In some of my posts, I have mentioned
The fact I like using Twhirl
This little post is more to the point
Scroll down and lend me your eyes
I like Twhirl. It makes me a jolly good fellow
I like Twhirl. It’s small and light and makes me feel mellow
(Makes him feel mellow)
Seesmic Desktop’s too big,
Tweetdeck had too many panes
(but Tweetie rocks for the iPhone)
This little refrain should help me explain
As a matter of fact I like Twhirl
With apologies to Tom T. Hall and his I Like Beer song. And a bit more not in verse…
Loic, I know Seesmic is supposed to be your next big thing when it comes with Twitter apps. I know it has even more features out today such as list support. Got it. Heck, when I was at the August Capital party after the TechCrunch Real Time Stream CrunchUp event, you had a table out showing me Seesmic and half convinced me to move over to it from Twhirl.
I complained I didn’t like all the panes, that I like how I can tuck Twhirl into a side of my laptop and keep up without giving over all my screen real estate. That I could easily toggle to see replies, direct messages and so on. You responded that Seesmic could do all the exact same things and toggle between accounts. OK — I took a few Seesmic stickers (have one on my front door right now even) then went off to try it.
Couldn’t install. It wouldn’t install. Some bug with the Mac. So I never got to using it. About two weeks ago, I finally got it going. Guess what? Not that impressed, so far. For one, there was no way to import all my account settings from Twhirl. You want me to migrate? Don’t make me reenter four different Twitter accounts I monitor, along with a FriendFeed account plus API keys for these for Bit.ly.
Second, Seesmic still takes up more room than Twhirl, as far as I can see. But to help, in a future post, I’ll really lay out side-by-side why Twhirl still does it for me and what I’d like changed to make me a Seemic user.
In the meantime, when I am using Twhirl and posting to Twitter from Twhirl, don’t report in my status line that I’m using Seesmic like this:
That’s not on. And don’t tell people this is because they’re using a “Seesmic” product, as has been done.
Really, it looks like you’re doing it because plenty of people still use Twhirl, but if you report Twhirl separately, then you risk dividing your usage for those top application lists that people obsess over.
I get that. I feel for you about it. But it’s still not right. I’m using Twhirl — so say that. And also don’t make me feel that Twhirl’s going to die at any moment, as you do on the Seesmic home page:
Twhirl’s your “previous desktop client?” That makes me think it’s going away. Hey, your decision to make. I’m sure that would force some people into finally using Seesmic, weird name and all. I might be one of them, if you can keep it as light as Twhirl.
Then again, I might go elsewhere.
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Danny,
You know Seesmic Desktop can go down to one pane and work similar to Twhirl. I do agree that they should be honest with Twitters to what program you’re using.
Great piece.
Hello Danny,
I fully understand your concerns, all our clients now say via Seesmic, that is Seesmic Web, Desktop, Twhirl and future mobile clients, they will all say via Seesmic regardless of what they are and what platform they are used on. We don’t lie, Twhirl belongs to Seesmic and so you’re posting via Seesmic when you use it, via a Seesmic client. I understand it’s a change for you and you would rather say it via Twhirl but calling us like we’re lying seems a little strong to me…
We have made all our clients (Twhirl for 1.5 years) available for free to all our users, with no advertising and with frequent updates. When we launched Seesmic Desktop we did not discontinue Twhirl being available for download and it’s still up, for you to use daily without paying anything or getting any ad.
We are trying to make the Twhirl users as happy as possible with our new products and as it is said above in comments by Seth, we have created the single column mode in Seesmic just for that reason. We got feedback from our Twhirl users that they also wanted to hide the side bar, we created that too and Seesmic Desktop side bar hidden in one single column mode is really very similar to Twhirl. One big difference is that in Twhirl you can have one account per window, I agree, and we might do that too in Seesmic Desktop.
We’re trying our best, and we thank you for your feedback. Hoping to make you happy soon, but all our clients will keep saying via seesmic the company, a small thing we do, that I am surprised bothers you like that, sorry about that. We’re not liars. We’re trying hard to make everyone happy and it simply is often not possible
Thanks for your response, Loic. I guess it is perspective. You used to call Twhirl as Twhirl, even though you had Seesmic out there as well. For a long time, you reported the client that was used, not the company that owned the client. Then in October, you changed for no explanation that I’ve seen. Why did you change? What was broken with how you reported before.
The Twitter API documentation seems pretty clear. What you’re reporting is supposed to be the client, not the company:
For me, it’s as if you’re Microsoft, and you’re pushing versions of IE7 and IE8, but then you make a change so that IE7 starts claiming that it is IE8. That makes IE8 look more popular than it might be.
I like Seesmic in general. I’m a huge Twhirl fan, and I’ll probably make the jump to Seesmic Desktop if only because it think it’s clear that Twhirl isn’t going to have much of a future, and Seesmic will probably be the closest experience to what I have now and like. And by the way, I’d pay for either of these, if you also sold them.
I have seen the single column mode. Like I said, I’ll show you later why that still takes up more space than Twhirl does. Maybe it will improve further. And I appreciate you can’t please everyone
I’m right with you, Danny. I actually made a similar statement a little more than a month ago and Loic (on the @AskSeesmic account) responded. You can check out that conversation at the link below:
http://bettween.com/shawn/askseesmic
Same here Danny. Can’t install Seesmic, nor TweetDeck. Perhaps it’s my broken AIR Install?
For now I use HootSuite. Danny, I’m not sure why, but I seem to be keen on web apps
maybe that’s just me 
Hello Danny,
Calling our applications seesmic is fine with twitter as presented to their whole team last week, we’re talking to them quite frequently. We do not plan to have any application post from anything else in the future and I understand you do not like that, this is just how we provide our apps from now on.
We are not improving Twhirl anymore, focusing on Seesmic Desktop and future applications that you will see we will launch soon. We leave Twhirl available as a courtesy to our users but it won’t be updated much, we’re a small team. I hope you will be able to use Seesmic Desktop and I did take your feedback very seriously. Thank you.
I personally love TweetDeck…been hooked on it from the start. I can’t stand Twitter’s website for reading and posting Tweets, it sucks. TweetDeck makes it oh so nice and oh so easy to Retweet and respond to those I follow. Twitter should revamp their site and add some features that actually support those who use their service, that way everyone wouldn’t go looking for third party applications.
Noticed this week as I’ve used Seesmic for Android that it reports itself as Seesmic. So in the past week, I’ve used:
Twhirl
Seesmic Desktop For Mac
Seesmic For Android
The world just thinks I’m using Seesmic. Dunno, still doesn’t feel right.
So now Seesmic has released “Look,” which reports itself not as Seesmic generically (as does Twhirl, Seesmic Desktop & Seesmic Mobile) but as “Seesmic Look,” as you can see here. So much for the “We report Seesmic for everything” policy.
Definitely seems a ploy to get the Seesmic numbers up higher. At the same time, it might be a bit embarrassing if the whole world can see that more people actually prefer your older, discontinued product. I’m sure they have numbers that can directly refute that, but I’d be quite amused if that were the case. Also, I appreciate the very typical, “it’s a free product that we barely support now, so just take it” response.
I guess for Look, they want to see more specific numbers?
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