Plurk Information & Plurk Links at HealthHaven.com

Plurk
	; Screenshot of a Plurk timeline
URL	Plurk.com
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Micro-blogging
Registration	Required
Available language(s)	Multilingual
Owner	Plurk, Inc.
Created by	The A-team
Launched	May 12, 2008

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.

[edit] 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.^[3]

The etymology of the name was explained by the developers as such:^[4]

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

[edit] Features and technology

Plurk's interface shows updates in horizontal form through a scrollable timeline written in JavaScript and updated through AJAX. Users can post new messages with optional 'qualifiers', which are one-word verbs used to represent a thought (e.g. "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.^[5]

Plurk also supports group conversations between friends and allows usage of emoticons together with the usual text micro-blogging.^[6]

The Plurk.com developers released public access to API on December 4th, 2009 ^[7]

[edit] 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 interface in their own local language.^[8] As of July 2008, Plurk is translated into over twenty languages.

[edit] Reception

Plurk has often been considered to be a rival to Twitter, an earlier micro-blogging service.^[9]^[10]

In June 2008, Plurk received online attention when it was featured by Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur on their net@night show in the TWiT.tv podcast network.^[11]^[12]

On December 14, 2009, Plurk blogged that MSN China's recently-launched microblogging site MSN Juku had troubling aesthetic and implementational similarities with Plurk. They included screenshots as well as samples of code together with claims that Microsoft China had copied the latter without authorization.^[13] Microsoft has stated in a press release that it has suspended the service and is currently investigating the matter.^[14]

[edit] References

^ Plurk.com. "The A-Team". Plurk Inc.. http://www.plurk.com/plurkteam. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
^ Amir Salihefendic (2008-05-12). "Plurk.com opens up". http://amix.dk/blog/viewEntry/19320. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
^ akan (2008-05-20). "das leben der anderen - a window into the lives of others.". Plurk Inc.. http://blog.plurk.com/2008/05/20/das-leben-der-anderen-a-window-into-the-lives-of-others/. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
^ akan (2008-06-02). "‘Plurk’? An etymological deconstruction of the word you love to hate". Plurk Inc.. http://blog.plurk.com/2008/06/02/why-plurk-an-etymological-deconstruction-of-the-word-you-love-to-hate/. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
^ Plurk.com. "FAQ". Plurk, Inc.. http://www.plurk.com/faq. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
^ Prashant Sharma. "Why Plurking is more fun than tweeting". TechPluto. http://www.techpluto.com/plurk-over-twitter/. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
^ alvin (2009-12-04). "Plurk API Service". Plurk.com. http://blog.plurk.com/2009/12/04/plurk-api-service/.
^ akan (2008-06-28). "Introducing the Plurk Collaborative Translation Project - Help Us Bring Plurk to your Language". Plurk Inc.. http://blog.plurk.com/2008/06/28/introducing-the-plurk-collaborative-translation-project/. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
^ Michael Muchmore (2008-06-23). "Plurk.com - Full Review - Reviews by PC Magazine". Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc.. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2321480,00.asp. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
^ Stii Pretorius (2008-06-03). "Plurk, the new Twitter?". Mail & Guardian Online. http://www.techleader.co.za/stii/2008/06/03/plurk-the-new-twitter/. Retrieved 2008-07-23.
^ Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte (2008-06-04). "net@night 55: Tiffany Roll". TwiT.tv. http://twit.tv/natn55. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
^ Rafe Needleman (2008-06-02). "Plurk: Like Twitter, in good and bad ways". CNET Networks, Inc.. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9957487-2.html?tag=bl. Retrieved 2008-07-23. "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."
^ amix (2009-12-14). "Microsoft China rips off Asia’s No. 1 Microblogging Service". Plurk.com. http://blog.plurk.com/2009/12/14/microsoft-rips-plurk/.
^ http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/dec09/12-14Statement.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases

[edit] External links

[0] Plurk.com. "The A-Team". Plurk Inc.. http://www.plurk.com/plurkteam. Retrieved 2008-07-24.

[1] Amir Salihefendic (2008-05-12). "Plurk.com opens up". http://amix.dk/blog/viewEntry/19320. Retrieved 2008-07-24.

[2] (2008-05-20). "das leben der anderen - a window into the lives of others.". Plurk Inc.. http://blog.plurk.com/2008/05/20/das-leben-der-anderen-a-window-into-the-lives-of-others/. Retrieved 2008-07-23.

[3] (2008-06-02). "‘Plurk’? An etymological deconstruction of the word you love to hate". Plurk Inc.. http://blog.plurk.com/2008/06/02/why-plurk-an-etymological-deconstruction-of-the-word-you-love-to-hate/. Retrieved 2008-07-23.

[4] Plurk.com. "FAQ". Plurk, Inc.. http://www.plurk.com/faq. Retrieved 2008-07-23.

[5] Prashant Sharma. "Why Plurking is more fun than tweeting". TechPluto. http://www.techpluto.com/plurk-over-twitter/. Retrieved 2008-09-20.

[6] vin (2009-12-04). "Plurk API Service". Plurk.com. http://blog.plurk.com/2009/12/04/plurk-api-service/.

[7] (2008-06-28). "Introducing the Plurk Collaborative Translation Project - Help Us Bring Plurk to your Language". Plurk Inc.. http://blog.plurk.com/2008/06/28/introducing-the-plurk-collaborative-translation-project/. Retrieved 2008-07-23.

[8] Michael Muchmore (2008-06-23). "Plurk.com - Full Review - Reviews by PC Magazine". Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc.. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2321480,00.asp. Retrieved 2008-07-23.

[9] Stii Pretorius (2008-06-03). "Plurk, the new Twitter?". Mail & Guardian Online. http://www.techleader.co.za/stii/2008/06/03/plurk-the-new-twitter/. Retrieved 2008-07-23.

[10] Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte (2008-06-04). "net@night 55: Tiffany Roll". TwiT.tv. http://twit.tv/natn55. Retrieved 2008-07-24.

[11] Rafe Needleman (2008-06-02). "Plurk: Like Twitter, in good and bad ways". CNET Networks, Inc.. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-9957487-2.html?tag=bl. Retrieved 2008-07-23. "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."

[12] x (2009-12-14). "Microsoft China rips off Asia’s No. 1 Microblogging Service". Plurk.com. http://blog.plurk.com/2009/12/14/microsoft-rips-plurk/.

[13] ttp://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/dec09/12-14Statement.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases

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