App.net

App.net sounds like a really cool idea, an open source social utility to connect individuals. Basically the main differentiating factor between this platform from the primary sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc and the more fringe “copy” websites is that user’s pay in order to use and fund the site and it is open for individuals to build and provide new features to the program to tailor the experience to what the body wants vs. other companies who roll out updates whenever which may be minor or may drastically change the use or layout of the utility and experience.

It is the closest to Twitter at the 

moment, to the point where you have preference if you were a early backer and already have a Twitter account one could reserve their account handle used on Twitter to be used on App.net. Along with that where it is currently resembles one of the very early builds of Twitter, long pages of communicating individuals tagging each other in their posts in order to communicate. At this point in the game App.net is in essence is a paid version of Twitter and nothing more. Give the various developers some time and it could flourish into something different and better but for now they are very much the same. And the one differentiating factor between the two is the one redeeming value that Twitter has, and App.net does not.

That feature is the ever so proudly touted fact that there will be no advertising or companies on App.net. Twitter’s premier quality is its ability for one account to very simply and easily broadcast to a crowd of interested followers. A prime example of this is from early in Twitters life. Mobile food trucks began using the service to announce where they were parked so their Twitter followers could follow them around the city and know where to go for food. This kind of business-orientated service is where Twitter really shines. On the person-to-person side of things it is just falls to pieces with just due to the fact that individuals are in essence using status updates to communicate instead of using Wall posts/comments/message to communicate in Facebook terms.

Facebook vs Twitter

In my mind sites like Facebook and Google+ fall into one category while sites such as Twitter and the present incarnation of App.net fall into another. Facebook type sites users in essence create an electronic version of themselves that lives online. Not only can you have people over to talk or to view photos or videos but you can also explore the world. There are countless websites and games that use Facebook accounts as login methods as well as to use your Facebook friend list to find  people I know and now interact with in the game. Whereas Twitter is just like Aim or any other messaging service where beyond the confines of the website your account name means nothing.

One of the biggest drawbacks at this early stage of App.net is what will make it great in the future, the $50 dollar service fee.  I am 100% certain that no one I know who I would have any interest in communicating with regularly would be on App.net. Unlike with services such as Facebook when I made an account in 2007 and noticed none of my friends were using the service I just logged off and just went back to MySpace until I had people I knew using the service. There was no harm making the account and waiting for almost a year for Facebook to catch on at my school. The problem with the almost certain lag with App.net is that $50 dollars is just going down the drain. I’d rather use that money towards an infinite number of camera accessories/shoes/who know what and I’m sure many other people would as well.

What sounds so intriguing about the platform is the idea of it being what the current email experience is, a cross platform environment. Where you can communicate with any other user no matter if they are using Yahoo, Gmail, Aol, or a company email account. If App.net can grow beyond just being another Twitter and become a central Social media interaction hub it has great possibilities for use and user commitment, but only time will tell if it will takeoff or crash and burn.