Twitter, Plurk and Kwippy are the micro-blogging platforms gaining the most traction among micro-blogging enthusiasts at the moment. Twitter is leading the pack with Plurk following closely behind. Kwippy is the new kid on the block, being an Indian start-up which is, at the moment, invite-only but is looking at spreading its API out to the open-source community within the next few weeks.
Twitter has a first-mover advantage in the micro-blogging market and a very huge following with some very well known celebrities from the marketing, business, IT and social media world spreading ideas and thoughts on the platform.
Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan and David Armano are just some of the names who are already chest deep in Twitter. Apart from this, Twitter has spread its API out among the open source community and applications galore have been developed to make Twitter a formidable opponent to contend with. Applications like Quotably, Twitterfeed, Twhirl, and many others increase any Twitter users’s ability to publish, re-publish, aggregate and do whatever else to any of the content posted on Twitter.
Plurk, although a late second-entrant, has come into the market with an edge. It’s quirky, has its own personality and differs from Twitter in two distinct ways; it puts all the posts in a timeline format (which can be shifted back to a Twitter-like format) and it’s got great visual appeal. Other cool functions which make it different is a rating system called “karma” and the ability to easily reply to specific posts. Its only downfall is its lack of API, which is being released as this post is being published, which could tip the balance. Plurk also looks great on mobile, which also gives it an edge over Twitter.
Twitter and Plurk have been going head-to-head recently. In comparison, given the current climate created by Twitter, with it’s random down time and slow repair to facilities like IM, etc, this gives Plurk an incredible edge. Even though it has a low following compared to the Twitter clientele, once the API is released on Plurk, and if Twitter fails to innovate and properly differentiate itself and fix its problems, it could change the entire market dynamic of micro-blogging.
Kwippy, a new Indian start-up, is at the beginning stages of its development and I have given a full review here, with some insights from the developers themselves. Kwippy is a Twitter-clone at the moment having most of the same functions (including a working IM functionality via Google Talk). Its API will be released soon and it does have the beginnings of something great. I wouldn’t take this new entrant very lightly, as with most things we’ve seen with Web 2.0, the simplest applications are sometimes the best and have proved to be the most durable.
Apart from these main players in the micro-blogging game, there are others such as the Romanian CIRIP. I’m sure there are many others as well, especially niche micro-blogging platforms which may never hit the mainstream.
The landscape is always changing. I do predict however, that Plurk will never really take out Twitter as the platform of choice. It’s already too well established and people are generally resistant to change. You can never underestimate the power of a tipping point though, and if Twitter doesn’t get its act together, it just might be the little push that kicks it out of the market. People are already talking and comparing Plurk to Twitter, this simple idea-virus could be all that’s needed to shift the market position in favour of Plurk.
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