Being First in Class Does Not Mean Being Best in Class

Recently I ruffled some feathers on a message board because I have found Plurk to deliver for me more efficiently and effectively than Twitter. My message was the first to mention Plurk amongst a string of positive Twitter reports.

I suspect that one of the participants viewed me as “putting down” Twitter as a social media tool because I said the following:

Twitter may be First in class, but it is not Best in class.

What the participant automatically assumed in my statement is that I must be implying that “Plurk is best in class”. I did not mention Plurk in the above statement because I don’t see Twitter and Plurk as being in the same “class”.

Twitter and Plurk are both microblogging platforms. This doesn’t mean they belong to the same class of microblogging platforms.

Let me use an example I am familiar with: prescription drug classes, in particular, antibiotics. You can ask any pharmaceutical sales or marketing director and he or she will tell you that the antibiotics market is “a big dog fight”. Things get really ugly in the antibiotics competition. I’m talking about sales reps pushing their competitors’ drug samples so far back into the shelf that you’ll have to get out a shovel to find out where the samples were buried.

GIVEN (OR ASSUME) Antibiotics (is analogous to) Microblog Platforms.

GIVEN Antibiotic “Classes” (includes, but are not limited to) Cephalosporins, Macrolides, Fluoroquinolones, Penicillins.

THEN Microblogging “Classes” (includes, but are not limited to) Top-Down Display, Horizontal Display.

WHERE Antibiotics target the bacterial system JUST AS Microblogs target the 140char system.

GIVEN the Fluoroquinolone “Class” (includes, but are not limited to) trovafloxacin, gatifloxacin, moxifloxacin, levofloxacin, grepafloxacin.

THEN the Top-Down Display “Class” (includes, but are not limited to) Twitter, YouAre, FriendFeed.

Screenshots:

THEN the Horizontal Display “Class” (includes, but are not limited to) Plurk.

Screenshot:

If I wanted to get technical, I’d say “Twitter is to Friendfeed as Amoxicillin is to Augmentin” (which is Amoxicillin+Clavulanate) because Friendfeed can incorporate Twitter as part of its interface. Furthermore, we can’t technically have a “Best” in Class without having at least 3 players within the class (if only two, then English language dictates “Better” in class).

Twitter Running the Penicillin Risk

Twitter has been first in class, just as penicillin was the first antibiotic. Twitter has gathered impressive cache of users, mainly because it was first on market.

However, penicillin was overused and abused, and soon, penicillin became a very poor choice as first-line antibiotic because most “bugs” (bacteria in microbiology speak) have leveraged how penicillin targets them and developed resistance to it.

I suspect that over time, Twitter may no longer be a first-line microblog, as a few rogue bugs on Twitter take advantage of its weaknesses and spam, scam, even hack the “Tweeples”. That’s beyond Twitter “Fail-Whale”‘ing (site inaccessible) and mysterious deletion of user accounts.

Not to Say Plurk is Already On Top

Plurk is not immune to malevolence and manipulation: there already has been a scam, a hack, and stalking reported on Plurk. Plurk’s search function can use much improvement, and numerous features may be added to improve user experience. However, Plurk was launched only this summer, and so far, has not disappointed its users by going down too often and inexplicably.

The last time Plurk had a scheduled maintenance, the site came back up with new functions and bumped up everyone’s Karma points (Karma points - now that’s another hot topic altogether).

Twitter’s acquisition of Summize.com has improved my user experience somewhat: as long as I use as my interface the search result for my name (i.e. “janechin” on search.twitter), I can track people who are trying to strike a conversation with me and responses from others to my topic or question. The results even come with threading, just as Plurk is threaded by user-created topic.

Still, keep in mind this is not the default Twitter user page. If I have to download different applications just to improve user experience with a service (i.e. people have recommended that I download Twhirl, and I already use Twitbin), then it’s obvious that service has many areas to improve upon. I don’t need to download 3rd party applications with Plurk to get the experience I’m looking for.

What Makes a Drug Best in Class?

From the pharmaceutical and economic perspective, I’d consider a drug best in class when it:

1. Works all or almost all of the time (can you imagine when you have a flaming infection and take an antibiotic that works only 50% of the time?)
2. Works the way the drug manufacturer claims it would
3. Works with as minimal a side effect profile as possible (i.e. risk benefit ratio)
4. Has a manageable and preferably reversible side effect profile
5. Has low or zero addiction and withdrawal potential (OK, I’ll be lenient with this one)
6. Won’t cause severe harm physically (i.e. won’t kill people)
7. Won’t cause severe harm mentally (i.e. makes you want to kill yourself or other people)
8. Won’t cause severe harm financially (i.e. cost you your livelihood just to obtain it, or cost extra because of the other problems the drug causes)
9. Won’t become irrelevant too quickly because of drug resistance
10. Won’t interfere with other drugs, your food, or the normal workings of your body
11. Won’t cause you new problems now
12. Won’t cause you new problems years from now

True Differentiation? Time will Tell

YouAre.com is a top-down microblog interface with a twist: it purportedly combines aspects of Twitter, social bookmarking, and focus on professional networking. It also gives me tabs to keep track of videos and images, and a profile that includes work history. However, it hasn’t been as sticky for me, and I suspect my inability to understand Spanish has diminished my user experience, as well as many of the people I know congregate first on Plurk and Twitter, and may only park their usernames on YouAre.com.

Conclusion

Which microblogging platform will become best in class?

One that is truly differentiated and not just a replicant of each other.

One that delivers improvement when it becomes unavailable to users instead of delivering frustration.

One that really fosters “networking” in the best sense of the word, instead of “virtual business card dumping” in the worst sense of the word. I stopped wasting my time and money on those “networking” events years ago. I’m not about to repeat history and waste my time on a virtual one, especially when my time now costs more than it did years ago (because I have so little of it).

Postscript
Here are my links if you want to follow me or twittersmack me, but if you want to twittersmack me, please employ scientific rigor to back up your arguments and not just “I love it!” I’m not looking to change your opinion of what you love. My thanks to Gwfrink3 for the word, “Twittersmack”.

twitter.com/janechin
plurk.com/user/janechin
youare.com/janechin