The new Twitter – web browser versus applications

By now you have all heard that Twitter is rolling out a re-vamped site. It will be shiny with the requisite “All New” bling-i-ness that comes with exciting social media upgrades and premieres.

As of today I am still sporting “Classic Twitter” and have decided to embrace my old school as being way cooler than the upgraded kids. I mean, upgrades are sooooooo 1999, aren’t they? Ok, so I wish I was one of the “uber cool Tweeple” who get these upgrades first, but…

According to the announcement video, it seems that Twitter is making an attempt to back pedal and find a way to keep their users on the web browser format instead of having them move to applications like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite or Seesmic.

I have always been surprised that Twitter didn’t roll out things like desktop applications, photo services or url shorteners as in house products. It seems to me like they finally figured that same thing out and are trying to round the wagons around the newer users to encourage them to stay put. The reasons why they are doing it remain to be seen, but I am guessing it has something to do with income generation. If you can get users to stay on the Twitter web,page, then you might be able to capitalize upon their eyeballs. I am speculating here, but it makes sense to me.

If you haven’t seen the Twitter video yet, here it is:

After I watched the video, I went to Twitter (duh) and engaged in conversation with people about the changes and was surprised to find that two people who I consider “heavy hitters” on Twitter both use the Twitter web page as their main Twitter client. I switched early on to Tweetdeck and can’t fathom trying to manage Twitter via the “Classic Twitter” version, but they were both adamant that they prefer it.

This got me to thinking about web browser vs. applications and the pros and cons of each option and I decided this was a great place to share my thoughts.

I will say straight out that I am a Tweetdeck user and a big fan of both the desktop and iPhone applications. In my opinion a tool like Tweetdeck takes the chaos out of Twitter and organizes my people into columns that make sense to me and are easy to follow.

My top five reasons why I choose Tweetdeck:
#1- I love columns
#2- Don’t have to leave the page to perform searches, read threaded conversations, look at pictures, etc.
#3- Ability to post across platforms (Facebook, Linkedin, etc)
#4- Ability to manage multiple Twitter accounts at once
#5- Columns easily created from Twitter lists

Now another application that many people tell me they love is HootSuite. While I don’t have much experience with HootSuite, it has a lot going for it. I recently opened an account to test it in comparision with Tweetdeck. I like:

#1- Online application means no Adobe Air usage like Tweetdeck
#2- Easy team member interface
#3- Auto feed for RSS
#4- I love columns (linear thinking is my world)
#5- Statistics available for individual tweets in free version

The last of the big three Twitter applications that I hear about most is Seesmic. I know least about this service, but in researching it this seems cool:

#1- Has a web, desktop and mobile version
#2- Desktop boasts the ability to post and monitor most social sites
#3- I hate to say it, but again I love the columns
#4- Real time updates for the desktop version
#5- Plug ins to manage whatever content matters to you most

So, I plan to spend time with HootSuite and Seesmic on a regular basis to determine if either of these two services can win me over from Tweetdeck, but new Twitter or classic Twitter, I don’t plan on using the Twitter home page. I think that for most people who follow more than a few people, a Twitter application such as the three discussed here is a game changing necessity.

How about you? What applications do you use? Are you still surfing Twitter from their home page?