ObnoxiousAcorns

For the past month, I have been testing out different Twitter applications because although I love Seesmic Desktop, it was too big. I wanted something that did the same exact thing, BUT it was also dock-able and small. And I did. Mixero.

It is still kind of in testing, and it does require you to follow them on twitter and them sending you think download code and activation key, but it is worth it!

When you have another page open, it will stay over to the right with icons for you so you know whenever they tweet.

Check them out!

-Nicole Turpin 2009

The debate has been around since we first heard of Plurk– a cousin site of Twitter, which one is better? Twitter; the site with the ability to only be able to post 140 character updates and @replies to others. Or Plurk; the site that allows pics, videos, and basically every other kinds of media on one site without going to other sites. But how is it that Twitter still stays ahead of Plurk? 

The Human mind is wired to first off, have everything as simple as possible. As in, if someone had to tell you the bad news about a sick relative, would you want to hear her life story before the sickness? Or first, whats wrong with her? Or you get a toy to put together with instructions. Do you want it to tell you plain and simple what you need to do, or ramble on about all the alternatives that MAY work? We are programmed to want simplicity. We are programmed to want some kind of organization in chaos. And now with Social Networking, we have so much chaos with the people we’re friends with or who we follow, that the simplicity of Twitter attracts everyone.

It is only when Social Networks become complicated is when they die. Friendster did it. Myspace is doing it. And now Facebook is going to be beat by Twitter in the next few years. Twitter wont give you more features like application invites, or pokes. It wont integrate other webpages into applications and have pop-ups. It won’t give you pages and pages on a subject. Everything people write is short. Precise. And is merely a tweet.

Now, our minds need simplicity, but we like to add to that. Plurk really can’t do much else to the site. You can add on from that page. Twitter, however gives you room to add on, without changing the simplicity. Twitter gives out an easy customizable API in which you can share photos, music, videos, pages and anything else you can imagine. To keep it simple, you cannot view these pieces of media without clicking on a link. And it doesn’t spread it out to make the page bigger like Plurk. It’s a whole new page. Over-crowding is not an issue with Twitter.

With the overall layout, there is a debate with Twitter and Plurk. Yes, Plurk is pretty. The flow-chart of Plurks is nice. But the more you follow on there, the harder it is to keep up with and it becomes jumbled. Twitter, no matter how many you follow, will always keep it in stacks. It will always be little inserts of 140 or less characters stacked downwards in a Public Timeline.

Basically, to keep this obnoxious debate in a nutshell, Twitter is simple and functional. Plurk is not simple. If Twitter were to add on to it, it would lose people. Plurk and other sites like Tumblr will never be as popular and will die down like Friendster, and Myspace. 

Ever wonder how the simple cartoons are now still watched every day as classics and some really intricate cartoons a year ago are never watched again?

-Nicole Turpin 2009

There are numerous lists all over the enternet of desktop applications on Twitter. But most of them mimic the exact format of Twitter’s Timeline no the homepage. What if you followed all of those people, but only want to receive the updates from a select few, say, only your friends. Or only your family members? Most applications are built for small Twitter accounts (meaning less that 2,000). And those with larger accounts will notice that those applications run out of API (the amount of times a program can get updates from Twitter) really fast when you get 500 updates a minute. 

So there are three choices for the larger accounts:
     o Receive updates every 6 minutes.
     o Find a better application for larger accounts.
     o Forget having an application and just use the Twitter page.

Theres nothing wrong with option number one, but when you only receive updates every 6 minutes, it defeats the purpose of it being live, so going to the page is worth it. The second choice is obviously the best choice (unless you enjoy the page, there’s nothing wrong with that). But if you want to actually seperate the tweets you receive, I have two desktop applications that will work:

TweetDeck was the first desktop application I used. It can seperate your friends into different columns depending on how you want it. You can also have facebook applications on it, stocktips, and many more applications. However, I have over 4,000 followers, so my API depletes slower than other applications, but still fast enough that I do not use this one as much (it takes 30 minutes to run out for me). This one is recommended from 1 – 2,000 followings. After that, you will have to take more time between updates. This one runs on all platforms.

TweetDeck on my Computer:
 

Seesmic Desktop is probably my favorite one. It does not have a great deal of add-ons, but you have the ability to seperate the groups into people you want, you can add a reply bar, and you can search for anyone on twitter with the search bar. I have never ran out of API using this one, which is why I recommend this one for anyone who has 2,000 – 10,000 friends. And you can manage more than one account (but since I only have one, I have not used this feature). And this will work on Mac and PC.

 
Seesmic Desktop on my Computer:

Although these are for larger accounts, they encourage smaller accounts to use these as well. And if you have any more desktop applications that should be listed here, the comment section below welcomes them. 

-Nicole Turpin. 2009 ObnoxiousAcorns