I can say that Twitter is the simplest application yet popular in the Web 2.0 world. Well, the reasons are very obvious – no more than 140 words, just talk a little, to share them with everyone.
But now another website is becoming more and more popular, that is Plurk which was launched in May last year. You can guess that Plurk is an imitation of Twitter, maybe. Plurk is a social journal of your life, nearly everything is the same, no more than 140 words, you can follow others freely, etc. Plurk’s interface shows updates in horizontal form through a scrollable timeline written in JavaScript and updated through AJAX.
Today, I want to introduce some special features of Plurk about simplicity. Can Plurk beats Twitter in terms of simplicity? Let find out…
1. Plurk Has the Same Functions As Twitter, But Plurk Offers More Complex Ones
Twitter doesn’t have enough built-in functions, Twitter don’t have perfect APIs, Twitter don’t have wonderful design, Twitter don’t have groups, networks, etc. Why Twitter don’t have such many things? This is because the core of Twitter is SIMPLE. Plurk is no more than Twitter, nearly the same function. So do not think that Plurk is too complex.
2. Is Plurk’s Interface Simpler than Twitter? Yes!
If you have seen the personal profile of a Plurkr’s, you can see a big timeline with background image, that’s all. Plurk displays the messages in that huge timeline and you can drag it to read more. It is very clear, and also very simple. Events should be sorted out by time.
3. More User-Friendly Than Twitter? Yes!
If you say the timeline is a big simplicity, then I can say something about the user-friendliness which is a small complexity.
a. Choose a verb for your message: Every message in the timeline are denoted in specific colors and each color represents a verb, such as love, like, share, give, etc. You do not need to write a lot about what you want to do.
b. Including emotions: You can use emotions in Plurk to let express your mood and to make the message livelier. With these emotions, you do not need to describe your feelings in boring text any more, just pick a small image.
c. Uploading videos and photos: Some people would say that this function make Plurk more complex, but sometimes we really need to share with our friends. The media displayed are still simple – everything are in thumbnails.
d. Follower groups: I think this function is really needed in Twitter to divide the followers to different groups as it will be much easier to manage.
These a, b, c, d are all small complexities, but they can really attract a lot of users.
You may say that after adding these functions, the whole platform will become the thing like blog. I don’t think so because Twitter is very simple at input whereas Plurk is very simple at output. Plurk uses special functions to let you describe what are you doing much easier, and use an easy but interesting way to tell others. It seems that Twitter has been transformed into a news reporting platform but a social one even though Evan Williams wanted to make a service that tells others “What Are You Doing?” when it was launched in 2006.
Now, Plurk is not very popular but it has its own style. Some people may love Twitter, some people may love Plurk, that’s very normal. I think each of them can help to improve the Web 2.0 especially in the social section.