Recently, the Web 2.0 darling Twitter.com has been gaining quite a bit of traction in the micro-blogging space. With it’s simple and easy to use web based interface you can post quick text messages to a world wide audience or just your circle of friends. You can also include URL links within the 140 character limit in each text message or just post what you’re up to at any given moment.

With the recent growing pains Twitter had experienced over the past couple of weeks with the service going down for extended periods of time, there have been some other micro-blog services that have launched in hopes of overtaking Twitter by introducing refinements and other enhancements to take this niche to the next level.

One of these new services I recently discovered is Plurk. This is a relatively new creation and is just starting to attract some attention among the elite of the Twitter crowd.

Plurk shares many features in common with Twitter such as a 140 character limit to post messages, the ability to include image, video or any other hyperlinks you want in your messages and the ability to have followers (or fans as they are know on Plurk) that can read your updates. Some of the unique features Plurk offers include earning “Karma” points which are awarded based on a formula that weighs your level of network activity as well as the activity of any of your “friends.” You also earn Karma for each friend you recruit. The more friends you have, the more Karma points you earn. As your Karma grows, you gain access to exclusive animated emoticons you can use in your message posts. I suspect there will be other Karma based benefits that could be added in the future to attract users.

Another big difference between Twitter and Plurk is the way each handles followers. On Twitter, a follower is a follower. On Plurk, there are separate designations for fans (followers on Twitter) and friends. A fan is simply someone who can just follow another Plurk user’s messages. With friends, you establish a two-way connection. You can also create “cliques” of friends and send messages directly to a specified groups only. The look and feel of Plurk is very Web 2.o and includes a time line view.

Anyone interested in checking out Plurk is welcome to use my invite code below:

Join Plurk.com

I welcome your comments and reactions to this new Twitter competitor.