Inside//Out: Jaiku
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Jaiku is a service that has been on my radar screen for some time now and I've been meaning to do an Inside//Out post on them. So why do one now? Simple, Google acquired the company yesterday (10/9/07). That alone has sent a deluge of marketers to the web trying to learn more about this presence application.
To keep it simple, Jaiku is on the same principle as Twitter (see my earlier video on Twitter here) or Pownce. You have 140 characters to tell people what you're doing, promote something of interest or communicate with colleagues and friends. Communication is one- and two-way through the messaging system. Here is the video with a more in-depth look.
[Feed readers please click through to the post if you cannot see the video]
Similarities to Twitter/Pownce:
- There are 140 characters to each message
- Brands can participate by creating an identity in the system
- Users are added to each profile to receive updates
- There is a developer API to pull information from the system
- You can send and receive messages from a mobile device
- Both services allow users to create a badge widget to post on their blog or website
- Both allow updates from IM
Differences:
- Twitter lacks the channel functionality to target messages to users of similar interests
- Jaiku messages are threaded so that people can reply to an individual message and create a new, focused conversation
- Jaiku can act a a life streaming repository to pull content from multiple places into one feed
- Jaiku allows icons for each post to add visual context
[Extra:]
Robert Scoble did an interview with the founders of Jaiku on Podtech.
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Conversations, Inside//Out, interactive marketing, marketing, Matt Dickman, mobile, social media, Techno//Marketer, trends, Twitter, user generated content, Web2.0, Jaiku