Pownce anyone?

So pownce is the next web 2.0 application. Blah. I looked at it over this weekend and am like, blah. I can't exactly figure out why I should care. Maybe if I had some friends I would figure out. I've got 6 invites. So the first 6 people who comment on this thread - or if you are witty and charming - can have an invite. But really, so far it just looks like a threadless t-shirt online...

Comments

[Robert 'Groby' Blum]

I'm torn - on the one hand, I think 'Meh, a twitter clone'. On the other hand, I'm suffering from "oh, new and shiny!"

I'm interested mostly because I'd like to see what the fabled AIR is actually doing. So if you still have an invite left over, could I have one?

[Travis Savo]

I tried it, and I couldn't find one feature that made me want to use it. It's like IM done really poorly (which twitter is not), and doesn't solve any problems that all the other social announcement services solve.

I also have invites if Heather runs out, but they aren't exactly flying off the shelf. The fact that I didn't know Heather was using it until her blog post really speaks to how non-useful it is.

[heathervescent]

Travis - yeah. totally! no friend search - WTF?!

[David Bullock]

I think Pownce made two major errors in their rollout:

1. Giving out a limited number of invites on a walled garden social network, if you don't have on people you know what's the point? It works for gmail because email interoperates; social announcers do not. I think 6 was too few to start. I couldn't get a critical mass going with that.

2. Rolling out a buggy, shiny, closed, AIR client instead of rolling out an API so that the community could invest in the service and build really good clients that are REALLY cross platform. Mac and PC is good but mobile was conspicuously missing.

Now that the initial surge is over and negative buzz is starting I can't even find enough people interested to give away Pownce invites.

- Dave