Kwippy was one of the largest microblogging networks in the world. It was able to get status messages from IM clients and build a social network around it! Operating during the golden age of microblogging from 2007 to approximately 2011, Kwippy offered a unique approach to social networking by leveraging instant messenger status messages.

In kwippy, the whole focus is on the Instant Messenger, right now Gmail address book(Gtalk) and Yahoo only. The friends list on the instant messenger is the most intimate friends list you can find, of all social networks - as per Kwippy blog. This philosophy set Kwippy apart from competitors like Twitter, Plurk, and Jaiku by building on existing social connections rather than requiring users to rebuild their networks from scratch.

• Primary Focus: Integrated with Gmail/GTalk and Yahoo Messenger
• Status Harvesting: Automatically collected and shared IM status messages
• Intimate Networks: Leveraged existing IM buddy lists as the foundation for social connections

• Rest is much similar to Twitter such as lingo like 'followers','following' and tweets being Kwips here
• Short-form status updates (similar to the 140-character limit trend of the era)
• Social networking features built around status message sharing

• The microblog app presently is in private beta, but one would get invite soon in a day or two.
• Invitation-based system during development phase

Based on the GitHub repositories, Kwippy's platform consisted of three main components:

This was the core Kwippy application! - The main platform handling user interactions, social networking features, and content management.

This was the IM bot which would gather IM status messages of added buddies. - A specialized bot system responsible for:

• Monitoring instant messenger status changes
• Collecting status messages from users' buddy lists
• Integrating IM data with the social platform

This was the landing page before the launch! - Pre-launch marketing and user acquisition page.

Microblogging was a trend that emerged in the second half of the 2000s, after long-form weblogs had become established in the culture. Its heyday was in the 2007-11 period.

The most popular of the so-called "microblogs", along with pownce, plurk, jaiku, kwippy and many others. Kwippy competed alongside:

• Twitter (the dominant platform)
• Pownce (from Digg founder Kevin Rose)
• Plurk
• Jaiku (acquired by Google)
• Identi.ca

Well I like all platforms, Twitter, Plurk, Identi.ca, Pownce… latelly I had subscribed to Kwippy and Jaiku… Why? Because I found new friends on every microblogging platform.

1. IM-Centric Approach: Unlike Twitter's open network model, Kwippy built on existing instant messenger relationships
2. Status Message Automation: Automatically shared IM status updates, reducing manual posting burden
3. Intimate Social Circles: Focused on closer, pre-existing relationships rather than broad follower networks

In fact ppl have been using it as a bookmarking app too, just make a URL you want to save your IM status and voila it is saved - demonstrating the platform's versatility beyond traditional microblogging.

Kwippy represented an interesting alternative approach to microblogging during the format's experimental period. While platforms like Twitter focused on broadcasting to large audiences, Kwippy's IM integration strategy attempted to bridge the gap between private instant messaging and public social networking.

The platform's focus on instant messenger integration was prescient, predating by many years the eventual integration of messaging and social media that would become standard in platforms like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp Status, and others.

While specific technical details aren't fully documented, the platform appears to have been built with:

• Web-based core application
• Bot/crawler technology for IM integration
• Support for multiple IM protocols (GTalk, Yahoo Messenger)

The Kwippy codebase is now available on GitHub under the kwippy-com organization, providing insight into the technical implementation of this influential early microblogging platform. This represents valuable historical documentation of Web 2.0 era social media architecture and design patterns.

Kwippy operated during the experimental period of social media (2007-2011) when multiple platforms were exploring different approaches to short-form content and social networking. While it ultimately didn't achieve the longevity of Twitter, it represented an innovative approach to leveraging existing social connections for microblogging.