If I were to choose between Twitter and Google's Jaiku, I'd go with the smaller company. Jaiku is good feature-wise, but Twitter has the users, no longer crashes, and has a better API. And Jaiku doesn't even let you register without invites. What a lousy strategy! Jaiku is no Gmail.

The fact that Finns stick to this Google service (despite Jaiku totally neglecting its users) makes you proud to be a fellow Finn? Idiotic!

I'd be more "proud" if Nokia would have bought the service and made it flourish by bundling the Jaiku client in their phone firmware. But that is not the case. So, Jaiku is no longer an arctic startup. Time for Ville to move on to more relevant topics. Wake me up when ex-Jaikuer Teemu Kurppa has finally created his new mobile startup.

Well spoken Ville! As a proud fellow Finn living in Sweden I can tell that we keep fighting back, too. We even have created a room on Friendfeed whenever Jaiku's down but as soon it's up and running we're back. And we all have twitter, too, but it just doesn't feel the same. Last time when one couldn't send new posts we even used comments in an old post as a channel :) http://plindberg.jaiku.com/presence/49886571#c-1868151

One issue I think people tend to neglect is that these microblogging communities are essentially dependent on your own, personal social sphere. For example, I'm sure the Parvi crowd will keep finding Jaiku useful and alive, because the community and constant dialogue is there for them. Some other folks have seen their contact list fleeing to/switching between other services a long time ago. And some, like myself have used multiple services fluently from the day one. This is not definitely the first storm in the teacup regarding communities and won't be the last either.

@Anonymous Coward: This is not a question of misguided brand loyalty to the perceived "little guy". Those Finns using Jaiku are doing it for very pragmatic reasons: 1) Jaiku is a much better platform for having conversations, and 2) their friends are still on that platform, talking in Finnish. Many of them have also been using Twitter all along but not as actively, for the above two reasons. Who cares if Twitter has "the users" of the world if it doesn't have those particular people that you want to follow? Decisions about platform use are ultimately personal, after all. (Also, Twitter does still crash, so in that respect, they're certainly on equal footing.)

There's fundamental difference between "moving" and "evaluating". It's not like Twitter sign in requires me to delete my Jaiku account, or even choose between the two. But Twitter has become much more lively during the last two days, and those users are the very same ones that are "defending Jaiku".

I'm not sure if Google gives two shits about keeping communities alive. Wouldn't count on that. On the other hand, they have Orkut that hasn't been a global success, but is really popular in some parts of the world.

@Anonymous Coward,

I'm not proud because Finns stick to the Google service. I'm proub of the community in Jaiku sticking up for themselves and the service they love to use. As I was made to understand by the revolt, instead of butterflying to the next Yet-Another-Microblogging-Service the core of the community value their own community over a feature pack. That's what I was and am proud of.

They say everything is a variable cost in the long term and sticking with the same logic no service is immortal. The point of the original blog post was that now're starting to see that transition in Jaiku.

you may want to check out yonkly. It's the first "create your own" microblog to integrate with Twitter.

http://yonkly.com

[...] wrote about Jaiku losing users and subsequently got strong response from the Jaiku community telling us differently. Partly the reason why some users (link in Finnish) have moved to Twitter was [...]

Reporting back to ArcticStartup from Twitter :)

I have to say that this week has been a lot of fun in Twitter. As many other active Jaiku users I picked up my abandoned Twitter account and started actually using it.

As with any social media application there is a cognitive barrier to pass before you really get a service, the other people using it and its usage culture. Especially in the case of Twitter which is much more like an ecosystem than a single service. There is a lot of different clients and mashup services that you need to be aware of before fully enjoying it.

It has been so much easier to pick it up at the same time with other fellow Finns because of the support and usage examples you get from others. I think this weeks Twitter movement happened because so many of us have known that we need to go there but haven't really been able to break that cognitive and sociocultural barrier. I'm gratefull for Ville and Kari Haakana in creating a situation where a lot of people moved from their everyday convenience zone.

On the other hand Jaiku's conversation threads and using Finnish has its own advantages. To me Jaiku and the Finnish community is still the ultimate virtual think tank. It is not only a bad thing that discussions happen in Finnish (mother tongue for many of us). There we can prepare our plans for world domination openly but in stealth mode for the rest of the world :-)

The Finnish Jaiku community is something very special. It consists of not only social media or IT professionals but teachers, researchers, civil servants, people active in politics, traditional media, librarians and so on. The people who are the least experienced with social media are the ones who make Jaiku so special and so valuable (for our society). I have seen many times how difficult it is to enter the Jaiku sphere from these less tech savvy backgrounds. Many times these people stay slightly passive and only participate occasionally. I, for one, got a little scared how these people will react if Jaiku is declared dead.

Today I'm not afraid anymore. Jaiku still has its place and the community is as active as always. Some people like me have shifted part of their attention to Twitter and are experimenting with ways to use both the services. My overall strategy at the moment is Twitter: international networking & news filtering & US insights, Jaiku: collaborative knowledge creation & local discussions & sanailua.

@Petri Kola, generally agree with you what you said above: Finnish Jaiku community is special. Nicely put!