bitful

Don't sneer - not everyone is as web-savvy as you lot.

So yes, these days anyone who's anyone in social media circles is jumping Twitter's ship and moving over to Pownce. It's sort of like Twitter, but with file share (messages, links, files, and events). It's sort of like IM, but you can send files to one person, everyone, or a group of people.

Pownce is currently so hot that even if it's still in private beta, much coveted invitations to join Pownce are being traded on eBay. By the way, I've got six left to give away, and a nice comment here below can earn you one if you are quick. Flattery can get you very far ;-)

Anyway. Back to Twitter (but do read Garoo's review of Pownce if you are interested). Because not everyone is insane enough to waste all day trying out new stuff, and I feel obliged to explain very briefly to the vast majority of people out there what Twitter is and what it is not.

Twitter is a status application. You tell it what you are doing and you have a wide choice of ways to do so:

• typing in a window on Twitter.com, from your computer or mobile phone browser
• by sending a text message to +44 7624 801 423
• by sending an instant message to twitter@twitter.com
• by using a desktop widget for PC or Mac
• from Facebook
• from the address bar in Firefox or Flock

and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few.

People can subscribe to your updates and receive them via text message and/or on their Twitter page and/or IM and or RSS feeds. It's very very easy, idiot-proof I dare say. And that's exactly the beauty of it.

There are several easy ways to display your Twitter updates automatically on your weblog. This is what most of my friends have seen (the now defunct - but you never know, I might put it back - 'Right now I am…'). This, however, is the least useful of Twitter's uses in my opinion.

Twitter is fantastic when you sign up to receive text message update from a close circle of mates. One of them is in town, sends a message to Twitter saying 'Anyone near Soho for a cheeky pint?' and if you are, you reply.

Twitter is very very good when you get a connection with other people, mostly unknown, who touch your life for a fraction of a second from across the continents or round the corner.

Twitter is a bit crap some days when all you get is people bragging about who they've met and where they've eaten and how many iPhones they snatched after queuing for three days. But then again, you can just ignore that or unsubscribe from receiving their updates. That's the beauty of the river of data that flows around us every day: you just pick what you want and trust software to filter out what does not interest you.

Me? Gosh, I don't know. I use Twitter inconstantly (and I'm still a newbie on Pownce) to shout out about something I'm doing that I want to share, no matter who listens.

Worringly, however, more often than not it's just to say I'm eating. At least now with Pownce, I can send photos of my food too.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 5:19 am and last modified on July 10th, 2007 at 5:26 am, and is filed under rants, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.