Tweetie for MacA few months back I wrote about how desktop Twitter clients are pointless, especially when they offer no benefit to the user. For the most part I still today hold the same contempt for desktop twitter clients I had back in early March 2009 with one exception: Tweetie for Mac by atebits. This is the one and only desktop Twitter client I have found worth using on a regular basis, and the one client offering many advantages unlike its competition. I continue to find the focused reliance on using a desktop client to access Twitter quite fascinating, but at the same time understandable, especially after having used Tweetie for Mac since its debut.

The idea of a desktop Twitter client still makes little to no sense to me unless the client adds value to Twitter. Unfortunately today, as was the case a few short months ago, most desktop clients offer no compelling reason for their use. There is no case to be made for a client capable of performing the same actions as the Twitter web site, especially when the client adds absolutely no functionality. Might as well stick with the web site.

But this is where Tweetie for Mac separates itself from the herd. Packed with a host of excellent features, I have been pulled to the dark-side of Twitter use ever since it first launched. There were two specific features which drew me towards Tweetie for Mac: multiple account support and integrated search. I find multiple account support almost a must-have feature if you operate various Twitter accounts and the latter is a godsend for quick and easy notification of search matches.

For example, I use Tweetie for Mac to manage my own account as well as the TechMiso account, in addition to a couple other insignificant accounts. If I were to solely use the web site for managing these accounts it would be a nightmare. I would have to logout and login to each account for every action I want to take. With a client supporting multiple accounts it’s as simple as setting up the account once and then you are off and running. Tweetie for Mac’s interface is designed with this in mind and facilitates such use in a very simplistic manner.

The power of Tweetie for Mac is unmatched unless you are in to the whole “column” thing that makes TweetDeck a popular destination. Unfortunately I find myself quite biased against Adobe AIR apps and thus will probably never use TweetDeck for any length of time for that very reason. Did I just say the evil “B” word?

Tweetie for Mac 1.2 was just released a couple days ago upped the ante on desktop Twitter clients. You can now record and tweet videos directly from an iSight camera, something not possible on any other desktop Twitter client. This is a huge new feature and one that will surely be taken advantage of by the myriad of folks who are dying to see themselves on-screen.

But this article is not intended to be a review of Tweetie for Mac or to report on the new features added in the releases. Rather, it is to demonstrate that desktop Twitter clients can have utility. In order for a desktop Twitter client to be truly successful it needs to offer compelling features outside of those offered directly on the Twitter web site. I made the following observation at the conclusion of my previous thoughts on desktop Twitter clients:

With integrated real-time search coming to Twitter soon, I find desktop clients becoming less and less relevant. The tide will shift back to the web site, with only a handful of people using desktop clients to access the service from their desktop.

I am more than happy to admit that the above statement is utter crap. The beauty of Twitter is that it appears simple but is utterly complex in its capabilities. This is why it is only prudent to use a desktop Twitter client to access the site if you expect to be able to do anything “fun” on Twitter, whereby fun is defined as sharing photos, tweeting videos, sharing your location and all those things that the web site does not facilitate in an easy manner.

As smart developers find more and more inventive ways to use Twitter, desktop clients are going to play a larger and more integral role. Twitter is definitely not going to add the kitchen sink in to the web site. This means the really cool stuff will have to be done from within a desktop client, which means if you want to do the cool things you better hop aboard the train.

And it is on that note that I get to remove my foot from my mouth! Twitter desktop clients are dead. Long live Twitter desktop clients.