Fresh

Over the past year Twitter has grown from being primarily the domain of web/tech geeks, into a full-blown social networking tool, used by CEOs, marketers, moms, politicians, and even ordinary people with cell phones. And thanks to the Twitter API and some innovative and/or bored developers, there are a LOT of Twitter apps, mashups and tools out there. And many of them are awesomely fun, but – well – useless. Check out Cursebird, a real-time filtered stream of all Tweets containing profanity.  #%&@!

But there are some useful Twitter tools out there – some that make it easier to Tweet or keep track of your friends’ Tweets, and some that utilize Twitter’s basic functionality for some other handy purpose. Here is a list of 11 (mostly) useful tools:

[1] Tweetdeck:

Tweetdeck is a desktop/Adobe Air authoring tool for Twitter, which allows you to create multiple ‘panes’ of Twitter information side-by-side on your desktop. In the panes you can have Twitter groups, searches, replies, direct messages, and global trending topics from Twitscoop — the type and quanity of panes is up to you.  I really like the groups feature — for example, I have one that includes only my closest friends. If I’m short on time I can just check out my “friends” pane, without having to wade through everything else. I also have panes for the Portland tech community, hockey Tweeters, and one for only eROI coworkers. You can also have a pane dedicated to a search term. Every time someone mentions that keyword, it’ll pop up in your search pane. Using multiple panes in Tweetdeck can have your screen looking like a control panel for NASA — great if you have a second monitor and want to keep your Twitter friends in the peripheral while you’re working. But you can also shrink the window down to one pane, while still having access to all others with the scroll bar.

Some may prefer Twhirl or Twitterific or one of the many mobile apps for Twitter — but for me, Tweetdeck is where it’s at.

[2] Twitpic:

If I was all cool and had an iPhone I would use Twitpic all the time. Snap a picture, then upload and share it with your friends on Twitter in one smooth mobile action. Since I don’t have an iPhone, or even a cell with email access, I still like adding photos to Twitpic from my laptop, and commenting on other Tweeter’s pictures (the comments also appear in your Twitter stream, along with a link to the photo).  Awesome.   Pikter is another photo-sharing service that looks promising (currently in beta and invitation-only) — you can send your photos to Twitter, Flickr, Jaiku and/or Picasa all at the same time.  I like.

[3] Twitterfeed:

Give it any RSS or Atom feed and Twitterfeed will post a tweet for you whenever the feed is updated.  You can use your own Twitter account or create a new one specifically for the feed.  Grab the feed from your blog, del.icio.us bookmarks, starred Google Reader articles, anything that generates a feed — and have it instantly post to Twitter whenever there’s something new.  You do have to have separate log in credentials for the Twitterfeed service, BUT they support OpenID so signing up is quick and easy. I use the OpenID service from eROI’s downstairs neighbors: Vidoop.

[4] Tweetburner

Tweetburner provides a couple valuable Twitter services:  For one, it gives you an easy-to-use bookmarklet that allows you to go to any website, and Tweet about it with one click of a button — and it will shorten the URL of the page for you automatically.  Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Tweetburner tracks how many people click on the links you Tweet about.  You do have to create a separate account with Tweetburner so that you can login and track your links, but registration is rather painless — especially if you just HAVE to know how many people clicked on your LOLcat photo link.

[5] Twalala:

I wish I would have known about Twalala in October – it would have come in handy when I was getting burnt out on all the election Tweets.  This service lets you filter your Twitterstream by keyword or user.  I could have turned off any Tweets with the words “McCain”, “Palin”, “Maverick”, “Obama”… at least until I was ready for more election madness again.  You can also filter out users temporarily: “Tired of hearing about Aunt Judy’s new poodle? Mute her for the day.”  It’s still in very early development, but I love the concept — I wish they’d incorporate this idea into Tweetdeck!

[6] Twittercal:

Twittercal is a great example of a tool that makes use of Twitter’s simple interface and built-in tools (SMS capability) to provide an extremely practical service.  Twittercal allows you to set up calendar items and reminders on your Google Calendar, simply by direct messaging the user @gcal.  This is especially handy if you’re out and about with just your SMS-enabled cell phone (like those of us without iPhones.  Hint?) Just use Google Calendar’s Quick-Add Syntax in your text message to Twitter:  d gcal today meeting with Tore at Someday Lounge at 5:30 PM.

[7] MrTweet

Mr. Tweet (“your personal networking assistant”) helps you find other Twit-folk that you may find interesting.  Find out who the big Twitter influencers are in your group — if you’re not following someone that influences your network, Mr. Tweet will fill you in.  Plus, Mr. Tweet will give you some stats on the Tweeters it recommends — how many tweets they make per day for example, or whether or not they will usually reciprocate with a follow.  Mr. Tweet is still in alpha, and they are still actively developing it and adding on new features.  They love feedbackso speak up if you’ve used the service!

[8] Twitterfone:

Call in your Tweets… With Twitterfone you can send an audio Tweet with a phone call, and it will transcribe your message into text and then post it to Twitter.  It also saves the audio on the site and provides a link from the Tweet so friends can hear your voice!  It’s still in beta and you must request an invite, but I’ve seen (heard?) my friend Luke (@picsandsound) use it while he’s on the road with his band.

[9] Buy it Later:

Buy it Later is a Firefox extension that adds a button to any product on Amazon.com to “Buy it Later.”  If the item comes back in stock, or the price goes down, you’ll be notified via Twitter!  Just install the extension, provide your email address, and follow @buylater on Twitter.

[10] Tweetake

A one-click backup tool for Twitter — worried that Twitter will lose your friends (again)?  Changing usernames and want to keep all your followers and followees?  Just want to be able to look at all your old Tweets? (Twitter does not keep everything).  Check out Tweetake!

[11] SecretTweet

(OK so this one borders on useless — but it’s good for your psychological health even if it doesn’t actually DO anything. So I’ll stand by my decision to include it on this list.)

Ever had the unbearable urge to tweet a secret, but don’t want to give yourself away?  SecretTweet is right up your alley.  It’s the only Twitter Tool here that doesn’t require your Twitter username.  Just type up to 140 characters in a box and hit submit.  Nobody will know it’s you.  Great for getting things off your chest and into the interwebosphere.  Ahhh, that feels better, doesn’t it?  You can follow @secrettweet to read other Twitter secrets, too.

What other useful (or useless) Twitter Tools do you use?  Leave us a comment with any you think we missed.  And stay tuned for more 12 Days of Fresh next week, starting on Monday with big number 10!