Microblogging is a form of blogging that allows users to post a brief message publicly or to a restricted group, just like a Facebook status update. In the case of Twitter, that’s limited to 140 characters. That brings me to the point that there are other microblogging services that aren’t Twitter. They may not be as popular as the celebrity-infiltrated world of Twitterverse, but they are still worth checking out. Take a look:
1. Plurk (www.plurk.com) – This is both social networking and microblogging (put them together, you get “social journal”) because the responses to a post are visible under the post itself. And the journal part comes in the form of a time line. Quite confusing for the newbie, but you’ll get why it’s developed quite a following.
2. FriendFeed (friendfeed.com) – It’s basically a conversation very similar to Twitter. You can contribute to a shared topic, share links and other items and it’s also an aggregator of bookmarks and feeds.
3. Yammer (www.yammer.com) – This microblogging service is for companies. An organization can create an account and register its employees and this serves as a private network. It’s usually used to ask questions and exchange work-related information.
4. DailyBooth (dailybooth.com) – All you’ve got to express yourself are pictures and a caption. This is a good service for those who love to snap shots of every little thing and can be imaginative in writing descriptions.
5. Tumblr (www.tumblr.com) – This is a very simple service that lets users share anything from almost anywhere. The interface is especially noteworthy because of its infinite customization possibilities. It’s also been named “Obama’s Top 5 Tech Tools.”
6. Jaiku (www.jaiku.com) – Probably because it’s part of the Google empire, it has more Web 2.0 components than Twitter. More tech-savvy netizens prefer it due to its intuitive interface. The services, however, are pretty much standard.
7. Spotjots (www.spotjots.com) – What makes this platform different is its geotagging capabilities. Information is geolocated and mapped out in real time.
8. 12seconds (12seconds.tv) – This microblogging site is essentially a vlogging service (video logging). Instead of YouTube’s 10-minute limit, this innovative little devil trims it down to merely 12 seconds. That’s not a lot of time, so being concise and creative is important.
9. Posterous (posterous.com) – An account isn’t even necessary for this service. It’s very versatile—you can simply post anything you want and attach pictures, music and videos, or you can make it into a full-fledged blog.
10. MicroBlogr (www.microbloggr.com) – This microblogging community again makes communication and updating friends easy. But it takes it to a whole different level by incorporating SMS features that allow instant correspondence and collaboration.
