A lot of conversations having been going on since the email announcing that Pownce had been acquired by Six Apart. Of course the real news wasn’t the purchase so much but that the Pownce service was going to be shutdown in two weeks. As irritating as it might seem to have services that users invest time in building up get sold off that is part of the so-called social media user generated content world.

It’s all part of the game we play. Someone gets a cutesy idea for some service and slaps the code together after which we come along and fill it up. Then along comes some bigger company who thinks the idea has potential and buy it up.

The problem is that there is a part of this whole deal that stinks for the users. While in some cases the founders; and to a large degree VC funds, are gloating over their pay days the users are left wondering … what now?

Then there are those other startups that have chewed through whatever money they had only to end up in the deadpool. While those founders go on to other things once again the users are left wondering … why did I even bother?

It’s not like this is something new either. From when DodgeBall and Jotspot both got snagged by Google up to this latest so-called acquisition of Pownce by Six Apart we have seen many startups basically disappear. Either by purchase or by sinking into the depths of the deadpool our time and efforts have been rewarded with – nothing.

We are encouraged on an almost daily basis it seems to join up with social type sites and make our daily activities the backbone on which they hope to build a business. The cooler the better. The more users the better. The faster you can get them signed up and pumping data the quicker you might just get those VC dollars.

For what?

Just so a smaller and smaller group of people can have some sort of pay day down the road. Just so some javascript jockey can add Founder to their resume. Just so we can keep entering in the same old crap into just another variation of something you already belong to. Just so we can watch some other startup without a real business plan go tits up taking all our data with them.

Some how that doesn’t seem to be a good trade. Even with Twitter one has to wonder what will happen if it doesn’t come up with a real business plan other than being bought up. We have spent the last 2 to 3 years; depend on how much of an early adopter you are, pumping up the value of the service.

We have made it the mainstream service that it has become. So what happens if the day comes when there are no more VC dollars? What happens if that business plan they promise is coming turns out to be nothing more than hot air?

Like Aaron Brazell said today in a post

The same goes for Twitter, where people have made an entire consultation around the use of Twitter. But what happens when Twitter goes away (and Twitter will go away at some point, undeniably without consultation with these consultants building their business on its existence)?

What happens when you as a consultant are hired to provide surefire, highly effective social media routines that will have a 95% possibility for 3-6 month positive effect on the growth and you recommend Twitter? And Twitter becomes 80% unreliable for an entire month, as it did in June and July?

What happens in a dying economy when companies want real returns and all you can give them is conversations with potential clients, and you have no solid way to convert those conversations into real customers?

I play around with Twitter but I don’t plan on making it a real part of my daily computing and communication life. I use FriendFeed but I don’t expect it to really go anywhere. I insulate myself with this attitude because I am fed up with seeing all the effort and time people are putting into these so-called businesses only to see nothing of any value coming back.

As it is there isn’t a single social media service out there today that could stand on its own two feet if the VC dollars disappeared or  the ad dollars really tanked. It’s beginning to feel like this whole social media thing is nothing more than a fly by night exercise in living off of borrowed money and people need to be a part of group. No one is winning in this game – least of all the users.

Related posts:

1. The coming trust crisis in the social media expert space
2. Is Social Media Useful or just Ego-Boost?
3. Is social media becoming a social mess?

Blog platform provider SixApart has acquired failed microblogging platform Pownce and as its first decision will put Pownce out of its misery December 15.

It’s not clear from posts on both the Pownce and SixApart blogs exactly what SixApart will do with the platform, but we can only presume its an IP play and that Pownce features will appear in existing or new SixApart products next year.

Pownce’s Leah Culver, more recently known as the girlfriend (or is it ex now) of excellent VentureBeat scribe MG Seigler, and Mike Malone have joined the SixApart team possibly tied into Vox.

Pownce, backed by Revision3 and Digg’s Kevin Rose (although he’s been very quiet about it lately, and is using Twitter) launched in June 2007 promising to deliver a Twitter Plus service, by allowing users to upload pictures and video along with their text messages. It was one of the first Twitter competitors, and likewise one of the first to fall.

Pownce Pro account holders are being offered free TypePad accounts as compensation for the closure.

(img credit)

Related posts:

1. Pownce Tries To Reinvent Itself As A Public File Hosting Service
2. SixApart cuts 8% of workforce, management take a pay cut
3. Posty: All-in-one AIR App for Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Tumblr and Friendfeed

Fire Eagle lets users either manually enter their location throughout the day or authorize their cell phones or computer applications to do it for them. They can also set privacy preferences to determine who can access that information. Developers can then use that data to build “geo-aware applications.”

Pownce has been one of the services testing the platform for its users’ location fields. Other services already using Fire Eagle include Web publishing system Moveable Type, interactive story site Dipity, and social network location manager Loki.

Fire Eagle is an open platform and can be integrated into most any application.

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2. The Yahoo That Yang Doesn’t Want Us To Have
3. Yahoo suffers down time

Still no word on the rumors that Google is close to acquiring Digg for $200 million. What could possibly be holding the deal up?

Original image credit: Wikimedia Commons. Acquisition story on CNet.

Related posts:

1. QLOL: Aliens in final negotiations to acquire Digg for $200 million
2. Digg Moving Rapidly Toward News: Sign of an Acquisition?
3. QLOL: Zimbra challenges Microsoft Outlook

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

Related posts:

1. Is Kwippy yet another microblogging service?
2. Pringo adds Microblogging to White Label Social Networking Mix
3. Mahalo adds Twitter support to Answers service

Posty is an Adobe AIR application that supports interaction with Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Tumblr and Friendfeed.

Posty delivers content for each via a separate tab for each service. Customization features are basic, allowing users to change the color of fonts, but nothing else. Posty users can post to one, all, or a combination of each service through the one screen, allowing for easy cross posting to the supported platforms.

As more and more competing services come out, the ability to track and participate in each one, particularly at a time where Twitter users are scattering all over the place, becomes harder. Posty goes some way in delivering an easy to use, one stop frontend for multiple services.

Why I don’t like it: the screen shot above is Posty’s actual size. 550px wide. Fat as fat can be for a service that should be complimentary on your screen, not take up a large chunk of monitor space. It also lacks friend content for Pownce and Jaiku, making it a waste of time for both. However, it is a step in the right direction, the app is still fairly young, and it would be fair to presume that some of these issues will be addressed with later releases. If you can handle the size, it’s worth a look.

(via Sarah in Tampa)

Related posts:

1. SixApart has aquired Pownce, first action is to shut it down
2. Jaiku rises from the dead, but is it too late?
3. Jaiku To Live On: Open Sourced on Google App Engine

Ping.fm is a multiple platform updater. The service allows you to send updates to multiple services from the one point. For example, I can use Ping.fm to update Identi.ca, Plurk, Pownce and Twitter from the one interface, with one message, and one click delivery. I’ve named four services, but that isn’t even half of them. The full list: Bebo, Blogger, Brightkite, Facebook, FriendFeed, hi5, Identi.ca, Jaiku, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, Mashable, MySpace, Plaxo Pulse, Plurk, Pownce, Tumblr, Twitter, Xanga.

Users pick the services they want included in Ping.fm, and then via simple operators can also be selective when sending out messages. For example, if you don’t want a message going to every service, you can start with @s for a status update, or @m for a microblog.

So far I’ve only set it up to go out for status messages to Twitter like services and social networking sites, but notably I’ve not included Twitter so far because I don’t usually post “heading out for some food” type messages to Twitter. As a user though, you get to pick or choose to suit your preferred mix.

Ping.fm comes with an iPhone and mobile version, and each user is given a unique email address if they’d prefer to update via email (and this has been my preferred outlet when mobile so far).

As a service I’m lumping it in the Aggregation 1.5 mix. Although it doesn’t aggregate data in, it does push it out, so in one way it’s the opposite of FriendFeed (although FriendFeed does support posting to Twitter). Ping.fm + FriendFeed though together is the ultimate goal in this space, a service that aggregates all incoming information and allows data to be pushed out again. What ever it is, I love it. I can now update multiple services from the one place, so I don’t have to remember to log in and regularly use every service out there.

I’m not sure how many users this is good for, or for how long, but use the code “pingyoulater” to sign up to Ping.fm. It’s a service many of us have been waiting for.

Related posts:

1. FriendFeed adds support for Plurk and Identi.ca
2. Twitter Has Jumped The Shark
3. Game On: Plurk API Available Tomorrow

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.

Related posts:

1. First look at new microblogging service YouAre: Twitter 2.0?
2. Zemanta adds four platforms, tweaks Reblog service
3. Pringo adds Microblogging to White Label Social Networking Mix

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.

Related posts:

1. Twitter has jumped the Fart errr Shark
2. Think Plurk Can’t Compete With Twitter? Let Me Show You Plurk/m
3. It’s Time For FriendFeed To Kill Twitter

It’s another attempt by Pownce to define itself as being useful at a time where Twitter has become the dominant force in microblogging, and now FriendFeed (most strongly supported by the occasionally friendly Louis Gray) has taken the position of the next big thing. Pownce has always claimed it isn’t a Twitter competitor (in practice it’s Twitter on speed), but a promising start lost steam due to the failure to quickly provide an open API, denying Pownce the third party app support that has helped Twitter become the market leader, and is now helping FriendFeed.

Image hosting is a no-brainer in terms of the feature set; Photobucket was acquired by FIM/ MySpace for $250 million in May 2007, and other providers including Rapidshare are known to be making good money. The question for Pownce though is public file hosting enough of driver of new membership when competitors offer hosting for free, often with desktop uploaders? Ultimately it certainly can’t hurt.

Related posts:

1. SixApart has aquired Pownce, first action is to shut it down
2. Flock Adds Support For Digg, Pownce and AOL Mail
3. MySpace Launches New Data Sharing Service