Plurk

Infobox Website
name = Plurk
type = Social network service



caption = Screenshot of a Plurk timeline
url = [http://www.plurk.com/ Plurk.com]
commercial = Yes
type = Micro-blogging
language = Multilingual
registration = Required
owner = Plurk, Inc.
author = [http://www.plurk.com/plurkteam The A-team] [cite web|accessdate=2008-07-24|url=http://www.plurk.com/plurkteam|title=The A-Team|author=Plurk.com|publisher=Plurk Inc.]
launch date = May 12, 2008 [cite web|date=2008-05-12|accessdate=2008-07-24|url=http://amix.dk/blog/viewEntry/19320|title=Plurk.com opens up|author=Amir Salihefendic]

Plurk is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (otherwise known as plurks) through short messages or links, which can be up to 140 text characters in length.

Updates are then shown on the user's home page using a timeline which lists all the updates received in chronological order, and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Users can respond to other users' updates from their timeline through the Plurk.com website, by instant messaging, or by text messaging.

History

Plurk was developed by and envisioned as a communication medium meant to form a balance between blogs and social networks, and between e-mail messaging and instant messaging. After months of development, Plurk was launched on May 2008. [cite web|date=2008-05-20|accessdate=2008-07-23|url=http://blog.plurk.com/2008/05/20/das-leben-der-anderen-a-window-into-the-lives-of-others/|title=das leben der anderen - a window into the lives of others.|author=akan|publisher=Plurk Inc.]

The etymology of the name was explained by the developers as such: [cite web|date=2008-06-02|accessdate=2008-07-23|url=http://blog.plurk.com/2008/06/02/why-plurk-an-etymological-deconstruction-of-the-word-you-love-to-hate/|title=‘Plurk’? An etymological deconstruction of the word you love to hate|author=akan|publisher=Plurk Inc.]
* abbreviation of 'people' and 'lurk'
* portmanteau of 'play' and 'work'
* acronym of peace, love, unity, respect, and karma
* verb neologism, similar to how Google was eventually used as a verb

Features and Technology

Plurk's interface shows updates in horizontal form through a scrollable timeline written in AJAX. Users can post new messages with optional 'qualifiers', which are one-word verbs used to represent a thought (ex. "feels", "thinks", "loves", etc.). There are also advanced features such as sending updates only to a subset of your friends, posting updates on events earlier in the day, and sharing images, videos, and other media. [cite web|accessdate=2008-07-23|url=http://www.plurk.com/faq|title=FAQ|author=Plurk.com|publisher=Plurk, Inc.]

Plurk also supports group conversations between friends and allows usage of emoticons together with the usual text micro-blogging. [cite web|accessdate=2008-09-20|url=http://www.techpluto.com/plurk-over-twitter/|title=Why Plurking is more fun than tweeting|author=Prashant Sharma|publisher=TechPluto]

The Plurk.com developers does not yet have an API released to the public, however an unofficial but supported [cite web|date=2008-06-10|accessdate=2008-07-23|url=http://www.inquisitr.com/939/game-on-plurk-to-release-api-tomorrow/|title=Game On: Plurk API Available Tomorrow|author=Duncan Riley|publisher=The Inquisitr] Plurk API is hosted on Google Code. [cite web|access=2008-07-23|url=http://code.google.com/p/rlplurkapi/|title=RLPlurkAPI: The unofficial Plurk API|author=Ryan Lim|publisher=Google Inc.]

Availability in other languages

To help translate their base list of qualifiers/verbs into a number of languages, Plurk hosts its own translation website where users can submit translations of the Plurk user inteface in their own local language. [cite web|date=2008-06-28|accessdate=2008-07-23|url=http://blog.plurk.com/2008/06/28/introducing-the-plurk-collaborative-translation-project/|title=Introducing the Plurk Collaborative Translation Project - Help Us Bring Plurk to your Language|author=akan|publisher=Plurk Inc.] As of July 2008, Plurk is translated into over twenty languages.

Reception

Plurk has often been considered to be a rival to Twitter, an earlier micro-blogging service. [cite web|date=2008-06-23|accessdate=2008-07-23|url=http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2321480,00.asp|title=Plurk.com - Full Review - Reviews by PC Magazine|author=Michael Muchmore|publisher=Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc.] [cite web|date=2008-06-03|accessdate=2008-07-23|url=http://www.techleader.co.za/stii/2008/06/03/plurk-the-new-twitter/|title=Plurk, the new Twitter?|author=Stii Pretorius|publisher=Mail & Guardian Online]

In June 2008, Plurk received much online attention when it was featured by Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur on their net@night show in the TWiT.tv podcast network. [cite web|date=2008-06-04|accessdate=2008-07-24|url=http://twit.tv/natn55|title=net@night 55: Tiffany Roll|author=Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte|publisher=TwiT.tv] [cite web|date=2008-06-02|accessdate=2008-07-23|url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9957487-2.html?tag=bl|title=Plurk: Like Twitter, in good and bad ways|author=Rafe Needleman|publisher=CNET Networks, Inc.|quote=An influx of users over the weekend (which is being blamed on or credited to Leo Laporte) has apparently overloaded the system, and occasionally users may find elements of it not working.]

References

External Links

* [http://www.plurk.com/ Plurk.com homepage]
* [http://translate.plurk.com/ Plurk Collaborative Translation Project]
* [http://plurkmania.com/ Plurkmania] - statistics for Plurk