Web Standards, Accessibility & More » social network http://weboverhauls.com/dennislembree/blog Personal blog of Dennis E. Lembree, web site professional Thu, 24 May 2012 07:23:49 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 12 Reasons Why Accessible Twitter is Better Than HootSuite (Besides the Obvious) http://weboverhauls.com/dennislembree/blog/2010/09/25/12-reasons-why-accessible-twitter-is-better-than-hootsuite/ http://weboverhauls.com/dennislembree/blog/2010/09/25/12-reasons-why-accessible-twitter-is-better-than-hootsuite/#comments Sun, 26 Sep 2010 05:17:26 +0000 Dennis http://weboverhauls.com/dennislembree/blog/?p=965 Continue reading →]]> As you probably know, I’m an avid Twitter user. I’m also the author of a web-based Twitter client, Accessible Twitter (AT). I also use HootSuite sometimes (also a web app) as well as a couple Twitter clients on my BlackBerry. In some respect, it’s really not fair to compare my humble Accessible Twitter app to HootSuite, as HootSuite is obviously much, much better off in staffing and funding. It has some great features like multi-column layout, scheduled tweets, and multiple accounts. Accessible Twitter is obviously better in that it’s web accessible, which brings another set of advantages which is outside the scope of this article. But there are also many additional reasons (usability, features) why Accessible Twitter is better than HootSuite, as follows.

Accessible Twitter and Hootsuite bird icons with question mark in between

1. Tooltip for user stats

AT provides a tooltip (title attribute) over the author’s name on every tweet which provides the full user name if available, number of followers and number of friends. In HootSuite, to get this info, you must open the user modal window and wait for an overly abundant amount of information to load.

2. Inline image previews

Accessible Twitter provides icon-sized image previews in tweets with link to TwitPic and YFrog images. And support for more providers is planned. No support in HootSuite.

3. Pagination of user timeline

Unless you create a column for a particular user, HootSuite limits viewing of a user’s tweets to 10. Accessible Twitter provides pagination on a user timeline page, so you can view many more.

4. Viewing Trends

Viewing Twitter trends in AT is easy, click Trends in the main menu. AT provides weekly, daily, and current trends list. In HootSuite only the current trends are provided, and it’s opening it is very “un-usable”; it’s a dropdown when entering the search field!

5. View popular Links

In AT, simply click the (Popular) Links item in the main menu to view the most popular links in the Twittersphere. No support in HootSuite.

6. Quick Go To User

AT provides a text input on every page where you may enter a username and jump to that user’s profile or timeline page. No similar feature in HootSuite.

7. Faster to View User Timeline

AT provides a “TL” icon in each tweet so that the user may jump to the author’s timeline with one click. In HootSuite, You must open the user details dialog, then navigate to the Timeline tab.

8. Delete your tweet in all timelines

AT provides a link to delete your tweet on all pages in which your tweet may appear. In HootSuite, the delete option is only available in your Sent timeline.

9. Links to followers, following

The user details page contains links to followers and those following; HootSuite’s user details page doesn’t.

10. No broken account icons

In HootSuite, the icons for users many times are broken; the images do not load correctly. This issue occurs on different browsers and has been for many months now.

11. No horizontal formatting issues

When a modal window is opened in HootSuite from the right column, it throws off the horizontal display. (It can be fixed by clicking an obscure button on the bottom left.)

12. Don’t lost your place in timeline due to updates

AT never messes with your page content without you approving. In HootSuite, how irritating: when I scroll down to read tweets, and there’s an auto-update, I lose my place. And then it’s difficult to relocate the tweet I was reading when interrupted.

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]]> http://weboverhauls.com/dennislembree/blog/2010/09/25/12-reasons-why-accessible-twitter-is-better-than-hootsuite/feed/ 5 LifeStream is Sweet http://weboverhauls.com/dennislembree/blog/2009/07/28/lifestream-is-sweet/ http://weboverhauls.com/dennislembree/blog/2009/07/28/lifestream-is-sweet/#comments Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:09:55 +0000 Dennis http://weboverhauls.com/dennislembree/blog/?p=473 Continue reading →]]> I recently added a LifeStream page this site (see top menu). Lifestream is an awesome WordPress plugin from iBegin that compiles multiple social networking accounts together. There are many customization available. You can enter a custom feed, or choose from many sites including:

  • Twitter
  • TwitPic
  • Digg
  • YouTube
  • StumbleUpon
  • Delicious
  • Flickr
  • Brightkite
  • Tumblr
  • Reddit

PS: Finding the Facebook RSS feed is ridiculously difficult. Fail! Here’s a tip, the best I can do so far:
http://www.facebook.com/feeds/notifications.php?id=YOURID&viewer=YOURID&key=YOURKEY&format=rss20

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]]> http://weboverhauls.com/dennislembree/blog/2009/07/28/lifestream-is-sweet/feed/ 0 I’m Now on Twitter http://weboverhauls.com/dennislembree/blog/2008/03/15/im-now-on-twitter/ http://weboverhauls.com/dennislembree/blog/2008/03/15/im-now-on-twitter/#comments Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:52:09 +0000 Dennis http://checkengineusa.com/dennislembree/blog/2008/03/15/im-now-on-twitter/ Continue reading →]]> So I’m finally on Twitter, the social network that informs users of what each other is doing. The web site and service is excellent; it’s very easy, fast, and it just works! There’s an excellent Twitter API for developers to have fun with. My Twitter account is dennisl.

“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

Twitter

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