Inside//Out: Plurk

If you read the title of this post and thought I was kidding about the name of the service, I assure you I am not. Plurk is a new micromedia service that is just coming on the radar screen for the early adopter crowd. It builds on the ideas that Twitter has made de-facto standards and adds a bit more interactivity.

The key differentiator for Plurk is the timeline of messages that users can surf through, the modifiers (loves, hates, thinks) that are used to filter messages and the overall style. This looks to be geared toward a younger audience overall. There is a mobile site at www.plurk.com/m that allows you to post and read Plurks from your friends.

Here is a video overview:

[Feed readers please click through if you cannot see the video.]

Key Takeaways:

• These sites are all about community and this one is still young
  
• Users must update Plurk separately from Twitter, there is no stream connection at this time
  
• Plurk allows mobile web and IM updates (haven't seen SMS yet)
  
• Plurk is still new so the API isn't open yet
  
• I personally think that people can reasonably manage 2 services like this at one time, the most broadly functional services will win out
  

Are you using Plurk? It's open to try if you'd like. Make sure you add me there. I'll add you back.

Technorati Tags:
Inside//Out, marketing, Matt Dickman, micromedia, social media, Techno//Marketer, technology, Plurk

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Comments

[Mykl Roventine]

Very thoughtful walkthrough, Matt. I'm not ready to place any bets on Plurk's longevity but I do like it's ability to easily follow individual conversation threads. That's always been a frustration with Twitter.

[Matt Dickman]

Mykl -- Agreed on the interface. I think that it is a proof of concept for somebody to innovate on the Twitter side in a similar manner. The presentation of the data behind these systems can make all of the difference.

[Michael]

Thank you very little. Now I've got to go try it! Serious: nice post.

[Chris Kieff]

Thanks Matt, I learned a couple of things. I'm not sure I'm not sold on Plurk but I'm going to give it a chance because Twitter has been so painful recently.

Thanks,
Chris

[Esteban]

Nice review! 2 questions. Didn't you find it odd that the timeline goes from right to left instead of left to right?

And do we really need another microblogging site? ;)

[Gavin Heaton]

I am starting to really enjoy plurk. I love that everyone expects to "get it" straight away. But there is something to it. They come back. That is interesting. And cool.