Twitter Buys Tweetie to Boost GUI

As popular as Twitter has become, it is incredible that other companies provide a Twitter experience which is generally far superior to Twitter’s own efforts. Tweeting URLs from a mobile device without the aid of an application such as TweetDeck or Tweetie is painful at best. I was under the impression that Twitter was going to duplicate the functionality of programs like HootSuite and TweetDeck but instead they decided it made more sense to purchase Tweetie, a full featured Twitter enablement program I use almost daily on the iPhone.

The $3 application will become free and more integrated with Twitter (thankfully). Some of the benefits of the software on the iPhone include URL shortening as well as the ability to track Twitter searches. This is useful as you can be on your iPhone and track the latest tweets on any topic from healthcare to VoIP to the Supreme Court. You can also easily retweet, retweet with an edit and email tweets. It also functions as a social media hub of sorts meaning the more widespread the software becomes the more chance Twitter has of disintermediating Facebook. It is quite a useful tool and I now find myself wondering, will Twitter be refunding my $3? I for one won’t be holding my breath as I tweet.

Some fun facts:

  • The parent company of Tweetie is Atebits
  • This is news on the acquisition from the Atebits blog
  • Tweetie doesn’t currently work on a PC – only Macs and iPhones/iPads
  • Comments from Twitter on the acquisition

Screen shots of Tweetie 2 for iPhone (Update below)
tweetie1.png
tweetie2.png
tweetie3.png

Update: These acquisitions don’t always go as planned. Twitter is now responding to developer outrage over the company competing with them.

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