Does this signal the beginning of the end for Twitter? How might this integrate with Gmail in a useful manner? Or perhaps Orkut is due for some tweaks and a relaunch to compete with Facebook.
How does Jaiku currently differ from Twitter? On the plus side, it has ‘channels’, which are like chatrooms or public streams that everyone can contribute to. It also has a separate status field for Location. So you can let people know what you’re doing/thinking, and also where you are. This comes in handy when, let’s say, you’re out in town and would like to find nearby friends. It also supports comments, without having to reply with something like “@dude I totally agree” and bothering everyone else. It works just like leaving a blog comment on the main website.
The philosophy behind Jaiku is more of creating a “Presence Stream”, optionally aggregating your blog posts, flickr, and other RSS feeds, giving your friends a single point of contact for seeing what you’re up to. This is functionality I originally intended for my tumblelog (blast.sangsara.net), but over time it became less personal and more about posting amusing links. Well, Jaiku might be the one service to draw all these parts of my online activity together, and STILL publish 140 character bits with every now and then. The question is, how do I get everyone to move off Twitter?
Are you currently on Twitter, and feeling Jaikurious? Sorry, sorry. Sorry. That was a bad one.
Further reading: Jaiku vs Twitter @ smartmobs.com, A Matter of Taste @ Pronet Advertising
From the first link above:
For me Jaiku is about:
1. Silent sociality – checking up on what my friends are up to when convenient, and posting my own state knowing that I won’t be disturbing others (unless they have explicitly asked to be alerted).
4. Background sociality – Jaiku allows me to integrate other online identities and feeds (including delicious, flickr and any RSS) into my single jaiku presence feed. This is done in a way that doesn’t confuse these background posts with my explicit state messages.
sangsara.net 
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