Scobleizer - Latest Comments in Twitter vs. Pownce

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

ajit — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:56:38 -0000

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...

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

drew olanoff — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:31:48 -0000

Pownce nailed it.

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

nick — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 23:25:57 -0000

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/a...

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Salvatore Iozzia — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 08:48:01 -0000

I think Twitter is a better choice because it is more user friendly.

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

missbhavens — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:51:28 -0000

Pownce? No SMS?

No dice.

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

boreiajr — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 17:55:05 -0000

Hi!

I've been written something about this discussion...Twitter x Pownce, in portuguese on my blog.

Anyway, I'm giving 3 Pownces invites in a promotion of my blog. Who wants... http://tradutorium.wordpres...

:-)

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Eric Rice — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:59:43 -0000

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/blo...
Twitter = chat room; Jaiku = aggregator; Facebook = address book

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Aidan Henry — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:39:46 -0000

I don't think you can compare the two in the first place. I wrote a post entirely dedicated to why they should be grouped in different spaces:

http://www.mappingtheweb.co...

Let me know your thoughts...

Cheers,
Aidan

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Joe — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:48:40 -0000

Who will win? The one bought up by Google, of course. :)

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Paul Chaney — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:03:25 -0000

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." :-)

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Mark — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:58:36 -0000

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...

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Lindsay — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:55:35 -0000

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.

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Paul Chaney — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:34:30 -0000

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.

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Robert Scoble — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:54:12 -0000

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.

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

vaspers the grate aka steven e — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:54:02 -0000

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://twitter.com/vaspers
http://pownce.com/vaspers

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Pim de Groot — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:51:50 -0000

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.

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Ryan — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 11:39:11 -0000

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.

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Melissa Maples — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 10:54:06 -0000

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.

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Ben — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 10:48:26 -0000

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.

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

jquig99 — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 10:06:10 -0000

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.

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Raimo van der Klein — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 09:56:42 -0000

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 ;-)

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Chris — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 09:46:06 -0000

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.

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Chris — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 09:22:00 -0000

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/det...

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?

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Duncan — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 09:08:13 -0000

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. :-)

Re: Twitter vs. Pownce

Michael Walsh — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 08:58:48 -0000

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.