Seesmic Desktop (AIR)

Arranged with a side bar and multicolumn view, Seesmic Desktop is ideal for Twitter and Facebook fanatics with multiple accounts. The cross-platform Adobe AIR app collects all status messages from all your accounts in one feed. You have the option of making that status feed the only column, or can keep it as one of three default columns on the Seesmic Desktop interface. Direct replies and messages are the other two options. The app's search box and a text field from which you post your updates give it the feel of a truncated browser.

Seesmic Desktop competently handles the Twitter desktop basics, like sending messages, replies, and retweets, posting images, and shortening links. You can comment and "Like" a buddy's Facebook status, and can now also manage activity on a Facebook "fan page" if you administer one. You can also keep a user list, save a favorite message, and unfollow or block contacts. Two favorite features include posting tweets to Twitter and Facebook simultaneously, and, like Twhirl, receiving notification pop-ups above the task tray for certain events, like receiving a new direct message or reply. Seesmic Desktop lacks the capability to integrate most other social networking accounts, nor does it have any skinning options, or other visual customizations.

Seesmic Desktop and Twhirl share a parent company, and many core features. Yet Seesmic is a slightly stronger management app for those who constantly juggle more than one Twitter account, for those who manage a Facebook fan page, and for those who want to keep track of Twitter and Facebook timelines together.