you’re wondering why Digg isn’t in the chart, it’s because including Digg squashes the other lines flat.

Silicon Alley Insider is growing faster than the competition

If you take the two market leaders, TechCrunch and Mashable out of the equation, and look at the next biggest startup/ web 2.0 blogs, Silicon Alley Insider is growing the fastest.

People stopped using Megite. All at once

This could be a quirk in terms of the chart (maybe they stopped using Google Analytics?) but for a short time Megite was more popular than Techmeme, then the traffic stopped. Completely stopped. Tailrank is also showing no traffic as of mid April. Deadpool time perhaps?

Digg is more popular than the Australian Press

User generated content hating Australian journalists (not all journos, but some of them) should suck on this chart

Twitter may have officially jumped the shark

The graph seems to indicate that Twitter has peaked and is coming down the other side… only just, and it may change.

FriendFeed and Plurk have similar numbers

FriendFeed has solid, steady growth where as Plurk is a rollercoaster. Still, both are looking good

I’m catching up to Centernetworks!

I’ve always been obsessed by numbers and benchmarking (I spent too long working in jobs with KPIs), and the one site I really wanted to emulate in terms of traffic and position was Allen Stern’s Centernetworks. Great site, top bloke, and a great benchmark to aim for. I’m getting there. I don’t for one minute believe that The Inquisitr is pumping more traffic than Centernetworks, my guess is if I was doing half I’d be lucky, but it’s still really rather cool to have a chart that says I’m competitive with Allen. Now I just need some more links to improve the Technorati rank where I’m 9023 to Allen’s 1456. Enough self indulgence…must go back to working harder

Plurk Keeps On Going Strong

Duncan Riley — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:00:02 +0000

The momentum behind microblogging platform Plurk is still moving forward, with the new service continually adding new users to its vibrant and interesting community. Even in the space of one week (the time since we last wrote about Plurk) a lot has happened.

Plurk API

The unofficial but supported to the point of not physically offering support Plurk API has been released and is available on Google Code here. I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet, but YungSang notes that the API is very similar to Twitter’s, and allows for things like timeline extraction. We just have to wait for the desktop applications to follow.

Tools

Although we don’t seem to have any tools built on the API yet, Plurk users have still been busy. The best of the bunch is the Plurk Firefox Sidebar, that brings the mobile version of Plurk into an easy to get at Firefox sidebar. As I noted June 7, Plurk Mobile is a Twitter like experience, and this plugin offers that experience to more people.

Another handy tool is Plurk Sync, that delivers Plurk messages as status updates to Facebook.

Community

Already there is Plurk piss-takes (video above) and dedicated Plurk blogs. There’s even a “Plurkcast” podcast on the way, promising to deliver a weekly show of all things Plurk. If blogs aren’t your thing, there is the unofficial Plurk Wiki, Plurk Dictionary, and even fan generated Plurk themed wallpaper. At the time of writing the Plurk Junkies Facebook group has 255 members.

Looking Good

Although I haven’t spent a lot of time on Plurk in the last week (FriendFeed gets most of my spare time now) every time I do go back and post something I’m always pleased to see full timelines rich with discussion. Like Twitter (and unlike FriendFeed) these are shorter discussions so don’t always have a lot of depth, but there is little doubt in my mind, evidenced from my Plurk friends, that significant numbers have jumped ship and decided on Plurk is their main outlet. Enough people to make Plurk a vibrant community that keeps people coming back. It may still be a little early to call Plurk a winner, but it looks like it has passed that point where people jump on for the novelty then decide whether they’ll stick around or not.

Game On: Plurk API Available Tomorrow

Duncan Riley — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:36:01 +0000

Fast growing microblogging platform Plurk will have an API available from tomorrow.

Plurk first came to prominence at the beginning of June after constant issues with Twitter saw many start looking for alternatives. Like Twitter, Plurk offers a microblogging platform, however the service presents user entries on a reverse chronological timeline that has quickly devided opinions in the first adopter community. Alexa (the only source of recent data) shows visits to Plurk have roughly quadrupled since the beginning of the month, and the service has come in at a respectable 15,020 on a one week average.

A Plurk API will allow third party application development, a key step in taking Plurk to a broader audience. It will also mean the development of apps that display Plurk Twitter style (or even Plurk Mobile style), giving Plurk a greater chance of winning users from the ever declining Twitter platform.

If you do develop a third party app for Plurk, be sure to drop us a line. Also with any luck we may also now see Plurk support built into FriendFeed.

Update: we’ve since learned that the API will not be an official API but has the support of Plurk, but only so far as they wont be handling support requests for it. The API will be hosted on Google Code (thanks in part to Grum in the comments)

Think Plurk Can’t Compete With Twitter? Let Me Show You Plurk/m

Duncan Riley — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:42:01 +0000

Most people would accept that Plurk isn’t a Twitter competitor to date, despite Plurk gaining a great community presence overnight. The timeline setup doesn’t work people say, they’d rather a Twitter style one after another timeline. Plurk has no API, so I also believed that Plurk would always be tied into a reverse chronological time map without the Twitter style goodness. And then I went out tonight, and logged into Plurk via mobile.

It even works in a browser: plurk.com/m

Obviously it works better on a mobile phone, where it’s borderline pretty, but even in a browser this is Plurk delivered Twitter style, time line gone and instead one post after another.

It’s not perfect. Some Ajax wouldn’t go astray so that when you click on replies you don’t have to load a complete new screen, but notably it’s not the timeline thingy.

I’m not about to call Plurk the new Twitter, despite all the usage and community factors leading to that conclusion. But still, in this format…take a look at tell me that it’s not Twitter like. All they need is an API and some 3rd party app encouragement, and we are that much closer to Twitter. Then I’ll make the call.

Twitter Has Jumped The Shark

Duncan Riley — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 02:44:40 +0000

Notice something about Twitter lately besides the constant downtime? It’s gotten quiet. Not deadly quiet, but when it is up every day there seems to be less and less being said. In my case gone are the days where I could use Twitter to track the latest breaking story or the days I had dozens of conversations. It’s not just me, Dave Winer and Rafe Needleman have both noticed as well, and others have privately made similar observations to me over the last week.

Twitter has jumped the shark.

“It’s not just down time on Twitter lately that has made the service sit somewhere between frustrating and useless. Even when Twitter is up, updates/ refreshes fail, pages don’t load and third party tools can’t connect. There has been a lot of downtime…Twitter is a service you want to love. Like Blogger, Evan William’s earlier start up, it has not only become a market leader, it has been vital in creating a new online service market focused on IM.”

I wrote those words in a post on TechCrunch in May 2007, and back then coming out and saying enough is enough with Twitter was pretty controversial. The post had 31 trackbacks and a range of comments, but people kept on using Twitter because ultimately that was where the community was, something competing services, despite superior platforms, could not find. I soon realized that Twitter users were a dedicated, loyal bunch who would stick with the service no matter what. But even this dedicated loyalty had a limit, and suddenly it seems that at long last people have had enough and are either abandoning Twitter or like me, spending less time on it.

Plurk has been one recipient on the growing Twitter backlash (our review here). Plurk has already become a love it or hate it service, but the remarkable thing I’ve noticed is that it has grown a large, mainstream active community overnight, the missing ingredient from Pownce and Jaiku. However it’s not Twitter, and it never will be. It has benefited from Twitter’s problems, but it isn’t going to replace it.

Perhaps the saddest thing with Twitter jumping the shark in the loss of the Twitter community, as Dave Winer writes “People wondered what would replace it (Twitter). It’s becoming clear the answer to that is the worst possible one — nothing. The energy of Twitter is evaporating. Which is terrible.” I’m still hopeful that enough people will decide to migrate to one service that it becomes a Twitter replacement, however to what? FriendFeed could build a Twitter killer but they haven’t, Jaiku is a great platform sitting on Google’s servers…but it’s closed for signups, Pownce is…well…Pownce, and Plurk has no API.

The obvious business opportunity: somebody comes out with a Twitter competitor with API and scalability. If you’ve got one ping me so I can take a look and give it a plug.

Today’s Hot Meme Comes To Us From Plurk

Duncan Riley — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 03:44:53 +0000

Plurk is a newish microblogging service that is spreading like wildfire through the first adopter community today.

According to Plurk, the service is “a really snazzy site that allows you to showcase the events that make up your life, and follow the events of the people that matter to you, in deliciously digestible short messages called plurks.” At first glance, I’d call it Twitter with a visual timeline.

Plurk has an emphasis on actions as opposed to clean slate message, and each user is offered there number plus a drop down list with actions such as is, thinking, was, asks and similar. Each “plurk” is posted to a visual timeline that includes drop down threads for replies. The service also offers “cliques” for plurk distribution and various privacy options.

The one definite thing I can say about the service is that visually it’s different, and that can be read in both a positive and negative way. The layout shakes up the staid microblogging format Twitter popularized, and yet it may take some getting use to as I’m not a huge fan so far. The service is already experiencing serious growth pains with features being disabled, including custom avatars and importing friends (least the gmail import didn’t work for me). Still, early days and people who are willing to explore new ideas are always worthy of at least some support. You can add me as a friend on Plurk here and it’s worth a look.