Usage+With+Other+Tools

Twitter Clients
Twitter clients allow users to post updates to Twitter without logging into the Twitter.com website. In fact, it can be estimated

[[image:twhirlScreenSnapz002.jpg width="277" height="348" align="right" caption="Screenshot of the popular Twitter client Twhirl." link="http://www.tweetdeck.com/"]]
that a large amount of Twitter usage does not originate with Twitter.com, but rather is produced from computers and mobile phones equipped with a Twitter client. Most of these Twitter applications are based on the Adobe AIR development framework, which allows for an integration of a user's web application directly into their desktop or mobile phone. These Twitter clients allow users to update Twitter statuses on the fly while also receiving replies and tweets in real time. An Internet connection is still required to access and use a Twitter client, but the hassle of logging into the Twitter website and even actually having a session timeout is no longer an issue. Twitter clients allow users to access their tweets at any time from a variety of locations. Examples of Twitter clients include:


 * Computer Desktop
 * [|Twhirl]
 * [|Twitterific]
 * [|Google Desktop Twitter]
 * [|TweetDeck]
 * [|Spaz]
 * [|HootSuite]
 * Mobile Phone
 * [|PocketTweets]
 * [|Twitterberry]
 * [|Twitterific]
 * [|Spaz]
 * [|Tweetie]

Twitter Picture Clients[[image:twitpic-s.png width="281" height="255" align="right" caption="Screenshot of popular Twitter picture client TwitPic." link="http://twitpic.com/"]]
Twitter also allows users to post images via links to the service. This can greatly enhance the service for users, as it allows users to document their environments in real time and produce images (via digital camera or mobile phone camera) for sharing via the service. In many experiences, this can include an identification of an unknown object or sharing of an enjoyable image among followers. However, due to the nature of Twitter and its restrictions on length of tweets, not to mention the fact that the service is growing at a rate that requires constant attention to servers and file sizes, many Twitter clients specifically for image sharing have arisen. Twitter picture clients include the following:


 * [|TwitPic]
 * [|YFrog]
 * [|Twitxr]
 * [|TweetPhoto]
 * [|Pikchur]
 * [|TwitGoo]
 * [|Piktor]

URL Shorteners[[image:Using-Bitly-and-Twitter-to-track-link-clicks1.jpg width="465" height="300" align="right" caption="Screenshot of URL shortened by bit.ly." link="http://bit.ly/"]]
Once again, we can see that the 140 character limit allowed to tweets can be a detriment to users. Sending a message with an attached hyperlink can be extremely difficult with this limit in place. However, a number of URL shortening services have arisen to shorten long URLs to make them able to be sent via Twitter. These URL shorteners retain the original link but compress the data into a different and shorter DNS entry so that it may reference the same URL. Examples of these URL shortening services include the following:


 * [|bit.ly]
 * [|ow.ly]
 * [|is.gd]
 * [|TinyURL]
 * [|twurl.nl]
 * [|tr.im]