Unify Your Online Activity with PeopleBrowsr

Back in December, we talked about PeopleBrowser which was then Alpha 0.7. Now, with their new Alpha 0.999j release and open beta status, PeopleBrowsr is trying to take their service to the public. I have to say that it looks a looks a little better than it did almost half a year ago. The interface is a little snappier and somewhat cleaner. There are multiple themes to choose from and you can even customize and share your own theme if the defaults don’t suite you. There are even 3 levels of difficulty to choose from.

PeopleBrowsr Lite

If there is one criticism I’ve heard about PeopleBrowsr, it’s the fact that the interface is not very intuitive. With all the features available, there is definitely a trade-off between power and usability. That’s not to say that PeopleBrowsr is necessarily difficult to use, but it does require some getting used to.

The Lite view is probably where most of us should start. It encompasses all the features you’d expect to find in the most advanced Twitter clients:

• Reply, DM, or ReTweet in one click
• Saved searches
• Multiple accounts
• Threaded conversations

There’s more, but this post can only be so long. Your activity is separated into “stacks”, much like columns in Tweetdeck or Seesmic Desktop. You can also add stacks from a wealth of other services including, but not limited to: Facebook, Identi.ca, FriendFeed, and Flickr.

PeopleBrowsr Lite Tutorial Video

PeopleBrowsr Advanced

Here is where you gain access to more advanced features like custom themes, groups, and OneStack view. You also gain the ability to link contacts between Twitter and Plaxo, email tweets, and view reports like “recent followers” and “people retweeting me”.

This mode is basically for power users more interested in not only see what their contacts are up to, but also leveraging those contacts to their maximum potential. As I mentioned in my previous review of PeopleBrowsr, we’re all in need of a way to manage everything in one place and this advanced view can be just that.

PeopleBrowsr Advanced Tutorial Video

PeopleBrowser Business

Here is where the serious business people will play. It is of utmost importance that you know what people are saying about your business or brand. If people are talking about you and you weren’t there, you probably missed out on an important opportunity. Features you’ll find in business class include, but are definitely not limited to:

• Build campaigns and track keywords
• Manage large numbers of tweets with an Outlook-style navigator
• Add a note to and/or assign an item
• Rate posts as positive, neutral, or negative
• Get email notifications for keywords, replies, and DM’s
• Tweet via email

PeopleBrowsr Business Tutorial Video

Conclusions

PeopleBrowsr has come a long way in 6 months. The issues I’d experienced with it before seem to have been resolved and I’m only skimming the surface of it’s potential for brand-management and keeping in touch with my community. If you’ve tried it before and didn’t like it, take another look. If you don’t like web interfaces, get the Adobe AIR application.

At a time when Seesmic Desktop and Tweetdeck are battling it out for the position of premier desktop Twitter client, PeopleBrowsr takes it a step further and gives you control over your entire social media life. Twitter, after all, is not the only social service out there.

What do you think about PeopleBrowsr? Is it the comprehensive solution we’ve been looking for? The best Twitter client you’ve come across? Speak your mind in the comments. Further reading at TC and LG.