Features:

• straightforward UI
• real-time Twitter feed
• Twitter search capability
• trend monitoring via tag cloud

The Good:

Twitscoop is a good Twitter client. It has all the functionality of Twitter.com with a very good search feature. The tag cloud for trend monitoring updates in real-time as well.

The Not-so-Good:

While Twitscoop is a serviceable Twitter client, it lacks multiple Twitter account support, something that is becoming more and more useful as users operate more than one Twitter account. It does boast link shortening but does not have the ability to display videos or photos “in-line”. These are not huge issues, but would be nice to have.

Tweetwave.com Rates It: ★★★★

Features:

• register for free Twilert account (unique password created and validation required)
• select keyword(s) or phrase(s) to track and monitor on Twitter
• select intervals at which email digest(s) are delivered

The Good:

With Twilert it is easy to set up alerts (“Twilerts”) to track and monitor any keyword or phrase the user chooses. Twilert does the work of crawling through Twitter to find occurrences of those words and phrases and then emails you a digest of those tweets. Twilert is especially useful for those interested in tracking brand or corporate references (or anything like that). Advanced filtering is also possible, including for tweets from or to certain people, near a location, with positive or negative attitude, asking a question or containing links.

The Not-so-Good:

The only thing we think Twilert could improve on is the mechanism for selecting the intervals at which email digests are sent to users. No problem with the daily, weekly or monthly choice, but it only allows you to select on the hour (rather than hour and minute). Not a huge deal, but it would be nice to have that extra level of choice available.

Tweetwave.com rates it: ★★★

Features:

• registration for an account required (Twitter username and password required)
• timeline displays can be grouped and prioritized
• all usual Twitter operations supported

The Good:

Filttr does a great job of allowing users to group tweets from selected users, prioritize tweets from others and filter tweets based on keywords. The usual Twitter operations are supported. Files can also be attached to tweets and the link shortened. Favorite users can be grouped.

The Not-so-Good:

Filttr is now in public beta and continues to evolve. The ability to easily filter tweets and group users is a major plus for what would otherwise be an ordinary Twitter client. There is a high level of customization, which is good. A couple of things we would put on a wish list for Filttr would be (1) the ability to follow/unfollow users from within Filttr and (2) multiple Twitter account support.

Tweetwave.com rates it: ★★★

Features:

• all Twitter operations supported (tweet, retweet, @reply, DM)
• supports tweeting via multiple accounts
• ability to filter from public tweets any mentioning user’s “brand” or keyword
• avatars are supported
• simple, free account creation; login and add Twitter accounts with full Twitter user info
• dashboard view your timeline, @replies, DM (for account signed in with)
• support for some ten languages

The Good:

Splitweet is an easy to use app that really does allow users to post via multiple accounts. You can send a tweet from all of your accounts or only those you select. Color coding is used in the dashboard view to help identify from which account tweets are sent. All the usual Twitter operations are supported. The “real” names of follows are displayed rather than Twitter usernames. There are customization options available for viewing and managing tweets. There is also a filter feature for tweets that mention your “brand” (Splitweet is pitched as multi-account Twitter management for corporate users). This could be used for any keywords though. Splitweet also sports an excellent “daruma”-style logo.

The Not-so-Good:

On the whole, Splitweet does a very good job of managing multiple Twitter accounts (there aren’t many apps that do that). There were a few things we would like to see done differently, though. The dashboard view for tweets is one column, whether you are managing one account or many. It just seems easier for the user to be able to separate them out into columns. Also, there is no follow/unfollow function (or a display of followers/friends, for that matter). Finally, on security issues, Splitweet says that it encrypts passwords and only decrypts them to ease their administration. We are not sure if third-party security/privacy gets any better than that, but that declaration may not be enough for some users.

Other than that, Splitweet does a fine job indeed.

Tweetwave.com rates it: ★★★

Features:

• login with Twitter username and password (required only if you wish to @reply, retweet or follow)
• predetermined trends or user selects custom trends to view
• ability to @reply, retweet or follow from tweets when logged in
• rate of cascading, number of tweets in view, theme and language all customizable by user

The Good:

Twitterfall is another good tool for viewing trending topics on Twitter. It is unique in that the tweets viewed actively cascade (like a waterfall). There are predetermined trends that can be selected, or the user can enter any keyword to follow. Tweets are pulled into the cascade pretty much in real time. Viewing the trending tweets does not require login, but if you wish to @reply, retweet or follow a user from within Twitterfall, then you need to login with your Twitter username and password. There is an option to show your own timeline.

The Not-so-Good:

Twitterfall is a very new application (just launched within the last week), so things are evolving and features added almost daily. As it stand, Twitterfall is a visually pleasing way to view tweets on trending topics. There is a concern over providing your Twitter password in the absence of a stated privacy policy.

Also, there is no obvious way to create your own tweet or DM from within Twitterfall, although you can do a workaround to accomplish those tasks (which is fine, really, because it wasn’t designed to do those things). If a trending topic isn’t active for a while, the app will close that off for you automatically, which means if you want to keep watching for it you have to re-do that one again.

Lastly, there doesn’t seem to be a logout procedure.

Tweetwave.com rates it: ★★★

Features:

• easy to use UI
• uses search.twitter.com API
• keywords will yield relevant tweets streaming live in column view
• two different themes
• widget available for websites

The Good:

monitter is a very good tweet tracking application. Users can configure keywords/search terms and the number of columns for viewing. Tweets can also be limited geographically. Results can also be the subject of an RSS feed.

The Not-so-Good:

monitter does a very good job of searching for and tracking tweets. The only thing we could find that bugged us was a tiny thing: although each tweet has a time stamp, no date is given and there is no indication of which Twitter client was used to send the tweet.

Tweetwave.com rates it: ★★★

Features:

• provides simple code to copy and paste into blog or website
• code creates customizable button which launches a tweet dialog
• login with Twitter credentials to tweet
• TweetRooster.com also shows a list of most active pages using Tweet Rooster

The Good:

If you want to allow visitors to your blog or website to tweet about your page directly from the page, Tweet Rooster is a great widget. Tweet Rooster also provides a WordPress plugin.

The Not-so-Good:

The buttons that Tweet Rooster creates work just fine, creating a tweet dialog box complete with a character countdown. One thing we didn’t like was that even though you can add the URL of the page you are visiting to the tweet, there is no way to shrink that URL directly from within Tweet Rooster.

Tweetwave.com rates it: ★★

Features:

• login with Twitter credentials
• schedule tweets
• large number of special Unicode characters can be inserted into tweets

The Good:

Twimmer sports a compact UI that allows for the immediate sending or scheduling of tweets. Unicode characters are available as well. If you are so inclined, you can flip your tweet upside down.

The Not-so-Good:

Twimmer sends and schedules tweets well enough, but there are a a few things to consider. All times are GMT, so you have to do that tricky conversion in your head every time. Also, adverts appear in your timeline when viewed in Twimmer, and that may not appeal to some.

Tweetwave.com rates it: ♦♦

Features:

• powered by Google App Engine
• update several accounts at once
• @replies become “comments” to tweets (threading)
• special sections devoted to “Cool People” and “Hot Tweets”
• supports army.twit.tv and identi.ca
• promote tweets by giving them “bumps”

The Good:

The feature allowing updates to several Twitter accounts at once could be useful. If you have no idea about who’s who or who’s interesting on Twitter, TwitterBump may give you some ideas. It could also be diverting to see which tweets are popular according to TwitterBump users.

The Not-so-Good:

TwitterBump uses Google Accounts for sign in. This provides a better level of security than handing over passwords, but can be a bit cumbersome. More importantly, we wondered about the usefulness of this app. It isn’t for us to say what is, or is not, worthwhile, but the fact that the “hottest tweet” on TwitterBump is “My drive way was a solid sheet of ice. Caused a few problems this morning” may indicate a rather shallow pool to work with.

Tweetwave.com rates it: ♦♦

Features:

• create a single Twitterpus account and then add one or more Twitter accounts
• create a single tweet and then post it to your selected Twitter accounts

The Good:

Twitterpus is a great tool for posting a tweet to several of your Twitter accounts. The UI is simple, just like Twitter. All you have to do is create a tweet (character countdown provided), select which of your Twitter accounts you wish to post to, and click “Update”. That’s it. Works like a charm.

The Not-so-Good:

Twitterpus does work like a charm, and posts to multiple accounts with the same tweet. The only thing we wondered about was the utility of that single tweet going out to multiple accounts. If that suits your purposes, then Twitterpus is the app you need.

Tweetwave.com rates it: ★★★