Comments on: How Twitter's competitors do what it doesn't

Is Twitter the bland and boring micro-blog? Don Reisinger takes a look at alternatives that offer features not found in Twitter.

[bizreach]

Don, Could you take some time to evaluate BizReach.com? It would be helpful to have your insight on a platform that has been created to assist the small business owner. Thank you.

Steve

[GarryConn]

Hi Don,

Very good article and it can really allow people some great alternatives to experiment with. The first part of the article that talks about FriendFeed. I totally hear what you are saying; however, may I also say that I think comparing Twitter to FriendFeed is like comparing apples to oranges. They are two compete different animals.

For me, I use Twitter because it is very personalized among friends. I can SMS my friends using my mobile phone, and receive message back. I get updates in my Firefox browser and I can always be guaranteed that the updates are short and sweet.

FriendFeed as you mentioned, is a GLOBAL LiveStream that allows me to plugin every RSS feed humanly possible into one place. I love it! But its not the same focus as Twitter and in fact it can be quite overwhelming for people to follow the lives of people who use it. Twitter is very simple... Twitter is very fun and totally easy to understand and use.

Consequently, Twitter Search is pretty powerful too. I absolutely love using the Twitter search engine to find new friends who share similar interests as me.

All in all, excellent article, I really enjoyed reading this one.

[netlatch]

Don, I would love to get your impression of Krumlr. com. Beta version soft launched last week. It combines the better aspects of Twitter, Digg, Stumble Upon, and Delicious in one easy to use application. As you mentioned in you article, Krumlr naturally supports groups with common interests. Thanks Pete

[jeffool]

Twitter to Friendfeed is apples to oranges? No, by absolutely no means, no. Twitter to Frienfeed is more like child to adult. Twitter may be cuter and all, but FF is far more powerful and mature. It can do anything Twitter can do, and far more, with just as much ease of use. It's comparing a butter knife to a Swiss Army knife. Sure, a Swiss Army knife _could_ be overkill.... But not if you use the tool properly, and in the long run, it will go much farther.

[jjv123]

There are other cool technologies out there too. Check out www.voike.com
Even though it's just starting it has a lot of potential since it allows you to record voice messages from your phone to your blog automatically (wherever it is) and to send those...

[thelemurking]

I was somewhat expecting a joke about the competitors keeping their servers up while Twitter's are down ;)

[Shankland]

Here's why I view FriendFeed as a direct competitor to Twitter: I signed up for it when Twitter was breaking so frequently. Granted, it's different, but it did the job for me when I was looking for a replacement. (I stuck with Twitter for the most part now that it's mostly stable.)

[Tweepleblog]

I have to disagree. Well, I don't have to, but I do. All of those things you say Friend Feed brings you that Twitter does not are the type of clutter that eventually chokes services like this to death. You can send the link from Twitter to whatever you want. You can link your blog posts, use Twitpic or some other service and link pictures, you can link to video - whatever - but those reading only have to see a tiny snippet of text. If they want to ignore it, it's a heck of a lot easier.

To me, Twitter is a streamlined version. I don't want it to turn into a mini, scrolling Facebook (which is what Friend Feed seems to me to be. I believe it's very strength is in its simplicity and in the fact that you get 140 characters and actually need to think to get your thought out concisely.

I realize everyone uses social networking differently, but I don't see (for instance) a business value add to a FlickR stream or embedded You Tube videos. On a personal note, I like those things, but I want to choose whether I have to see them or not.

David Niall Wilson

[drpr]

Can I put friendfeed on my iPod Touch and use it like I use a Twitter app? I don't think I can, and that's the main probelm. Twitter is simple, quick, and easy to use.

I found the Flock browser to be much more useful to me in mashing my two twitter accounts, MySpace and Facebook social streams into one long, good looking and simple to understand stream of updates. If I want to update my status within any of the streams, or comment to specific people, I can do so right in the sidebar of the browser. If Flock had an iPhone/iPod Touch app I'd get that before I'd bother with the confusing and unpleasant-looking FriendFeed.

[SuperRJMan]

You're missing the point, Don. It's specifically the lack of features that makes twitter so popular. All I really need is 140 characters to tell people what I'm up to. Those extra features just get in the way.