Twitter vs Plurk - Which one is the best?
Ever wondered if Twitter was the best or if it was Plurk? Well I did and I’m sure a lot of you did too. So here’s the ultimate showdown for Twitter and Plurk! Any ideas on who’s going to be the winner? Lets find out.
The looks
Looks are important. It works as a magnet. Well Twitter and Plurk both have a nice design. But, I like the Plurk layout over Twitter. I like the whole timeline idea. Its very unique, makes it easier to find your friend’s plurk and of course, the plurks show up in a chronological order (left: newest & right: oldest). While Twitter’s layout is a bit messy. I’m talking about the place where you see all your friend’s tweets.
Profile Customization
Plurk lets you customize your profile using CSS (but you need to wait until you get 25 Karma) and Plurk also comes with themes that you can choose from (noob-friendly!). Twitter doesn’t have that and you just get to choose what colour you want where (ex: background, sidebar, etc). And of course, both of them lets you upload your own picture for the profile.
So, yeah Plurk is both good for starters and experienced users (who knows CSS). You can really customize your Plurk profile while Twitter only lets you choose colours and a background picture (not so good).
How easy is it to make friends?
It’s really, really easy to make friends on Plurk. There’s a page with random users and you can just add them (if you find them interesting). It doesn’t take a lot of time and effort. Getting friends on Twitter is a bit hard. I got 57 friends on Plurk and 8 on Twitter. That explains a lot, huh?
How many friends reply/comment?
I just started using both Plurk and Twitter a few days ago. So, I don’t have a lot of loyal friends. But, I do get a few comments on my plurks while I got only one reply on Twitter.
Privacy options
Yeah this one’s for you privacy freaks. I don’t really care who sees my plurks or tweets (since they’re not personal). Okay there is a privacy option on Twitter that lets you choose to allow the people you follow see your tweets, only. Plurk has a bit more privacy options. You can setup who can view your plurks and who can search for you on Plurk.
Private Messages
Private messages are the messages you want to send to one specific friend. On Twitter you can send private tweets only to your mutual friends. On Plurk its looking a lot better. You can choose to send plurks only to your friends or a few specific friends. Great, huh? Plurk wins this round.
Incoming traffic
Yeah this one’s for the people looking for some traffic from micro-blogging. Well like I said I just started using them few days ago and I pretty much stopped using Twitter. I did get a bit more traffic from Plurk then Twitter. But, when I compared how many friends I have on Twitter and Plurk to the number of visitors coming from them, I saw that Twitter was more efficient.
Random features/things
- You can disable comments on Plurk.
- You write in 3rd person on Plurk most of the time (ex: th13rteen [thinks] if blogging about twitter and plurk will be good?). Awkward!
- You can tweet from your cellphone on Twitter.
So which one is the best?
Twitter: If you already have friends using it, if you have a nice community following you everywhere or if you’re successful on the web like Darren Rowse or Michael Arrington. And if you’re looking for some traffic!
Plurk: If want to micro-blog for fun, want to make a few buddies, be a bit more personal and build a profile.
Right now I’m using Plurk. I kinda stopped using Twitter, but I’ll put a bit more effort into it. So, I’ll be using them both with Ping.fm. I need to post a bit more links on Twitter than Plurk (that’s what everyone seems to be doing on Twitter).
So, go ahead and join Twitter and Plurk. And don’t forget to add me: Twitter & Plurk.
To the readers
So what do you think? Which one do YOU like better? Tell us about it. And hey, don’t forget to subscribe via RSS or email for more like this!
29 July 2008 at 5:51 pm
good post. i like twitter.com more. plurk is nice too.
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30 July 2008 at 12:10 pm
You do know that there really is no comparison, right? I blogged about this last month, actually.
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30 July 2008 at 12:19 pm
No I don’t really agree. Like you can compare them. They’re both micro-blogging network with their own unique features. Plurk is on fire. Its doing great but so is Twitter. We CAN compare them (that’s my view).
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30 July 2008 at 1:05 pm
Put it this way. I’m only on Twitter cause everyone else is. I’m on Plurk because I enjoy it.
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30 July 2008 at 1:09 pm
Eric that’s an excellent way to put it. That is so true. I got Twitter because everyone was and I thought it would be great (but doesn’t look so good to me).
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30 July 2008 at 2:46 pm
Depends…Twitter for business, Plurk for Personal…that’s a gross generalization, but you get the idea.
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30 July 2008 at 5:12 pm
Only a few moments ago, everyone was weighing up the pros and cons of Twitter versus Pownce. It’s a fast-moving world, innit?
I’m sort of puzzled about your treating of friends as objects.
Overall, a good article here, although it’s a bit bamboozling the way you talk about “28 karma”—we who are uninitiated with Plurk know not what that’s all about.
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30 July 2008 at 5:24 pm
Yes it is. Remember Friendster? MySpace? Now its Facebook. It sure is a fast moving world. Micro-blogging sites are not different from social networks or the tech world. You just upgrade (or move) to something better (or hyped).
Sorry I didn’t explain the 25 Karma on Plurk thing. Well you get Karma by plurking regularly, adding friends, updating your profile, etc. So once you reach 25 points of Karma you can customize your profile via CSS.
Hope that cleared things up.
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30 July 2008 at 7:28 pm
My personal preference is Plurk, but I do use both.
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31 July 2008 at 4:14 am
Cool comparison, definitely a great read.
The only problem that I have with Plurk is that I don’t see it becoming popular thus all the masses using Twitter will stay using Twitter. When I took Plurk for a test drive the only problem I had was that I felt alone and kinda talking to myself.
On the other hand I really don’t like how Twitter can be very unreliable (although it is getting better) and what people working on Twitter were doing about the recent Twitter failures.
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31 July 2008 at 12:59 pm
Greg, it just might get popular. Maybe its taking a bit more time than other micro-blogging site. Plus bloggers Like Darren Rose (for example) are using Plurk. So, I’m sure some of his readers will join Plurk.
Like DazzlinDonna said, Twitter is for business (ex: traffic, promotion, etc) and Plurk is for fun.
Btw, nice review of Plurk. Nice blog too. Clean design.
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