TweetDeck: Another Twitter Client

TweetDeck is a Twitter client that runs on your computer using Adobe AIR.  It seems to be taking off in popularity and while they are designing it and taking input, I thought I’d write about a few things I would like to see and introduce you to TweetDeck as well.

Here are some TweetDeck features:

• Is an Adobe Air application in public beta
• Evolve the existing functionality of Twitter
• Presents Twitter tweets in manageable bite sized pieces
• Seperate columns to display all tweets, replies, direct messages, search results, and groups
• Single profile views of someone with the days tweets from that person
• Uses Summize as its search engine
• A Twitter Status sits in the lower right-hand corner of the application letting you know the status of, Twitter.
• Next update in the lower left-hand corner of the application letting you know when the next burst of tweets will be arriving in the All Tweets column.
• A Timeframe slider bar allowing you to see tweets at different time intervals – 1 hour, 2 hours, up to 48 hours.
• Other features described at the TweetDeck beta webpage

What I’d like to see:

1. An image box for images people would like to share via a link – like Plurk – pop-up a window if you’re running TweetDeck in single column viewing mode.  If TweetDeck is running in full screen, show the image in a box in one of the available columns.  Do the same thing with YouTube videos – again, kind of like Plurk.
2. At the top of the All Tweets column place a count of all new tweets that are waiting at the top of the column if the readers is not at the top of the column.  Currently, when you’re reading half way down your list of tweets and new tweets come in, the scroll bar shoots you to the top of the All Tweets column.  This is not cool and I’m sure the kind folks at TweetDeck are working on it.
3. Can the local database reside somewhere on the web when TweetDeck users are moving between multiple computers?  Or maybe a synchronize feature.  The local database allows you to tweet while offline (while Twitter is down) and catches up when twitter is available at a later time.
4. Provide a way to refresh tweets.  If it’s there, I just don’t see it.  Again, I’m sure something the developers won’t overlook.
5. Allow me to shut updates off.  I could use this feature to catch up on tweets.  Maybe provide predefined time intervals for updates.
6. Support all search parameters from Summize.

The folks over at TweetDeck are using uservoice to provide feedback.  Uservoice is a website you can use to create feedback pages for your customers.  It’s free during their public beta.  Check that out as well.

That’s it for now.  TweetDeck is coming along and I’m pretty much using it as my main Twitter application.  It sits full screen on an extra 21-inch monitor.

Here are a few other blog posts about TweetDeck:

Twitter Needs Groups. TweetDeck Kinda Sorta Solves The Problem by Demo Girl

TweetDeck: A Different Twitter Client by ReadWriteWeb

Tweetdeck by freshAIRapps.com

If you feel cutting edge and you want to play a long, give TweetDeck a try.  The beta feels pretty good and you’ll be part of the growth process of TweetDeck.