As you can see in the graphic below, you can setup the Sobees web application with as many panels as you would like. The panels can be setup as Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts (soon) and real-time searches. For example, I could have one panel for my @centernetworks Twitter account, one for my @cloudcontacts Twitter account, a search for “web blogs that don’t link”, a search for “great web startups”, etc.

Sobees is based in Switzerland and competes with London-based Tweetdeck (which moments ago announced a new round of funding in the amount of 2 million pounds) and valley darling Seesmic. Seesmic has been talking about a browser-based version for a while now but it hasn’t launched as of yet.

The big issue with Sobees in the past was that you needed a windows machine and some runtimes to get the service to work. With this new web-based version, you need only Silverlight which works on both Windows and Mac in any browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome, etc.).

The tool also offers an anti-spam function which allows you to enter a variety of terms that will be blocked in your timeline and/or search results.

My only real suggestion for the Sobees team is to consolidate their product names – get rid of bDule and just offer Sobees Web, Sobees Lite and Sobees Full. I think it’s a bit confusing that bDule = sobees Web.

Update: Seesmic Web client is now live as well – read a very in-depth review by Frederic Lardinois at Readwriteweb.

Earlier this year I wondered why Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur wasn’t using his own service in favor of other video tools including Ustream and YouTube. Could this shift to social stream app have been the real reason? I’ve noticed over the past month, less and less people posting videos.

Some heavy Seesmic video users have commented on Twitter about the change as well:

• iKrissi – If Seesmic is slowly pushing aside and giving up it’s ‘video conversation’ roots, can you let us know sooner than later? We miss it.
• Tellus (this is Frieda, the person with the most videos on Seesmic) – I’m very disappointed in the fact that you didn’t us or at least me a clue. That not what a friend would have done!

I’d like to see Loic address the state of the video service – while I don’t use it, I know others do. In fact, there’s a video thread going about the status. Loic has typically been upfront about his application and updates/changes. It’s important with a community tool/service that the members are kept up-to-date on the current situation.

Update 1: Loic has a video post about the changes – he notes that there has been no growth and he is focusing on the Seesmic desktop application. Here’s his video – it’s worth watching as Loic speaks openly and honestly. He says no video site is growing except for YouTube (notes 12 seconds in the same bucket as Seesmic).

 

Update 2: You can’t even get to the links via the video player anymore as the domain name has changed – I guess they need to update the urls in the video player to point to video.seesmic.com.

Here’s the old Seesmic homepage:

Here’s the new Seesmic homepage (the video function is actually further down than this screenshot goes):

Most of the updates in today’s 0.9.6.5 release are usability and performance enhancements. They have also rewritten the Flickr search. The new functionality is the addition of Digg and the Digg search along with the ability to submit items from others windows to Digg. They have also added new themed content windows for the MLB, soccer, tennis and the NFL.

The Sobees tools compete in the same space as Tweetdeck and the new Seesmic. Currently the Sobees tools are only available for Windows. The company is working on a cross-platform version which they expect to release this summer.

On the surface, both applications are very similar. Listed below are some of the general features you’ll find in both TweetDeck and Seesmic.

• Use multiple Twitter accounts (just added in TweetDeck v0.6.x)
• Monitor Facebook friends’ status
• Monitor Twitter search results
• Post to Twitter
• Post Facebook status
• Send direct messages to Twitter followers
• Shorten URLs using various URL shortening sites
• Upload pictures to TwitPic (and a few others) and post to Twitter
• Shrink your Twitter post using TweetShrink
• Adjust the specific amounts of time between checking for Twitter “following” updates, direct messages, search results, etc. to utilize your 100 API calls per hour to its fullest
• Follow/Unfollow/Block Twitter users from within the application
• Notification of new updates via a pop-up on your desktop and a sound (can be configured through the application settings)
• Available for Linux, Mac and Windows (via Adobe AIR)

Now, I will outline the features available in Seesmic Desktop that are not yet available in TweetDeck:

• View Twitter updates and Facebook updates together in a single column
• Columns automatically resize themselves (within reason) to fit in the width of the window
• View your timeline (Sent) from Twitter in its own column, without being mixed in with all of the people you are following
• The Facebook account shows all updates from your Facebook friends (TweetDeck only shows status updates, and only shows the most recent from each friend)
• Choose which URL shortening service, pic upload service, etc. you want to use when you are actually posting it (TweetDeck requires you to set the default sites to use in the application settings)

Following are the features available through TweetDeck that are not yet found in Seesmic Desktop:

• Preview shortened URLs (if you click on a shortened URL, TweetDeck pulls some information about that URL and shows it to you – including the real URL to which that short URL redirects)
• An iPhone application is also available, and you can sync your TweetDeck columns between your iPhone and your computer
• Post the same status update to your Facebook account and your Twitter account in one action
• Auto-complete usernames (from a list of the people you’re following, I believe) as soon as you type the @ symbol – This feature can be turned on or off in the application settings
• Auto-include hashtags when you reply to someone’s post (this feature can be turned on or off in the application settings)
• Translate an update you are preparing to post
• View a list of hashtags you’ve used recently so that you can insert it into your post

Now, I’ll try to outline some of the differences between the two and some of the features I’d like to see that aren’t available in either:

• TweetDeck does not allow you to resize or reorder your columns in any way (except the option to use “narrow columns,” which makes all of your columns about 10 or 15 pixels narrower than the standard size). However, Seesmic Desktop, as mentioned above, will sort of automatically resize your columns to fit in the width of the window. Still, though, Seesmic does not offer any way to manually resize your columns.
• Although Seesmic shows all of your updates (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) in one column, there doesn’t seem to be a way to show them in separate columns. TweetDeck only offers the ability to show them in separate columns.
• There does not seem to be a way, in either application, to indicate which Facebook updates are displayed when you add your Facebook status
• Within Seesmic Desktop, you can “like” a Facebook update or tweet it. In TweetDeck, you can either e-mail the Facebook status update or tweet it. Neither application allows you to comment on the Facebook updates.

Personally, I prefer the interface of Seesmic Desktop over the TweetDeck interface. However, the feature set currently available in TweetDeck offers more of the functionality I want, so I’m working mostly within TweetDeck. The number one feature that would absolutely need to be added to Seesmic Desktop before I would consider switching is the short URL preview. I also would want Seesmic to introduce the auto-complete usernames and auto-include hashtags. I must admit that I also am becoming a big fan of the fact that I can sync my TweetDeck columns between platforms (as long as I sync them with my iPhone, I can also sync them between Linux and Windows and between my work and home computers – which is really cool).

That said, if TweetDeck introduces a way to comment on Facebook updates and a way to resize the columns (automatically and/or manually), I would probably stop considering switching to Seesmic Desktop.

As a final word, I will issue this minor warning: If you use TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop at the same time (as I did while writing this review to allow for easy comparison), you will most likely run out of Twitter API calls before the hour is up (I ran out about 15 minutes early).

Over the past week companies including Seesmic have launched desktop applications which allow you to access your Facebook “stream” on your desktop without ever visiting the facebook.com website. Steven Hodson has a good overview of the new Seesmic application.

These new applications are similar to the crop of Twitter applications that allow you to interact with the service “off-site”. Most power users appear to use an off-site service when interacting with Twitter. I can only assume we will see the same pattern with Facebook and off-site interaction. I am not sold that these desktop applications have a chance to actually be solid revenue generators but we will leave that discussion for another day.

My question to Facebook is…where are my ads within these new desktop applications? Are they sent as a package with the feed to the desktop applications? If advertising is the model that Facebook intends to use going forward, I would have thought ads would be included in the desktop stream from day 1. I will admit that I haven’t downloaded the Seesmic desktop application but in all of the reviews I have read, there has been no mention of advertising within the stream.

Assuming ads are not currently part of the desktop applications, when they add them, will we see the same sort of backlash that Facebook has experienced with Beacon and more recently with the terms of service changes? The numbers of Facebook users using the desktop applications is low today and will be for the short-term but as that number grows (especially with power users), Facebook will be forced to push out more ads into the stream – or they risk losing the $1 that I paid them last month since users will never have the chance to engage with my ad unit.

Last night I listened to a recording of a podcast where Techcrunch editor Michael Arrington explained that FriendFeed has no chance against Twitter. My take is that FriendFeed is not a competitor to Twitter and the FF team would be smart to get away from the comparisons. Friendfeed is a social forum software and Twitter is IRC 2.0. Everyone wants to make a battle out of the two for cheap pageviews but as I’ve said for a long time now, they are not competitors. I did find it interesting that when asked how he describes the service, FriendFeed co-founder Paul Bucheit basically said the exact same line as Tumblr uses about being the easiest way to share online.

But let’s assume for a moment that Michael is correct and FriendFeed has no chance to compete in the space. What does that mean for his investment in social sharing software Seesmic? Tonight, Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur is going to take the world through a demo of his rebranding of Twirl into the "Seesmic Desktop". Could Seesmic get further in the "fight" than FriendFeed has? I grabbed a quick interview with Loic at SXSW where he announced the first step in his Seesmic Desktop with the launch of Seesmic for Facebook. I haven’t had a chance to see or play with the desktop application and look forward with great anticipation to the demo tonight.

Later this week I will share my thoughts on FriendFeed and how they can start to move ahead and away from the Twitter comparisons.

For everyone who believes they are an "Internet player", I’ve got a bus heading to the valley tomorrow – leave a comment if you’d like a ticket. Also check out Robert Scoble’s column where he wonders if people are leaving/will leave the valley.

I was able to capture a quick video with Loic about the new launch today.

This morning LeWeb organizer and Seesmic CEO Loic LeMeur replied to my post via Twitter:

I interviewed Loic back in September and since then he’s fired a bunch of the Seesmic staff. I think there have been a lot of questions about how Seesmic will generate real revenue and growth past their loyal users, like Freida, who clearly make up the majority of the videos on Seesmic.

LeWeb is a major tech conference currently going on in Paris, France. The conference costs 1500 Euros for the two-days of discussions and startup presentations. You can check out the instant conversations about LeWeb via Twitter Search (leweb and leweb08).

My beef is that Loic selected Ustream to run live coverage of the conference. There is absolutely no reason that this conference needed to be broadcast live. First, if I paid $2,000 to attend, I’d be pissed that my sister could sit at home and watch it for free. Second and even more importantly, Loic runs a video platform! These two days could have provided an amazing opportunity for Seesmic to gain trial users, awareness, and general system usage.

Loic could have easily recorded each session, uploaded it to Seesmic and generated a masive amount of video discussion inside his platform — instead he "left the money on the table" by allowing the conversation to take place on Twitter. Certainly there would be conversation on Twitter anyway, but Seesmic could have offered a way for people to interact via video about the conference from anywhere in the world. Speakers could have been required to participate in the video conversation via Seesmic stations setup at LeWeb. Had he used Seesmic, the videos would have been available minutes after each session concluded. I understand that there are logistics issues to deal with regarding bandwidth and connections on Seesmic but there was plenty of time to handle these issues.

Loic missed a golden opportunity to introduce thousands of people (both in Paris and watching from home) to his video platform Seesmic. From what I can tell, there’s been nearly no conversation about LeWeb on Seesmic. Bottom line: If you don’t use your own system, it’s hard to get others to do so.

Update: Liz Gannes says Seesmic has about 13 employees after those let go today.

Seesmic has raised $12 million in venture capital funding to-date. Loic has created a video to explain about the headcount reduction:

Tough times. Tough decisions.also read my blog post http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2008/10/tough-times-tou.html

Best of luck to everyone who was let go – if I can be of any assistance with connections, let me know.

The service works on the Nokia N95 and other Symbian mobile devices. I asked LeMeur to compare the application to live mobile video streaming applications Kyte, Flixwagon and Qik. LeMeur explained that the Seesmic mobile application isn’t a live streaming application but rather a way to interact in the video conversation. When a video is uploaded via the mobile, users can select to have a message sent to their Twitter account information their friends of their new video upload.

If you are interested in learning more about Seesmic, check out my video interview with LeMeur from earlier this month. Here’s the video demo:

Here’s my chat with Loic – note that I planned to put this video on Seesmic but it was over 10 minutes which is the Seesmic length.

Here’s Loic:

Today Pete discusses:

• Google’s potential acquisition of Digg
• YouTube – Elmo’s premiere with Neil Patrick Harris
• Twitter
• The Facebook platform
• iPhone applications

Now we need to get her to stop talking about Seesmic!