TwitterIdenticaPlurk

When talk about Twitter, everyone also know what it is.
But a lot people do not know that Twitter type of thing is called Microblogging.
And also, there is a lot of Sohai thinks that only Twitter is providing this kind of Microblogging thing.

Although Twitter is the first one who comes out with the idea of Microblogging, but nowadays, they are not the only one. Twitter started and keep their web application as a proprietary software. But not long after Twitter is started, there is a lot of similar applications appeared. One of them, which is the most well known among all is Identica. It is an opensource software.

Another one which is also an opensource software where it is more famous among Taiwan people is Plurk.

I will not comment much about Plurk as I am not so familiar with Plurk. I only feel that the timeline navigator of Plurk is kind of weird to me and I feel that it is quite complicated to use. I don’t like it when things seem to be made more complicated just to make them seem “advanced”. I mean, learning how to play bingo is difficult at first, but even the elderly get it down after maybe an hour of concentration. Maybe it is just because I am not familiar with it.

Anyway, at here now I am going to talk about 2 Microblogging platform that I am more familiar with, which is Twitter and Identica.

For features in Twitter, I think there is no need for me to mention them much. I’m sure most of you already know what function Twitter have, such as able to send tweets from other applications, from cell phones, it have Oauth for cross authentication etc.

But Identica does not lose to Twitter in its features. It too have API like what Twitter have, for posting dents(tweets in Identica call dents), from cell phones. It only don’t have Oauth exactly like the Twitter ones, Identica ones is a bit different.

In Identica, I can link my Facebook account to my Identica account and it will auto login into my Identica when I go to Identica site if I had already logged into my Facebook. I can also link my OpenID to my Identica and login with the same way. In fact, I linked both my Facebook and OpenID to my Identica account.
Lol.

A lot people downloaded some software into their desktop and post tweets from those software. For Identica, it do have such kind of softwares as well. Especially if you are a opensource software lover, you will know where to find these softwares. For me, I do not use these softwares. Why? Because I use something better and I do not need to install it all over again. I post it via my Google Talk.

Besides linking to Facebook, OpenID and send updates to your cell phone, Identica also allow you to associate your Gtalk or Jabber account to your Identica account. You may then directly post your dent to Identica just from Gtalk or Jabber.

Since I am a Pidgininstant messenger user, I usually login to my Gtalk, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, IRC, Facebook Chat and AIM with Pidgin. So when I wanted to post a dent, I just send my dent to the Identica bot. It will then posted into Identica as a dent post.

You might say, “Twitter have more people using it, why don’t just use Twitter only?”
Yes, you are correct. I do use Twitter also, and when I use Identica to post anything, I am actually posting to Twitter as well.
I’m sure your other question is, “Like this waste time wor”
No it doesn’t. Coz I can link my Twitter account into my Identica account. Whenever I post a dent, it will also post the dent to my Twitter as a tweet. About this Twitter & Identica linking, there is a lot more things to play with it. You will have to figure out it yourself, then only you will feel the fun.
šŸ™‚

People who got follow me in my Twitter, will found that whenever I have any blog updates, there will be a tweets stated “New blog post: xxxxxxxxxxx”.

Actually I do not do it manually.
There is a WordPress plugin doing it for me automatically. Although it was originally is made fro Twitter use only, but I prefer to use the Identica version. Why? Because when it post the updates to Identica, it will also post the same thing to my Twitter, since I have linked my Twitter to my Identica.
Other words, The post will get more exposure to more people. People from both Identica and Twitter will be able to see my updates, hence get higher traffics.

Anyway, if you have your own VPS(Virtual Private Server), you can actually host your own Identica site as well, since it is an opensource software. But I do not recommend it as it will be a hassle to maintain the website yourself. You will need to spend money for the VPS if you host it yourself, also if you want to have the SMS updates notification function to be on, you will have to pay for the SMS gateway service also. So it is better to use the official Identica service, since it is free.
Lol

Recently Identica is started to providing StatusNet(the Identica script name is called StatusNet) hosting account for free. So you will not need your own VPS to host your own Identica service.
Yes, running your own Twitter alike site for free!
But as in free, of course there is limitation compare to hosting it in your own server yourself.
The free ones have a lot features disabled such as the Gtalk & Jabber linking.
But still, you are able to link it to your Facebook, OpenID and Twitter, same like what I had mentioned above. Also you can still get updates notification sent to your cell phone(but same as the http://identi.ca ones, Celcom and other Malaysia cell phone network is not listed in it).

But hey, it is not bad already for something free. You will also have admin access to change the layout of your StatusNet site and its design etc.
Myself also had registered a free StatusNet account and run my own Twitter alike site.
Anyway, I don’t expect anyone will go and use mine ones. Since there is no people there now, most likely no one will even bother to try to register there and use it. Malaysian mindset, I already can expect.
Currently I am planning using it for my personal use, such as linking it to my Twitter and post blog updates etc.

Anyway, if you want to give it a try, you can go to http://garfield.status.net to try it out.
If you wanted to try the full featured Identica, then you can go to http://identi.ca and try it out. You will start to love it a lot.