Micro-Blogs

Today I took the plunge into "micro-blogging" (I had some extra time). First I played with Twitter, the service that you hear so much about, next I played with Pownce, then I played with Jaiku. For my hour of use (about 1/3 of an hour each), I have found that I prefer Jaiku. Below I will rate each site on the things I was looking for.

Love at first sight
This is my ranking on first impressions of the site, and ease of signing up.
1 - Jaiku -- The site did not appear cluttered, and signing up was extremely easy (you can even sign up through IM).
2 - Twitter -- This site had the most cluttered feeling of all three, but signing up was still fairly easy.
3 - Pownce -- The site was not overly cluttered, but signing up is a pain in the @$ (invite only).

IM going to be using this
The only way that I could use a micro-blogging site consistently, is if it easy to post - I feel that IM (instant messenger) would be the best way for me to do so.
1 - Jaiku -- Jaiku makes good use of IM. It is not as easy to setup as Twitter, but once you have it set up, you can do many things with it. Jaiku only uses Jabber (GTalk) naively, but you can use AIM, Yahoo, and MSN through another service. In addition to the normal set of commands, you can also use IM to loggin, logout, create an account, delete an account, and a bit more. The largest problem is that the IM account they use always shows as off line, so it doesn't show on my list.
2 - Twitter -- They make it easy to setup the IM features. You can use AIM, Jabber (GTalk), LiveJournal, and .Mac.
3 - Pownce -- You can download their software (run by AIR) and use that, no other options.
Twitter and Jaiku really are tied in this section, Twitter is easier, but Jaiku has more features.


How very utilitarian of you
1 - Twitter -- Wins hands down in this department. The number of utilities that have been developed for Twitter is staggering. The default utilities are the best that I have seen so far. A running "badge" that you can easily put into a blog, or site. The API means that anyone can make a utility, so things will only get better.
2 - Jaiku -- A few utilities, not much to talk about (that I could find anyway). They do make "badges", and they do look nice, but don't work as well in my blog as the ones from Twitter. Jaiku released their API as well, so things will get better as well.
3 - Pownce -- A distant third again. No API, no utilities that I could find - only their desktop software (see above).

Let me send that to you
1 - Pownce -- Their big advantage is that you can send files to people.
2 - Jaiku -- No file transfer.
3 - Twitter -- No file transfer.

Keep Talking
The only reason I can see to keep using *any* micro-blogs, is so that I can talk to people, I have a real blog to express my thoughts.
1 - Jaiku -- They have the most community minded service out there. People can comment on your posts, and it is easy to follow. They also have channels, which are communities. They make doing all of that dead easy.
2 - Twitter -- You can reply to posts, but it feels more like a quick add on, rather than something they intended from the start.
3 - Pownce -- You can reply, not much else.


I will be using Jaiku mostly, but will play around with Twitter as well. If I'm lucky, Twitter will adapt some of the things that Jaiku already has.