Freeview: TwitterTopic
I’m a news junkie. There, I said it.
Give me news on TV, radio, Internet… I always like to know what’s going on in the world around me. One great source for this is, of course, Twitter. I’m always on the lookout for Twitter clients that will give me the news as it happens. I recently came across a handy little app in the Palm App Catalog named TwitterTopic by developer Omoco.
TwitterTopic is a Twitter search aggregator – nothing more, nothing less. Enter a search term in the box, press send, and you’re presented with the latest tweets from around the Twitterverse that include your topic, from the top down. It’s not a Twitter client, so you can’t send or reply to tweets. Clicking on the user’s avatar will open the mobile version of Twitter in your web browser so you can browse the user’s Twitter feed.
TwitterTopic is free. It’s also plagued by ads — lots of them — that feed into the time line. In other words, they’re not presented in a static way at the top or bottom. Instead, they constantly enter the time line, sometimes repeating the same ad one after another. It can get annoying, but if your search term is a popular one, the feed scrolls fast enough where they aren’t as bothersome.
Annoying ads aside, the time line auto-refreshes in near real time as new tweets about your topic come in. I like to sit my Pre on my Touchstone and watch my time line update itself with the latest tweets about my search term. At the moment, only one search term is allowed, landscape mode is supported, and URL’s in the stream are clickable. Unfortunately, none of the tweets have a timestamp on them so it’s easy to lose your place if you’ve got a lot going on.
Pros
- Real time updates of time line
- No login required
- Clickable Twitter avatars
Cons
- Lots of ads litter the time line
- Lots and lots of ads
- No timestamps in Tweets
Bottom Line
TwitterTopic has potential, but the constant barrage of ads that plague the time line can annoy most users. Real time updates of your Twitter search terms that also work in the background are great for keeping up on what’s going on with your particular topic.
Interested? Go here to download TwitterTopic directly to your device!
