Plurk better than Twitter? Invites available

[Jeff]

I really do like Twitter. I've used it on and off since March 2007, but they are beginning to be the laughing stock of startups with their frequent downtime (read Twitter Suffers Minor Period of Uptime).

But increasingly there are some nice alternatives on the market. Last year there was Jaiku, which allows you to include a number of other social network feeds in your lifestream.

This year, there is Plurk. I've only just begun experimenting with it, but at a glance, it's like Twitter with some nice UI touches and a cool timeline interface. Click the attached thumbnail for details, and leave a reply if you'd like an invite to the beta.

[Tigerblade]

The problem with any of these "twitter alternatives" is that they're really only as good as their user base. And let's face it... none of the alternatives have anywhere near as many users.

It's like MySpace vs Virb. Sure Virb may have the better interface and cleaner everything, but MySpace is the king just because they got there first and got the teenage crowd. Why should I move to Y when all my friends are on X?

[kelseyc]

I agree with Tigerblade- I doubt that even if Plurk or virb (whatever that is) is a better interface, Myspace and Twitter were there first (or got popular first). The sites that follow it are just seen as copycats.

[Jeff]

True, but if you use a "reverse-aggregator" service like ping.fm, you can send your updates to twitter, plurk, facebook, friendfeed, etc. automatically.

I'm not suggesting it's a good solution, but it does make it fairly effortless.

[NationHahn]

I really like Plurk - but no one is on it unfortunately.

[Gandalf]

Someone needs to build a Plurk-like interface for Twitter. Should be mostly do-able via the Twitter API, I would think.