Here’s a question that’s been running through my head ever since Michael posted about FriendFeed being in danger of becoming the coolest app no one uses: exactly how many startups out there are trying to be the one social networking service aggregator to rule them all, and how many is enough?

It seems like every day startups come up with new applications, be it for desktop, Web and/or mobile phone, that essentially want to be the gateway to our online lives. In reality though, there are not that many people who want – let alone need – continuous access to multiple social networking services, and even if they do, how many people (outside of the tech industry) do you know who are genuinely waiting for a extra third-party that helps them manage all their online personas?

Is this a sucker’s game? Is it a battle worth fighting?

For example: how many clients exist that basically aim to lure you away from using Twitter’s standard web interface by adding more features to the core micro-sharing functionality and throwing in more eye candy? And yet, the Twitter website remains, by far, the most popular way for users to update their message streams, with dozens of apps like TweetDeck, Twhirl / Seesmic Desktop, PeopleBrowsr, AlertThingy, Sobees, Streamy, Tweetie, Nambu, TwitterBerry, and HootSuite trailing in its path (and there are many more where that came from).

Don’t even get me started on the plethora of apps that syndicate FriendFeed feeds alongside Facebook and Twitter to deliver the best-user-experience-known-to-mankind when it comes to updating your social graph on your current status. It’s the ultimate social networking service aggregator update management tool, baby!

All these applications appeal to only a fraction of the users of the more popular social services, many of which are still trying to figure out how to turn all that attention into cold hard cash themselves. I’m not necessarily saying that that’s a reason not do get into that business, I’m just saying chances are little that they’re ever going to be able to turn it into something even remotely profitable.

I sincerely think we’ve seen enough of these social network aggregators, and while I’m sure one or two will live on, get acquired or turn out to be a successful venture in another way, most are destined for failure like most startups in any other market, especially if they’re as saturated as this one has quickly proven to be.

I’ll sure be pointing back to this post when the next contestants in this particular arena find their way to our inboxes.

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Another horse in this race that barely gets a mention is Sobees, probably in big part because of the fact it’s only available for Windows users (with the latest .NET framework, moreover), although it doesn’t really deserve to be below the radar this much at all.

We covered the company’s social network aggregator when it entered public beta, and wrote that they were aiming to attract a mainstream audience for their software, which enables users to manage a fairly wide variety of web apps and social networking services from their desktops. It’s a nifty companion that plugs into Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Flickr, YouTube and many more web services, but I’ve always felt it was far too overloaded with features for me to use it on a daily basis.

So I was interested when the company set out to build a stand-alone client for Twitter, Facebook and Twitter Search. And just as they were working on that, Facebook launched its Open Stream API so they made thankful use of it quite rapidly and converted the API to .NET and integrated the stream into the new client. The software is now in alpha and publicly available under the name bDule, and it’s definitely worth checking out even if you only use one of the two services it supports.

Soon, we’ll do a feature-by-feature comparison for all the existing social desktop applications, but for now let me just say Sobees is very much worthy of being included whenever someone talks about Facebook / Twitter clients. As mostly all of the apps mentioned on top bDule is a bit of a memory drain, and at times renders a bit slow, but the UI is really well thought-out (love the different templates you can switch to in just one mouse-click) and it does what it’s supposed to do really well.

Too bad it’s Windows / .NET only, because I’m sure there’s an audience out there that’s looking for just this type of app.

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The Twitter desktop client wars are on.

Yesterday, Loïc Le Meur announced a TweetDeck rival dubbed Seesmic Desktop that not only looks a lot like the popular AIR application (more popular than any other desktop client according to statistics) but also heavily competes with it on a feature level. TweetDeck founder Iain Dodsworth, not to be outdone by the announcements, sent an e-mail out to his contacts just now about an upgraded version of the software which should be available for download real soon (update: should be automatically pushed from now on – or get it here).

According to the e-mail, this is an unscheduled update, but it tackles one of the major issues users have been struggling with and complaining about: memory leakage. In the message, Dodsworth says he has been working closely with Adobe for a fix, but stresses that this doesn’t completely solve the problem of the app being quite the memory drain (he says this is still being worked on), only that memory usage will be capped so you can keep it turned on “day and night’” (do you?).

The new version of TweetDeck (v0.25) will also include a number of bug fixes and new features, including a Digg URL shortener, support for Spotify URLs (so you can play a song from a tweeted link directly in the Spotify player), previewing of TwitPic images inside the desktop app and preview of information about short URLs within the application before opening the link.

The biggest new feature being rolled out to everyone today is Facebook integration, so you’ll be able to view your Facebook friends’ status updates in a new column alongside your TWitter updates. You can also see when your Facebook friends are online and start a chat with them from within TweetDeck, simply by clicking their name. However, you cannot comment on their status message from within the client. This is of course making TweetDeck more a lifestreaming service than a Twitter client, so it might have to change its name if it keeps on adding integrations with other services.

Finally, you can now record and share short videos directly from TweetDeck thanks to an integration with 12seconds (a Seesmic competitor). Both the Facebook and the 12seconds integration were already included in test releases, but as of today they’ll be included in the full beta version of the app.

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I’m live blogging from video conversation platform Seesmic’s headquarters, where Seesmic’s founder Loic Le Meur, is previewing a new Twitter client. We reported earlier about the unveiling of the site. Le Meur says that this is still a work in progress and ongoing changes will made to the product.

Seesmic, who also owns popular Twitter app Twhirl, has launched a new Twitter client, Seesmic Desktop. Like Twhirl, Seesmic Desktop is a desktop app, operated by Adobe Air. Seesmic Desktop allows you to view multiple accounts in one window, unlike Twhirl, where you have to view multiple accounts in different windows. It looks like it was designed to rival competitor TweetDeck, which is the most popular desktop client for Twitter. Le Meur says that Seesmic will discontinue adding features to Twhirl (he jokes that it has a difficult name) and will primarily focus on building out Seesmic Desktop.

Here are a few of the nifty features Seesmic Desktop will have:

Multiple Accounts
Not only will you be able to see multiple Twitter accounts in one place, but you will be able to view the window in columns (similar to Tweetdeck). With this timeline, users can easily see Tweets and messages from multiple accounts and easily organize different applications. Le Meur says the interface is as simple as a Gmail interface.

Lists
You will be able to group your social contacts into lists like family, co-workers and friends.

Photos and Video
Like Twhirl, you will be able to share photos (integrated with TwitPic) and record and share video via Seesmic (that feature will be coming soon, Le Meur says). You can also drag and drop an image into messages. You can import video via your web cam as well.

Support for Social Networks
Currently the client only serves Twitter but Le Meur says that eventually Seesmic Desktop will have integrate with Facebook, Digg, Identica, Ping.FM and FriendFeed. Twhirl currently has support for these networks.

Stability
Because Seesmic Desktop is built on the stability of company Seesmic’s platform and Adobe Air, Le Meur says that his new client will be much more stable than competitor Tweetdeck.

Shorten Urls
Also like Twhirl, you will be able to shorten URLs to share via Twitter

Search
Search queries of messages opens in different columns and are saved.

This new client is like an upgraded, stronger Twhirl with even more powerful capabilities. According to LeMeur, Twhirl has been downloaded 1.2 million times and is the leading Twitter client on the web. Twitstat says that Twhirl is the 4th most popular Twitter client, behind rival Tweetdeck, which ranks as #2 on the list. But this new app could overtake Tweetdeck with its new functionality. Its actually similar in some ways to AlertThingy. Le Meur wants this client to be the Bloomberg of social software, aggregating all content into one (free) desktop app, perhaps becoming the desktop app version of FriendFeed along the way.

Disclaimer: TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington is an investor in Seesmic, although I am not.

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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.

Image courtesy Mykl Roventine.

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Not to be overshadowed by AlertThingy’s announcement earlier today, Seesmic founder — Twhirl owner — Loic Le Meur let us know that his desktop notifications client is also getting a substantial upgrade today.

Twhirl doesn’t support as many services as AlertThingy but Le Meur points out that it’s much more popular. It’s also the only desktop client in its class that supports his video messaging system Seesmic, which is no surprise since Seesmic aquired Twhirl last April.

Until today, users could only play video clips through Twhirl from the people they follow on Seesmic. But now with version 0.9, Seesmic users can record and post video clips from within Twhirl as well, bringing the construction of a Seesmic desktop client to completion.

Le Meur says that creating the right API to record and post video comments from within Twhirl took a lot of work, and naturally he’d like to see the other desktop notification tools pick up Seesmic support as well. So all of the recording functionality is now part of the APIs that Seesmic has already provided publicly. No desktop clients have used it to retrieve or post clips yet, but the web services Ping.fm and DailyMile have both added Seesmic video recording as features already.

There’s a variety of other improvements in this release, which you can read about in Le Meur’s official post on the announcement. Among them is new support for Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Ping.fm.

Le Meur says that Twhirl has about 150,000 active users, about three times the number of those who use Seesmic regularly. The client has been downloaded about 700,000 times and about 10,000 people sign into Seesmic each day.

Disclaimer: TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington is an investor in Seesmic, although I am not.

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CEO David Sacks says there are now 10,000 networks and 50,000 users just one week in. Yammer’s business model is to let people use the service for free, spreading it throughout the enterprise. When and if a company wants to take administrative control over the account, Yammer charges $1/user/month. Administrators can set access controls, such as IP controls and SSL.

The company already allows interaction with the service via the site, an AIR client, iPhone, Blackberry, IM, SMS and email. This evening they’ve also launched an API to allow third party developers to build Yammer into their applications.

First up is Seesmic, which is simultaneously announcing that they’re buildiing Yammer support into their Twhirl desktop client. Twhirl is used today to access the Twitter, Friendfeed and Seesmic video chat services. Integration should be completed in the coming weeks. (Disclosure: I’m an investor in Seesmic)

We signed up to Yammer just after the TechCrunch50 conference last week. Nearly everyone is using it regularly now. We have 14 members and 161 total messages.

The Yammer demo video from TechCrunch50 is here.

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Seesmic is designed to encourage video conversations among loose social groups (many of whom find each other on Seesmic). Since it launched in a private alpha last October, it’s attracted 21,000 users who post about 2,500 videos a day. Those videos, in turn, are watched about 300,000 times a day. Since last week, Seesmic has opened up its doors to all comers.

The company also owns Twhirl, a desktop Twitter/FriendFeed client that has been downloaded 400,000 times. Founder Loic Le Meur estimates that Twhirl accounts for 12 percent of all Twitter messages, and 5 percent of all FriendFeed comments.

Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay and Seesmic’s new board member, talks about his investment below:

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I’m in Erick’s camp. While delighted to receive the occasional YouTube video in my inbox from friends, I largely sit things out when it comes to personal broadcasting services like Twitter and FriendFeed – they simply generate too much noise (and I have too little time to sift through it all).

So perhaps I’m not the best-suited to review the newest version of Twhirl, one of several desktop applications that help you track public conversations and the media shared by your internet buddies.

Twhirl version 0.8.2, released just moments ago, improves the AIR client’s FriendFeed support by adding the ability to comment and “like” items inline, filter by rooms, view avatars, and access links in comments. Pics can also be dragged and dropped onto the client for quick sharing.

On the Twitter side of things (FriendFeed and Twitter are separated into their own windows, unlike with Alert Thingy and MySocial 24×7), Twhirl now allows users to auto-throttle their data requests. This comes in response to Twitter’s regulation of how many times per hour 3rd-party services can retrieve data for a particular user. If Twhirl users enable auto-throttling, the client will automatically generate only 80% of the allowable requests. This prevents users from getting denied updates when they go over the limit (perhaps by manually refreshing a tad too eagerly).

Loic Le Meur, CEO of Twhirl’s parent company Seesmic, says that the newest version also supports XMPP for when Twitter decides to turn that technology back on. XMPP would allow Twhirl to receive updates instantly (kind of like push email) instead of pulling that data periodically.

Le Meur also says that Seesmic integration is coming in the next version, as is consolidation of all three services – Twitter, FriendFeed, and Seesmic – into one panel for a unified user experience. Seesmic’s API, however, means that any of the other desktop clients can add Seesmic support as well. Let the arms race continue.

Disclosure: Michael Arrington is an investor in Seesmic.

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MySocial 24×7

Like the Firefox sidebar, the AIR app allows users to filter the view by type of data, comment or bookmark any entry, and users can also reply via Twitter.

The big selling point for the new app is an inbuilt movie/picture viewer, allowing users to view content without the need to revert to a browser window.

Hands on its definitely one of the nicest looking desktop apps in this space, content is rendered clearly and attractively, compared to say Twhirl which isn’t super pretty out of the box. The app though does lack many of the features that have made Twhirl popular, such as click support for direct messaging in Twitter, color customization, and easy access to archives and user details. In its defense it is an alpha release, and not all users will want for the extra features provided by Twhirl. Definitely worth a look if you’re a Twitter and FriendFeed user.

disclosure: Michael is an investor in Seesmic, which owns Twhirl

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Twitter/FriendFeed desktop client Alert Thingy just released version 1.3 of the software.

It is now a fully functioning client for both services (reading and writing). They’ve also added an easy Flickr uploader – just drag a photo into the application and upload it to Flickr.

The thing I like most about the new version of Alert Thingy though is that you access Twitter and FriendFeed in a single window and a single interface (Twhirl, a competitor, requires two windows). That means less desktop space is used. They are also de-duping Twitter messages (since they also appear in FriendFeed), a nice touch.

Switching between Alert Thingy, Twhirl and even the newer browser sidebar with similar functionality is trivially easy – there are no real switching costs. That means all of these products will be in a constant battle over features. That’s great for us users. And since Alert Thingy and Twhirl are more side projects for their parent companies (Alert Thingy is built by Howard/Baines, Twhirl is owned by Seesmic (a company I invested in), there’s little danger of one app driving the other out of business.

Im now planning to switch back to Alert Thingy based on the new features. The current version of Twhirl is freezing periodically as well, requiring regular restarts.

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It’s my own damn fault. I should have never listened to Mike. This morning I installed Twhirl on my desktop in a failed attempt to keep up better with Twitter and Friendfeed. I was hoping it would help me manage the never-ending flow of information from those two services—which, I admit, I’ve been increasingly ignoring. Instead, it took over my desktop and I couldn’t make it stop (see image above).

Twhirl solves one problem (the need to constantly visit the Twitter and Friendfeed Websites), only to create another one (information overload that clutters your desktop). I’m sure there is some setting I could change to fix the issue, but this highlights a bigger problem with the Web today. There is too much to pay attention to and not enough ways to reduce the noise. Even Robert Scoble, the biggest Twitter whore on the planet who follows 21,000 people and receives one Tweet per second, can’t deal with it anymore.

And it is not just Twitter. Lifestream aggregators like Friendfeed are supposed to make things simpler by consolidating the activities of everyone you know across the Web into one single view. But every day a new lifestream aggregator pops up to the point that it’s gotten to be ridiculous. Now, desktop utilities like Twhirl and Alerty Thing are taking these services out of the browser so that they are always on your desktop.

But if you think it is hard enough to keep up with e-mails and instant messages, keeping up with the Web (even your little slice of it) is much worse. Putting Twhirl on your desktop and hearing the constant “ding” of new messages coming in will make you realize that this is IM on steroids. (You will quickly turn off the sound).

Bringing all of this Web messaging and activity together in one place doesn’t really help. It reminds me of a comment ThisNext CEO Gordon Gould made to me earlier this week when he predicted that Web 3.0 will be about reducing the noise. (Some say it will be about the semantic Web, but those two ideas are not mutually exclusive). I hope Gould is right, because what we really need are better filters.

I need less data, not more data. I need to know what is important, and I don’t have time to sift through thousands of Tweets and Friendfeed messages and blog posts and emails and IMs a day to find the five things that I really need to know. People like Mike and Robert can do that, but they are weird, and even they have their limits.

So where is the startup that is going to be my information filter? I am aware of a few companies working on this problem, but I have yet to see one that has solved it in a compelling way. Can someone please do this for me? Please? I need help. We all do.

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While both are web services, each offers an API that lets third parties build on top of them, including desktop applications. Twhirl, recently acquired by Seesmic, has emerged as the leading desktop client for Twitter, and Alert Thingy launched days ago on the newly released FriendFeed API. Both are built on the Adobe AIR platform.

Yesterday, though, the two desktop clients started to compete with each other directly when Alert Thingy added support for Twitter as well. And even though I am an investor in Twhirl, I said I may uninstall it for good once a few more features were added to Alert Thingy. There is no reason to have both installed once they overlap completely.

Today, though, Twhirl hit back by adding FriendFeed support, including the ability to search, lookup users, write comments and bookmark items. The new version, 0.7.9, is available now here and will be pushed generally to users in a few days.

Loic Le Meur (founder of Twhirl parent company Seesmic) created the video below demonstrating the new version:

Due to the conflict I won’t editorialize further on Twhirl. Users who want a desktop application for both Twitter and FriendFeed should test both applications out for themselves to decide which one is best for them. The good news for all of us: competition, even in this very niche market, is forcing rapid innovation.

Download AlertThingy here, and (the new) Twhirl here.

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In addition to viewing FriendFeed data streams and posting directly to FriendFeed, users can now also post directly to their Twitter account as well. Users cannot directly view Twitter streams through AlertThingy, although they can get that information by following FriendFeed users who include Twitter data.

This makes FriendFeed even more useful. Twhirl, a competitor that was recently acquired by Seesmic, works with Twitter, Pownce and Jaiku, but users rarely use more than one of those services. Lots of people use both FriendFeed and Twitter, however (FriendFeed often to read information, Twitter to post), and they may find Alert Thingy a nice alternative to Twhirl.

I’m finding that I use FriendFeed a lot more now than I have Alert Thingy installed. And if they continue to innovate this quickly, I may find I uninstall Twhirl for good. Things they need to add – the ability to view Twitter directly, outside of friendfeed (including replies and direct messages), and integration with snurl to easily shorten included URLs.

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San Francisco video/chat startup Seesmic has acquired Twhirl, a popular application created by German developer Marco Kaiser that allows users to access the Twitter service directly from their desktop, and also cross post to other services like Pownce and Jaiku. The acquisition price is not being disclosed.

Twhirl is considered among the better third party Twitter applications. ReadWriteWeb, for example, just yesterday identified it as the third most used method for posting to the Twittersphere, behind the web and instant messaging, and just in front of Twitterific. It has been downloaded 100,000 or so times.

Seesmic says they will continue development of the application and eventually integrate their own service into Twhirl, making it the official Seemsic desktop client.

It’s important to note that Michael Arrington is a minor investor in Seesmic and so we won’t add a lot of commentary on the transaction. Look for a company announcement soon.

Update: Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur announces his reasons for the acquisition on his blog, along with the following video:

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