Microblogging: It's Not Just Twitter

What Web 2.0 program has been used by a successful presidential candidate, has helped to free a journalism student jailed after a political rally in Egypt, and has been part of American Red Cross communication during disaster relief? Yes, it’s Twitter, but the fast-growing Web service isn’t the only microblogging game in town.

To clarify, microblogging is the posting of short messages (usually 140 characters or less) similar to text or instant messaging, except that you are publishing to the Web. In fact, microblog updates are often sent via text message, the idea being that you can broadcast your thoughts or activities from anywhere so your friends can know exactly what you’re doing at all times.

If microblogging were just economical blog posts, though, it wouldn’t be the growing phenomenon that it is. These services enable you to receive the stream of messages from other users that you opt to “follow.” It’s very easy to keep track of others; indeed, never before have we had this ability to be connected with so many people.

But it’s just as easy to find yourself wading through hundreds of messages, many of which will not be important to you. It’s like being at a party and hearing every conversation taking place. Sussing out the important from the mundane is the next challenge facing microblogging services detailed below.

Twitter. The big daddy of microblogging, cocreated by blogger Evan Williams, who also helped launch what is now Google’s Blogger. While plagued by erratic service because of huge growth, Twitter remains the standard bearer here.

Plurk. This service centered on “conversations” in a time line view has created a very loyal following, but also makes it hard to read except in a Web browser.

Jaiku. Bought by Google over a year ago and currently closed to new users, Jaiku is worth watching because Google’s so darn good at making applications work well for the masses.

Utterli. Allowing users to post audio, video, pictures, or text, Utterli is microblogging on steroids and confusing for all its feature richness. It is billed as a “group messaging service,” in which all these services should be moving.

Shout’em. The new kid on the block, but with an intriguing twist: Shout’em lets you create your own microblogging community service. Young but promising.

Identi.ca. Built on the open source platform Laconica, Identi.ca will allow different microblogging services to talk to each other. Can be installed on your own server.