Miniblogging:8 Pownce Rivals Compared

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FYI: we are still distributing Pownce invites if you need one.

Jaiku

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Jaiku has proven itself to be a serious competitor in the mini-blogging market, particularly for cellphone users. It has recently implemented the ability to create and join channels. You can also aggregate content from feeds from other websites, and they even have little icons which you can add to your posts. Not to mention they support threaded comments.

There is a serious problem, however, with information just being thrown at you without being separated. It could easily result in what I would call “information overload.” If you have a few friends and are involved with a select few channels, then this is not a problem. Unfortunately, as you add more friends and channels to the mix, things get messy and it becomes harder to filter out excess content. A long load time for people with many friends is also a problem. Jaiku has potential, but improvements are needed to make it number one.

Twitter

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Twitter, born out of the podcasting site Odeo, gained traction at the SXSW conference earlier this year as geeks got smart to text messaging. Thanks to an API, there are hundreds of applications to get Twitter messages in and out. Its simplicity is key: anyone could get started with Twitter easily.

For many, the only problem is a lack of features. There is no support for icons or threaded comments. Twitter also lacks in the style department. It is a great product, but you must wonder how long until they make some desired upgrades to the system to match the competition. Twitter has been criticized for suffering downtime as the site grows.

MoodMill

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MoodMill is a new mini-blogging site that takes a different approach compared to the competition. While at the core being mainly a mini-blogging site, it offers a way to track your mood over a period of time. Anytime you decide to enter a post, you select your current mood at the time of writing, and the site keeps track of your mood for you. It’s a feature that fits perfectly for the site and offers an interesting twist.

The question is: does this mood-reporting feature really make Moodmill stand out from the crowd? Probably not. A lack of third-party tools is also likely to be a concern for most. Regardless, Moodmill is trying something new, and it will be interesting to see if they make it work in the long run.

Pownce

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Pownce is a new offering from a team including Leah Culver and Digg's Kevin Rose. The basic functionality of writing a mini-blog is there, but it goes way beyond that. Not only can you post mini-blogs, but you can also post links, files, and events as well. The advancements are quite impressive. Pownce has only has only been available for less than a month, but it is quickly starting to become one of the hottest things in mini-blogging. You can check out our full Pownce review for information, and grab a Pounce invite if you don't have one.

Hictu

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Hictu may not be the prettiest of the bunch, but it just launched a feature that differentiates it from the pack: video blogging. It does, however, lack the user numbers of sites like Twitter. One upside: versions are available in English, Italian and French. Overall, though, we're a little skeptical about this one.

Bebo's "What Are You Doing"

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Mainstream social network Bebo recently took a page from Twitter's book. Oh wait, it was actually the whole entire book! Regardless, Bebo now offers an in-house Twitter clone for posting mini-blogs. There isn’t anything really amazing about it, but it is nice to have that functionality if you're already on Bebo.

Xanga Pulse

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Xanga, the massive blogging and media-sharing site, now offers mini-blogging with a service called Xanga Pulse. This is essentially where blogging and mini-blogging collide and give us a service to do both. It is aimed mainly at cellphone users. Clearly, Xanga felt that blogging and mini blogging were different enough to keep them separate. It's mainly useful for those already on Xanga.

Facebook Status Updates

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Facebook also has a Twitter-like miniblogging feature: Status updates can be posted from the web or your phone to let your friends know what you are doing. Alternatively, you can just add the Twitter and Pownce applications to your Facebook profile.

Tumblr

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Tumble-blogging and miniblogging: what's the difference? Not much. Tumblr lacks the mobile focus of its competitors: it's designed for web based updates, and offers features like blog customization and the ability to use a custom domain name. Good for those who just want a simple, personalized way to post their thoughts from the web, but not as feature rich as Pownce.

Overall, we're still gunning for Twitter in this lineup, despite Pownce's impressive debut. With the addition of an API however, Pownce could quickly build up a large number of third party apps and make huge gains on its rivals.

Did we miss any? Add them in the comments.