As Twitter has experienced explosive growth recently, 752% in fact in 2008, with a total of 4.43 million unique visitors in December alone, the 3rd party apps have been flooding in to the web. Some are good, some are bad and some are just plain worthless and a waste of time. Which brings me to this list and overview of 10 3rd Party Apps for Twitter.
I have included my review and thoughts on the application itself. Please take time and add your thoughts on these apps as well.
Lets take a look at this batch of Twitter Applications
Twittervision
What is Twittervision?
A real-time geographic visualization of posts made using Twitter.
How do you get on Twittervision?
Post on Twitter. That’s it. No magic. It reads your location and grabs your user image from your profile. Your image and location have to be setup if you want your tweet to appear on the public feed and to be located on the map.
Is this a must have?
Hell no. It is more like left over MySpace trash that has floated away from the main heap of trash that is MySpace. Who cares in the end? MySpace is the dimly lit pickup Bar where pimple ridden teenagers troll for porno and pray for booty-calls, Twitter is the well lit daytime Coffee shop where grownups gather and have discussions and exchange ideas.
TweeTag
This one is pretty simple and can be a helpful little search engine. You type in a subject in the tag box and the search engine retrieves data from Twitter and places it on one of 5 tabs for indexing. The five tabs are "ALL", "LINKS", "QUESTIONS", "REPLIES" and "RETWEETS".
This little search engine can give you valuable information with just a few quick searches. Whether you are doing research or just trying to keep your finger on the pulse of the International News System, TeeTags can help. The current version only extends the search and indexing back over the past 24 hours, so nothing "tweeted" beyond that time frame will be available on the TweeTag system. They are currently looking to increasing the time frame.
Is this one a must have?
If you are doing anything with research involved, Yes. It is all on the site or you can grab the widget. You can install it on your iGoogle or Netvibes homepage or directly on your blog. Or you can follow TweeTag on Twitter but that wont really do anything for you.
TwitterFeed
The idea for this little birdie is to feed your blog directly to twitter, identi.ca or Ping.fm. But to do so you have to hand over your Twitter Info including your Password. Though this system could serve Bloggers and writers well I would suggest that you setup an isolated, fresh account is you are going to use this system. That way if it is compromised you haven't lost your main account.
To use this system you will also have to have an OpenId account in use that you will use to access this system.
Is all the trouble really worth it for the average Blogger or Tweeter to get this system to do your dirty work? Nope. You are better off creating your shorty url and crafting the language of the Tweet by hand. But there are those who have many many blogs and are trying to save time and some effort in the process. This system is for them. This system claims to be currently feeding 118,722 feeds directly to twitter.
TweetDeck
This App came with the highest recommendations of any apps to date. This system makes all of the Twitter world become suddenly manageable. You can control many aspects of the Twitterverse with this system. It also gives you many extra perks built into the system. Auto update of Tweets, URL shortening, TwitScoop column, TwitPic integration and a built in spell checker. In short this is a powerful tool.
If you have more than 10 people you are going to follow you will want an easy way to organise and control the way you see and interact with the Twitter system. It may not seem overwhelming at first, but soon after you gain friends on Twitter, conversations tend to move quickly.
Is this one a must have?
Yes. Again if you are following more than 10 people or you are planning on using the full potential of the Twitter system for marketing or personal use this is a great system to have in place. It is available for automatic installation in Mac OS X and Windows (Vista & Windows XP) by download and also for manual installation for Linux systems.
TwitPic
Though it is included in the TweetDeck application this can also be used as a standalone app. In simple terms this application allows you to post and share pictures on the Twitter system. If you follow the Public Time line on the website for TwitPic you can see, on a google map where and when pics are posted to Twitter. To use this system you have to sign in with your Twitter account.
Is this app a must have?
Well yes and no. If you plan to post pics on Twitter or share them with your followers then this is one of the simpler platforms on which to do it. You can post pictures to TwitPic from your phone, from the TwitPic API, or through the TwitPic site itself.
TwitterSearch
Twitter acquired Summize and added a new dimension to the Twitter platform which allows you to search the Twitterverse. Because this app is provided by Twitter the time line it covers is extensive and runs back beyond the standard 24 hour period. In fact during a test to see how far back I could go I found that I could see Tweets from as far back as 7 days. This search engine also shows you the trending of topics currently on Twitter.
Is this one a must have?
Why not. It is a great search tool and allows you to go back further in the time line than the previous search engine we talked about. The other plus - you don't have to download or sign in to use it.
TweetBurner
This is an interesting little tool which allows you to see the top URL's that have had activity on Twitter through out a day. It can be helpful to understand trending and activity and how your URL's are performing on Twitter.
A must have?
Nope, not really.
TwitterGrader
Cute and fluffy. That's about it. The grade means little and what defines the overall grade is not defined on the site so it's real value is unknown but the value of this site is not it's "cute fluffy get your grade" side, but it is the TwitterElite section. This part of the site gives you the top Twitter users with an overview of the Bio they have posted and the follower count that they have and the "Grade" they have received from TwitterGrader.
Must have tool?
Nope, but it can be fun to see your personal grade and then find allot of people to follow who might be of interest to you. Keep in mind, each person you add to your follow list probably improves there overall "Grade" but then, who cares.
TwitterCounter
This little app is included int he TweetDeck application, but you can use it as a stand alone also. It will give you a graph showing the growth of your Twitter Follower count as well as a prediction for the growth rate you will see over the following day and month. Or you can enter your own length of time for a prediction of followers.
Should this tool be in your arsenal?
It can be a handy prediction tool and again can give the user some enjoyment and smiles to see that they should expect to have (according to TwitterCounter) 224,062 followers by the close of the year as it predicts that I will. (I will have to keep track of this prediction) The value of this tool actually comes in when you add the TwitterCounter Badge on your blog or site. People can see how many followers you have and if you know how to manipulate code, they can become a follower of you on Twitter directly from the badge.
That ends out list of 10 Twitter App's - do you have an app that's not listed here? let us know about it!
