Great Twitter Apps for You to Use

Twitter Friend Image courtesy of Pong & Creativecommons.org

As the Internet reaches new levels of consumer interaction the number of new free web based applications grows steadily, providing us with functions beyond the software housed on our hard drives. Regardless of the type of user you are, there should be something interesting here for you to try.

Please check these out, and if you have an opportunity, come back and comment after you use them, or feel free to point us towards other sites that you use and enjoy. This post will focus on micro-blogging applications, though we’ll get a little more diverse in later posts on this topc.

Remember the Milk is a Twitter app that allows you to do exactly what it says, remember the milk, remember to stop at the store, or do any task in the future. It also allows you to map your task and to remind yourself in a variety of ways, through email, SMS, and instant messenger (AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype and Yahoo).

• It might be a subset for neat free apps here, but there are a number of ways to interact with RTM that deserve mention (the easier it is to keep track of tasks, the easier it is to complete them!)
  • Mac Users get a little love with Remember the Moof

Tadalist is a similar type of web based application (not a Twitter app)with a slightly different calendar based interface. While the program is very useful in its free state, the reminder function (which to me is a crucial function for any mobile user) requires an upgrade to premium membership which costs $3 per month.

TweetLater is another twitter application which allows you to schedule your “tweets” . While this can also serve as a reminder, Tweetlater also welcomes followers automatically (saving you from the faux pas of forgetting to type :@soandso Thanks for the Follow!”) and allows you to automatically follow those who follow you (if you are so inclined).

And what microblogging post would be complete if we didn’t take a minute to address the desktop clients that allow us to follow the conversation at will.

My first desktop program was Digsby, an application that allows you to follow you email, myspace, facebook and twitter in one application. I didn’t care for the itieration I was using because it gave me too much information. In all fariness, Digsby has been improved and also offers Linkedin integration.

My second program was Twhirl , a desktop app used by many of my friends. It was hard for me to know if the delays I saw in Twirhl were  a result of Twitter problems or Twhirl problem, but the single column of information was an easy way to review what people were talking about , and responding was also simple and easy.  In addition, I was able to start a number of twitter accounts at the same time, so that was a sort of neat feature.

Now I mostly use Tweetdeck – this program allows me to create groups, and displays response in different columns which allow me to keep replies separate from people I follow, and from 12secondstv clips, while showing another column indicating twitter trends. The number of columns can be changed, as can the order of the columns, allowing for a really user friendly experience. As with every other application we use from Internet Explorer to Firefox, you should play around with them and see which one facilitates the conversation for you .

Tags: AIM, Digsby, Facebook, Google Talk, ICQ, Remember The Milk, Twitter, Yahoo