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Sadly, Jaiku isn’t much of a Twitter alternative

Shane Perris from Techwhimsy has an interesting guest post over on Sarah Perez’s blog about the current state of Jaiku:

Despite the fact that Jaiku has everything that the hottest 2.0 properties have, all tied up on one neat basket, Google has failed to get any mindshare at all amongst users and developers. Unless Google has some fiendishly cunning plan for world domination, it really looks like they’ve dropped the ball here.

Since my divorce from Twitter, I have been playing with Jaiku and Pownce, but don’t really find either to go much beyond what Twitter does. As Shane bemoans, Google seems to keep Jaiku lingering around without adding any features to it. And I guess that makes sense, given that it has apparently become a “20% project” at Google now.

The state of development around Jaiku is showing the same kind of stagnation. There is barely a 3rd party client around and while Jaiku has this very interesting “Channel” functionality, it seems very underused. Some other nice aspect of Jaiku are the built in ability to draw in outside feeds – though if I started dropping my Jaiku posts into FriendFeed, that would surely get annoying.

Maybe as more people switch over from Twitter (or maybe I will look like an idiot if nobody does…), Google will start putting some more effort into this project (or at least use the developers it brought in from Jaiku for building something similar and better. That, in turn, would give 3rd party developers some incentive to start developing on top of Jaiku again.

Until then, I couldn’t agree with Shane more – Google has indeed dropped the ball with respect to Jaiku.

Because of this, I think I will stick with my original assessment that instead of moving to Twitter clones, those who move away from Twitter will most likely by-pass all the direct Twitter competitors for FriendFeed.

I think you're right – and unfortunately, FriendFeed is no Twitter….I miss Twitter.

I think you're right – and unfortunately, FriendFeed is no Twitter….I miss Twitter.

I disagree. You say you want a Twitter alternative but then claim Jaiku offers nothing over and above Twitter so which is it – a Twitter replacement or what Twitter could have been ?

IMHO the #1 advantage of Jaiku is the commenting. As on FF, this really helps to encourage proper, meaningful conversations. I've probably interacted 10 times more than I did on Twitter and I've been pleasantly surprised to already have a small but interesting community.

Also, no marketeers stalking me on Jaiku which is refreshing.

True – Jaiku is not blessed with lots of desktop clients (I miss Twhirl) but there is a iGoogle gadget and Jaikuroo is pretty good.

Oh and one last thing – Jaiku just works. No outages, no disabled core functionality, no excuses.

I disagree. You say you want a Twitter alternative but then claim Jaiku offers nothing over and above Twitter so which is it – a Twitter replacement or what Twitter could have been ?

IMHO the #1 advantage of Jaiku is the commenting. As on FF, this really helps to encourage proper, meaningful conversations. I've probably interacted 10 times more than I did on Twitter and I've been pleasantly surprised to already have a small but interesting community.

Also, no marketeers stalking me on Jaiku which is refreshing.

True – Jaiku is not blessed with lots of desktop clients (I miss Twhirl) but there is a iGoogle gadget and Jaikuroo is pretty good.

Oh and one last thing – Jaiku just works. No outages, no disabled core functionality, no excuses.

I moved back to Twitter from Jaiku largely to play with the AIR apps that had sprung up. It was through using the AIR apps that I finally 'got' Twitter. I think a decent cross platform desktop app will give people the same 'Ah ha!' moment for Jaiku.

Oh, and not to nitpick too much (I am prone to being to pedantic at times), but there's a typo in the link to TechWhimsy – the 'e' shouldn't be there (you can use it to replace the 'a' in my last name ).

I moved back to Twitter from Jaiku largely to play with the AIR apps that had sprung up. It was through using the AIR apps that I finally 'got' Twitter. I think a decent cross platform desktop app will give people the same 'Ah ha!' moment for Jaiku.

Oh, and not to nitpick too much (I am prone to being to pedantic at times), but there's a typo in the link to TechWhimsy – the 'e' shouldn't be there (you can use it to replace the 'a' in my last name ).

Jaiku commenting is good but I found a more engaged local community on Twitter. That's why I haven't gone back to Jaiku.

I also don't think you can compare the iGoogle gadget to something like Twhirl. It doesn't even come close. A desktop app needs the ability to read and respond to comments without going to the website or it just won't work.

Finally, I don't know if you recall but Jaiku had a couple of months of 503 gateway errors making the service just as useless as Twitter downtime. I never really went back after that.

I like Jaiku, I really do. Google is letting this one slip through its fingers as well and it's a shame. Maybe there's a lot more to the theory that Google bought Jaiku as a way to get Jyri and Petteri.

Jaiku commenting is good but I found a more engaged local community on Twitter. That's why I haven't gone back to Jaiku.

I also don't think you can compare the iGoogle gadget to something like Twhirl. It doesn't even come close. A desktop app needs the ability to read and respond to comments without going to the website or it just won't work.

Finally, I don't know if you recall but Jaiku had a couple of months of 503 gateway errors making the service just as useless as Twitter downtime. I never really went back after that.

I like Jaiku, I really do. Google is letting this one slip through its fingers as well and it's a shame. Maybe there's a lot more to the theory that Google bought Jaiku as a way to get Jyri and Petteri.

Andy – the “doesn't go much beyond what Twitter does” comment was mostly triggered by the fact that I couldn't find any good desktop clients for it – I almost never interacted with the Twitter web site either – and in many respects, the Jaiku site is more fully featured.

Thanks for pointing me to Jaikuroo – hadn't heard of it yet, so I'm giving it a try now.

I'm not giving up on Jaiku, by the way – but my first ventures into it were a bit disappointing (yet better than with Pownce!)

Andy – the “doesn't go much beyond what Twitter does” comment was mostly triggered by the fact that I couldn't find any good desktop clients for it – I almost never interacted with the Twitter web site either – and in many respects, the Jaiku site is more fully featured.

Thanks for pointing me to Jaikuroo – hadn't heard of it yet, so I'm giving it a try now.

I'm not giving up on Jaiku, by the way – but my first ventures into it were a bit disappointing (yet better than with Pownce!)

jaiku is hibernating on purpose. it even says that on the site. the only reason they even let people still use it is so they will have a userbase when it goes live again.

jaiku is hibernating on purpose. it even says that on the site. the only reason they even let people still use it is so they will have a userbase when it goes live again.

The message on the front page of the site has been there since the acquistion. That goes a lot further than hibernating on purpose.

Jaiku is losing ground. If Google wants to capitalise on the service rather than the knowledge gained in its creation, it needs to act fast.

The message on the front page of the site has been there since the acquistion. That goes a lot further than hibernating on purpose.

Jaiku is losing ground. If Google wants to capitalise on the service rather than the knowledge gained in its creation, it needs to act fast.

http://webgoodness.blogspot.com/2008/05/jaiku-t...

http://webgoodness.blogspot.com/2008/05/jaiku-t...

I think we're mixing up three different issues:

1. Strength of the Jaiku application
2. Availability of Jaiku third party offerings
3. Robustness of the user community

I joined Jaiku less than 20 hours ago, but I do have to say that I'm impressed so far by the application itself. I'm not going to proclaim that Jaiku's comments are better than Twitter's lack of same, but it's certainly a nice feature to have.

I can't argue with people who say that the third party offerings are scant, and that the community is small.

I think we can all agree that Google has dropped the ball on a possible goldmine opportunity. Imagine if Google had placed a major push behind evangelizing Jaiku at the time of Steve Jobs' keynote (and the resulting crash of Twitter).

I will state, however, that there is a possible action that could result in increased robustness and participation in the Jaiku community. What if a certain techie, one who feels that Twitter has maligned him, were to suddenly make the statement “I'm quitting Twitter and going to Jaiku. Join me”?

I think we're mixing up three different issues:

1. Strength of the Jaiku application
2. Availability of Jaiku third party offerings
3. Robustness of the user community

I joined Jaiku less than 20 hours ago, but I do have to say that I'm impressed so far by the application itself. I'm not going to proclaim that Jaiku's comments are better than Twitter's lack of same, but it's certainly a nice feature to have.

I can't argue with people who say that the third party offerings are scant, and that the community is small.

I think we can all agree that Google has dropped the ball on a possible goldmine opportunity. Imagine if Google had placed a major push behind evangelizing Jaiku at the time of Steve Jobs' keynote (and the resulting crash of Twitter).

I will state, however, that there is a possible action that could result in increased robustness and participation in the Jaiku community. What if a certain techie, one who feels that Twitter has maligned him, were to suddenly make the statement “I'm quitting Twitter and going to Jaiku. Join me”?

i use jaiku for messaging and FF for aggregation

i use jaiku for messaging and FF for aggregation

You know, I only just realised how douchey I look with the second half of that comment (and I'm normally not _that_ douchey). Sorry about that.

Ah, the internet – archiving my idiocy for future generations.

You know, I only just realised how douchey I look with the second half of that comment (and I'm normally not _that_ douchey). Sorry about that.

Ah, the internet – archiving my idiocy for future generations.