Monday 2 March 2009

Using TweetDeck's Features

Following a pleasant feature review (or how-to) of TweetDeck by Cali Lewis on GeekBrief.TV ep.517, I figured it was about time to actually sit down and fully investigate the different functions in the utility and did so this weekend.
I've been using TweetDeck for quite a few months now from time to time (I alternate with Twhirl) and was only really using it with some of the default columns :- all friends, replied, directs.

From time to time I also used twitscoop and in rare occasions would also run a search. For what it's worth that basic mode in itself is a very functional Twitter interface with the benefit of quickly allowing you to see the tweet feed plus tweets where you are mentioned. That's about it for the TweetDeck features :- this post is about some new features rather than a review.



The function that intrigued me during Cali's how-to was the groups ability. With it, you can group different Twitter accounts into one column. I follow a number of tech & general news magazines/webzines that use Twitter as a form of notification. The group functionality allows you to put these all together for quick identification and review. I set this up and a couple of others (tech products, security & close friends tweets).
After running TweetDeck for a few days like this, my conclusions are that it's useful and interesting but... (the buts are related to the following two points):

  • you need a really wide monitor (on my laptop this is inconvenient as you spend much time scrolling in all directions);
  • it hasn't given me and noticeable benefits in the way I look at tweets! The main reason for this is that I tend to speed read through most Internet chatter/info and focus on the points that catch my eye or raise a flag. I can do this quite easily and efficiently in the general all friends feed. This however could be a side effect of the lack is screen realestate.

I'll continue to use these features especially on my gaming rig with the big monitor where it will give me a better vision of things. On another note here, it would be nice to have a save/transfer settings feature.

I am still stuck on one point with TweetDeck and that is that I am unable to find and easily follow a new Twitter. I am sure it is there somewhere but just not that obvious (at least from my PoV). It will be interesting to watch it evolve.

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