Everybody talks about Twitter now a days, some even consider it superior to another Web 2.0 wonder Digg. So what is this Twitter and what is Twittering? Well, as far as I know Twitter is miniaturized blogging platform. i.e. it is the first and/or the best Microblogging service available today. Now what is Microblogging? Microblogging is for people who are unable to post lengthy posts regularly but interested in announcing the world what they think are cool! You may post updates to your Twitter page via the Web interface or using your mobilephone by sending a Text message. Each Twitter posts are limited to 140 characters.
Check out my Twitter page here and here is a screen shot of how it looks like.
Desktop Softwares for Twitter
Now let’s dive in to the topic, Softwares that can be used for managing your Twitter account with out using the Twitter.com website. As soon as Twitter is popular hundreds of application developers starts to create software for easily managing your Twitter account from your Desktop.
Here is a few Twitter Softwares I thought to be wroth a try.
This is my favorite, works both in PC and MAC. Simple, easy to use and straight forward interface. It requires Adobe Air Runtime.
Snitter is “Snook’s Twitter”. This one also does the job, requires Adobe Air Runtime just like Tweetr. At the momemt both Mac OSX and Microsoft Windows compatible. There is currently a Linux version of Adobe AIR in alpha testing but some functionality is likely missing.
twhirl is a desktop client for social software such as Twitter, Friendfeed, identi.ca, or seesmic
twhirl’s features Windows (2000/XP/Vista) and Mac OSX support, connects to multiple accounts, shorten long URLs, post images to TwitPic, search tweets using Twitter Search and TweetScan, timeline filtering etc.
This one is still is beta stage but looks like have some userbase already. The interface is cluttered.
This is not a desktop application but a web service. But they offer a browser button which can be sued for easy Tittering while browsing. Firefox, IE & Safari are Supported.
Installation
Most of the popular ones requires Adobe Air Runtime. So as a first step Download and install Adobe Air Runtime.
Now when you can down the .air files from the software website and double click on it to start the installation. Alternatively use the Install buttons in most of the Twitter software websites.
Click install in the Dialog and follow on-screen instructions to finish the installation.
Twitter Software Setup & Security
Well once the installation is complete run the software via the shortcut and Enter your Twitter user name and password. Make sure you are using only the popular and trusted Twitter clients like the ones I mentioned above and download them from the software developers website only. In case in doubt shoot the question here and I’m happy to check it out for you.
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The tweet deck is the way to go. Posts and replies have their own columns. But the great thing about it is the search feature. You put in the search term and anything with the term goes in a column for monitoring. No refreshing is needed either. They’ve updated tweet deck and most pics are brought up on the deck instead of opening a browser. gl