AlertThingy Archive

Popular Twitter and FriendFeed client Twhirl is announcing a major update this evening. Twhirl has added Seesmic video messageboard functionality to the Adobe Air client. Today alone, Twhirl has been downloaded 400,000 times. This update including the Seesmic functionality should help Seesmic gain even more adoption and distribution. The Twhirl acquisition might just go down as one of the smartest of 2008.

This new version offers the ability to watch Seesmic videos. Owner Loic LeMeur (he actually owns both Seesmic and Twhirl) tells me that recording to Seesmic within Twhirl is coming soon. I’ve posted a screenshot below – I actually think following the video thread is easier on Twhirl than on Seesmic.

If you’d like the Twhirl version with Seesmic functionality, download it here. The auto-update won’t be available most likely until the Seesmic recording input is added.

To be honest, I’ve been using AlertThingy for FriendFeed and I still use Twitter on Twitter.com. AlertThingy basically dies after about 12 hours of being alive and it typically won’t restart unless I reboot. Twhirl is really slick and polished! I am going to test it further and will report back on my thoughts after a couple of weeks.

Loic also shared some brand new stats with me that Twhirl represents 12% of all the tweets being sent and 5% of all the Friendfeed comments and info shared.

Loic has big plans for Twhirl and calls it a "social client". He wants it to become the "Skype of social software".

Update: Here’s Loic speaking about the new update — you gotta watch this to see how he shows off the URL for downloads – hilarious!:

Swiss startup Sobees has updated their application called bTT today. bTT combines Twitter and FriendFeed together and is similar to AlertThingy (our review). bTT works on Windows machines only currently. Check out our review of the full Sobees app from SXSW.

The new features include:

• Friendfeed and Twitter in one flow (no duplicates)
• New design (other sobees designs will be integrated later)
• Window sizing
• Comments now directly integrated in the main flow
• Option to show/hide all comments
• Option to post on Twitter and FriendFeed
• Filter by service
• Font size options
• Pictures displayed as a slide show within the flow

Here’s an example of the app in action:

The aggregation space of sharing/microblogging services sure seems to be sizzling hot right now!

Web strategy firm Howard Baines has just released to the public their FriendFeed API application named AlertThingy. It uses Adobe AIR to run as a desktop application and basically shows you whatever is in your friendfeed on your desktop. That’s about it. I won’t even ask how they will monetize it (see below) or how FriendFeed will monetize themselves because it’s the same issue as Twitter has. It seems everyone loves FriendFeed these days.

This is a smart idea and more Web agencies should be creating simple Web apps built on other platforms to keep their agency top of mind. While the traditional Howard Baines client may not give a hoot about FriendFeed, it can be a great sales strategy. It can also help build very valuable inbound links like the one above.

I noticed that the customization is very limited. For example, the screenshot below is the smallest you can make the window. There are no color selections or transparency settings and when minimized in Windows, you can’t click to bring it back, you are forced to right click and select Show.

Update: NicoleSimon notes on Twitter: #alertthingy: does not use my "hide" settings, does not have the links, colors hurt my eyes, hate opaque – ping me again with version 5.0.

Sobees launched a FriendFeed app last week and you can read our initial Sobees review as well. You don’t need the full Sobees installation to use it. Here is an example: