Social News / Voting Digg clone websites have been all the rage since late 2007, but what about twitter clones is there any software available that allows you to start your very own Twitter Clone? There are many systems already available to perform the task from open source to commercial, here we have listed them to give you some ideas.

So what is micro-blogging or micro-sharing?

micro-shar·ing
– social networking tools and systems that enable listening, awareness, communication and
collaboration between people, through short bursts of text, links, and multimedia content.
– surprisingly powerful way to connect people to one another for corporate benefit.

Below Is A List Of Companies That Supply Twitter Like Web Applications.

Open Source

• OpenMicroBlogger
• Jisko
• Laconica
• Yonkly
• Prologue (Wordpress Based)

Paid Applications Or Services

• Communote
• present.ly
• trillr
• status
• HeadMix
• SocialCast
• Socialtext Signals
• QikCom
• Yammer

Now we know what applications are available i will suggest two i particularly like from each section.

Open Source Choice – Laconica

Features of Laconica

Let you to subscribe to the updates from users on another site,

Support for Open ID

15+ server list for handling traffic

API support for building Tools and Apps for Laconica

And Good Developer Community

Commercial Choice - Revou $400

Revou is build on PHP and MySQL platform.it has SMS integration as well as API support and its fully customizable script.

Information on how ReVou system works for your members
- Click here for more information

General Member Features
- Each user will have a custom profile URL: http://revou.com/demo/profile/test

- Search friends

- Search groups by title, description and tags
- Password forget
- Cancel account
- Member registration (with Captcha image)
- Display most recent/most popular members

- Display most popular/new groups
- Latest text updates
- Instant Messenging supported: MSN, GTalk, AIM, Yahoo Messenger
- SMS service Covers 712 mobile networks in 212 countries world-wide via ClickaTell SMS Gateway

Multi-Language Support
- Users are able to select the language setting to be shown on the site

Email Invitation
- Members can enter friends’ email addresses to sent invitation
- Email importer Addon (value at $100 FREE)
Imports email contacts from Hotmail, Yahoo, GMail, AOL and MSN

Groups

With ReVou group addon, members with a common interest will be able to participate in a dedicated channel and interact together to share news and comments. The group addon can be used for any purpose including coverage for a special event (similar to Twitter US Election) to a general group for a specific interest group such as automobiles or hobby

- Each group will have a custom group URL (example: http://revou.com/demo/groups/profile/GROUPNAME)

- Group statistics such as group members, total group messages and creation date

- Group RSS feeds

- Ability to post messages in groups

- Members who are subscribed to a group will be able to receive messages when other users post messages to the group

Plugins

ReVou Vision Addon (value at $150 FREE)
ReVou Vision is a unique addon to our ReVou Micro Blogging software which is a highly addictive visualization website similar to Twitter Vision built using ReVou API and Google Maps Mashup. This visualization tool allows your members to view the life updates of other members around the world.

ReVou Flash Widget Addon
This nifty flash widget allows your members to embed onto their websites or blogs to let their site visitors have an overview of the text updates posted

Twitter Plugin
This neat plugin allows your members to post messages to their Twitter account via your ReVou website. This means that not only will the messages appear on your revou site but also at the same time on Twitter.com.

Member Profile
- Ability to change background image or color
- Members can also use images from the ReVou Image library
- Advance member profile page customization including setting text/link/border/message area color
- Ability to post text messages with image on member profile page
- View member’s own messages
- View member’s friends’ messages
- View public replies
- View member’s friends
- Member profile including name, age, location, about me, interest and website URL
- Member statistics overview: Number of direct messages/followers/friends/favorites/SMS credits
- Ability to notify member new messages either all the people the member is following or only direct messages from people the member follows
- Ability to notify member by IM/EMail/Web/SMS

Member Account
- Member can edit name, password, email and enable/disable setting for messages to be visible to all users
- Upload member photo or choose from image library
- Set member’s instant messenger setting so that member can post/receive message via instant messenging
- Set member’s mobile phone number to send/receive messages via SMS
- Ability to enable/disable email notification about new followers
- Edit member information: age, location, about me, interest and website URL
- Member API key: This API key is unique for each member who wish to develop applications or widgets using ReVou API
- SMS Credits: Members can view/reset SMS credits and purchase SMS credits via Paypal. Member also has the ability to set SMS limit to prevent spam/excess usage of SMS credits

RSS Feeds
- Public Timeline RSS feed: Shows the latest message updates posted by public members
- Member RSS feed: Displays latest messages updates for each member

Revou API
ReVou API works similar to the Twitter API which allows developers to create 3rd party plugins, applications and websites for your twitter clone site

Admin Features
- Edit admin password
- Edit site configurations including avatar size, max image size/width/height, admin email

- Edit website title/keywords/description, IM account, ClickaTell SMS details and Paypal address
- Upload site logos
- CMS for admin to add custom static pages
- Ability to search for users and messages
- Ability to view/edit/delete users
- Ability to view/edit/delete messages

- Ability to add/edit/delete groups
- Admin can create custom SMS payment plans
- View SMS credits transaction – Filter results by user/date range
- Mass email all members
- View site statistics including number of messages

- Language: Admin has the ability to create/edit/delete new languages, create new language variables and perform translation or upload the language file

If i was personally going to start a twitter like site i would go for the Revou system which really does function well and have impressive features. Yes it costs $400 but for that you get a system that has features none of the others can offer on a self hosted enviroment.

There are also a few good open source options available so to start a twitter clone you don’t have to break the bank.

Pistachio has written a great white paper on the current crop of available micro-blogging applications, you can read the paper or download it in PDF format below.

Download: Enterprise Microsharing Tools Comparison

Comparison Matrix only

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