Some readers took issue with our list of Top 21 Twitter Applications (According To Compete), wherein we tried to gauge which Twitter Web apps were gaining the most benefit in the form of trickle -down traffic from Twitter. Most Twitter apps don’t even register on the majority of site measurement services. We chose Compete because at least they had stats on a good many of them. We figured even if the absolute numbers are wrong, at least we’d get an interesting ranking.
What Compete does not measure very well is Twitter traffic from desktop and mobile clients. One service that tries to measure that is Twitstat. So take your pick, clients versus Web apps. Which is the stronger list (meaning which list has the most companies likely to amount to something)?
Below are the top 21 Twitter clients from its bigger list of 99, ranked by percentage of users who opt for that method of Tweeting. The Web ranks No. 1 with 32 percent (presumably that is Twitter.com itself), followed by Tweetdeck and Twhirl (there, are you happy Loic?), with 16 percent and 7 percent, respectively. Twitstat also counts services such as Ping.fm (no. 12) and FreindFeed (no. 14) as Twitter clients, although they do a lot more than just support Twitter. But then again, the majority of activity on those services is Twitter, so you could argue it either way.
| Rank | Client | % of users | Tweets/user | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | (1) | web | 31.99 % | 3.93 |
| 2 | (2) | TweetDeck | 16.07 % | 5.14 |
| 3 | (4) | twhirl | 6.85 % | 3.73 |
| 4 | (3) | twitterfeed | 6.09 % | 2.81 |
| 5 | (5) | Tweetie | 3.66 % | 2.38 |
| 6 | (13) | TwitterBerry | 3.50 % | 2.20 |
| 7 | (8) | txt | 2.89 % | 1.63 |
| 8 | (6) | twitterrific | 2.59 % | 1.79 |
| 9 | (11) | TwitterFox | 2.51 % | 2.79 |
| 10 | (10) | TwitPic | 1.98 % | 1.42 |
| 11 | (7) | mobile web | 1.90 % | 2.04 |
| 12 | (12) | Ping.fm | 1.68 % | 1.27 |
| 13 | (9) | TwitterFon | 1.68 % | 5.45 |
| 14 | (14) | FriendFeed | 1.68 % | 3.59 |
| 15 | (15) | Power Twitter | 1.52 % | 2.55 |
| 16 | (16) | Brightkite | 1.14 % | 2.07 |
| 17 | (22) | HootSuite | 0.53 % | 2.00 |
| 18 | (26) | twitthat | 0.46 % | 1.17 |
| 19 | (30) | DestroyTwitter | 0.46 % | 2.83 |
| 20 | (24) | Twittelator | 0.38 % | 3.80 |
| 21 | (21) | m.slandr.net | 0.38 % | 2.60 |
Image courtesy Mykl Roventine.
As if it matters. In two years, using something on list is going to be like driving a Hummer today.
Which means?
Which means self-indulgent posts like this are only as good as the human attention span for the latest net fad. A few years ago it was blogging. A few years before that it was instant messaging. Before that, peer-to-peer networks…
lol the more people who ignore opportunities like this as ‘fads’, the better for us
keep on ignoring!
The superficial view of Twitter is a microblogging, global chat room.
When viewed as an open database, the possibilities for millions of niche conversations is compelling.
See http://twitter.tearn.com/ where we learn about and open conversations around the top1000 twitter personalities.
Also, see http://bf.tearn.com/ and http://gf.tearn.com/ for the single’s crowd.
STOP your spam already!!
Anything better to do than posting your ugly links on every post?!
um oaky…
http://twitter.com/zafarali
Another nice post
At Twitdom we have several apps listed that can help you know the latest Twitter trends and stats.
You drive a hummer! Awesome!!
There is no way this is a “fad” just like blogging and p2p networking weren’t fads. The next big thing will be something that makes this social networking thing even better, and it will go more in depth.
P2P LEAD to IM which LEAD to Blogging which LEAD to social networking and apps like this. The next thing will be another STEP. These aren’t fads.
Will the other one be revised to only include websites?
wow that topic turned into why no twhirl over a million times . was rather sad basically ruin my read of the comments . so much apps based on twitter lmao and smh
Thanks for the tips, I found it useful using twitterfox with firefox.
TechFilipino
What about native mac clients? no twitterpod? Is it just me, or were those mostly windows/web/mobile?
Yay, I dont use Twitter as I have a life but I always need to get my fix of everything twitter,
i love tweetdeck.Only after using it i started loving tweets.
Yeah, Tweetdeck ftw. Used Twhirl for ages as it was the only client that did both FriendFeed and Twitter, but always hated the interface. Tweetdeck is much nicer. Just using a separate app for FF now, much happier.
What about Spaz? It’s really cool and it’s open source!
I personally enjoy utilizing both the web interface and tweedeck; I find I get the usability of a snazzy app combined with the depth of information I get with the web. For me those equal pure perfection.
I thought alot of people are using DestoryTwitter too .. I am using it and its really way good app for twitter .. I am loving it ..!
That’s right that twitter can also help you to boost your site.
Thanks for telling more about it.
If you guys want the complete picture (TwitStat only provides limited data based on who is following them), take a look at my post:
This is based off of _all_ updates on Twitter.
http://dcortesi...r-applications/
happy, thank you for that corrective post Erick, really appreciated and also reflecting the truth!
I think one of the main factors behind the Tweetdeck traction is simply a naming issue. Tweetdeck sounds like it has something to do with Twitter. Twhirl sounds like it could do anything.
updated my blog post too
I have got many benefits from twitterfox with firefox. Very useful.
At what point does TweetDeck say “We are so popular and we enabled so many features that users wanted and Twitter didn’t deliver, we are taking our users with us and starting our own MicroBlogging site!”?
the day they can match 55 million in vc money behind twitter
It’s interesting to see tweetdeck so far ahead of twhirl.
Maybe twhirl should release more often…
TwitStat numbers are not representative. They pull their rankings from those people who follow @twitstat – so if you want to skew their numbers, which seems someone is doing just that, follow them.
Here’s how Twitter’s datamining feed ranks twitter clients (web 47%, twitterfeed 9&, tweetdeck 8%, twitterfox 4%, twhirl 4%, txt 4%)… http://tweetip.us/lkx1a
Tweetdeck is awesome! My most used client.
Since we are in a stat war, here are my stats which seem to be much different from what is reported in the article (and slightly different from what others have reported in the comments):
http://raam.spl...tbook.com/?p=27
thanks for listing…twitter aplication very popular since 2008…
please come back MIke, these posts are boring and incorrect.
if i want to know the top ranking twitter apps google could tell me in 2 seconds, this isnt news.
sack these idiots.
http://m.slandr.net is indeed a great mobile application which beats twitters own mobile site by far, according to many!
Thanks for this listing!
About time you included Twhirl, and look it’s all the way at #3.
More people should use DestroyTwitter:
http://www.dest.../destroytwitter
its the best app out there… nice and simpel
If the app is not listed whitelisted by Twitter, it will fall under the “web” category. So “web” could be made up of a huge number of disparate apps..
Don’t forget to check out http://nearbytweets.com for tweets near you!
Twit Twit {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/5H12rdcmY0_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”Twit Twit ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/P3ODAJ5MsQ”}}}
I wish more people use free Twitter add-on for IE called TweetIE, it works for IE 6,7 and 8. I hope the readers of this blog will find it interesting. http://chilp.it/tweetie
We’ve been looking at the client stats for sometime now (http://tweetrush.com/byclient) and have noticed a considerable rise in Tweetdeck over the past few months.
However web is still number one.
You can now update your http://www.twibeo.com status from Ping.fm.
nice
Twittelator is a great Twitter client for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Check out a great demo of it here: http://tinyurl.com/cjaa6p
My vote goes to OutTwit (Outlook+Twitter) – lets you update your Twitter status directly from Outlook.
It’s pretty feature rich and makes tweeting painfully simple!
http://www.tech...it.com/OutTwit/
nother nice article..
At Twitdom we have several apps listed that can help you know the latest Twitter trends and stats.
very nice article. i read another review about these clients on this page. http://www.read...nitive_list.php. that was in march 2008. now we have a different review. wow. cool. I think between tweetdeck and twhirl i opted for twhirl. But both need Adobe AIR. Software Related Blog
hi, thanks for the article once again. But i just used some of your info on my blog, please allow me it to do so.. thanks.
you must try TuiTwit.com
It is a light Twitter mobile web client with rich of features!