Pownce vs. Twitter

Social Party. Lately thats what it feels like online, social bookmarks, social networking, social music (go Zune!), and of course the bit growing with some steam Social Notes (or so I call it) - a small site called Twitter picked up steam asking the question “What are you doing?” originally starting as a status app so to speak, you could tell folks “doing my laundry, out of fresh underwear” - people posted things, some things they shouldn’t have

So things have evolved - and folks now really just sort of Micro-blog I suppose, but really it tends to be a Note they are sending out like Post-It’s on acid, with a world wide audience, the system has grown, and a newer player has entered the arena, named Pownce which is invite only right now - but it comes to the table with features that Twitter hasn’t got, but at the same time, that doesn’t rule Twitter out.

The Client

Pownce offers a client with their system, using Adobe Air to package the app, it is available for Mac and Windows respectively:

And of course, since Twitter has a current open API, there are an assortment of clients for both Mac/Windows/Linux, I use Twitterrific:

The Victor: Twitter - with a open-api, which is forthcoming with Pownce, this may change, but as it stands now you have more variety with Twitter, and an assortment of Applications for both your desktop & website to integrate with.

The Website

By far Twitter has gone the simplistic route, with users really pushing forward with features like using the format “@username” to reply to Tweets, the site has evolved over time, but for the most part, it is simplistic in nature, as it only has one question to ask:

Pownce is the hype of “web 2.0″ and then some, but it has more beef to include, it throws in a extra features like Send Events, Send Link, Send Message and the Send File (10mb free, 100mb pro membership) - so they’ve spiced it up a notch:

The Victor: Pownce - With extra organization, they have added message groups, different styles of alerts, and a nice system of reply/communication.

The Update Methods

Having already covered the clients above, the biggest factor left is of course use of a API, Twitter has hands down got this corner covered, with companies like Woot, Dell, and various other Blogs/Events using Twitter for “live-ish” coverage of sales, events, postings on a main site, it has opened the door for content systems to really interact with another community without even trying hard.

Secondly Twitter has their SMS gateway as well as Mobile page to get your Tweet on while on the go.

The Victor: Twitter.

Overall Winner

Twitter is the more robust in overall features, mainly due to their API and existing community including Musicians, Actors/Actresses, famous nerds,etc. but Pownce has some features which if smoothed out a bit, and other functionality + API was added, would quickly surpass the functionality of Twitter.

For me, my day-to-day short of the occasional banter with Jake, is Twitter, but I say keep your eyes on Pownce, one that API opens up, I imagine you’ll see a few black-out days on their site as they have to adjust to new load from visitors, buy them pro memberships now

My Twitter [link]

My Pownce [link]