TwitZap: Another Real-time Twitter Client

TwitZap is yet another entry into the race to build the best web interface for Twitter. At first glance, I’m left wondering why we needed this. We already have iTweet.net and Tweetvisor. What could this client possibly bring to the table? Turns out, there are actually a couple of reasons why you might like TwitZap over the competition.

Standard Interface

Regardless of how many fancy Twitter clients come out, it seems that many people still choose to access twitter from the basic Twitter.com interface. I think this is partially due to the fact that this is the interface many of us have gotten used to. Switching to a new client is just not really an option. With TwitZap, you’re using an interface that’s almost identical to the standard Twitter home page (iTweet also has an interface that sticks with the basics).

Channels / Saved Searches

Another powerful feature in TwitZap are the Channels. This allows you to slice the Twitter into channels that update in real-time and gives you a way to keep track of keywords or topics you may be interested in. Just think of Channels as saved searches. TwitZap lists recommended channels and trending topics as well. Tweetvisor also has the ability to track saved searches and trending topics.

Taking it a step further, TwitZap lets you see what other users are viewing a channel. Once you go to the channel, you will see the user’s avatars at the top of the page.

Real-time Updating

I don’t see how people can stand to use the standard web interface for Twitter when you have to manually refresh it. TwitZap updates for you in real-time so that you never have to actually refresh the page. iTweet and Tweetvisor both share this real-time updating feature.

Along these same lines, TwitZap claims the ability to send a tweet in under 800ms, regardless of whether Twitter is actually up or not. If Twitter is down, TwitZap will send the tweet once it comes back up.

Final Thoughts

TwitZap still has a few things that will have to be added before it can compete with desktop clients or even Tweetvisor. For instance, they have groups, but the interface for adding and managing groups is a headache.

It’s still beta, though, so I’m pretty sure we’ll see some of these issues taken care of. That being said, TwitZap is still a viable replacement if you’re still manually refreshing you Twitter home page. Try it out and tell me what you think.