Posts Tagged Seemsic for Facebook

Seesmic has created a twhirl-like client (twhirl is a Twitter client) for Facebook (innovatively titled Seesmic for Facebook).  It basically allows you to update your Facebook status in the same way that you Twitter on twhirl (or any other half-way decent Twitter client), as well as read your friends’ status updates.

How well does it work?  Well, I seem to be able to get my friends’ updates, but I’m having trouble getting it to update my status.  I also don’t like the fact that everytime I open up the program, I have to authenticate it via the program, and then the browser window it opens up. Shouldn’t a simple cookie fix this annoyance?

Right now it’s a pretty stripped down program.  There are no URL shortners, no in window profile lookups, no search, no way to post photos, etc.  It’s just a list of friends’ status updates and a way to update your own status (if you can get that part to work). Of course, this is a beta version, and integration with twhirl (i.e. Facebook and Twitter updates in the same window) are coming soon, so that may bring some additional functionality along.  I would especially recommend this program for those who use Facebook but not Twitter.

The really interesting part of the discussion is whether new Facebook interfaces like this will have an effect on Twitter’s popularity.  If Facebook added Twitter-like functionality to its platform, it would pose a significant threat as Facebook already has a much larger user base.

Here’s how it works:

1) After installing Seesmic for Facebook, you authenticate with Facebook Connect inside the desktop app.

2) You’re then sent to Facebook to authorize the app to make status updates on your behalf. Unfortunately, you have to do this everytime you open up the program, but hopefully this gets fixed before the official release.

3. The Seesmic client then shows you your latest stream of updates from your Facebook friends.

4) Status updates also display in a 3 second popup as they come in.

Seesmic’s Le Meur hinted that the company would soon consolidate its products under a single brand name – but for now, Twhirl, Seesmic for Facebook, and the Seesmic video service remain separate products. You can download the app here!