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pownce, kevin rose’s twitter competitor, has received an update with some new features. let’s take a look at what’s new and what’s useful. also, if you would like an invite, please let me know.

on-site image previews and video playback

if someone shares a link with you that contains a photograph or a video, you no longer have to follow the link and open it in a new page to view it. you can now preview images and playback video right from the message. video is currently embeddable from youtube, google video, metacafe, revver, and vimeo, and displayed as follows:

image previews are currently only supported from zooomr but photobucket and flickr support is expected in the future.

as you can see, in both cases, the link to the original files is maintained if you want to see a larger version.

your other online profiles

pownce now let’s you display links to your profiles from other sites. all you have to do is go to your settings (from the top menu-bar), click on other profiles (from the menu on the left) and then choose the networks you want to add and add your user name for each network. while the list of available networks is quite comprehensive, notably missing from the mix (and not completely unexpected consider the site’s past history with digg and the current confusion surrounding the site’s future) is netscape.

upcoming events

at the top-most, right-hand corner of your profile page you can see the next five upcoming events that you have created or have been invited to. by displaying events in this prominent way, pownce ensures that you wont miss an event.

improved customization options

in addition to the previous three features, you also have more customization options. for example,

you can now open links in a new window by default! tou can also set your default note view to something other than ‘notes & replies’, and you can select whom you’re note. tired of seeing all replies displayed inline? no worries, you can set it to just ‘notes’. and finally, you can specify whom notes should go to by default (such as your ‘best friends’ or ‘coworkers’ set).

with all these great additions, pownce continues to grow, improve, and become a mature micro-blogging platform. that said, the one thing that is notably missing is any mention of an api for developers.

Technorati Tags: social media, pownce, invites