Why Jaiku outshines Twitter

I was a bit hesitant yet fascinated when I first started using Twitter. Now I see the form mature and I think microblogging is here to stay.

Since Hej!2007, which got me into Jaiku, I’ve been using the service quite a bit, and I am more or less migrating to it from Twitter, though I’m still sending the random update to Twitter. The great thing is that my twitters end up on Jaiku too.

Here’s my brief comparison of the two services, and why I think Jaiku is so much more interesting and useful.

It’s more social. The comments function makes it easier to interact with other users.

You can add any feed. Jaiku can also contain your twitters, along with your recently played songs on for instance last.fm, your del.icio.us bookmarks, your blog headlines, your flickr photos, or anything similar. Just add an RSS feed and it will be scanned for updates.

Jaiku has channels. You can create a more private group conversation by posting updates to a channel. Only the channel members see the updates – they don’t show up on the public timeline. This was used during Hej! 2007, for instance.

Less technical problems. I’m quite frustrated with Twitter being slow or at times inaccessible. So far I haven’t seen similar problems with Jaiku. Let’s just hope they are prepared for a rapid growth in the number of users.

Those are the key points why I like Jaiku. But there are others things that Twitter does a bit better. So far you can only get Jaiku in your cellphone if you have a Nokia phone, for instance (there’s a java version of Jaiku Mobile in private beta). And Twitter has more options for its web widgets.

More on microblogging:
From the Hej!2007 live updates – scroll down to read what Andy Smith of Jaiku had to say about Jaiku compared to Twitter
Using Twitter on the road – why mobile blogging works so well in the micro format
Twittervision – see the world twitter A twitter/google maps mashup
Mashup brings CNN news alerts to Twitter
Twitter was Mashable’s top choice for mobile social networking service 2006
Citizen media or citizen nonsense My initial reflections on using Twitter