Got Pownced

Yesterday I was invited into the new world of Pownce (thanks LaceyFelix). Not only did I get Pownced but I found my way into Zooomr. Pownce is a new micro blog/messager ala twitter and Jaiku; Zooomr is a photo sharing site ala Flickr and PhotoBucket with some Facebook like features and unlimited photo storage.

Pownce is the product of Leah Culver, Daniel Burka, Shawn Allen, and digg founder Kevin Rose. Like Twitter and Jaiku it lets you update your friends with messages though here are are not limited to 140 characters. You also have the choice of sending a link, a file, event, or just a message. Not only that but you can also group your friends into sets and send messages to a set of friends, a individual friend, or out to the public. The sets I can see being handy being a twitter addict and only wanting to say something to a few people on my list i.e. co-workers, on-line friends, family. The friend feature works a lot like Twitter and Jaiku in the fact people can follow you without you having to be their friend. There is a pro option that allows you to send 100mb files instead of the 10mb limit imposed on the free users and no advertisements for $20 a year.

Pownce also has harnessed the power of air (adobe integrated runtime) to build a desktop program. It is a nice little program that could use a few more features but as it is still in alpha mode so I'm sure they will be adding them shortly. Kevin Rose already announced on Pownce yesterday that they are working on making the desktop program self updating along with the fact that more invites will be coming soon after the next version (don't ask me for an invite yet, I don't have any). The desktop program did have some connection issues from time to time but I'm thinking that has to do with the 15,000 invite requests Pownce received in the first 24 hours of existence.

The only thing I see keeping me away from Pownce is the lack of sms text messaging which is one of the main ways I use twitter. I'll just have to see how it works with my cell phone.

I found my way into Pownce when a tweet came my way about a live diggnation feed on Zooomr being broadcasted from the Apple Store in Palo Alto with everyone camping out for the iPhone. After diggnation Robert Scoble took over with the guys from Zooomr and it seemed like everyone from Silicone Valley stopped by. I am excited to see what comes from Pownce and Zooomr but with so many different web services these days it is becoming hard to keep track of them all.