The Download Blog

Popular desktop Twitter client Twhirl has a new sibling. Seesmic CEO Loic Le Meur, who acquired the Adobe AIR-based application about a year ago, has dubbed the new service "Seesmic Desktop," which is being launched in preview as a separate product from Twhirl.

Some of the new features include the capability to monitor multiple feeds side-by-side in a similar fashion to TweetDeck, create custom user lists, and post from multiple accounts while the application keeps track of which ones are which to keep duplicates at bay. You can also drag and drop photos from your computer to post straight to Twitter, making use of the fact that it's running off of Adobe's AIR platform.

However, not all of this functionality will be available from the get-go. The service is being launched in "preview" and will support only Twitter, however Le Meur said his team is on track to release support for other services in about a month. He also said that there's a pro version on the way that should fill in the company's business model, since this version--just like Twhirl, will not contain advertising.

One thing is clear though--Twhirl's life cycle may be at an end. While Le Meur said that development will continue on it, that could simply mean bug fixes. Considering Seesmic Desktop is launching as a Twitter client from the get-go should tell you something.

Seesmic Desktop preview is available for download right now, although you've got to sign up to be a member of "Team Seesmic," the company's new community site.

You can catch the whole live blog after the break.

The new Seesmic Desktop is kind of like the old Twhirl, meets Tweetdeck--with a dash of iTunes.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Twhirl (download) and AlertThingy, two social-publishing tools that run exclusively on Adobe's AIR, have been freshly updated to support more services and come with some cool (and useful) new features:

As we blogged about a few weeks back, Twhirl was working on giving Seesmic users a way to record videos, not just view them. The new version lets you do that and also adds Ping.fm support across the board, letting you cross post to other accounts you may have.

Other new goodies include a spell checker, Bit.ly link shortener, and an option to have any search pop up with real-time results as they update. This is especially useful for Twitter since you can keep an eye on the velocity of a heavily tweeted event or keyword as it's happening.

AlertThingy (coverage), which launched its third version early Tuesday now includes support for Basecamp, Huddle, Ping.fm, TwitPic, Twitter's search engine, and Yammer. Three of those: Basebamp, Huddle, and Yammer, mark a decidedly business-centric movement of the app. Instead of open and public social networks, these three are for small (or large) teams or private organizations who are working on something. For those using one or more of these services, this update makes the tool a little more attractive.

Another change from the previous version is a new view that like Tweetdeck, lets you stretch out Twitter feeds into separate compartments. This lets you keep an eye on replies and private messages at the same time as you've got your main feed up.

Built on Adobe AIR, Twhirl is a stand-out Twitter service that rolls the functionality of many ancillary services into one. For example, Twhirl automatically posts TinyURLs in place of long URLs, sends photos to TwitPic, and searches for Twitter topics using a built-in TweetScan engine. In the settings, you can configure Twhirl to cross-post updates to Jaiku and Pownce, much like the service Ping.fm.

Though cheery, the interface is also economical, providing extensive options for viewing and updating statuses and messages for all your Twitter and Friendfeed accounts without overcrowding the small screen. The preferences let you customize your receipt of tweet alerts, the program font, and network pings, but not the app's skin. Twhirl lacks options for dark, sleek, and multicolored looks. Though there are quick icons for sending messages and unfollowing a user that appear when hovering over a buddy icon, there's definitely room for improvement.

Twhirl keeps getting better, but it has a way to go.

Seesmic, which recently acquired the AIR Twitter client Twhirl (download), has shipped a new version of the software. There are minor improvements in Twitter functionality, mostly designed to keep it from requesting too many updates from the Twitter API, which produces the dreaded "limit exceeded" message if you use the app too enthusiastically. The Twitter service, which used to allow clients like Twhirl to fetch updates 60 times an hour, dropped its limit to 20/hour during the Steve Jobs keynote; it's only back at 30/hour as of this writing. Twhirl can now adjust its update frequency so it's always under the Twitter maximums.

Twitter will, at some point in the future, hopefully move to a push model for updates based on the XMPP protocol. At that time, according to Seesmic, Twhirl will also be updated to use the protocol. That should solve at least one of Twitter's capacity issues. Today, if you press the update button one time too many, you still time out.

Twhirl's most visible improvements are in its FriendFeed support, where it now handles comments and links in items gracefully. You can also share photos on FriendFeed via the Twhirl client just by dragging your image to a box in the client.

The app also supports FriendFeed rooms.

Seesmic support in Twhirl is still missing, as is the promised single-pane view that merges content from the three services. I like a Twhirl a great deal, but there are aspects of the Firefox add-on MySocial 24x7 that make it an even better client for the FriendFeed.

I've been very popular on Twitter lately. Too bad it's not personal. Many subscribers seem to be gaining more attention than they've earned, and probably a good deal more than they want.

This past month has seen a surge in Twitter spam, subscriptions from followers who have created faux accounts to advertise their links or wares. The noticeable uptick has alarmed the blogosphere enough to warrant journalistic notice, off the record in intra-office chatter and on it. The disingenuous among my own modest list of followers don't appear to be peddling anything other than URLs, but it matters little. I have declared them a nuisance. The squatters must go.

These 'people' are not my friends.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Unlike Facebook, which requires dual authentication before friends make it onto the social roster, Twitter attachments can be single-sided. I've never had reason to block anyone before, but scooping off the scattered scum is proving more tedious than it should. From the list of followers on Twitter.com there is the option to subscribe to a user's updates or to block them. Blocking one user resets the follower list, putting you back at the starting point of your multipage count. That's fine if all your new "pals" cluster on Page 1, but crummy if they're spread between Pages 4, 7, and 10. Simple pagination would simplify the task, as would the ability to batch process blocking.

Up until about a week ago, Twitter's API was itself the meta-blocker of a different sort, barring developers from building the rejection feature into third-party services. Now the capability is turned on, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone confirmed, though documentation won't be broadly shared until "some time next week." At that point, third-party services like Twhirl, a desktop client that adds all sorts of goodies to the Twitter experience, would be able to let users block stalkers by hovering over their icons from a scrolling interface.

For a service this popular, better native blocking tools should be a no-brainer. Hopefully they will be before the spam really catches on. In the meantime, you can at least pick out the fictitious followers using Twitter Twerp Scan, an app we learned about from DownloadSquad. Twitter Twerp Scan quickly calculates the ratio of friends to followers for each of your fans. Subscribers with high ratios follow many more tweeters, but are not followed in turn. The raked popularity count makes them likely spammers who you don't have to feel guilty about cutting out.