Thoughts from Mike Templeton

UPDATE 06/25/08: This post got picked up by one of the fastest growing resources on Plurk, Plurkable.com. Thanks go out to Eric Odom for adding me to his list of plinks.

A few weeks ago, when Twitter was having technical difficulties, I spotted a Tweet from waynesutton talking about a new site called Plurk.

What’s with the headless creature?

Curious as I am about all of the new media being created every day, I turned my browser towards the sea of orange and registered an account. At first, Plurk seemed a bit childish (and still does to some degree). The silly graphics, the even sillier notes throughout the help section and the heavy use of emoticons in the timeline all have me thinking that Plurk was meant to be a microblogging service for a younger crowd. After digging into it, however, it seems that there are more names and people using it than I thought.

Why do I need Twitter AND Plurk?

The main difference between Twitter and Plurk, which has been pointed out on several other blogs, is that Plurk enables users to have threaded conversations, like this Plurk from Eric Odom that asks users to post a link to their blog, essentially creating a Plurker blogroll within Plurk itself. Users can each post their blog, with each response be attached to the next, even available via RSS feed, and with its own permalink.

THAT is what Twitter doesn’t have. The ability to easily tie conversations on a topic together. Plurk almost represents a mashup of old school forum software with the new school fittings of Twitter and other Web 2.0 gadgets, essentially the best of both worlds.

But will it catch on?

There are a few drawbacks to Plurk currently (in comparison to Twitter), though I’m sure Plurk will overcome these challenges in time.

• The timeline. A lot of users have complained about Plurk’s horizontal timeline and the fact that it seems to be oriented in the wrong direction. It’s also harder to follow than a straight down list of messages (though you can get that view from Plurk Mobile.
• The interface. As any avid Tweep knows, a large group of Twitter users never interact with the physical Twitter website. They instead interface with its commands via SMS or third party clients, either web-based or desktop driven. This allows people to microblog from anywhere. Plurk is currently limited to SMS and the web. I don’t see Plurk really taking off until some third party clients emerge, and not just an Adobe AIR version of Plurk Mobile (but thanks to TwisterMC for putting it together).
• The messages. Since most of us can’t sit on these sites all day, there’s always a time when we have to catch up on what’s being said. With Twitter, I just scroll down the list, click back a few pages and easily devour the information. With Plurk, I have to scroll back through the timeline, read user Plurks, PLUS all of the responses. Finding a way to make reviewing old messages easier will be a lifesaver for anyone trying to catch up.

Do I need to manage TWO microblogging profiles now?

I just finished talking about social networking fatigue in my last post, but these two sites may be an exception to the rule. Because of the way they work and the different camps of users, it may be necessary to have accounts on both sites to catch everything that is going on. In fact, one of the most active Tweep’s on my follow list is waynesutton, and now he’s saying that “he Plurks more than he Tweets“.

What does this all mean?

I’ll still be using Twitter as my microblogging service of choice, but I may start Plurking more often as well.