Pownce
January 26th, 2008
Rating: 
What do they say it is?
“Pownce is a way to send stuff to your friends. What kind of stuff? You can send just about anything: music, photos, messages, links, events, and more. You can do it all on our web site, or install our lightweight desktop software that lets you get out of the browser”.
What do I say it is?
In spite of the efforts of considering itself more like a collaborative tool (a way to share things online with friends), Pownce is a microblogging service, just like Jaiku or Twitter, but with a few extra options, like sending files and event invitations, or splitting friends into sets. And, as a microblogging service, it can be used for a variety of purposes – including Journalism.
What’s great about it?
The extra facilities make it simple to share things online with friends. It is possible to send files (up to 10Mb in the basic account), event invitations (there are pages featuring each event, and you can sign up to take part of it). The ability of splitting friends into sets allows users to send messages to specific niches of people, which could be used as a Marketing or PR tool. There’s also the integration with other profiles in other websites, and it is possible to import friend lists from other services (including Twitter). The new version of their Adobe AIR based desktop client is really lightweight. The mobile page is also smooth.
What could be better?
Apparently, no RSS feed is provided. Being able to use it by SMS or IM would be nice too, specially because of the possibility of sending messages to groups of friends (which Twitter lacks). Pownce API is public, so as users database starts to grow (after a six month period of closed beta, the service was launched for public in January 22nd) new uses can emerge.
How is it going to make money?
There are discrete ads in the middle of the posts stream, using the same color scheme of the user updates. The ads are displayed both in the website and in the Pownce Application. Also, some features are for pro users ($20/year), like designing custom themes, or sending larger files (up to 100Mb).
Should I pay it any attention?
Yes. Since it is now open for everyone to join, the user database may grow, and, although slowly, appropriations and new uses might appear, including some possible journalistic approaches.
Sphere: Related ContentEntry Filed under: Uncategorized, blogs, data management
3 Comments Add your own
1. tiagón | January 26th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
nice review
I guess pownce should add some other social networking tools, or it might disappear for lack of niche. the file transfer feature is easy, but then again for some collaborative work you have more flexibility using google docs and email.
but on the other hand, twitter doesn’t seem to be treating his users very well lately - so there might be a chance for other services to gather public attention? I hope so.
2. Journalism enterprise hea&hellip | January 31st, 2008 at 10:10 am
[…] Pownce: a Twitter with bells on. […]
3. Heidi Cool | February 4th, 2008 at 12:58 am
I’ve had some good luck with using Pownce as a collaboration tool. It’s a good way to quickly exchange ideas within a group and watch the discussion in a thread.
Discussion is also where Pownce really differs from Twitter. It can be complicated to follow Tweets back and forth over the course of a conversation, but Pownce discussions are threaded so that one can follow them just as easily as one might have done in Usenet News or on a well-designed discussion forum. Some of these conversations can get rather lengthy, which wouldn’t be possible with Twitter’s 130 character limit.
I think users will choose between these based on their need. Those who want in-depth conversation will Pownce while those who want quick updates will Tweet. And of course many use both. Pownce’s profile area makes it easy to share one’s other online profiles with fellow Powncers so one can easily find someone’s Twitter, Flickr or other account and follow there as well.
p.s. Pownce does offer RSS for public posts. To subscribe to a user’s Pownce feed just substitute their username in the following (or click on the RSS symbol on their public profile page). http://www.pownce.com/feeds/public/username/
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed