Tweetdeck vs wefollow

There are a multitude of Twitter aggregators currently on the market, many gimicky, many with minimal value, and a few which genuinely add value to Twitter.   By adding value, I regard

• Search ( for people, subjects, categories, content)
• getting relevant information ( and being able to delete once acquired)
• being able to share information (retweet), reply or comment (DM) on the run
• Tweet from within the application or service
• Cross pollinate with other social media (e.g. Facebook)
• Access ubiquitously including from mobile

Two of the best that I have encountered, and currently use include Tweetdeck and wefollow.com

One of these aggregators had a bit of a headstart on others.  wefollow.com has been launched by Kevin rose, most notable for his startup DIGG.  It takes advantage of one of the key components of Web 2.0, that the best content and often the richest and most valuable is user generated.  Following the most interesting or relevant users on Twitter is difficult.  WeFollow.com, using Twitters api, a Representational State Transfer (REST) architectural style, allows you to look at directories  of content,  that have been edited by user preferences.  Users tag their own content (usually with several tags), and directories are created dynamically from these tags.

Best practice adaption of granular content is at use here.  From a sport category, it is possible to search for or click on a sportsman, go to a Twitter account, then visit an individual post.  Simple products are often the best, and it is interesting to note that there are no user guides, faq’s, contact us, more info, about on this site.   A final further extension to user generated content can be seen at cssremix.com/featured/wefollow/ where Cascade Style Sheets have been applied to WeFollow content (which took its content from Twitter) to create interesting, customised content for a site.

WeFollow has attempted  to beat the competition by being better at harnessing and integrating services provided by others.  Competitors such as Summize and Tweetscan use openserchdescription( which extends RSS and Atom),  while older platforms such as Twellow are using a combination of javascript,  and php.   Like Twellow , WeFollow uses Amazons hosting services, taking away much of the initial infrastructure startup costs, and having a reliable platform from day one.  The REST architecture and Amazon hosting allows for scalable growth

Perhaps one of the greatest issues with user generated directories has been addressed by the profile of Kevin Rose(the startup guy), in that critical mass is often needed to initiate decent sized directories for a user generated site.  The signup 2500 users in the first 24 hours solved this problem.  His business reputation in this field, simple initial concept, choice of platform and architecture, and knowledge of the targeted customers have definitely contributed to the initial success of WeFollow.

But on to Tweetdeck, a desktop application which I use ( and so does most of my workmates).  It is easy to set up and use, is a desktop application using AIR with integration with Twitter and Facebook, and adds a Stack of Value.  What do I mean by value?  Well Tweetdeck takes as many follows as you like and structures them into columns of content.  No longer to you have to scroll and wait for the scrolling circle of pain.  You can search for Friends, Mentions, Direct Messages(often spam), Favourites, Groups, Recommendations, Twitscoop and Stocktips.  These are the recommended icons, but I currently have columns in place that searches for QUT, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, Web Development, Friends and Wordpress(because I needed a hand setting up this one:).  But any search is possible, and quite amusing if you have a few spare hours.  A recent survey found that Tweetdeck outperformed  Seesmic Desktop), Twhirl, Tweetr, and Twitteroo in every category that the 600 testers looked at: best overall quality, best feature set, and best usability.

I happen to agree.