This morning, TweetDeck v0.21b was released, providing a boatload of small, but much needed, user interface improvements. For those of you who don’t already know TweetDeck, it is a Twittter client. It’s different from some of the other ones out there, in that “it aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces.” TweetDeck is my Twitter client of choice.
But, for those that know and love TweetDeck, the biggest drawback has been its management of empty space and overall width of the application. The UI was just a little on the “clunky” side. It looks like the development team heard these complaints and have addressed them in the latest release. Aside from overall “compactness” in the standard layout, this version of TweetDeck now comes with a setting for “narrow columns” which is pretty handy, reducing my application width by a full 20%, allowing me to add a new column into my display at full screen, if I choose to.
Another nice improvement is an apparently new integration with a site called TwitterCounter.com. This provides an auto-generated @ reply sent from TweetDeck Services to you that provides follower statistics and, even cooler, projections of follower counts based on current rates. Here’s what my first TwitterCount message said: “@msmamet followers 193, added since yesterday 3, average growth per day 1, predictions: tomorrow 194, next month 223 (twittercounter.com).” It doesn’t look like this is a true @ reply sent through Twitter, but rather it’s generated by the application and put in your “Replies” column – so it’s private. I suppose if you like to brag, you could always Retweet it.
I’m still exploring the list of changes, including a new spellcheck feature, but overall it looks like this release has made the application markedly better. I encourage you to download it and try it today. What are some other Twitter clients that you use and like? I’d like to know your thoughts about it!
