Twitter is dead! Long live Plurk! Maybe. Probably not.

Twitter may have defined micro-blogging for the masses, but it's relatively lo-fi in what it can do (particularly given its rate of service outage). For those who don't believe that less is more, and are happy to ignore that a Jack of all trades is commonly a master of none, Plurk is born.

Much like twitter, the idea is that you can 'plurk' your thoughts, actions or grievances. However, there's the option to create cliques, so your plurks only get distributed to your pre-defined lists, add emoticons and view message conversations in a linear way. The interface itself also appears as a visual timeline, making the whole look a bit more web 2.0-esque.

But do you want it?

One of the advantages of Twitter is that there are so many ways of accessing and using it - through Outlook, on your mobile, from your desktop etc. Plurk doesn't yet have this, and whilst the timeline might look more attractive, if it comes at the cost of accessibility it's of no use to anyone.

The idea of karma is also questionable. On Plurk, karma points can be gained by inviting friends, going into plurking overdrive or tweaking your profile. It's recalculated every day, and gives you access to new and arguably exciting emoticons.

Does anyone want that level of commitment to their micro-blogging?

I could be wrong, but I'm not sure the bells and whistles of Plurk are going to prove more popular than Twitter. Now watch as it explodes globally and I have to spend the next month eating my words.

Check it out here.

Agree that Plurking is for losers? Follow Shiny Shiny on Twitter here.