Web 2.0: Who, What, Why, How

www.plurk.com  based in Ontario, Canada

Plurk is another application like Twitter which takes the Twitter concept and puts it on a timeline. The service has an odd, quirky feel to it; it’s much more visual than Twitter, and it’s fun to use. It uses colors to emphasize your ‘moods’, and it introduces the concept of karma, which should be familiar to Reddit users; the more you use the service, the more karma you get. In this case, karma even lets you unlock certain features, which almost feels like a mini game (if you like very boring mini games). Finally, just like Pownce, Plurk lets you divide your friends into “cliques”, which is just a fancy word for groups. (article from mashable.com)

A plurk is a small message or link, less than 140 characters, that you can broadcast to the whole world, your buddies or just yourself over the web, through instant messaging, and through text messaging on your mobile phone. 

Your timeline is your home screen and where you’ll spend 99% of your time on Plurk. It allows you to easily view and scroll from left to right using your mouse or keyboard as plurks are created by you and your friends throughout the day. It gives you a clear view into what everybody is up to recently and lets you stay caught up on what your friends are doing. 

Plurk posts
As with Twitter, Plurk posts are limited to 140 characters. URLs don’t appear to work against your character count. You can easily share Flickr and YouTube content by linking to the URL of the image or video.

You can also add emoticons to your post.

Karma
To encourage use and interaction, and to build audience, Plurk awards uses a rewards system that it calls “karma.” Tabulated daily, you earn karma by inviting friends and using the site. With karma, you get extra privileges, such as the ability to change your user name, choose another tier of illustrations, and customize your page.