Twitter vs. Pownce

So, back to Nik’s point that Twitter is better because of the API.

Absolutely correct. But when we were standing in line last week for our iPhones Pownce’s lead developer, Leah Culver joined us and we talked at length about where Pownce is going. She said that she’ll expand on Pownce’s feature set, but wasn’t ready to commit to an API yet. Already, though, Pownce is available on Facebook and there’s an Adobe Integrated Runtime version of Pownce, so she is keeping up with some of the kinds of apps that Twitter has seen developed for it.

She has biased Pownce’s feature set toward scalability rather than sheer features or wide-open invitations (you can only use Pownce if you get an invite from someone on it already and those invites are limited based on how able Pownce’s datacenter is to keep up with it). Pownce has been faster than Twitter’s Web page to come up because of this bias.

Its interesting, I see many of the same people in my friends list on Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook, and now Pownce. Pownce is growing faster than the other ones right now, though. 728 people have already added me on Pownce.

I can’t take many more social networks. These are worse than email and that’s just the “are you a friend?” requests.

But, anyway, I still like Twitter the best. Why? No complications. It does only one thing. I find that on my cell phone I go back to Twitter before I go back to any of the others. It’s lightweight.

So, why is Pownce taking off? Better UI. Kevin Rose. Better UI. Kevin Rose. Heheh. Just kidding. But not really too far off. The designer who worked on Pownce is awesome. Love the look of Pownce and little touches like little ads in between messages. I also like that I can send messages just to my friends, or to the public.

Translation: I don’t get how all of these are going to survive. People will tend to go with the one that their friends are on and most of my friends are on Twitter or Facebook.

What do you think? Which one is going to end up being the most popular? If you’re on one of these, what feature would get you to switch? If you aren’t using any of these yet, why not?

Will Leah’s bias of scalability over APIs and features pay off? Or will Twitter’s decisions pay off for it?

UPDATE: Along these lines is this video of Jyri Engestrom, founder of Jaiku, which competes with both Twitter and Pownce.

96 thoughts on “Twitter vs. Pownce

  1. It’s interesting to see where this goes. I’ve mused on the twitter vs. pownce topics here and here.

    I understand that the instability of twitter is something that scares anyone building such a service.. but as Calacanis said if twitter down time is any indication they are going to be 2x as big as EBAY. We all remember how ebay was back in the day.

    At the end of the day, without an open API, pownce is far less useful to me. Not having SMS support makes pownce less interesting, I’m not always in front of my machine, and find the ability to tweet while out and about part of its charm. Not being about to automagicly send links from del.icio.us and my shared google reader stories as links in pownce limits the uses I have of that feature.

    For Leah’s and Kevin’s sake I do hope she’s right, I’ll be keeping an eye on it but suspect they’ll be less interest until it’s opened up.

    Like

  2. It’s interesting to see where this goes. I’ve mused on the twitter vs. pownce topics here and here.

    I understand that the instability of twitter is something that scares anyone building such a service.. but as Calacanis said if twitter down time is any indication they are going to be 2x as big as EBAY. We all remember how ebay was back in the day.

    At the end of the day, without an open API, pownce is far less useful to me. Not having SMS support makes pownce less interesting, I’m not always in front of my machine, and find the ability to tweet while out and about part of its charm. Not being about to automagicly send links from del.icio.us and my shared google reader stories as links in pownce limits the uses I have of that feature.

    For Leah’s and Kevin’s sake I do hope she’s right, I’ll be keeping an eye on it but suspect they’ll be less interest until it’s opened up.

    Like

  3. Can’t someone develop an “Export friends” function, that converts, say twitter friends to vcf’s that can be imported into my address book? Or maybe into Pownce? or export friends from Pownce into Twitter etc?

    That would be sweet.

    K

    Like

  4. Can’t someone develop an “Export friends” function, that converts, say twitter friends to vcf’s that can be imported into my address book? Or maybe into Pownce? or export friends from Pownce into Twitter etc?

    That would be sweet.

    K

    Like

  5. Pownce has ads in between posts. All of these could charge for additional features, too. I’d pay $5 a month to have longer posts, for instance.

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  6. Twitter is by far the simpler to use and IMO is a better microblogging platform. Pownce is better looking and I find it better to communicate with friends (the sets feature is cool).

    Like

  7. Twitter is by far the simpler to use and IMO is a better microblogging platform. Pownce is better looking and I find it better to communicate with friends (the sets feature is cool).

    Like

  8. Pownce is a much better system in my opinion.. Not only am I able to select which kind of message I want to post, it seems to be a bit more polished of an interface than Twitter.

    Part of Pownce’s appeal, at least right now, is the fact that it is a closed beta. It’s much like Gmail was back in the day. There is a certain coolness if you can say “I have a Pownce account.” Of course, Kevin Rose helps, too.

    @Sean: Not having SMS support is a pain, however, I don’t use the SMS support of Twitter that often. In fact, make that not at all. When I do a status update, it’s from the computer. Sure, though, I’m probably in the minority. I do hope that they do implement one, though. I know that Jaiku has one, but they don’t have a US shortcode yet and I don’t even want to see what Verizon would charge me to text overseas.

    @Deerpak: The friends feature is another plus of Pownce. I can choose whether a message goes just to them or to the world.

    -A

    Like

  9. Pownce is a much better system in my opinion.. Not only am I able to select which kind of message I want to post, it seems to be a bit more polished of an interface than Twitter.

    Part of Pownce’s appeal, at least right now, is the fact that it is a closed beta. It’s much like Gmail was back in the day. There is a certain coolness if you can say “I have a Pownce account.” Of course, Kevin Rose helps, too.

    @Sean: Not having SMS support is a pain, however, I don’t use the SMS support of Twitter that often. In fact, make that not at all. When I do a status update, it’s from the computer. Sure, though, I’m probably in the minority. I do hope that they do implement one, though. I know that Jaiku has one, but they don’t have a US shortcode yet and I don’t even want to see what Verizon would charge me to text overseas.

    @Deerpak: The friends feature is another plus of Pownce. I can choose whether a message goes just to them or to the world.

    -A

    Like

  10. Scoble, next time you join a social network, try what I do, only accept friend requests from people you know or have heard of before, just try it, you get a different experience and the network becomes useful.

    Like

  11. Scoble, next time you join a social network, try what I do, only accept friend requests from people you know or have heard of before, just try it, you get a different experience and the network becomes useful.

    Like

  12. Ben: out of the 4400 friends I have on Twitter I’ve heard of more than half. I have more than 6,000 business cards, and have met a LOT of people in my travels. Remember, at Microsoft I interviewed more than 500 people and since leaving Microsoft I’ve interviewed about 300 more.

    So, even if I just put the people I’ve interviewed into a social network that’s an unwieldy number.

    Like

  13. Ben: out of the 4400 friends I have on Twitter I’ve heard of more than half. I have more than 6,000 business cards, and have met a LOT of people in my travels. Remember, at Microsoft I interviewed more than 500 people and since leaving Microsoft I’ve interviewed about 300 more.

    So, even if I just put the people I’ve interviewed into a social network that’s an unwieldy number.

    Like

  14. I’ve not got a Pownce ID, so can’t comment (literally!)…if someone wants to kindly send me an invite 😉

    But, I’m with you on the overload of all these services. I don’t think I really need another presence app or social network (guess that’s my Pownce invite scrubbed)

    I tend to revert to Twitter because it’s a doddle to use and does one thing well, and people I know are on there – makes it pretty sticky for me.

    Have to say that at Reboot the jaiku backchannel was really, really useful. Seems to me that the expansion of that feature could be killer.

    Like

  15. I’ve not got a Pownce ID, so can’t comment (literally!)…if someone wants to kindly send me an invite 😉

    But, I’m with you on the overload of all these services. I don’t think I really need another presence app or social network (guess that’s my Pownce invite scrubbed)

    I tend to revert to Twitter because it’s a doddle to use and does one thing well, and people I know are on there – makes it pretty sticky for me.

    Have to say that at Reboot the jaiku backchannel was really, really useful. Seems to me that the expansion of that feature could be killer.

    Like

  16. Facebook all the way. I don’t see the point of Twitter at all. I see why Pownce might be better for sharirng things on mobile with friends, but to be honest I am sticking with the Facebook. All my friends are there. I have no motivation to move to Pownce.

    Like

  17. Facebook all the way. I don’t see the point of Twitter at all. I see why Pownce might be better for sharirng things on mobile with friends, but to be honest I am sticking with the Facebook. All my friends are there. I have no motivation to move to Pownce.

    Like

  18. I wish these guys would just write something cool that I could host on my own server. Why would I invest all that time and energy filling their server with cool stuff?

    I’d like a MySpace, twitter and pwonce plugins for my server. Then I could join in. If I felt like leaving, I just disable the ‘communications’ part of the plugin. All my data is still with me. I’d still have my MySpace comments and songs.

    I guess the plugin would be like a little app that I buy for £10, and then pay 50p a month to keep in the conversation. I get a little API key and a password hashed against my server address. The plugin does everything else.

    Every plugin would have a minimum requirements say: PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby and MySQL.

    That kinda sounds like the BitTorrent version of MySpace.

    One day…. all my…. dreams will… come true….

    monk.e.boy

    Like

  19. I wish these guys would just write something cool that I could host on my own server. Why would I invest all that time and energy filling their server with cool stuff?

    I’d like a MySpace, twitter and pwonce plugins for my server. Then I could join in. If I felt like leaving, I just disable the ‘communications’ part of the plugin. All my data is still with me. I’d still have my MySpace comments and songs.

    I guess the plugin would be like a little app that I buy for £10, and then pay 50p a month to keep in the conversation. I get a little API key and a password hashed against my server address. The plugin does everything else.

    Every plugin would have a minimum requirements say: PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby and MySQL.

    That kinda sounds like the BitTorrent version of MySpace.

    One day…. all my…. dreams will… come true….

    monk.e.boy

    Like

  20. I have a pownce account, but I don’t see the use of it. I’ve restricted my facebook to not just people I know in real life, but my actual friends.
    For keeping in touch with people and organising events/meetups, facebook really is the tool for it because you can accept/decline meetings AND upload pictures too. pownce doesn’t do that well, I can’t see the magic there.

    I take absolute exception to what Leah Culver says, pownce DOES NOT SCALE well. Login to pownce and then view kevin rose’ profile. It will either timeout or take a very long time to load. I don’t know what crazy queries they are running or if it’s powered by a slow DB server, but even with the limited number of people, it crawls.

    Given the limited number of operations you can carry out on pownce – even when logged in and the webapp is STILL able to get itself into a terrible state in many of them. Pownce really is no google.

    Like

  21. I have a pownce account, but I don’t see the use of it. I’ve restricted my facebook to not just people I know in real life, but my actual friends.
    For keeping in touch with people and organising events/meetups, facebook really is the tool for it because you can accept/decline meetings AND upload pictures too. pownce doesn’t do that well, I can’t see the magic there.

    I take absolute exception to what Leah Culver says, pownce DOES NOT SCALE well. Login to pownce and then view kevin rose’ profile. It will either timeout or take a very long time to load. I don’t know what crazy queries they are running or if it’s powered by a slow DB server, but even with the limited number of people, it crawls.

    Given the limited number of operations you can carry out on pownce – even when logged in and the webapp is STILL able to get itself into a terrible state in many of them. Pownce really is no google.

    Like

  22. Robert
    she may be talking about scalability, but as a Pownce Desktop Client user I can clearly say that the strategy is failing. The is NO justification for delaying an open API other than suicide by Pownce: the Pownce desktop app sucks and the only real long term chance Pownce has is opening the platform up to 3rd party developers. Is you need validation ask Patrick to run Twitteriffic and the Pownce app side by side on a Mac. 🙂

    Like

  23. Robert
    she may be talking about scalability, but as a Pownce Desktop Client user I can clearly say that the strategy is failing. The is NO justification for delaying an open API other than suicide by Pownce: the Pownce desktop app sucks and the only real long term chance Pownce has is opening the platform up to 3rd party developers. Is you need validation ask Patrick to run Twitteriffic and the Pownce app side by side on a Mac. 🙂

    Like

  24. Scoble, can you actually bring your camera to the offices of Twitter and Pounce, so we can see what they look like?

    http://wap.usatoday.com/detail.jsp?key=645489&rc=te&p=1

    I read this today, and I know that VA Linux started up in an apartment. I would really like to see their place instead of them coming to see you. Like a Scoble show version of cribs. Thanks. How can we really know who has the best offices if we can’t see them?

    Like

  25. Scoble, can you actually bring your camera to the offices of Twitter and Pounce, so we can see what they look like?

    http://wap.usatoday.com/detail.jsp?key=645489&rc=te&p=1

    I read this today, and I know that VA Linux started up in an apartment. I would really like to see their place instead of them coming to see you. Like a Scoble show version of cribs. Thanks. How can we really know who has the best offices if we can’t see them?

    Like

  26. It would be interesting to see how different office environments of these startups measure up to each other and even use them as a point of reference for our own. I know youtube used to post pics of their offices too before they were bought by google. It would seem that the crappier your office(apartment/garage), the more successful you become. Some may not consider this important, but I think it would be good information to have as a visual record.

    Like

  27. It would be interesting to see how different office environments of these startups measure up to each other and even use them as a point of reference for our own. I know youtube used to post pics of their offices too before they were bought by google. It would seem that the crappier your office(apartment/garage), the more successful you become. Some may not consider this important, but I think it would be good information to have as a visual record.

    Like

  28. Hi, great that you found our video of Jyri’s talk. Hope we can make many more great videos through our Mobile Monday events(www.mobilemonday.nl)

    Whenever you are on a Monday in the Netherlands check our Meetup. You are more than welcome 😉

    Like

  29. Hi, great that you found our video of Jyri’s talk. Hope we can make many more great videos through our Mobile Monday events(www.mobilemonday.nl)

    Whenever you are on a Monday in the Netherlands check our Meetup. You are more than welcome 😉

    Like

  30. I love Twitter and it’s already been integrated into my routine – I don’t even think “I need to post this on Twitter” because it’s just a natural course of action now. I’ve been on Pownce less than a week and I’m already seeing the same kind of routine-integration. I just need a desktop app like Twitterrific to make this experience complete.

    I also think the simplicity of Twitter and the API development will provide growth and continual adaption by mainstream users (as well as us early adaptors) and with new adjunct apps like Twittergram, new and better business uses will be found.

    Like

  31. I love Twitter and it’s already been integrated into my routine – I don’t even think “I need to post this on Twitter” because it’s just a natural course of action now. I’ve been on Pownce less than a week and I’m already seeing the same kind of routine-integration. I just need a desktop app like Twitterrific to make this experience complete.

    I also think the simplicity of Twitter and the API development will provide growth and continual adaption by mainstream users (as well as us early adaptors) and with new adjunct apps like Twittergram, new and better business uses will be found.

    Like

  32. Without SMS and an API Pownce is one step behind twitter. I am sure they will add both.

    My main surprise is your main feed on Pownce is not loaded and reloaded via ajax. You have to manually refreh the page. No wonder the servers are slow. Send a message or two every few seconds or wait for whole pages to reload. Hmm.

    Pownce: Don’t be so concerned with page hits. Be concerned with the ease of use of the product and the advertising dollars will come. To me, Pownce seems to be being built to best serve a quantity of ads, not quality to it’s users.

    Like

  33. Without SMS and an API Pownce is one step behind twitter. I am sure they will add both.

    My main surprise is your main feed on Pownce is not loaded and reloaded via ajax. You have to manually refreh the page. No wonder the servers are slow. Send a message or two every few seconds or wait for whole pages to reload. Hmm.

    Pownce: Don’t be so concerned with page hits. Be concerned with the ease of use of the product and the advertising dollars will come. To me, Pownce seems to be being built to best serve a quantity of ads, not quality to it’s users.

    Like

  34. I agree with what you say about the simplicity of twitter. I always think it’s funny when one developer makes something purposefully simple – “look how straightforward our app is, it only does this one really fun thing!” and then ten other developers come along and say, “wow, look how unnecessarily complicated we can make it! Now it does a hundred things you don’t need it to do!”

    I have a pownce account and though I tried to use it to send a couple of files this morning, the dismally poor desktop app failed halfway through and my upload got hosed, which caused me to just forget the whole thing, upload the file elsewhere, and link to it on twitter where all my friends are anyway.

    Like

  35. I agree with what you say about the simplicity of twitter. I always think it’s funny when one developer makes something purposefully simple – “look how straightforward our app is, it only does this one really fun thing!” and then ten other developers come along and say, “wow, look how unnecessarily complicated we can make it! Now it does a hundred things you don’t need it to do!”

    I have a pownce account and though I tried to use it to send a couple of files this morning, the dismally poor desktop app failed halfway through and my upload got hosed, which caused me to just forget the whole thing, upload the file elsewhere, and link to it on twitter where all my friends are anyway.

    Like

  36. Competition is good and I’m glad to see competing applications duke it out. I use Twitter because it is simple and it integrates into Facebook. It doesn’t need to be fancy. That’s the appeal of Twitter.

    Like

  37. Competition is good and I’m glad to see competing applications duke it out. I use Twitter because it is simple and it integrates into Facebook. It doesn’t need to be fancy. That’s the appeal of Twitter.

    Like

  38. I’ve been using twitter since a week now and I like it because it’s very simple to use. But it wouldn’t matter if i used pownce, since i dont use cellphone stuff or something that uses the API.

    I would like to try out pownce because it has a nice looking UI and you can also share files, next to messages and links. The only reason I haven’t been able to try it out is that you need an invite.

    Like

  39. I’ve been using twitter since a week now and I like it because it’s very simple to use. But it wouldn’t matter if i used pownce, since i dont use cellphone stuff or something that uses the API.

    I would like to try out pownce because it has a nice looking UI and you can also share files, next to messages and links. The only reason I haven’t been able to try it out is that you need an invite.

    Like

  40. Pownce is better than Twitter because:

    Pownce enables you to attach mp3s or other files to your message.

    Pownce has better display of link attached to message.

    Pownce enables you to group your Friends in sets.

    Pownce has accurate “in reply to” to respond directly to a specific message, while Twitter makes an @username reply go only to the most recent message of the person you are replying to, so when you click on the “in reply to”, it may go to the wrong message, and that causes confusion, a dysfunctional linking for the conversation.

    Pownce enables music bands to distribute new mp3s to a community of fans, if they are on Pownce and in your Friends list. That’s the tricky part: building the community to benefit and promote to.

    http://pownce.com/vaspers

    Like

  41. Chris: we’ll have a video of Jaiku up today. Unfortunately it’s not in their offices, but in a hotel room in San Francisco.

    I’ll try to get to the others as well.

    Like

  42. Pownce is better than Twitter because:

    Pownce enables you to attach mp3s or other files to your message.

    Pownce has better display of link attached to message.

    Pownce enables you to group your Friends in sets.

    Pownce has accurate “in reply to” to respond directly to a specific message, while Twitter makes an @username reply go only to the most recent message of the person you are replying to, so when you click on the “in reply to”, it may go to the wrong message, and that causes confusion, a dysfunctional linking for the conversation.

    Pownce enables music bands to distribute new mp3s to a community of fans, if they are on Pownce and in your Friends list. That’s the tricky part: building the community to benefit and promote to.

    http://pownce.com/vaspers

    Like

  43. Chris: we’ll have a video of Jaiku up today. Unfortunately it’s not in their offices, but in a hotel room in San Francisco.

    I’ll try to get to the others as well.

    Like

  44. As my friend Andy Kaufman says, “Twitter and Facebook is the social networking power duo.” I agree. I think, when the smoke clears, Twitter will win the day for its simplicity and API.

    In my book, one strike against Twitter is that it’s design reminds me of MySpace, which I’ve never been fond of. (Pownce looks much nicer and reminds me of Facebook. :->) Yet and still, the fact that its a closed system at this point (including that fact that SMS is not enabled) makes it less useful to me.

    Like

  45. As my friend Andy Kaufman says, “Twitter and Facebook is the social networking power duo.” I agree. I think, when the smoke clears, Twitter will win the day for its simplicity and API.

    In my book, one strike against Twitter is that it’s design reminds me of MySpace, which I’ve never been fond of. (Pownce looks much nicer and reminds me of Facebook. :->) Yet and still, the fact that its a closed system at this point (including that fact that SMS is not enabled) makes it less useful to me.

    Like

  46. Pingback: thomashan's blog
  47. One feature that would make me switch is an API interface you can invoke as a regular i.e. non-techie user. See Bravetrail, where members post messages to ‘robots’ which carry out useful tasks on the their behalf.

    Like

  48. One feature that would make me switch is an API interface you can invoke as a regular i.e. non-techie user. See Bravetrail, where members post messages to ‘robots’ which carry out useful tasks on the their behalf.

    Like

  49. I am amused by the media race for ‘most friends’. For a self promoting machine like Scoble and his cronnies, this may mean something… but for those of us in the real world quality is much more important than quantity.

    Social networking is a great mechanism for referrals and as a way to increase the accuracy of information (people like me buying, doing, etc). Running a fan club and leading your own parade is certainly and interesting twist…

    Like

  50. I am amused by the media race for ‘most friends’. For a self promoting machine like Scoble and his cronnies, this may mean something… but for those of us in the real world quality is much more important than quantity.

    Social networking is a great mechanism for referrals and as a way to increase the accuracy of information (people like me buying, doing, etc). Running a fan club and leading your own parade is certainly and interesting twist…

    Like

  51. If I might add one other point worth making, what is needed is a greater degree of aggregation so that it’s not either/or, but both/and. The internet in its current iteration is X number of digital islands, what a friend of mine refers to as an archipelago. What’s needed, and the Web 3.0 will eventually bring this about, is a pangaea.

    While we wait on the Web 3.0 to arrive, a short-term suitable solution for integrating more of our digital social life might be to route everything through Facebook. Seriously, both Twitter and Pownce have Facebook widgets. I’m not sure about Jaiku, which I’ve never used, but, heck, them too!

    Considering the number of applications merging with Facebook, including things like Zoho’s open office, Box.net’s file sharing, on and on, it’s not inconceivable to think Facebook might become a portal to access all the functions of our digital lives.

    “I just saying.” 🙂

    Like

  52. If I might add one other point worth making, what is needed is a greater degree of aggregation so that it’s not either/or, but both/and. The internet in its current iteration is X number of digital islands, what a friend of mine refers to as an archipelago. What’s needed, and the Web 3.0 will eventually bring this about, is a pangaea.

    While we wait on the Web 3.0 to arrive, a short-term suitable solution for integrating more of our digital social life might be to route everything through Facebook. Seriously, both Twitter and Pownce have Facebook widgets. I’m not sure about Jaiku, which I’ve never used, but, heck, them too!

    Considering the number of applications merging with Facebook, including things like Zoho’s open office, Box.net’s file sharing, on and on, it’s not inconceivable to think Facebook might become a portal to access all the functions of our digital lives.

    “I just saying.” 🙂

    Like

  53. I’m finding a lot of great music on Pownce. I love sharing stuff too, and can filter just links or just files. That reduces the noise a lot. That also reduces my own noise. It’s already been observed that I’m not spammy on Pownce, but that’s probably because Twitter seemed to evolve into slow-motion IRC (with logs)

    I paid 20 bucks to go Pro.

    Should this really be Pownce vs. Tumblr and not Pownce vs. Twitter?

    Here’s how I’m using all the services:
    http://www.ericrice.com/blog/?p=597
    Twitter = chat room; Jaiku = aggregator; Facebook = address book

    Like

  54. I’m finding a lot of great music on Pownce. I love sharing stuff too, and can filter just links or just files. That reduces the noise a lot. That also reduces my own noise. It’s already been observed that I’m not spammy on Pownce, but that’s probably because Twitter seemed to evolve into slow-motion IRC (with logs)

    I paid 20 bucks to go Pro.

    Should this really be Pownce vs. Tumblr and not Pownce vs. Twitter?

    Here’s how I’m using all the services:
    http://www.ericrice.com/blog/?p=597
    Twitter = chat room; Jaiku = aggregator; Facebook = address book

    Like

  55. From a UI perspective, Pownce wins hands down. Keep in mind that it’s a totally immature product and Twitter has been out for a while. Once (I’d guess it’s only a matter of time) Pownce has an open API and SMS support, and the desktop client runs a little more smoothly, I can definitely see it kicking the crap out of Twitter. It’s a much closer race right now, but I think the fact that you can even compare the two this early in the game (for Pownce) is a nod in Pownce’s direction over the long haul.

    It definitely has some issues, though. I blogged about desktop client issues here in case you’re interested:
    http://www.nickbouton.com/archives/2007/07/07/pownce-alpha-client-blowing-up-on-winxp/

    Like

  56. From a UI perspective, Pownce wins hands down. Keep in mind that it’s a totally immature product and Twitter has been out for a while. Once (I’d guess it’s only a matter of time) Pownce has an open API and SMS support, and the desktop client runs a little more smoothly, I can definitely see it kicking the crap out of Twitter. It’s a much closer race right now, but I think the fact that you can even compare the two this early in the game (for Pownce) is a nod in Pownce’s direction over the long haul.

    It definitely has some issues, though. I blogged about desktop client issues here in case you’re interested:
    http://www.nickbouton.com/archives/2007/07/07/pownce-alpha-client-blowing-up-on-winxp/

    Like

  57. Hi there. I just now came across this article. I am a user of both Twitter and Pownce and don’t think a comparison between the two really works. To me it’s like comparing a window to a door. They are both on a house, but which one is better?

    We created a new site for people who miss Pownce called Schmownce (http://schmownce.com).

    Also, I wrote this article, which I think is a more useful comparison: http://ajitfoldsfive.tumblr.com/post/71266576/what-was-the-deal-with-pownce

    Like

  58. Hi there. I just now came across this article. I am a user of both Twitter and Pownce and don’t think a comparison between the two really works. To me it’s like comparing a window to a door. They are both on a house, but which one is better?

    We created a new site for people who miss Pownce called Schmownce (http://schmownce.com).

    Also, I wrote this article, which I think is a more useful comparison: http://ajitfoldsfive.tumblr.com/post/71266576/what-was-the-deal-with-pownce

    Like

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