Social Networking
Written by Michael Lankton Thursday, 03 December 2009 15:46
Tweetdeck just so destroys the rest of the integrated social networking clients that I've kind of quit looking at the competition. That and being an AIR app I can have the same interface whether I'm using my Mac or my Ubuntu laptop. I really like Mixero, but there hasn't been much movement there for a while, and it was still lacking Facebook support.
Today Mixero released version 0.52, which added support for Twitter lists and Facebook. I still haven't played with it too much because I wanted to write this while it was fresh news, but so far the Facebook support looks good. It doesn't look like YouTube links are supported at this early stage, but I'm sure the guys at Mixero will be sorting all the Facebook functionality out as they go now that they've rolled it into their client.
Tweetdeck and Seesmic pretty much dominate the integrated client market at this time, and I don't see any of the other clients doing anything to change people's minds. Mixero could be the one player that attracts users away from other clients once it has become more mature. They take a different approach than the other clients, and the avatar mode is a nice idea that others only implement clumsily with hidden modes and HUD popups on your desktop on update. If you haven't tried Mixero yet go check it out. It's a nice client with a different approach, and it warrants keeping an eye on.
Written by Michael Lankton Wednesday, 09 September 2009 13:35
Tweetdeck 0.30 is out in the wild. No sooner did I declare Mixero to be Twitter's Killer App, the new Tweetdeck appears to have fixed most of what I thought was wrong with it.
It's immediately apparent upon launching that TweetDeck's Facebook integration is vastly improved. They've also added MySpace integration, and Facebook and MySpace users no longer need to enter a Twitter account to use Tweetdeck. You can now also minimize TweetDeck to the systray or dock instead of just hiding it. I am still waiting for Mixero's Facebook integration. I like Mixero so much as a Twitter client that it stands to reason I will like it as a Facebook client. Tweetdeck is a great app, but it can take over your desktop with all those panes open to make it usable.
This is a substantial update for TweetDeck, and so far I haven't noted anything I thought was wrong with the previous version that they haven't fixed. The gauntlet has been thrown down, and everyone with a Twitter client is scrambling to make it the one on your desktop. TweetDeck is certainly a sound choice.
