The Computer
Art Print
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Twitter used to offer the ability to use Google Talk to interact with your Twitter stream. If you are a recent convert to Twitterianism, you may not know that this was an option once upon a time. It offered the convenience of having your Twitter stream on any computer without installing an application. You could simply log into your Gmail account and start twittering via GTalk. There is a way that you can still post via GTalk; but, it's not a perfect solution.
GTalk as a Twitter client had its limitations. For example, you could not retweet with the push of a button. You could not look up profiles, you could not reply to a tweet directly, and many other things that Twitter clients do. It was not perfect; but it was lightweight and almost instant.
You have two options for updating Twitter via GTalk. The first is
identi.ca; the other is
FriendFeed.
Identi.ca is very similar to Twitter. You can use Identi.ca to update your Twitter stream by GTalk. The disadvantage to Identi.ca is that you will not receive the Twitter feed. This serves well as a one-way tool. You can check your Twitter account on the web for replies when it is convenient.
FriendFeed gives you more of a two-way conversation. You will receive a stream of content from your FriendFeed friends, which includes Twitter and any other accounts they have plugged in. If your friends are not on FriendFeed, you can add them as imaginary friends to receive their Twitter stream. The disadvantage to FriendFeed is that not everybody uses it.
The added advantage of FriendFeed as a conduit for Twittering via GTalk is that you can reply to specific items. If you are following a ton of people, FriendFeed also has the advantage of grouping them so that you only get a stream from some people through GTalk rather than all of them. Adding imaginary friends isn't scalable if you follow a lot of people on Twitter. You just don't have the time to keep track of it.
I use an Android phone, which has a native Google Talk client. As a result, it works instantly and only updates when there is something to update. This minimizes the amount of time you have to wait to send/receive. Whereas Twitter clients batch updates, an Instant Messaging client updates each message individually, saving battery life and time. In other words, it uses fewer resources.
