We here at Techgeist don’t often write about Twitter or Twitter applications, there are plenty of other blogs who do the job quite well. Nonetheless, there are some neat Twitter applications out there in the wild, and I particularly enjoyed using the online alternative to Tweetdeck called Tweetvisor
Tweetvisor otherwise known as Tweet Advisor is a web based twitter application created by Nelu Lazar, a Romanian web developer amongst other things. The purpose behind Tweetvisor is to advise you on how you should react to your Twitter updates. While the original idea has not been fully realized yet, it at least helps you organize your tweets much like the very popular Tweetdeck.
In the middle of your Tweetvisor page you have your timeline. Here you have an array of options to work with your timeline. By clicking on the options above you can conduct searches, create groups and check redundant features such as replies and direct messages, which are already shown in the sidebar to the left and right.
Tweetvisor also has a couple of simply neat features. In the replies sidebar, Tweetvisor attempts to thread conversations, and is usually accurate. Hovering over a name will give the usual options, such as DM, reply, and follow/unfollow. In case your following people who don’t speak your native tongue Tweetvisor will also translate the tweet for you. I have not had the chance to test this feature out so I could not honestly tell you how well it works. You can also use multiple Twitter accounts, which is becoming more and more prevalent in many Twitter applications. There are two themes you can choose from in Tweetvisor. One of the themes is seemingly inspired (much like the rest of Tweetvisor) by Tweetdecks dark tones which I have never been fond of so I opted for the light blue theme.
Some have complained that Tweetvisor isn’t an Adobe Air application, and in all honesty, it shouldn’t be. The Adobe Air market for Twitter applications is already saturated with enough big name players such as Tweetdeck, Twhirl and Seesmic Desktop. If you want a desktop like experience my suggestion for users of Google Chrome is to leverage your “create application shortcuts” feature, or for the Firefox users download the plug-in Prism. Both of which will wrap a web app into a native looking desktop application.
As an application hater and web application lover Tweetvisor has a lot of potential in my mind. While Tweetvisor features has all the necessary functions that a standard Adobe Air based Twitter application has, this is hindered by the snail pace load times which are unacceptable, especially since I have been spoiled with dependable real time goodness from Friendfeed. I will still keep Tweetvisor on my radar though and keep coming back to see if anything has improved. I am ready to jump on the boat at anytime, I just need the boat to support me.
