Udo's Techblog

For some reason I didn't like Twitter at all, but Pownce feels different. Just another reason why user interfaces matter, I guess. Anyway, in case you've been living under a rock those last two weeks: Pownce is one of those next-gen instant messaging apps that kinda turn the concept around by focusing on broadcasting rather than one-to-one messages (but it can do those, too).

The Good

• It comes with a nice desktop app that finally forced me to download Adobe's Air framework, hehe.


• It feels nice to use it

The Bad

• There should be support for SMS updates, and it should be customizable.


• There should be an API that allow for, say, an Adium and Miranda plugin.


• The desktop app doesn't let me see where a message went (just shows "x recipients", how useful) and to track the message down, you'll have to use the web interface.

The Ugly

• There is no way to easily discover all your "friends" on the network. Facebook at least lets me - after giving it full access to my account - import GMail email addresses that I have communicated with recently. With Pownce, you have to search for your friends manually, and that's painful. Right now, almost nobody I know is on Pownce (yet?), so this makes it especially frustrating and it's also gonna be bad for Pownce's growth.


• This indiscriminate ego broadcasting is nice if all your friends are also your colleagues and the people you share all your interests with. In reality, though, the people you know come in groups and different messages are relevant to different groups. With Pownce, you get three categories: "friends", the whole world, and individual people. As a variation on the "friend" problem, Pownce should allow me to categorize my friends or at least tag them somehow, so I can send more targeted messages to groups.