8 free Twitter clients for better tweeting

[dhilipkumar]

8 free Twitter clients for better tweeting

HootSuite 2.0
Web-based HootSuite is unabashedly directed toward those who want to use Twitter for business purposes; its browser tab caption reads "Welcome to HootSuite -- The Professional Twitter Client."

What does it do? Like Seesmic, TweetDeck, and several others, HootSuite works via columns; you can have separate columns for your home feed, for your replies and mentions, for groups, and for any search that you care to do. Hover your cursor over a person's tweet and you get icons that let you mark it as a Favorite or create a direct message, a reply or a retweet. You can monitor several different Twitter accounts (but not your Facebook account), do either a keyword search or a general search, and assign users to groups.

What's cool about it? If you like Web-based Twitter clients -- for example, if you use more than one computer and can't install an independent Web client on all of them -- HootSuite is a good choice. What I especially liked was HootSuite's simple, elegant layout, which made it easy to find and use most of its features -- a distinct advantage when you're not all that Twitter-savvy.

And HootSuite manages to avoid a problem that plagues most other column-centric Twitter clients: If you're trying to monitor more than three or four columns, you end up with a virtual window that stretches well beyond your display's capabilities. HootSuite's use of tabs to separate out sets of columns means that you can easily access -- and see -- a wider variety of searches and feeds.

computerworld

[dhilipkumar]

Mixero v. 0.51.3

While most Twitter clients seem to be standardizing with an interface that uses columns to help users follow multiple feeds, Mixero is experimenting with something a bit different: a set of panels that let you quickly switch among your feeds and searches. This beta desktop client may not work for everyone, but with a bit more development from the Mixero team, it could be something really outstanding.

What does it do? Mixero's interface offers the user three panels. The left panel shows the specific feed you're watching. The right panel has two tabs. The first lets you browse through your list of contacts and send each a private message, follow their feeds, or assign them to groups. The second lists your "channels" -- feeds that you have saved, such as keyword searches, user groups, etc. You create a channel by generating a feed in the left panel and double-clicking on a "Create channel" icon; after you name it, specify how often it will refresh, and choose an icon for it, the feed becomes a channel.

What's cool about it? This is an outstandingly slick interface, especially when you consider that it's still very much in beta. It's clean, easy to understand and attractive; while you can't follow several feeds simultaneously like you can in other clients, you can flip from one to another with ease. You can even create what Mixero calls a "context" -- a set of active channels. For example, you can have one context with all your business channels, and another with all your entertainment channels.

But the item that made me say "Hey, cool!" was Mixero's "Avatars mode," which you access by clicking on Mixero's symbol (which looks like an old-fashioned blade fan). Your Twitter avatar and the icons of any channels you're following immediately dart over to the right-hand side of your display, where they stay visible but out of the way; the rest of the application disappears. When a number appears on an icon indicating how many new tweets there are, you can hover over the number to see the tweets, or click on the icon to bring Mixero up again.

What needs to be fixed? While you can quickly switch from feed to feed, the fact that you can't view more than one simultaneously may be a problem for some users. (You can open one or more feeds in separate windows, but this felt awkward to me.) And as of yet, while you can follow multiple Twitter accounts, there is no way to follow a Facebook account.

Finally, Mixero is currently in invitational beta mode; if you become a Mixero follower, the company will send you an invitation. The system is a bit awkward -- I had to send for a second invitation because my version didn't want to update.

Final verdict: Mixero is very much a project in development, so expect new features and changes before it stabilizes. Right now, this has the potential to be an incredibly useful and innovative Twitter client -- if the creators can add the features it needs without weighing it down.

computerworld

[dhilipkumar]

PeopleBrowsr Beta RC 1.19
PeopleBrowsr is a Web-based client that tries to be all things to all people; not only does it perform the usual tasks such as enabling delayed tweets and re-tweeting, but it offers a multitude of other features.

What does it do? Practically everything -- which can be a bit confusing if you don't need it to do practically everything. You can choose from three different modes. Lite is the simplest of the three but still lets you create a variety of different feeds organized into columns, which PeopleBrowsr calls PostStacks. A menu on the left side of your window (called a Quickstrip) offers the ability to click on several categories, including Followers or Searches.

What's cool about it? It's nearly impossible to list all the features that PeopleBrowsr offers. Besides the features already mentioned, you can search within, and post to, a number of social networking services such as Facebook and FriendFeed. You can follow somebody simply by clicking an icon in their tweet. And you can use a "Helicopter View," which lets you watch the top tweet on each of your stacks simultaneously. You can open a pop-up that shows your own stream, your profiles for the services you belong to, and what tags you can be found under. You can even find out which tweets are within a certain area (for example, I was able to find out how many tweets about "e-book readers" originated within 300 miles of London).

The emphasis here is more or less on marketing, to the point that PeopleBrowsr offers to "make your group viral" by creating a hash tag using the group name, creating a message that asks people to retweet the message in order to join that group, and then automatically adding to that group all those who do actually retweet.

What needs to be fixed? Remember when people used to make jokes about amateur publishers who had just discovered desktop publishing software? Their documents would be so full of different typefaces, colors, sizes, what have you -- you know, the typical ransom-note style -- that you didn't know where to look first. That's PeopleBrowsr. Even at its simplest -- the Lite version -- the interface is pretty busy; when you get up to the Advanced mode, the crowd of colors and icons makes it difficult to concentrate on the tweets.

PeopleBrowsr tries to make things easy for you at the outset; when you first sign in, it asks you to mark off your various social networks and then guesses what topics you might be interested in. And yes, each icon has a rollover explanation. But all the noise makes it difficult to concentrate on what you're actually working on.

Final verdict: PeopleBrowsr offers a vast number of features (as I type this, I keep finding more) for those who are serious about their Twitter use. Many of these features are interesting and can be very useful for marketing workers and others who use Twitter for professional purposes. Its only drawback is that there's so much going on that it's difficult not to be overwhelmed.

computerworld

[dhilipkumar]

Seesmic Desktop 0.5.1
I first heard about Seesmic from a former TwitterDeck user, who said that this desktop app (still in beta) could be the Next Big Thing for people who need to track a lot of different Twitter threads.

What does it do? Seesmic is indeed a bit like TwitterDeck on steroids. Like TwitterDeck, it organizes your Twitter and Facebook feeds into columns. You can create new columns by starting a search or by following a single user or group of users. Or, if you want, you can just follow your Facebook and Twitter feeds in a single column (and it can handle more than one Twitter account).

What's cool about it? Seesmic is incredibly flexible; you can make it do almost anything you want it to -- and you can do it on a moment's notice. Say you've searched on a term and you're now curious about one of the tweeters -- just click on the name and you immediately have a new column with all of that person's recent tweets. If you're tired of that search, an icon at the top of the column will close it up or delete it.

Seesmic works on a system of "fixed" and "detached" columns. You can have a single fixed column that shows all your Twitter and Facebook accounts; you can then generate a series of detached columns that follow specific accounts (for example, just your Facebook account), specific users or specific searches. You can have nothing but detached columns -- or you can have a single fixed column.

What needs to be fixed? Although not nearly as complicated as PeopleBrowsr (and much nicer to look at), Seesmic is one of those applications that you have to spend some time with before you've achieved a reasonable comfort level. The concept of fixed and detached columns takes a while to get used to, and one gets the feeling that there are all sorts of things you could do with it -- if you understood how. Like many other third-party Twitter applications, Seesmic offers video tutorials, user guides, and solutions to known issues and answers to common questions for those willing to put in the time.

Final verdict: Seesmic is a fabulous way to handle Twitter if you need to watch different feeds at different times, and if you like tweaking your applications to do exactly what you want them to. It's especially handy for Facebook users who don't want to bother to actually visit Facebook.

computerworld

[dhilipkumar]

TweetDeck v.0.30.0

Judging from the number of times I see TweetDeck mentioned as the source of various tweets, it must be a popular application. And I can understand why; this nicely organized desktop app allows you to simultaneously and easily follow different groups (including your Facebook friends), searches and trends.

What does it do? TweetDeck, which was still in beta when this was written, organizes your Twitter, Facebook and/or MySpace feeds into columns. Icons on top of the interface let you compose an update; create new columns for Twitter, Facebook and MySpace feeds; create a new column out of a search; and launch a Web site called the TweetDeck Directory, which describes itself as "a TV Guide for Twitter channels."

Besides Macs and Windows PCs, TweetDeck works with Linux-based computers, and an iPhone version is available.

But the best thing about TweetDeck is its ease of use. It has, up till now, managed to incorporate all these features into an interface that is not overwhelming or too busy.

What needs to be fixed? Very little, actually. There are a few glitches in the latest upgrade -- for example, I have to rebuild all my feeds each time I start it (a bug I hope is fixed soon). And it will be interesting to see if TweetDeck can keep its ease of use as it continues to add more features to keep up with the competition.

Final verdict: This is still one of the best Twitter clients out there, offering a nice balance of features and simplicity.

[dhilipkumar]

TweetGrid

TweetGrid is a very simple Web-based grid that lets you watch a number of feeds simultaneously. As the site's FAQ says, TweetGrid was built to be a "drive-by" service, where you can go, do a search or find a trend, and then leave -- anonymously.

What does it do? TweetGrid gives you a lot of flexibility in how you can view your various Twitter feeds. You start by creating a grid from a set of choices: one row of two columns, two rows of three columns, or even (if you want to really confuse yourself) three rows of three columns. (That's your maximum; TweetGrid supports up to nine searches at a time.) In each box, you specify your search terms and it immediately pulls in the feed.

Besides the searches, you can also mark a box in a column to follow your friends or your direct messages.

What's cool about it? This is a quick and easy way to follow whatever trends or searches you need to. TweetGrid doesn't demand anything from its users -- you don't have to register with TweetGrid or even with Twitter. Just pop over to the site and specify your grid and your searches. You can even save your searches by simply bookmarking them -- nothing could be easier.

What needs to be fixed? Let's face it, TweetGrid isn't the slickest-looking application around -- the interface is crowded and a bit difficult to read, even if you're using a simple 1 x 2 grid.

Final verdict: This is a good place for somebody who wants to taste Twitter, or who needs to do a quick search for work but doesn't want to actually join the service.

[aswinnandha]

Web based HootSuite have use twitter for clients have use business purpose
with hootsuite it separate from twitter for separate purpose
it can have message and retweet the favourite of the tweet will be have user for twitter you can have separate columns for your home feed, for your replies and mentions, for groups and it can monitor several different twitter accounts if you use more than one computer and cant install independent web clients