Note: Unless you are a Twitter and/or FriendFeed addict, this post isn’t for you.
Twitter/FriendFeed desktop client Alert Thingy just released version 1.3 of the software.
It is now a fully functioning client for both services (reading and writing). They’ve also added an easy Flickr uploader – just drag a photo into the application and upload it to Flickr.
The thing I like most about the new version of Alert Thingy though is that you access Twitter and FriendFeed in a single window and a single interface (Twhirl, a competitor, requires two windows). That means less desktop space is used. They are also de-duping Twitter messages (since they also appear in FriendFeed), a nice touch.
Switching between Alert Thingy, Twhirl and even the newer browser sidebar with similar functionality is trivially easy – there are no real switching costs. That means all of these products will be in a constant battle over features. That’s great for us users. And since Alert Thingy and Twhirl are more side projects for their parent companies (Alert Thingy is built by Howard/Baines, Twhirl is owned by Seesmic (a company I invested in), there’s little danger of one app driving the other out of business.
Im now planning to switch back to Alert Thingy based on the new features. The current version of Twhirl is freezing periodically as well, requiring regular restarts.