Pownce has announced the launch of a group that will work towards the implementation of a public Pownce API.
As Pownce puts it so well on their blog “the lack of an API has been a major criticism levelled against Pownce from day one.” Desktop interaction is Pownce’s Achilles heal; the Pownce Desktop AIR client has been defective from day one. An open API will allow third party developers to create new and improved desktop clients, browser add-ons and any other interface they feel like, as many already have for Twitter.
Apparently though, it’s not as simple as simply providing a public API; the public part of the Pownce API requires consultation, design, development, more consultation, and last but not least a “community review” with a potential release date of September. All good things comes to those who wait, but the longer Pownce waits to release a public API, the bigger the risk that the mostly positive momentum behind the application will wither away.
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Adobe AIR is not so stable…
Open APIs = very good.
when can i get my hands on this api to integrate it into twitbin? i bet a huge % of pownce users are also twitter users.
i don’t understand the big deal with pownce. other than kevin rose’s name, what else does this have going for it? i don’t understand the utility or the problem that it solves.
Why not just use Mashery to accelerate time-to-market for their API? From what I hear, Mashery can dramatically speed up the deployment of their API as well as build/host their development community….If this infrastructure is available as a service, why re-invent the wheel?
Eli - you are right - the web app is very well put together but this story wouldn’t receive such big press across the web if it wasn’t Digg family.
I am impressed with the clean design and the usability of the app as I noted in my review. It’s too bad that it will go as Kevin goes.
Kevin’s name will make or break the app.
I’m wondering if this http://www.leahculver.com/2007/06/19/widgets-suck/ has anything to do with not having a public API at launch and now just talking about it.
Pownce is useless, just like Twitter.
> the Pownce Desktop AIR client has been defective from day one.
You mean the beta client running on a beta runtime? Aside from an issue where too many can’t connect windows appear when the connection is lost, it has worked very well for me (I use it daily).
mke chambers
mesh@adobe.com
the more open ther more visitors?
For 2 minutes, forget Kevin Rose and company have their name on the product. Pownce is much bigger than you can imagine. You just have to think outside the norm. I guarantee you - a year from now, you will think otherwise.
Kevin Rose - get my email address from Arrington.
eli… Most Web2.0 services/apps doesn’t sell benefits they sell features and it’s up us to attach the benefits.
Now when it comes to twitter/pownce type apps… they are used in various ways by mutliple sets of end users, like;
1 Microblogging
2. Marketign medium by conventional media
3. Just to indicate the normal regular user activity
……
API or not, I think Pownce as a service is trying to be just another destination. By themselves they do not offer anything special. I mean I can do most of those things via email or other social community.
The key to Pownce’s success is to be a part of another community and not be a destination itself. They should invest some time in integrating Pownce with Facebook and allow users to use it within that ecosystem.
Here are my additional views on this service (and Twitter). Take a look
http://abhishek.tiwari.com/200.....itterized/
Well it seems to me it’s taking a similar service that people have proven to recently love (twitter) and jacking it up a bit and in theory when populated allows you to be more productive in passing the time in your little big world. So whats with all the animosity really. Use it or not it’s most likely going to do well while being fun for the people who allow it to be.
Good Luck and API,
Evrywon Chillax
Man,
I wish I could post “I will release an API at some point” and get TechCrunch to cover it
Cheers,
Dion
i love twitter, it lets me tell the world more about the most important person who ever lived - ME
i took a poop
my dog smells
i like mac & cheese
is it performance art or hypernarcissism?
@ Steve - Usually hit jobs have some kind of semi-factual information they can spin. One line bashes on something without disclosing more information–AIR app is in beta, your specific issues, and so on–adds nothing to this conversation.
Oh brother. Look, this isn’t some 5-year IETF draft/review/approval process here. The Google Group isn’t a W3C WG “working towards” anything. We’re simply opening up a dialogue with developers so that we can get some useful feedback while we work out some of the issues that are inherent to API design. We’re taking this seriously, and I’m sorry if that means that everyone has to wait for another month. In the end, though, it’s going to mean the difference between a crummy interface that nobody wants to use and one that helps people easily build tools on top of our platform.
I guess I just find it kind of ridiculous that we’re getting flak for being public about the API’s development, rather than just hacking away with our heads down and ignoring the community’s concerns and suggestions. Oh well.
If Pownce does become successful, I can imagine a generation growing up not knowing how to spell “pounce” correctly. I am already catching myself. (Sorry, totally irrelevant to any API announcement; I do like APIs, though)
“Apparently though, it’s not as simple as simply providing a public API; the public part of the Pownce API requires consultation, design, development, more consultation, and last but not least a “community review” with a potential release date of September. All good things comes to those who wait, but the longer Pownce waits to release a public API, the bigger the risk that the mostly positive momentum behind the application will wither away.”
September is 5 weeks away. I don’t think they’ll do significant damage to Pownce with the lead time. Kevin Rose’s star power alone could keep this thing going without feature improvements for 6 months.
what could you do with the open api? just post messages?
Someone please explain to me why this is newsworthy.
Just tried it out and I must say that it’s very slick. However I doubt that i’ll ever use it. Why? Because already have facebook, IM and email and I can’t understand what gap this is filling. Maybe i’m getting old, maybe i’m stupid… *scratching my head*