So I recently got hooked on Plurk, in case that isn’t already evident. Safe to say that right now, Plurk is giving me what was apparently lacking in my Twitter experience. Lacking, you ask? Well, Twitter did a mighty fine job in the micro-blogging business, but that was just about it for me. On the other hand, Plurk manages to tip-toe up from the realm of micro-blogging to more of social networking, so I think a bit of assessment is in order.

For starters, Plurk gives you more credit for updating your profile information — the fact that they give you credit (see: karma) at all gives it a huge advantage. The feel seems more similar to Facebook feeds than it does to Twitter, because it’s more flexible with the type of content a user can “plurk”. Heck, it even seems more similar to a multiplayer game, what with the points and all. And ultimately, looking at the Plurk timeline actually makes you feel like you’re part of a social network, and non-linear replying seals the deal for me.

But what does Twitter have over Plurk? The blue bird. Let’s face it, save the yellow platypus thing, Plurk creatures are butt-ugly.

But seriously, I think Twitter does have some advantages over Plurk. The very thing that seems to have Twitter left behind is actually it’s strongest advantage to many people — simplicity. And I have a few of my own concerns. Though I’m certainly not at that point, what happens when you get hundreds of friends? Should you be forced to “un-follow” them to avoid a cluttered timeline? Does it end up using way more of a user’s time than what it’s worth? Will no 3rd party tool come to rescue it from the website?

It’s for these reasons that I’m not truly confident in Plurk’s shelf life. After all, from what I see, most if not all social networks reach their saturation point. After that they slowly fade away — or others take their place. I wonder what (or when) Plurk’s downfall is gonna be?

So, I’m forcing myself to take more (good and/or funny) pictures, by adding a Flickr plugin to my blog. Hope it works.

I highly recommend it. In fact I’ve been pushing it like a drug on some people.

The pros. First off, it’s like unlocking the best of the internet. You’ve probably seen dozens of sites on a certain topic, but how much are you getting out of them? For how accessible the internet seems (what with Google, Technorati, so on), for most of us, sorting out the good sites from the bad is a bit of a challenge. SU does it for you, based on your actual interests. In fact, I found more great sites in a few hours (including actually going through those sites) than I could’ve found in a couple of days normally. The way I see it, you can’t go wrong.

The cons. If you’re anything like me, you may end up spending more time on the internet than you normally do. And if you’ve any game-related sites ticked in your preferences, it won’t be long till you catch a site that catches you back. Not to mention, without SU, you’d probably be a straight-to-the-point kind of person — if you need sites on Web Development, you head for those right away. But with SU, you’d probably spend some time on that nice photography site you… well, stumbled upon, before snapping out of it and remembering the task at hand. Of course you could always tick everything else off in your prefs, but I doubt you’d do that if you’re anything like me. Then again, I may just be going through a hype phase, who knows?

So despite the slightly longer paragraph on cons, I still do highly recommend it. It’s helped me get some ideas for design, art, marketing and even for this blog. Not to mention I get my regular dose of entertainment while I’m at it.

So I just updated my Firefox to version 3.0 — released today in this region. It’s supposedly more efficient in terms of memory, and provides more safety. Naturally it’s hard to really tell at this point, so I’m just gonna nod, smile, and keep that in mind as I keep using it. Thanks to Beta development, we already have add-ons to work with even now (I’m already using a theme similar to my old one, as you can see). One great part about Fx3.0 is that it matches the default theme with whatever system and OS you’re using. So for Mac OS X users, it’ll fit in real well.

Fx3.0 also now complies better with CSS. In fact, it passed the standard Acid2 test, meaning designers don’t need to worry about their CSS tricks. IE’s version 7 (the latest release) on the other hand, failed the test, and the upcoming IE8 is still struggling to hit that mark. Once again our Fox has won the CSS race. You’re a good little foxy, yes you are.

And the Fox chirps! If you go to the Mozilla add-ons page now, you’ll find the TwitterFox add-on, as seen on my screenshot. I’ve only been using it for an hour but I recommend it already. Granted, it suffers the same problem as other Twitter apps with the rate limit, but it’s more convenient than any of the other apps I have. Tucks away nicely when you don’t need it, and easy to pull out when you do. Love the UI too.

Go go, get your Firefox updated!