This post has been submitted by Sharon Hurley Hall from Get Paid To Write Online.com.

Plurk may sound like you accidentally swallowed something the wrong way, but nothing could be further from the truth. It’s actually a new microblogging service, and those who decry it as merely a Twitter clone haven’t really given it a fair chance. I’ve been trying it out for a few weeks now and Plurk has a lot to recommend it.

Like Twitter, you can have friends and followers (called fans on Plurk). You can import your Twitter friends and import friends from email services you use. Before you can add anyone, you’ll need an invitation (so here, you’re invited). Plurk takes a unique approach to friends and fans. You can be a friend and still not follow someone’s plurks. I’m not sure why you would want to do that, unless it was so you could send private messages to that person.

Qualifiers

Like Twitter, you can send status updates, using the web, your mobile and Ping.fm. Like Twitter, there’s a 140-character limit. One cool feature of Plurk is that it has a number of preloaded verbs (called qualifiers) which you can use with your plurks (such as says, is, has, wishes, loves, hates and so on). There’s also freestyle for those who don’t want to use them. These verbs do not count as part of your 140 character allocation. They all have different colours, too, which is nice.

Look And Feel

However, Plurk has a very different look and feel from other microblogging services. If you’re accustomed to the linear look of Twitter, then Plurk will look very strange. The Plurk window consists of a narrow menu bar giving access to your settings, friends and alerts; a middle bit where you see the plurks (more on that in a minute), and a bottom bit which contains some of your profile data, the Plurk box and some statistics about your Plurk usage (such as number of plurks and number of responses).

The Plurk Timeline

Plurks are stored on a timeline, with the most recent plurks on the left. To scroll through the timeline use your mouse or click and drag and the whole of the middle bit moves. It’s a bit dizzying at first, but you soon get used to it. On the bottom left of the timeline window is a little button which alerts you to new plurks and new responses. On the bottom right is a search box and a selection box where you can choose whether to see your own plurks, your friends’ plurks as well or simply private plurks.

Conversation Mode

Plurk’s coolest feature, which is also the biggest difference from other microblogging services, is the way it stores your plurks. When you write a plurk, responses are stored in a drop down window, making it laughably easy to follow a conversation. One of the difficulties I have had with Twitter in the past is tracking what someone is replying to. There is no such problem with Plurk.

The Great Karma Hunt

I can’t review Plurk without mentioning Karma. You get points for plurking, responding, inviting friends, updating your profile and more. Although I think karma is a bit of a distraction, it’s a good way to get people to interact with the site. As you move from 0 to 50 karma points, you get more and more benefits, such as new Plurk icons, new emoticons and the ability to edit your screen name. I have currently reach Plurk enlightenment and am heading slowly towards Nirvana (no, not the band). Once you get over 50 karma points, you don’t get any more cool features, but by then you are probably so hooked on Plurk that it doesn’t matter.

Other Features

Other Plurk features include the ability to group your friends into cliques and send messages only to a clique. This works, but in my experience clique messages (and private plurks) tend to get lost in the shuffle, so it can be days before you get a response. Plurk also makes file sharing very easy and automatically generates thumbnails when you include an image URL.

My Verdict

As a user, I love Plurk. Although I have fewer friends there, I have more conversations with the friends I have and it works as well as Twitter, if not better, for getting help with information and pointers to resources. It has a fun feel to it, too, and I expect to use Plurk for quite a while. It’s still in development and new features are being added all the time.

Resources

Plurkmania is now in full swing and there are now many sites dedicated to Plurk. Here’s a short list and feel free to add others in the comments.

How To Guide - exactly what it says on the tin

Plurkerati - track plurkers

Plurktionary - Plurk terms and there are many

Plurkular - everything Plurk

Plurkable - featuring Plurkcasts

Plurkiverse - everything Plurk, again

Plurk has also released its API. Besides its own widget, there are a few tools for making Plurk even easier to use (and more on the way). Here’s a list of the ones I know about:

Greasemonkey FriendFeed tab

Plurk follower counter

Plurk karma counter

Plurkit

Plurker - desktop Plurk client, coming soon

Sharon Hurley Hall
Get Paid To Write Online.com

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