by Jacob Morgan
Koornk is European version (an eerily similar version) of our good friend twitter. I actually just signed up for Koornk not too long ago and while the majority of users appear to be from Croatia (I think) there is a setting that allows you to switch the language over to English. So what do I mean when I say the Koornk is an eerily similar version of twitter? Well, see for yourself.
Now if this isn’t a twitter clone then I don’t know what is. The layout is exactly the same as the twitter layout and the tabs are virtually identical as well. The overall design is pretty simple and sleek and does feel a little cleaner than the twitter UI. The characters are also limited to 150 instead of 140 (probably to make up for typing in @(someones name), and yes the ‘@’ works the same way in Koornk as it does in twitter.
Koornk does have a few neat features though, and to be honest I wish twitter would add a few of these as well. For example, Koornk neatly let’s you put links to your various sites, I know twitter has something similar but it looks a lot cleaner on Koornk. In addition Koornk also supports Open Id and actually lets you post to twitter from Koornk.
It looks like what we may start seeing is vertical growth for “microblogging” platforms. In other words a twitter type platform for various geographic areas, languages, or industries. Think of how search has evolved into a widely vertical market. When you want to find classified, most of the time you go straight to Craigslist instead of Google, when you want to find a car you will probably go to Edmunds.com, etc. In the next few years if “microblogging” takes off we may very well see similar growth. That is of course unless twitter gets it’s act together. Twitter does have the potential to be the Google of “microblogging” but with their lack of new features and frequent downtime’s this may be a perfect opportunity for all the Koornk’s out there.
I put “microblogging” in quotes because I don’t consider it to be a type of blogging, twitter is like a global messaging service, much like AIM or Gtalk. “Twitter isn’t microblogging” it’s messaging.
What do you think about Koornk and the future of twitter?
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by Michelle Lentz
12seconds.tv is launching their public alpha today. Its an invitation only alpha, but because you read bub.blicio.us, you can get your hands on one of the invites.
12seconds is a video status platform – sort of a Twitter for video. Using a cell phone or webcam, you record video blurbs that are 12 seconds in your life. That’s it – just 12 seconds. It’s multimedia microblogging. According to the web site, anything longer than 12 seconds is boring!
The new public alpha includes a number of new features including friend
search, video search, contact invites and the multi-player. Every user recieves their own video “channel” and an email address, so that you can easily send video from your cell phone on the go. The service integrates with Twitter and even allows you to import your Twitter friends. There are also options to share and embed the video elsewhere.
To get your invite, just fill out this short and simple survey. If you’re one of the first 200, you’ll get an invitation to the Alpha.
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Events, news, apps, and more – let me know at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, via Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.
by Michelle Lentz
One of my favorite desktop Twitter apps is Twhirl. Last night they released v0.8.4, which adds support for microblogging upstart Identi.ca and for seesmic.
If you’re not familiar with it, Identi.ca launched a few weeks ago, while Twitter was having some issues. A lot of folks headed over there – it’s an open-source microblogging platform. It doesn’t have a lot of features yet, but being open-source allows for some great things to be developed.
According to the Twhirl blog,
We received quite a few requests to add support for identi.ca to twhirl, and since they released a twitter-compatible API just a few days ago, we gave it a try. It was surprisingly easy, and worked out of the box. Plus, we were able to use the XMPP support we originally added for twitter to get real-time updates of messages from your followings. And of course we will make it available for other services as well once they support it.
Twhirl also now lets you add your account information for seesmic. Even cooler – in the next version of Twhirl they plan to add support for recording to seemic. Nifty! (Of course, this should be a given considering that seesmic owns Twhirl.) Twirl also supports FriendFeed and can publish your Tweets to Pownce and Jaiku.
The latest Twhirl update should be automatically pushed to you if you have an older version of the software. If not, download the free desktop Twhirl app, for Mac or PC.
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Events, news, apps, and more – let me know at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, via Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.
by Michelle Lentz
Plurk is a microblogging service that offers a more threaded conversation than Twitter. If you’re a fan of Plurk, you might enjoy perusing Plurkmania.
Plurkmania offers stats on Plurk users, detailing top plurkers and listing them by everything from Karma points to users by creature. On the front page of the site, you can view the top 10 users in each of the site’s categories. For a more in-depth list, there is a More Users link at the bottom of each column. Clicking the Stats link by each user’s name reveals stats about that particular Plurker. Of course, you can also enter your own Plurk user name and check out your own Plurk stats. (Mine are horrid, as I haven’t yet taken to Plurk.)
Plurkmania is a neat way to see who is Plurking, who is Plurking well, and who is Plurking great. Perhaps you want to add people with high karma points or those with a lot of followers, maybe those in your area. At the very least, Plurkmania is just a bit of fun for a Friday afternoon.
[Found via Appscout.]
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Events, news, apps, and more – let me know at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, via Twitter, Pownce, or FriendFeed. Visit Michelle at Wine-Girl.net and Write Technology.
