Social Application Dilemma

by dez on February 24, 2010 · 6 comments

in Social

I don’t know how many Social apps I’ve tried. I’m not going to try to count, but there’s a reason for my stoppage of their use. Each application has it’s own positives as well as negatives, but the negatives always lead me to going back to the web to use Twitter or Facebook.

I used to use Tweetdeck and by far it is my favorite desktop application. However the problem is that the program very easily gets overwhelmed if you try to have too many columns setup. At the same time it is too difficult to peruse profiles of people that you’re interested in without killing your API.

That’s another problem I have with applications in general. The fact that I can’t browse as much as I want inside the application to view profiles of people I already follow and discovering new people to follow is a huge detractor for me. Maybe I’m a power user and need to gravitate towards the web version, but what about an installed application that includes a browser for viewing profiles so that I don’t need to depend on Alt-Tab to get back to the application after viewing the person’s profile within my regular browser. There are a bunch of installed and web-based applications that offer Twitpic integration so that I don’t have to go to my browser.

One thing that I mentioned today was the fact that Twitter doesn’t auto-combine the mentions area of the site with the retweets area of the site. I was retweeted a few times yesterday and I had no idea about it until I got my ‘iamdez’ Google Alert this morning.

My mobile application choice is purely for another reason. I used to use only the web (on my phone) to check for conversations and updates, however I found Seesmic’s mobile app that provides me with notifications of mentions and replies. However along with yesterday’s retweets I wasn’t notified of them with the app, thereby adding another problem onto the pile. I won’t stop using the app because I get notifications when people are talking to/about me.

What is your preferred way of updating your social sites?

Tagged as: confused

  • http://willisistalking.blogspot.com billhelm

    I go back and forth between native twitter.com and brizzly – twitter.com when I’m sampling or reading from lists and brizzly when I want to scan a bunch of tweets. I also use tweetie on my Ipod a lot when I’m just hanging around the house – love that client.

    i can’t use apps at work so it’s really a no-brainer.

    I don’t get re-tweeted that often, but that functionality does still need some work all around IMO.

    • http://iamdez.com dez

      I don’t get retweeted that often, but there’s a consistency to it that would be nice to know about. Yesterday for instance I @replied a writer in NY about something he tweeted. He retweeted the post and a another unknown person to me retweeted it.

      I would have forgetten to check the retweet section if it wasn’t for my Google Alert this morning.

  • Rohn

    For Twitter I use an iPhone app exclusively (Tweetie), in fact I’m using it right now to write this comment in its built-in browser.

    For Facebook I most often use the iPhone app, sometimes the web version if I have a lot to type.

    Lately my phone is my primary communicating device (the computer at work is censored) so these choices make sense for me. I do look forward to a physical keyboard again so I can type massive missives :)

    • http://iamdez.com dez

      That’s one issue that I also have, but I already covered the lack of mobile platform coverage that happens. The iPhone has some obviously powerful applications that may do what I want them to do, but I don’t (won’t) own an iPhone so that I can get coverage everywhere. Actually since I got my myTouch I stopped carrying my iPod around everywhere with me for updating Twitter/Facebook when I could get a wifi signal.

      Maybe an application that doesn’t really look like an application that is dependant on API, but it corrects some of the annoying/lack of features part that the twitter native doesn’t cover would be an app that I could get into.

      I’ve even tried using some greasemonkey scripts, but I’ve crashed my browser one too many times to continue that adventure.

  • http://w00dz.com Tim D

    Being a CrackBerry user for the last few years, I’ve had my methods updated as applications become available. For Twitter, I’ve been using UberTwitter for about a year or so now, and that works quite well for me. I have Twitter linked up with FaceBook, so any Tweets (including new posts to my Blog, also linked to Twitter) will filter down to Facebook.

    The FB app for CrackBerry is just too heavy and laggy right now, even afer a number of revisions, so I stick to the mobile site. for IM, I use BeeJive

    I’m eagerly awaiting the shift to the DROID on the 21st, which case I think it will be a swithc to TwitDroid, and Meebo, with a review of the FM mobile app for Android.

    • http://iamdez.com dez

      When you get your Droid, you should also try Seesmic for Android. So far that’s been easily the most powerful client for me on my android phone. And there’s now multi-account availability as well as customized notifications and a pretty easy interface for viewing everything.

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