pownce me!

Late last night/early this morning (midnight), Pownce finally opened to the public. "Great, another social networking application," you might say, and I would happen to agree with you. I've a Facebook account, MySpace account (most hated of all!), AIM, google talk, Twitter, goodreads, Vox (remember that one?), etc.  But hey, they're free, so what's the harm I say. Giveittome.

So I signed up this morning, downloaded the desktop application (Adobe AIR-based, very cool!), and signed in. So far, I have to say I'm somewhat impressed. The GUI is nice and simple (though I wish it offered a compact or otherwise compressed view), and the memory footprint is pretty modest (34MB). So far so good on that front.

For those who don't know (which is probably most of you, as the beta program for Pownce was very small), the best way to describe Pownce is if AOL had invented AIM just a few months ago, armed with their current knowledge of how people use IM these days, they would have created Pownce. It's basically IM on steroids, but in a good way: you basically post things (IM-length messages, links, files or events), and choose between either the public or an individual to send it to. I think of it as AIM, FaceBook Wall/MySpace comments, and Twitter all rolled into one nifty little desktop app. It's also a bit Digg-ish.

I'm giving it a shot, and I'll probably pressure a few friends to sign up, so I can get the full effect. Add me if you feel so inclined!