Twitter that TweetDeck
Jinfo Blog

By Joanna Ptolomey

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When I first started using Twitter a couple of years ago I found it difficult to keep track of what was going on.  Within a short space of time many people had recommended I switch to TweetDeck.  The real possibilities suddenly became apparent.

TweetDeck makes tracking multiple conversations and curating information that is of particular interest to me easy and convenient.  This could be particular hashtags such as #hcsmeu, #healthlit, #fumsi or #STM and it could be people or organisations.  These themes are arranged in columns and are infinitely more useful than searching for information.  To put it bluntly if TweetDeck had not been around I am sure I would not have used Twitter as much – which is of course a real shame.  But hey I am a demanding information user and curator just like most people.

Twitter thinks TweetDeck is good too, or perhaps just that it takes too much of their traffic.  As reported in the Wall Street Journal Twitter is in talks to purchase TweetDeck for around $50 million to make their format more useful and manageable to users.

There have been other changes in applications for Twitter more recently.  As much as I use TweetDeck – on the go I prefer Ubermedia (Ubertwitter and now Ubersocial) on mobile.  Last month I did read that Ubermedia actually bought TweetDeck.  Around that time Ubermedia was suspended by Twitter for infringement of some rule or other – but it all sounds rather petty to me.

Twitter marketing hype promotes the message that all they want is a consistent user experience for all.  If they are buying TweetDeck then this seems like a purely defensive move on their part.  If TweetDeck disappeared it would be a great loss to many users – chronological lists of all tweets are almost useless to most people.  Curation and management are the key.

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