| By Keshav Khera A Blogger at Techalerts |
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If you are not already bitten by the twitter bug, then rush to twitter.com, have a look around, mess with some things and when you get to know how has it made a storm in the web 2.0, then you can come back here and read on. This ‘micro blogging’ platform is really addictive. As the tagline say ‘What are you doing?’, it simply ask you that what are you doing, isn’t that simple. This might not look very interesting, but as you move on with the service, you will be strongly attached to it. It may be possible that you ‘forget blogging and move on to micro blogging’ .
To update your status on your twitter profile, you have to visit it in your browser and update it over there, but that can sometime become very annoying. So to make it simple, today’s post will include the top 10 applications for your desktop, which can synchronize and update your status on your twitter profile. So here goes the list:
1. Twhirl:
This is an Adobe AIR based desktop application with lots of features. The UI is great and it gives a web 2.0-ish finish. There is an account manager where you can create multiple accounts and then switch between them easily. You are provided with some very good and stylish themes also, only some applications on this list have this feature. You can view your timeline, your friends timeline, replies, archive, friends, followers and can even search for people from within the application. It completes the need for a browser to open twitter for you, it does all the work.
2. Snitter:
An Adobe AIR based desktop application which boasts of many features. It has many features, but I couldn’t use all of them. The application sometimes worked and sometimes not and sometimes it was not even able to receive tweets from the server. The themes are better and all the features that are in twhirl are present in this one too, but what is the fun when you can’t get your friends’ tweets on time? I have a mixed point of view for this one. If you use it and find no problems as me, please let me know in the comments.
3. Twitterbox:
This is the fastest of all. The twitter API has a ‘tweet request limit’ of about 60 times in an hour, which enables external application to request for tweets ONCE in a minute only. But this application can however cross that limit, which I don’t know how. During the Mac World Expo, twitter lowered down the tweet request limit to very low ’40 requests in an hour’ because of the load on their server created by members flooding their servers with Steve Job’s keynotes and all the news . Due to this all external applications had to face the hard shift. But me being a big twitter fan was saved because of this app . I could refresh and ask for tweets from the server several times in a minute! For the features, it does not have many of them, but fills the need for all the basic ones like the public and friends timeline, showing notifications with sound, opening the message in a browser window, refresh shortcuts.
4. Twitterlicious:
A simple windows application from Ejecutive. It is not as delicious as its name but does its work nicely. The view is just timeline based and not much features are provided. It highlights the tweets which we have not ‘clicked on’ just like email messages
5. TwitterFox:
As the name suggest, it is a Firefox extension. It can be a boon to die hard firefox users. It has all the basic features such as our timeline, replies, messages, replying and notifications. A good option if you work for a long time surfing the internet.
6. Twit Bin:
Again a firefox extension, which plugs itself into the sidebar. It is quite configurable but the ad in the bottom sucks. Works in Flock too.
7. Teletwitter:
A simple windows client for twitter which is simple and gives a web 2.0 look just like its name. You post, view the timeline, get notification and messages, as simple as it can be.
8. MadTwitter:
This one is a clone for Twitterrific, a really nice application for Mac. This app is quite web stylish and has a quite good amount of features. You can view the timeline, update your status get notifications. You can also set the translucency level for the window.
9.Twitteroo:
A simple windows client which does not have a lot of fancy to carry with it. You can view your friends’ tweets, view the public timeline, update your status, and play with the transparency of the windows. It also supports URL shortening which works very well.
10.Witty:
Witty is a Twitter client for that is powered by the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) . A quite good app on the list which supports a lot of features. You can view recent tweets, replies, and your own tweets in a timeline. Skinning and notifications are available.
This completes the list. If you ask me about my favorite application, I love working with twhirl and twitterbox. Do share your favorites with me in the comments. And if you have any other recommendation, let me and the readers know about it.
