I love Jaiku. I didn’t even join Twitter until yesterday. I think Jaiku’s features (mainly threads and channels) are still beating Twitter. In short Jaiku is like an IRC for the grown ups. But still I’m sad. It seems Twitter is winning the whole competition and I really don’t want it to.
API
There is a ton of Twitter applications for iPhone and desktop. Jaiku also has a couple of applications available (+ really cool location based app for Nokia phones (Boo!)). The difference is that Twitter’s API allows these applications to do everything that you can do on Twitter.com site and Jaiku’s API is very restricted/impaired.
Twitter is built on Ruby on Rails and using it really makes it easy to build RESTful API’s. I guess this is one of the reasons why Twitter has such an awesome API and Jaiku doesn’t. It’s logical that API isn’t the first thing on your todo-list when you start building a new service but you should not forget it. Not even when Google buys you.
Design
I kind of liked Jaiku’s design, but now when I’m on Twitter or better yet using the TweetDeck, Jaiku seems like an open source project built by some school kids. I kid, I kid! Twitter is still kicking Jaiku’s ass on the design side.
Invites
Come on! You are losing the battle and you’re still invite only?!?
Business model
Jaiku is strong business wise. First, they probably aren’t running out of money anytime soon being owned by Google. Second, ads are the next big thing in monetization!! Third, Jaiku’s location based and phone profile features pre-installed on Google phones could change everything.
Jaiku, get your shit together – now! You still have a chance.
6 responses so far ↓
marks // November 21, 2008 at 1:05 pm
yeah, Id like to test Jaiku too but can’t get the damn invite
So, it’s twitter for me.
Antti Akonniemi // November 21, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Invite sent!
Tina Aspiala // December 15, 2008 at 7:28 am
Man, Twitter’s so-called design has always been another mark against it in my book…
It would also be interesting to hear more about what makes the best foundation for a good API.
Antti Akonniemi // December 15, 2008 at 9:56 am
Heh
Good foundation is to build a fullblown RESTful API from the start. It shouldn’t be too hard if following good coding standards. Making it RESTful kind of forces you to do things properly.
Jaiku Picks Up. Android Integration Soon In The Plans? | ArcticStartup // December 17, 2008 at 10:07 am
[...] Google has all along had a clear plan on what they are going to do with Jaiku. As Antti Akonniemi speculates, ” Jaiku’s location based and phone profile features pre-installed on Google phones could [...]
sscheper // December 23, 2008 at 4:09 pm
You may also want to check out yonkly. It’s the first “create your own” microblog to integrate with Twitter: http://yonkly.com