At the beginning of this week, we learned that Pownce is shutting down. Pownce in many regards was superior to Twitter but never claimed the community that Twitter built which gives Twitter its power and the ability to turn down $500million in stock (see also the NYT) offered by Facebook.
At the end of this week, we learn that I Want Sandy is shutting down. I Want Sandy was a convenient reminder service not terribly dissimilar to Jott. Interestingly enough, the intellectual property has been purchased by…wait for it…Twitter!
While the company [Values of n] and services will be shutting down, Stikkit and Sandy‘s DNA will live on; the intellectual property behind both has been acquired by Twitter, Inc [http://twitter.com]. While Twitter has no immediate plans to incorporate Sandy or Stikkit’s feature sets into its core product, those who know our apps well may notice familiar-feeling bits and bobs appearing in your Twitter experience. [Source, Get Satisfaction – I Want Sandy, A fork in the road (An important announcement about I want Sandy)]
That same announcement explains that the owner Rael Dornfest took an engineering job with Twitter. It Died notes this and has further commentary.
Dornfest wasn’t charging for these services, but they were quite good at their purposes. He opted to take a job with Twitter, sell them his intellectual property, and shutter the site. [Source, ItDied.com, In Defense of Shutdowns]
Until December 19, 2008, you can export your data from Sandy.
Sandy, R.I.P.
