5 Twitter Resource Lists. 8 Alternatives to Twitter

December 24, 2010 by smsadmin · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Social Media - Twitter

Twitter Resource Lists
Twitter is now so popular that the sheer number of related sites, services and software is far too big to list here. So below is a brief list of lists—pointers to the top Twitter-related resource sites. Consult them regularly for all the latest Twitter downloads, tips and trends.
Pistachio Consulting. Laura Fitton’s site is important for companies that grapple with Twitter and other microblogging services. Along with her consulting services focused on “microsharing,” Fitton provides a wealth of no-cost information via her relentless linking and personal research. Key posts on her blog include a “Getting Started with Twitter” linkfest and a Twitter-for-business reading list. These and other vital posts are found on Fitton’s featured-article page.
Twitter Fan Wiki.This is a gigantic directory of all things Twitter. Its lists range from the practical to the whimsical: apps, Twitter-related groups and clubs, Twitter users that aren’t human, mentions of Twitter in the media, and more. There’s also a guide to Twitter etiquette (listed under “important stuff”).
Twitterholics. This often-updated blog “for all those obsessed with Twitter” offers a steady stream of pointers to the latest Twitter tips, tools and news.
Twittermaven. This blog promises “everything you ever wanted to know about Twitter.”
Twitter Blog.This is Twitter’s official blog, and a good way to keep track of Twitter developments, trends, services and applications.

Alternatives to Twitter
Twitter’s popularity (and to, some extent, its unreliability) has spawned competitors that claim to offer better capabilities along with greater stability and ease of use. None could boast a user base as large as Twitter’s as of this writing, though, nor a vast ecosystem of software and services like that built around Twitter. Still, it’s always nice to have choice.
Should companies pay attention to any of these Twitter rivals? Some have more business relevance than others.
FriendFeed. Though often cited as a Twitter alternative, FriendFeed is a different sort of social-networking service.
For one thing, it’s an alternate way to view Twitter content, as well as content from other sites. FriendFeed is an “aggregator” where users can collect the information they post on their blogs, bookmarking sites and photo or video sites, along with their social networks, including Twitter. FriendFeed supported about three dozen specific sites and services as of this writing. It’s not unlike an RSS reader in this regard; in fact, FriendFeed users can pull in any RSS feed and add that content to their FriendFeed pages.
So how is FriendFeed “social,” à la Twitter? Users can subscribe to each other (much as they follow each other on Twitter). This is a great way for one user to keep abreast with what another user has posted on all of his or her services and sites. Following too many people on FriendFeed can lead to information overload, though.
FriendFeed has the added benefit of built-in text discussions so users can have extensive conversations about what’s occurring in their lives and on their various sites and services. FriendFeed even has a “rooms” feature for self-contained discussions among those who share a common interest (members of a wedding party, for instance, or fans of the Green Bay Packers). Rooms can be public or private.
Companies are getting on FriendFeed, much as they’ve embraced Twitter (though, as of this writing, to a lesser extent). These include Comcast and the Ford Motor Company.
FriendFeed fans include Steve Rubel, Senior Vice President and Director of Insights at Edelman Digital, part of the Edelman public-relations giant. He thinks FriendFeed is a solution to social-network fragmentation. Such services are so simple to create that many of them have sprung up, isolating users in various “wells,” he said. FriendFeed brings such services and their users together. As a result, it could achieve Google-like popularity eventually, Rubel believes. He recently noted:
steverubel: I now have over 5000 following me on FriendFeed—60% of what I have on Twitter.
I’ll confess to being ambivalent about FriendFeed, though, because of its awkward (though recently updated) look and the vast amount of information it tends to throw at its users. As I put it in a tweet:
jojeda: How do folks follow even a handful of web-savvy pals on FriendFeed without their brains exploding from information overload? I don’t get it.
Wondering who’s who on FriendFeed? The Alltop network of themed sites, mentioned earlier in this chapter in connection with its Twitterati super-user site, has a similar site showcasing the top FriendFeed users—It’s called Frienderati.
Utterli.
Twitter is text. That’s it. So Twitter-like services have emerged to exploit other flavors of expression, such as audio and video. Utterli, in particular, has become popular among social-media types because it gives them the option to post audio clips as well as photos, video clips and text (all referred to as “utters” in Utterli parlance).
These are posted to the Utterli site, or to blogs and social-networking sites (like Twitter, in the form of links within tweets) and to photo- and video-sharing sites (like Flickr and YouTube). In short, it’s a way to blast all manner of content, still or animated, to all the places where you customarily share information with others. This is typically done from cell phones, which is why the service refers to itself as “mobile multimedia discussions,” but it can also be done from a computer with a microphone or webcam.

Utterli (originally called Utterz) has grown popular enough to merit an Utterati page on the Alltop site network.
Public-relations professionals who champion Twitter are also favoring Utterli. One such P.R. pro is Albert Maruggi of Minnesota’s Provident Partners public-relations and social-media agency. He became a prolific Utterli user earlier this year. He said he found it useful for posting off-the-cuff ideas and covering live events. Just as Twitter has become a fast alternative to full-scale blogging, he added, Utterli has become a supplement to full-scale podcasts (which are radio-or TV-like programs distributed on the internet).
Utterli can be useful at companies, Maruggi believes, for work teams who set up private “audio channels” much as Twitter is sometimes used for work-group communication and collaboration. He has been encouraging his clients to use Utterli.
Kel Kelly of the Boston-area Kel & Partners agency also recently warmed to Utterli as a complement to her prolific tweeting. She refers to Utterli as “Twitter on steroids” because it lets her blast out several utters—text, photos or video—on a single topic and assemble them as a “mashup” in one place. Now she’s trying to get her clients interested in Utterli.
Pownce. One of several so-called Twitter clones, Pownce had added features that have made it moderately popular. It has the built-in ability to share files and calendar events with others. Conversations around a shared topic are easier to conduct than on Twitter, too, courtesy of Pownce’s built-in discussion features (not unlike those on FriendFeed). These are potentially useful among members of a work group if these are not all in the same place. There’s Pownce desktop software as well as a mobile-browser incarnation.
Jaiku. This Google-owned service is very much like Twitter, with a key difference: It pales in popularity. It lacks a vast ecosystem of software and services like the one built around Twitter. It does have useful features such as “channels” (an automated version of Twitter’s hashtag system for keeping track of joint discussions) and the ability to pull in the contents of RSS feeds.
Identi.ca. Bearing maybe the greatest superficial resemblance to Twitter of all Twitter clones, Identi.ca boasts a crucial difference under the hood: It’s built atop “open source” computer code that anyone can use. This means individuals or companies could set up Identi.ca-like services on their own networked hardware if they did not want to rely on the centralized version, yet retain access to their Indenti.ca friends. As Identi.ca explains on its site:
“The goal here is autonomy—you deserve the right to manage your own on-line presence. If you don’t like how Identi.ca works, you can take yout data and the source code and set up your own server (or move your account to another one).”
Identi.ca remained a work in progress as of this writing, but showed potential as a way to decentralize Twitter-style microblogging (keeping in mind that Twitter’s technical issues are largely a result of its overtaxed centralized servers) and let users post to other services (like Twitter). This is a service to watch.
Identi.ca uses Laconica software that others are free to use and adapt it to their needs. A variety of Laconica-based microblogging services have recently emerged. These include the TWiT Army, founded by tech broadcaster and podcaster Leo Laporte.
If you use Identi.ca or other leading Laconica-based services, rely on the previously mentioned Tweet Scan for keyword searching. This search engine was set up to scour 10 Laconica services (including Identi.ca) along with Twitter as of this writing.
Plurk. This one takes Twitter’s vertical-text approach and lays it on its side—literally. Users scan their timelines, made up of icon-style posts called “plurks,” from left to right instead of top to bottom a la Twitter. Some like this approach but others find it awkward.
Plurks, like tweets, are limited to 140 characters. Plurk adds a few bells and whistles, like discussions within plurks, color-coded “qualifiers” that show emotion or intent (<feels> or <thinks>), automatic thumbnailing of picture or video links, and the ability to create groups called “cliques” composed of folks who share an interest.