This is a guest post by Israeli blogger Orli Yakuel, who has apparently spent a significant amount of time testing every single way of accessing Twitter. In this post she shares her experiences with nine of her favorite web interfaces for the Twitter service (we have one more that we like, too – tunein, that just launched a week ago). The tenth, of course, is Twitter.com – but the cool kids always want to be a little different. You can read more from Orli on her blog, go2web20.
Believe it or not, almost 50% of Twitter users, prefer to tweet directly from Twitter.com. This isn’t surprising, but most heavy Twitter users agree that Twitter.com is actually the poorest user experience among the plethora of alternative web applications to access the service. But there’s one thing Twitter.com has going for it (besides being the default way all new users access Twitter) – it’s simple and easy to use.
But after few months of using Twitter you begin to look for the retweet button, the auto-refresh updates, or a way to create groups, and moreover, you are looking for a better way to navigate through your endless list of friends and/or content. You won’t find these features on Twitter (although the Power Twitter Add-on gets you most of the way there), but here’s a list of alternative web applications that will let you monitor your Twitter account from your browser in a much richer way than the Twitter site itself.
With Web Seesmic (Disclosure: Arrington still has a small investment in Seesmic), you can monitor all of your tweet activities in one place and in real-time. Easily navigate through your list of friends, choose your favorite layout, and more – all from a very clean and clear interface. So far, I’ve found Web Seesmic to have the most potential in terms of becoming your next Twitterstream service. There is still room for improvement, of course. When it comes to usability, the design is just too minimalistic. The retweet/direct messages should be visual and accessible via one click only. The “list view” navigation is better than the column, but the font is way too small (that needs to be changed ASAP). In addition, it lacks two significant features: The trend list, which becomes very important if you want to be up-to-date with timely news and current events, as well as a twitpic/yfrog integration. Surprised, I have to ask: Where is the main thing that Seesmic does so well? Video-based comments would leverage this app at least ten times more. Have they given up on video completely?
Meanwhile PeopleBrowsr has it all. See all of your tweetstream, your mentions, DMs, search-based keywords, create groups, manage multi accounts from one dashboard, use a to-do list with quick tags, integrate with all your social networks, RSS import, map view, and tons of other features. The problem is – that it’s just too overwhelming! Even the most skilled power user on Twitter won’t need all of these advanced features. Luckily though, PeopleBrowsr has a light version that is more reasonable to use. Still, I did feel a bit lost in both the advanced and light versions.
PeopleBrowsr provides so many other services that are related to any and all of your social activities on the web. The service actually reminds me of Zoho, which turned out to be the largest office suite on the net. Maybe this is the direction PeopleBrowsr is heading towards? – Your one-stop-shop for all real time activities.
TwitHive is a multi-channel web dashboard for Twitter. The service lets you create channels based on your query. You can customize each channel whichever way you please. It might sound great overall, but during actual testing the service failed to impress me. The service is somewhat annoying to use – search and also new updates opens in a different layer, and column creation takes time, while other services do that for you automatically. One thing that I did enjoy and found unique was the integration of Google News and Blog Search alongside any search you perform.
If you have several Twitter accounts that you need to monitor (personal plus brand(s)), you may consider using Splitweet. Splitweet allows you to compose a list of accounts and distribute tweets to more than just one account. You can also follow your contacts’ tweets from all of your managed accounts. OK, so here’s my problem with this service: Each account gets its own color, and Splitweet places this color coded box next to each tweet in the stream. Personally I think it’s a bit weird to have refer to various Twitter accounts by color. I rather see the username of the account, or a small icon, than to remember what color symbolizes that particular account.
TweetTabs, a Tweetmeme project, is the easiest way to track trends on Twitter. It’s so easy, you don’t really need to do anything. Just enter the site and enjoy the stream of each trend presented on Twitter right now. Additionally, you can run a keyword search and it will automatically add it as a new column. There’s no registration whatsoever, and if you want to reply or retweet someone else’s tweet, you’ll be redirect to your own Twitter profile (which I found to be very useful always). Although on TweetTabs, you can’t see your friends’ streams or manage anything else beyond what I’ve mentioned above.
Similar to TweetTabs, Monitter allows you to track what most matters to you on Twitter without the need to sign up or in. Just type three words into the three search boxes (you are free to add more boxes if needed), and within seconds you’ll start seeing relevant tweets streaming live. The one thing that Monitter gives above all the others listed here is the ability to grab a real-time twitter stream widget for your site, with the option to customise the CSS to make it look the way you want.
Kudos to Tweenky, for being the first service that enables real time tweets from the web. Unfortunately, it didn’t evolve any further. Their first version had this nifty Gmail look & feel, but for some reason, today, it just looks pretty plain and boring. Having said that, you may want to use it because of its simplicity. Tweenky is designed to be very obvious to the user. The list of activities and trends are accessible always, and the main stream is easy to adjust to. I found the larger font in the update box to be conveniently useful.
Remember all the buzz around Tweetree? I tried it again today and was surprised to see that nothing has changed (usually you get to see more useful features over time, no?). Anyway, it still a good service, if you want to see a bigger picture of your stream. Tweetree embeds external content so you get to see pictures, videos and even the text from submitted links right in your twitterstream. To be honest, I didn’t like how the service overtook the Twitter layout. If you already use Twitter in the background, go easy with your logos. In Tweetree’s case, they placed two extremely large logos on top of the twitter page, and it is just a distraction. It would have been less annoying to get all of the features without all of the noisy design around it.
TwitZap is not half bad for a layer that sits on top of Twitter site, and frankly it has great tools that the others don’t have. First of all it lets you organize your favorite channels, then it shows you how many updates you missed when you’re not on the channel, which relates to a RSS reader experience. But furthermore, it shows you who are the people that are viewing the same channel right now, and this is by far the best way to find people based on a shared activity. The page refreshes in real time (you can even choose its speed), and on its browser tab you get to see how many of new tweets you’ve missed. The bottom line, if I have to choose the best service among these 9, I think TwitZap is the winner (they should change their registration to a single sign-in though).
Frankly, I’m not completely satisfied with all of these services. I think that Twitter web clients are weak compared to the desktop ones. I wonder who will step up and take the entire experience forward. Who will integrate twitpic, blip.fm, emoticons, videos, and all that fun stuff that we found on other Twitter applications into one? One thing we know – it most likely will not be Twitter. Therefore it’s up to someone else to gather everything into a single, easy-to-use page. I’m still in searching for that one service…
Good job Orli, although I still think you should have included http://streamy.com :p
and tunein.com :-)
and hootSuite
I agree that HootSuite should be included in this list. I use it for multiple prfiles and scheduled tweets and it’s a winner – definitely works for me.
Yes…Hootsuite! Easy to keep track of conversations from multiple Twitter accounts and to post links while you browse the web.
I’ve also been playing with Digsby-I like that you can manage multiple accounts, along with your email, Myspace and IM clients…BUT the pop-up Tweets on the corner of screen are getting old already.
Tweetdeck is probably what I’d like but being based on Air, it’s potentially lethal to my PPC Mac. Helpful article and comments, thanks. I’m very excited about Streamy’s ability to provide custom combinations of Twitter with other content/services. Might end up my new fave place, and I’ll be glued to it if they ever integrate Blip.fm. :)
ok but why would’nt you just do it on twitter.
Tweet tweet.
And twitscoop…
Don’t forget Tweetvisor.com ….
What?, No Silverlight 3 Sobees bdule? it is both a web app and a SSB desktop app.
+1
Yeah! Streamy is my favorite!
Twitterfeed although not relevant to everyone is also no hassle if you are a blogger.
I suggest http://Tweetvisor.com which I use daily for the past month. it has a great web interface, real time AJAXed auto refresh, 2 types of interface black and blue (which also feel different), with multi user capability, RSS feeds enabled, RT, groups… the whole shabang :)
great post @orli
watch out for brizzly! (http://www.brizzly.com)
one of the simplest connections is twitterfox gives mentions messages and that is it…
nice post
seriously these twitter clients are dime a dozen stuff, how in the hell they expect to earn a dime when there’s no switching costs is beyond me
would love to hear from them about what the game plan is, just bolting on new features is not the way to go
bte
great post
I really enjoyed the layout and feature comparison. Excellent work.
Very important information (a few days ago I wondered if someone did this kind of research…). The decision which one to use depends where you are on the scale of power-simple user.
Can someone explain retweet to me?
Is that like friends forwarding you spam and chain letters?
Could be, depending on the friend…retweeting is just tweeting a link that someone else has posted. To avoid being spammy, you should only retweet stuff you find interesting, and always credit the person who discovered it by putting “RT @whoever” in your tweet.
Excellent work…n Very informative tooo….
Nicely done! But no tweetDeck?? O_o
If Tweetdeck had been included – as it should – it would have been the only client to tick every box in Ms Yakuel’s matrix.
Though Tweetdeck is great, the post is about alternative Web Apps. Tweetdeck is a Desktop/iPhone client.
Sobees bDule Web is both. A Silverlight web app and a SSB Desktop App via SL3 OOB Mode.
I’ve been using HootSuite for the most part. Where can you access Sobees bDule Web ? Have Silverlight 3.0.40624.0 installed.
http://sobees.com
And you install by right clicking over the silverlight 3 app surface. (ignore the download button at the top)
I really like TweetDeck. You get DM, favorites, groups, search, and facebook, as well as direct tweet. Once set up, you do not have to sign in each time you use it.
Again, TweetDeck is a desktop app, not a web app.
also have http://itweet.net/web/# and tweetsort.com both web sites.. because i hate just using twitter.com page. really no one should be using it.
I also use iTweet.net. It’s very simple interface once you get use to it. It even does nesting of tweets to you can follow a conversation. Tabs to switch to different pages. Twitpic and bit.ly built in. Compatible with older OSes i.e. Mac OS 10.3.9 It’s NOT an adobe air app. It includes your background that you worked so hard making. Oh there is to many feature to list here. What else could you ask for. Well Colby Palmer (the creator) it really good at helping people out with issues. I wonder why Orli Yakuel didn’t cover that one? She really missed a good one.
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Wow twitter just getting stronger than ever.
What about tweeteam?
I know that its primary intent is for iGoogle/Gmail integration, but my favorite standalone Twitter app is still TwitterGadget (http://www.twittergadget.com). It has everything I need, including: built-in URL shortening, Short URL preview / expansion, media upload (image, audio, video) & in-line preview, username auto-complete, symbols insertion, tweet shrink, keyboard shortcuts, integrated search, retweet button, just to name a few. I use it as a PRISM app and haven’t looked backed!
This article is quite timely – especially for businesses.
There’s a growing rumbling about Twitter’s lack of response and communication regarding support issues.
Businesses are left in the lurch when something with their account goes awry and Twitter Support doesn’t communicate directly with account holders.
You’re left in the blue abyss with no choice but to move your accounts elsewhere where there IS customer service.
It’s a shame that Twitter’s potential will disappear in a puff of smoke if they don’t address their inadequacies in customer service and communication.
On the other hand, the sites you’ve outlined should see growing numbers as Twitter continues to ignore the everyday users who’ve built its content, while Twitter continues to put its focus on pursuing celebrities who in the long run will not provide the revenue streams that businesses will.
These sites are all clients for using Twitter.com. None of them will work if you have problems with your Twitter account, and none of them can provide any support for your Twitter account…
No Hootsuite??? LOL!!!
I think you should mention itweet.net and m.slandr.net as well. The latter is optimized for mobile access, but works in regular browsers, too.
Nambu
I use a simultaneous combination of splittweet, Hootsuite and Journotwit (http://www.journotwit.com/).
Journotwit has great image and sound previews and a very advance segmentation of content (news, visual, audio, chatter…)
+1 for TwitterGagdet. I like that I can set ‘new tweet alerts’ for audible notification when new tweets arrive. Running in a separate tab, I always know when I need to pop over to read a new tweet. Kind of like Pavlov, my mouth begin to water whenever the chime of a new tweet sounds :-)
True, true. Forgot about TwitterGadget. It can be used as a SSB with Chrome/Iron, Bubbles or Prism.
Also can be used in iGoogle and Gmail for that matter.
Great article. I really like seesmic web for real-time but need something more ‘complete’ for catching up longer-periods of time.
I’m so surprised there is still no service/client integrating tweeter with on-line translation (e.g. google’s).
great article, my favourite is twitscoop!
a beautiful twitter interface missed by everyone!…………http://tweetdeck.com and that was an awesome article
Nicely done and lots of info. One nit to pick, isn’t it more accurate to say “More than half of Twitter users prefer to avoid using the site.”
I wonder how many will survive in 6-12 months, and who will emerge as the top 3 contenders. The switching costs from a user’s perspective is next to zilsh.
Next week’s unveiling of Twitter’s new search/homepage should be interesting to watch. I’m sure it has many on pins and needles.
Borwsers of the internet are becoming more and more interested in real-time results, as they can search for the latest news through keywords. One site that I found quite unique for posting to twitter is http://www.aafter.com. Users can post directly their comment to twitter by typing t? to post to twitter, without the need to have any account with twitter.
In people browser u could sign in with Twitter ID & FB Connect
And yes you forgot about streamy
PeopleBrowsr asks for your email first, only then you can actually sign in with your Twitter or Facebook credentials.
Tweetdeck?
I’m about ready to deck you for repeating that again. TweetDeck is not a web client.
apparently people don’t read first and comment later.
Strange none includes Twitpic integration, whereas Powertwitter extension fot FFox does it along with youtube links
Why no Sobees? It’s my favorite, seesmic just feels clunky.
Yeah I thought PeopleBrowsr was visually overwhelming too, and SplitTweet didn’t do much for me. Actually TwitHive does show Trending Topics if you look in the Search window. Personally I like TwitHive a lot.
I’m working on an in-depth review of Twitter web interfaces myself and plan to cover several that aren’t included here such as Twitterface, Streamy, TwitIQ, ChatterBox and HootSuite 2. Please follow me on Twitter and stay tuned!
In the meantime I’m gonna try out a few more of these that I haven’t tried yet. ;-)
Orli,
Great post!!
Re: Peoplebrowser: PB could open a new column in the same tab with the linked URL
thank you for your review Orli, we just launched Seesmic Web and are happy your first impressions are good, we are building the features you are talking about as fast as we can but also preserving a very clean UI. Wait a few weeks and you will have them. Glad you like it.
TwitZap is good for tweeting at jobs/offices that block Twitter (ouch). Don’t let the IT department know!
None of these services will survive if they do not figure out a sustainable way to make money.
Very crowded field with new agile entrants stepping up every few weeks.
Perhaps the distributed/federated model as “visioned” by Dave Winer is the answer as attempted by Laconica http://www.laconi.ca – sustainable utility. Dave’s new initiative http://www.RSSCloud.org is interesting and should broaden and democratize the sector further at a rapid rate.
For the moment, I love the the way http://www.TuneIN.com handles media in their web app. The Seesmic web app should take cue from TuneIN, but is otherwise a stellar effort.
The problem with twitter-based web clients is that all that data being pushed throught the browser comes at a price – performance and stability.
All the browsers choke on the twitter firehose sooner or later while making the rest of the browsing experience slow as molasses.
What about
http://www.acce...ibletwitter.com
Hey awesome post & very well put together. A rare sight to see a screenshot of all the best clients out there…
The developers at Mesiab Labs have also been working on a BETA version of their Hummingbird 2 Client … http://www.Hummingbird2.com :)
Yea, what about Accessible Twitter?!
The new Hootsuite Beta is awesome. Easy to use multiple accounts, search works great, it’s a web app so it isn’t a memory suck, multiple tabs, send tweets later, I could go on and on.
Nice work, ori
I’m a web-based Twitter app that is very easy to use. I’m also fully web accessible–optimized for those with any type of disability or limited technology (such as no JavaScript).
From the features in your table (which itself, by the way, is not web accessible), my app has Retweet, Trends, Search, and additional features such as a Popular Links page, an optional Timing Out feature (for security), and image previews on tweets with links to TwitPic and YFrog images.
I’m working on and Open Auth (I believe that’s what single sign-on means) which is also on your feature table.
Lastly, I don’t think auto-refresh is such a great feature; it takes control away from the user.
Not only did this post leave out HootSuite (the 2.0 private beta is phenomenal), but it also didn’t cover CoTweet, which is now available to the public (targeted primarily toward multi-user corporate environments, but certainly usable for individuals).
What about http://tweetasaur.us it is great for 140+ character tweets.
great write up orli. i liked the categorical comparisons and the images to give us an idea of what is being discussed.