Pownce, A Twitter Competitor? Or Just Stardom Hype?
Geekland was offered a new sensation yesterday: no one less than Digg rebel and star Kevin Rose, with friends, has started a new microblogging and file sharing platform. Pownce. Think a mashup of tumblr, twitter, jaiku with a dash of Box.net.
What’s Pownce?
Pownce is a great way to send stuff to people you know. Add friends, then send them big files, invite them to upcoming events, share great links, and whip off a note to anyone, everyone, or just a few people.
Of course Kevin’s popularity immediately set off a small hype, buzz, especially among blogging geeks. Comparisons with twitter immediately were made, but can Pownce really stand a chance against twitter?
Is the Kevin Rose factor bigger than the factor Evan Williams, creator of Blogger and Odeo, was for twitter? I remember when I joined twitter, I found a majority of designers, 9rulers from the early days and other geeks who soon used twitter as Q&A platform. Not as catblogging platform or for bathroom visit announcements.
Does today’s average twitter user, 140 character microblogger, need one more platform? Do people want to maintain one more profile? Especially now many a Facebook account, with integrated twitter application, have.
Are people ready to [try to] move their whole friends list to another service? Has anyone ever tried to convert twitter friends into jaiku users, to have the option to comment? How many people have left MySpace and successfully moved their core friends group to Virb? Has anyone been successful in this? I wasn’t.
Even if Pownce would become more reliable and sophisticated than twitter, does the most sophisticated and most stable platform always end up in front?
And last but not least, are you ready to share your tweets, your microblogging stream, with Kevin’s fan club, the average adolescent Digg nerd?
I think I will continue to twitter and create havoc at Facebook.
Mini-disclaimer: Having read Wisdump for a long time, I know the Grammar Police reads with me. I immediately apologize for blogging in my fourth language. ;-)
Nice post. I’m of the same opinion that even the most stable social community platform does not win. Twitter is still in its bubble wrap phase so I think its got at least another 4 -6 months before the broader audience take notice of another app like it.
Its a catch 22 with these sites. It doesn’t matter how well they are built or designed, its the # of sign ups that make them worth using. Who wants to be on a social network where your the only person?
By Daniel on June 28, 2007 7:05 pm
Seems like the only innovative feature is that you can share files with friends. This is interesting, but I just don’t see myself doing that, ever.
By Montoya on June 28, 2007 10:47 pm
I don’t think that Twitter and Pownce are in the same space. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform, whereas Pownce is more of a collaborative space - a place for sharing. It is more feature-rich and functional than a simple micro-blogging platform.
I explain this in more detail in my initial review of Pownce: http://www.mappingtheweb.com/2007/06/28/pownce-review-profile
Let me know your thoughts…
Cheers,
Aidan
http://www.MappingTheWeb.com
By Aidan Henry on June 29, 2007 10:43 am
[...] Not in Favor Uncov, humor site: Kevin Rose: YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG Wisdump: Pownce, A Twitter Competitor? Or Just Stardom Hype? [...]
By Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Keeping track of the Pownce Reviews on June 30, 2007 9:29 am