Microblogging

Right when I got into Plinky I was instantly disappointed… Why? I was expecting something COMPLETELY different. When I first heard of the service, I saw their tagline which was something to the effect of “Have writer’s block? We’ll inspire you and help you create interesting content”. I made that tagline up – but that was my impression of their pre-release “pitch”. I thought it was going to be a research tool to help you find stuff to blog about. Boy was I wrong.

I would toss Plinky into the microblogging category – very much like Tumblr, only different :-) Plinky is an outlier to these other services in a way I’ve not seen yet. It’s not about conversations, discussions, or sharing links and videos. It’s about creating content, and is integrated into services like FriendFeed, Twitter, or WordPress to publish the thoughts you have created using Plinky.

This is a very cool service, however not something I see myself using on a regular basis. Louis Gray does a great job (as usual) of summing up the service:

“If you think you are a social media guru and power user, or you’re one of those bloggers who is posting stuff every day, Plinky might seem a little light for you, but for the much larger audience who gets writers’ block and can go weeks without updating their blog, or maybe they posted a picture of their kid once and never came back, after sending a mass e-mail to their friends and family, Plinky is a fun way to get re-engaged with new ideas, as you answer prompts, see what other friends have said to the same questions, and can pass that data out to the rest of your online presence.” – Louis Gray

To me, Plinky is a fun distraction from the rigors of regular blogging and social media of which I live in a tech/web vacuum. For instance, today on Plinky I just posted on what clothes I change into when I get home from work…