With the proliferation of applications that do something with Twitter most people do not even log into their Twitter account directly though the web site anymore. Early desktop applications have been getting better and new applications are being stuffed with features. Most are now running on the popular Adobe Air platform and most do very similar things with your tweets. Which application is right for you?

TweetDeck
TweetDeck, in my opinion, is the best desktop application for managing your Twitter addiction account. With TweetDeck you organize those you follow into “groups”. These groups make it easier to follow a particular topic without the tweets being intermingled with the tweets of other people you follow. Say you have a “tech” group and you designated a few of the tech savvy people into that group. When they make updates, their tweets will go into the tech group column where you can quickly scan through that topic. The TweetDeck application just rolled out a new update to incorporate Facebook feeds into the mix. With the addition of Facebook you can now have a column that collects you friend’s Facebook status while giving you the opportunity to update your own status. Other nifty additions to make both Twitter and Facebook mesh, you can “tweet” someones Facebook status or update your Twitter and Facebook status all at once. The TweetDeck application is my personal favorite at the moment for its ease of use, slick layout and in depth feature set.

Seesmic Desktop
Seesmic’s Desktop application is the new kid on the block for your tweeting needs. While still in “Preview Release” Seesmic’s offering seems like a stripped down version of TweetDeck…so far. To organize your follower’s tweets you create “User Lists” similar to TweetDeck’s groups. As the application stands now I am not impressed with its feature set and believe their interface could use some work. As of this writing I could not add new followers after a search for particular topics. There are also iconic buttons that do not have tool tips to explain what they do. I like the effort so far by Seesmic and hope when the application is ready for the full release that it will be able to compete with TweetDeck. I look forward to giving it a good run through when it’s fully released.

Seesmic Twhirl
This is another Seesmic desktop tweeting application and it is a great solution for those not needing to organize your followers. It is very simple to use and has just enough features to keep you reading and tweeting in style. This is kind of an odd observation but I almost feel like I am using an IM client when using Twhirl…in a good way.

TwitterFox
While not a desktop application TwitterFox is a great extension for the Firefox browser. TwitterFox offers you the essentials for following your followers and tweeting when you need to. It’s a simple install and once you log in there’s nothing more to setup. I recommend it for your quick tweeting fixes.

One disadvantage practically all Twitter applications have is they can be extremely disruptive if you happen to be doing work and trying to passively keep up. All of the applications have “dings” and pop-ups signifying new tweets and unless you turn them off you will find yourself halting work and skimming through new tweets every couple minutes.

There are a number of “tweeting” applications that work with the iPhone, iPod Touch and other browsers. I just touched on ones that I have experience using. It really is going to be a matter of choosing the application that suits your needs.

Tags: social networking, Twitter

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 3:58 pm and is filed under social networking, Success. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.