Pownce, the micro blogging service which was co-founded by Digg’s Kevin Rose, has been bought over by TypePad developers SixApart.
It seems like SixApart bought Pownce for their talented staff, rather than Pownce itself, as Pownce will be closing down on December 15th 2008. I never used the service myself but I know it had a loyal following and had many great features including the ability to send files between users (something Twitter Users can’t do).
In a farewell post Leah Culver has hinted that they may return with something bigger and better next year :
We’re bittersweet about shutting down the service but we believe we’ll come back with something much better in 2009.
With Twitter doubling it’s userbase within 6 months this year, I think going back to the drawing board could turn out to be a smart move by SixApart. They will definately have to come back with something useful and original though as Twitter is growing at an incredible rate.
Did any BloggingTips readers use Pownce?
Honestly, I initially set-up a profile (quite some time ago) because a friend of mine sent me an invite, but I never really explored how Pownce could be used. In fact, a different friend sent me a friend request just last week.
I'm curious to hear if folks–particularly those who actively used Pownce–are surprised by the shut-down.
I never got to use it much either, but Kevin is right; with twitter being twitter, I think they got out in good time.
I don't really recall much Marketing behind the product, either.
I did try the website myself but I don’t believe they are shutting the website down because they have a cool new job but because the site was a EPIC fail!
I've also never used Pownce, but isn't Twitter enough for all this "socializing" already? lol.
-Mike