A Close Look at 3 Twitter Clients: Nambu, Twhirl and Tweetdeck

As I have become more involved with twitter, I have discovered a need to explore more tools for managing my tweets. I used twitter for months using the web based version, but it got really annoying having to go to the website and refresh all the time as I started following more and more people. That prompted me to explore tweetdeck and twhirl. At that time, I probably was following more people than were following me. I just needed something that allowed me to see quick updates of changes to my twitter feed. I chose twhirl for it's simplicity and small window. At the time, Tweetdeck was way to advanced for my needs.

Now, the opposite is true, I have more followers than I have people I follow. This is true because I can only handle so much data coming across my screen in one day, so I don't feel it is beneficial to follow every person that follows me. Due to this change and an increase in @ replies and direct messages, I felt a need to re-evaluate my choice of a tweet client. @tgwynn kept mentioning Nambu and I notice that everyone is still talking about tweetdeck so I figured I would compare those two with Twhirl. My findings:

Nambu:

• Boring color scheme


• the window is more rectangular and takes up more room on my desktop than I would have liked.


• Everything was very easy to see (home, mentions, direct messages)


• Buttons are all rollovers with no text-took a minute to figure out how to do a reply, etc.


• Easy download, just dropped into the dock.


• I liked how the dock icon gives a number so you know how many tweets you have.


• I accidentally deleted all my tweets (Really they were just hidden-show all hidden gets them back but I freaked out for a minute)


• Can't seem to delete a tweet


• Double click to to reply


• Puts a little icon in the upper right near your clock for easy access.


• Made for Mac and has an iPhone app

Twhirl

• Nice simple layout with one skinny window that doesn't take up a lot of space on your desktop


• Nice color scheme that is customizable


• Found out quickly how to do a tweet, reply and direct message


• Easy to set up accounts


• Buttons that allow you to see all of your direct messages and @ replies


• Requires Adobe Air


• For Mac or PC

Tweetdeck

• I was hesitant to try tweetdeck as I felt a little overwhelmed by it the first time. This time it was much easier.


• Starts out with 3 panes and a large window that takes up most of the desktop (not my preference) but there is a button that allows you to quickly decrease the size to one pane or expand to all panes.


• The panes are customizable for what you need. You start out with one pane of friends tweets, an @ reply pane and a direct message pane. You can add panes for facebook status, profile information and more.


• Colors are customizable


• Easy to find the tweet bar for status updates and @ replies.


• Has an iPhone App


• For Mac or PC

All 3 applications have the following features

• URL shorteners (which are great for quickly making url's a smaller size to fit in the 140 character limit)


• Ability to add multiple twitter accounts


• Notification sounds and popups for new tweets


• Link with some kind of photo/video sharing service to add photos and videos to your tweets

There is one thing missing on all 3 of these and that is a place to make notes about each user. This is something that I have found very useful in Second Life and would love the opportunity to use this type of notetaking for all of my social networking tools.


So, what did I pick? I went with Tweetdeck. I was most impressed by the ease of use in seeing everything I need in one window but also being able to shrink it down to fit on my screen. I still will most likely not suggest tweetdeck to new twitter users (would probably still go with Twhirl) but for those with several followers or followees, Tweetdeck provides an easy way to manage all of the updates.

The Life of Julie Sugarplum

It's been a while since I did an update on the happenings of Julie Sugarplum, my Second Life Avatar. Lately, she has been working with a lot of people new to Second Life to help guide them through the learning process (how to walk, talk and dress). Seems this is a peak time for new recruits as there are many just starting college courses that are either totally or partially held in Second Life. It's fun to see full classes wander through ISTE island looking for help.
I've been picking up more docent shifts to allow more time for helping these new folks and to catch up with friends I haven't talked to in a while. In addition to the docenting, I've also scheduled a time (with Mo Hax) every Sunday evening around 6pm sl time to be in world to help anyone that wants to give second life a try or just to meet up with friends for some good old fashioned fun! Feel free to join us--we meet at ISTE HQ then typically head out to explore other islands, based on the interest/content areas of the people that join us.
Virtual Pioneers, one of my favorite groups, has had some great meetings lately. Recently, Xavier Razorfen and Austen Rae shared photos and stories from their recent trip (in real life) to China. This talk was one of the best I've attended in a while. Not only did they have fantastic pictures and stories to share about the people, the culture, etc., but they also had items to give away, quizzes and a decorated venue to make you feel like you were right there with them. That is the great thing about Second Life, you can really go all out making a presentation spectacular and it's great when people take the time to do it. If you are interested in learning more about Virtual Pioneers, visit the Virtual Pioneers Ning.
NC SL Educators recently held another meeting where we talked with Virtual Pioneers founder, Spiff Whitfield and also visited VSTE Island with Mandie Mimulus, Alfredo Bedrosian and Thunder Insippo. The theme of this meeting was to learn more about groups in Second Life that are available to teachers. It was a great success and we received a lot of great comments about the opportunities available with these groups. Our little groups of NC educators is growing and due to that, I recently asked Trig Inkpen to be a group officer. He will be helping to coordinate upcoming meetings, share information with the group, etc.
There are a few new things Julie Sugarplum is exploring that I hope to share with you soon. Fun thing about Second Life is that there is always something new to learn. I hope you'll join me in world soon! Would be glad to help you get started!