Seesmic Web Adds Drag-n-Drop List Management

The latest updates for the popular Seesmic Web Twitter client are very interesting and add some much needed functionality. Updates include viewing threads and retweets, geolocation, drag-n-drop list management, tweetmeme integration, and an enhanced contact manager.

Retweets and Threads

Being able to keep up with a conversation on Twitter is always difficult. If it draws multiple participants or you get involved in multiple conversations, it becomes nearly impossible. One of the most important features for handling this is threaded conversations. This lets you see which tweet a specific tweet was replying to so that you can easily follow the whole discussion. Seesmic now lets you review the whole discussion in a simple popup.

It’s also easier to view retweets, although the presentation takes a little getting used to. You have 3 choices for viewing retweets: by me, by others, and of me.

• by me opens a new column with all the tweets you have retweeted
• by others shows you a new column with all the tweets your followers have retweeted
• of me shows you all of your tweets that have been retweeted by others

Tweetmeme and Link Previews

Tweetmeme integration shows you how many retweets a given link has, as well as an excerpt from the destination. All you have to do is click the ‘+’ sign near the link. If the destination is a video, you can play a small preview right in the popup. The link preview feature is similar to what Hootsuite currently offers, but the integration of Tweetmeme stats takes it up a notch.

Geolocation

If you have enable location information from the Twitter website, you have the option to include your location information when you post an update. You will need to have Google Gears enabled for this to work. I’m curious if this may change in the future since Google has discontinued support of Google Gears in favor of newer web technologies. If you want people to know where you’re tweeting from, just click Location before you send your update.

Contact Management and Lists

Here is another place where Seesmic shines over it’s competitors. Contact management and especially list management is a huge pain using the standard web interface. There are 3rd party tools to help, but having these features integrated directly into your Twitter client is a huge benefit. From your timeline, you can put any contact into a list by dragging their avatar to the list’s name.

Clicking on Contacts opens up an interface that lets you easily manage your lists via drag-n-drop and view details on each contact. Mr. Tweet integration gives you information about the types of tweets, frequency of tweets, and most contacted people for the selected contact. You can also create new lists from this view. One major omission here is the ability to view most recent tweets or even the latest tweet for a contact. This leaves a blind spot, but I’ve been told that this feature was disabled temporarily due to complications.

There are still a few quirks to the interface, including the horizontal scrollbar disappearing and serious lag during drag-n-drop, but Seesmic is definitely stepping it’s game up with this release. Tell us what you think about it in the comments. Will you be switching?

About the Author
Rahsheen has been a certified geek since before it was the thing to do. He started programming and tinkering in the 4th grade. Now, Rahsheen mostly writes on various sites about technology trends in social media and mobile. . He is also a musician, singer, rapper, writer, and producer. @rahsheen - +Rahsheen Porter - coachrah.com
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