I’m not a big fan of Twitter. I don’t use it obsessively and I don’t really see what the big fuss is all about. Don’t think that I “don’t get it”. I do, and if you think you get it and I’m just an old dork, you may be surprised about what I get. Its an updated version of web-based Instant Messaging which has an arbitrary input limit of 140 characters. There’s nothing new about this. The so-called revolutionary Web 2.0 tools have made the same tired, old, stupid ideas new again to a generation who has no clue about classic BBS’, FIDOnet, CompuServe, 9600 baud modems, and The Loop, and old SoCal-area ISP to which I dialed in with my Apple PowerBook 145b running a highly modified version of System 7.5.5 (my OS fit in 2.5MBs of RAM with Open Transport activated and the multimedia goodies, kids), Global Village external modem, an ancient 3x speed, top loading, SCSI connected CD-ROM drive.

Yeah. Blazing speed, to be sure. Even back then, my rig was not the hottest game in town, but it was more than good enough to stay in the game. Web pages were statically produced pages of text and tables were generally hated. The best browser for the Mac was Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, though Netscape wasn’t bad and later iCab was quite good (don’t even talk about CyberDog to me). But this isn’t a memoir. This is a review of Twitterrific version 3.2.1 for Mac OS X, but I believe the scale and scope of this little retrospective is helpful. It reminds us of simpler days when less was the norm and we really didn’t expect much to blossom from the internet. That’s kind of where Twitterrific sits for me. It feels like an old tool which has continued to hang on and thrive, despite the fact that there’s really nothing to it.

Twitter may be a very simple concept (partyline SMS on the web, anyone?) but it does what it does and it does have applications. Twitterrific, in its simplicity, completely and utterly avoids features, which makes it odd to me that it is offered for a fee (I received my copy free via a MacHeist promotion). Oh, sure, you can get a free one which is ad supported, but I’d rather use Twhirl which is free, supports, multiple accounts, and is loaded with easy-to-use features. I’m having a really hard time figuring out why I’d want to continue using Twitterrific.

It has the basics any simplistic Twitter client should have. It can sign into an account, it can fetch updates (sometimes), and you can work with Tweets, but that’s it. It sits in the menu bar and pops in and out as you click on the little birdie icon, but if you pop it open, then click on something else it doesn’t go away automatically. Whats more, you have to click on the little birdie twice to get it to disappear again. It doesn’t feel very polished of feature rich for a 3.x version release. It makes me wonder how bad the 1.x and 2.x versions were.

I think its rather clear that I do not recommend Twitterrific for much of anything, though I imagine this would be a no-brainer for any groups of individuals who have a fetish for small, blue birdie icons which fit on Mac OS X’s menu bar. You may also find it compelling if you prefer to pay for software and then require it to be overly simple and provide less functionality than free and/or open source projects. I’ll make it your call.

I’d like to make one last observation. I’m a Mac guy, but I also use Windows and Linux. When on Windows, I’ve recently returned to using Trillian, the new Astra version, and I chose to pay for it. This is the first time I paid for it, and the reason is because they started work on a Mac version (no. I will NEVER give up using Adium.) and I like their new feature set. One feature they have added is Twitter support. Do NOT pay for Trillian is all you want is Twitter support. Get Twhirl. Really. I just wanted to mention this in case you thought that Twitterrific was the only Twitter client I hated.

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