Twitter Desktop Clients: My Current Pick and a Few Others

I've mentioned before that I use Digsby for my IM, email, and some social networking updates. One of those was Twitter. But when Digsby recently updated Twitter functionality, the relatively low RAM on my laptop couldn't keep up and slowed Digsby's Twitter response time to a snail's pace. It was then that I had to consider turning to one of several Twitter desktop clients I'd heard of. There are quite a few of them out there; some are very popular, some are almost well-guarded secrets. And most of them are available for the common Windows, Mac, and Linux Operating Systems.

After some consideration and my common practice of reading reviews, watching how-to videos on YouTube, etc...I chose Twhirl. This Twitter desktop client is run by the folks at Seesmic, who gave us Seesmic Desktop. It installs quickly and cleanly, even if it finds that you don't already have Adobe Air installed on your computer (a required installation) and has to include this. Twhirl is a great proprietary Twitter desktop client; it's easy on the RAM, has an intuitive user interface, and lets you run more than one Twitter account if you so desire. Twhirl does let you tweak your settings for updates, languages, and appearance so you can customize it to your liking. If you want to check it out, here's the Twhirl main page.

For a desktop client that does more than just Twitter, consider TweetDeck. I have not actually used this one yet, just because all my other updates come to me via Digsby, but I've watched several demos of TweetDeck, and I'm very tempted to give it a try. TweetDeck will run Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace updates, conversations, and other interactive functions in a multi-column user interface. Like Twhirl, it needs you to have Adobe Air installed, but the information I've gathered shows that installation is snappy. The main attraction of TweetDeck is those columns and the latitude it gives you to customize them. Of course, the settings and appearance are not left out of the personalization loop either. TweetDeck is still in Beta, but all reports are that it's running more like a final release. If you haven't already, I suggest you head over to TweetDeck for an eyeful.

If you want to check out a few other Twitter desktop clients, all of which will require Adobe Air as a platform, here you go...knock yourself out:
Seesmic (desktop, web browser, or iPhone)
Spaz (for mobile or desktop)
DestroyTwitter (still in Beta)

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Online Instant Messaging Client: Imo.im Startup Looks Good

Yes, I just talked about instant messaging clients a week ago with my post about Digsby, but I just got some info about another one, and it looks pretty promising. In fact, this looks so good I have to share it here before I've put it through the paces myself.
There's a web-based instant messaging startup called imo.im in its alpha testing stage (not a final release version) that's now available for anyone to use. Since it's an online service, there's nothing to download and install; no resource-hungry IM application sucking memory on your machine. Imo.im supports AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, Windows Live IM (MSN Messenger), Yahoo, Skype, and MySpace IM. It integrates these popular messaging services with voice and video support too, not just texting capabilities. The latest additions to the feature set make imo.im comparable to other popular messaging clients; you can edit contact icons and display names, "star" your favorite contacts for quick reference, block/unblock contacts, move them between groups, find contacts online or off, and of course there's the option of signing in as invisible. I should also note that imo.im has multiple language support is available; including but not limited to Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Macedonian, French, and Turkish.
As I stated above, I have not yet given imo.im the benefit of my practical usage. I will be doing exactly that over the next few days, and I will report back with my results.
In the meantime, you should give it a try as well, come back and make comments to let me and the other readers know what you think. Head over to imo.im. When you get there, take advantage of the helpful links at the bottom of the page before diving right in...a little info goes a long way.

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My Current Instant Messaging Client...Digsby

If you only use one or two instant messaging applications, such as Yahoo Messenger or Windows Live Messenger, this post is probably not for you. If you find yourself spending several minutes starting up all your IM apps only to have them cluttering up the notification area of your taskbar, you might want to use an IM client. Don't know what that is? It's a third-party application that will handle all (or most) of your separate IM services.
There are lots and lots of IM clients out there. Some of the biggies are Trillian, Adium, Pidgin, and Miranda IM (to name a very few). I have tried Pidgin and Miranda myself, and while these two are loved by many, I have found myself getting along pretty well with one called Digsby. My preference may defy logic, since a widely held opinion is that the other IM clients I mentioned are superior to Digsby in many ways. However, at present I like what I like...and I'm liking Digsby.
Why? Mostly the "eye candy" and ease-of use (trademark preferences of novices like us). There are various options for skins in the main window, conversation windows, and even lets you customize chats with specific IM buddies. Another useful feature is tabbing in the conversation window, allowing you to carry on multiple IM conversations without having separate windows cluttering up your screen. Additionally, Digsby has an email notification feature much like the one you're used to in each of your separate IM services, letting you view the message right from the main window.
So what does Digsby support? It will handle AIM, Windows Live IM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk IM, ICQ and Jabber; for email it covers Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, AOL Mail, and serves as an IMAP/POP as well. Last, but not least, you can also use it for messaging on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn.
All this functionality comes with a price. Not money, because Digsby is free to download. The sacrifice I'm talking about is resources...Digsby eats up a lot of RAM, even for an instant messaging client. For example, I have four separate IM accounts (each linked to an email account) on my Digsby. When it's running (which is most of the time), it uses around 20MB of RAM...that's quite a bit. You'll have to decide if the convenience and functions are worth its hogging of resources.
Check it out if you're consistently running more than one or two separate IM windows at a time. And as always, educate yourself before downloading.

Coming Soon: What's on my desktop, Online Publishing, Tips for freeware productivity

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