Trumblog

Last week I wrote about the ÜberTwitter and Seesmic Twitter applications for the BlackBerry and noted while Seesmic‘s integration with Ping.fm was a great leap forward, it was missing some convenient features that could make it difficult to stick with that app over ÜberTwitter. I haven’t come to a conclusion about that yet, but after more time with the applications I have some pointers for what each app needs to do to overtake their competition.

Seesmic

It would be easy for you to take a breather after the hard work of integrating Ping.fm, but instead now is the time to keep enhancing your functionality and take advantage of the work you’ve done. Here’s what to do.

Aid Exploration

Right now the Seesmic BlackBerry application is great at sending status updates, but less so when it comes to conversation.  I’m talking about things above and beyond checking out a friend’s tweetstream.  Adding features like finding tweets near you and identifying trending topics help we twitterers to engage with the community around us, but who we are not necessarily connected with.  For the same reason adding a “find people” feature would also be useful for when you want to check someone’s tweetstream or mention them, but aren’t following them or know their handle.

Kick up the UI

Compare the two screen shots below of the status update screen for Seesmic (on the left) and ÜberTwitter (on the right).  Notice ÜberTwitter’s use of color, an icon and the friendly “What’s Happening?”  Now compare that with the Soviet era design of Seesmic’s screen.  I like that I can update multiple accounts from one screen with Seesmic, which you can’t with ÜberTwitter, but a little design would go a long way.

The Timeline screen design for the two applications is a little bit of a tossup.  Seesmic (on the left) gets more on the screen and has no ads, but ÜberTwitter has the nice bubble layout and the Über bar.

Finally Seesmiuc, let’s talk alerts and retweets.  Seesmic you MUST add alerts. It is crazy that I can’t set my BlackBerry to buzz me when someone replies or direct messages me.  That is a major issue that you need to clear up pronto.  As for retweets, did you not notice the hoopa over Twitter’s new retweet format?  An option to retweet old school would be a nice addition, especially since your competition has it.  Your quote functionality is a close workaround, but without copy and paste menu options on the update screen it’s a struggle.  Other features that would help we power users is friend picker autofilling of friend names in tweets and a list of friends and followers (2 separate lists, not 1 combined list please) that would help us find members of our community that may not be so active and ensure that we spell our friends’ Twitter handles accurately.

And last but not least change the logo.  I have no idea what’s up with the raccoon, but it’s not not doing it for me.

ÜberTwitter

Don’t think because I had  long list of things for Seesmic to do that you would get off easy.  Seesmic’s list may be long, but the features and changes are simple to implement.  You have the harder road. I’ll start with a simple enhancement for you; add saving of search terms.  This is pretty handy at conferences when you want to search for more than one hashtag or keyword and saves you from having to type each one in repeatedly.  It’s small, but it’s a nice feature.

The big thing that you have to work on is integration with other social networks. If you would let me post to Facebook and LinkedIn from your application (just post, I’m not greedy enough to ask for timeline views from other social networks too) that would be huge.  I wouldn’t even need posting to multiple social networks from one input screen as long as I can cut and paste.  It’s a big thing I know, but let’s face it, with a few features and tweaks Seesmic’s feature set with be equal to yours.  If you want to maintain your position you need to have all the features AND allow cross social network posting.

That’s it. Some suggestions for you both.  ÜberTwitter and Seesmic, the position of my favorite Twitter application on the BlackBerry is up for grabs.  The next move is yours.