Five Alternatives to Twitter

With Pownce being acquired and then closed by Six Apart, what are your options if you don’t want to climb on the Twitter bandwagon

Here are the five alternatives:

1. Identi.ca: A microblogging service built on a foundation of open-source software and the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Identi.ca has resonated with some people because you can set it up on your own servers, giving you a lot more control over how it operates than Twitter. Montreal-based Identi.ca also uses the OpenMicroBlogging protocol, which means people on other networks can receive your posts.

2. Plurk: What makes Plurk different from Twitter is the use of a creative vertical timeline that shows when people entered your stream. Plurk includes a user-friendly way that you and other people can respond to someone’s post in a linear way as opposed to having them appear chronologically.

3. Jaiku: Google’s entry in the microblogging game, albeit one that hasn’t much love and attention since Google acquired it last year. Jaiku is much like Twitter but also has some nice features such threaded messages, channels/group, and the ability to easy add feeds for blogs, music, photos and events. Jaiku could also fit into Google’s wireless strategy, including the gPhone and the Android platform.

4. Tumblr: More of a blogging service than a microblogging service, although you can connect with fellow Tumblrs. Tumblr has resonated with people because it has found a niche between blogging and microblogging.

5. Friendfeed: Not a microblogging service – at least not for now – Friendfeed has an active and enthusiastic community that has demonstrates a willingness to create groups, leave comments and share links. It has shown lots of strategic ambitions so moving into microblogging would not be too much of a stretch.

Technorati Tags: friendfeed, plurk, jaiku, tumblr, twitter

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