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TweetDeck CEO on how the new "ChromeDeck" works

by Julie Mollins | @jmollins | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Wednesday, 1 December 2010 17:25 GMT

* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

A new version of TweetDeck, the computer application that helps bring order to the cacophony of the Twittersphere and other social-media networks, will allow users to send and monitor updates within the Google Chrome web browser.

A new version of TweetDeck, the computer application that helps bring order to the cacophony of the Twittersphere and other social-media networks, will allow users to send and monitor updates within the Google Chrome web browser.


Rather than having to download a desktop computer-specific application, "TweetDeck for Chrome" users will be able to stream social-media updates through multiple vertical channels in a manner similar to the original desktop TweetDeck application, released in 2008. The channels will also scroll horizontally.

"Since we launched the desktop version a few years ago, the number one requested feature is 'can I run this inside a browser?'", TweetDeck founder and CEO Iain Dodsworth told AlertNet on Tuesday during a preview event in London at the TweetDeck Batcave.

"There are some people that aren't allowed to install things on their machine and it is just easier for them to run it inside a browser."

TweetDeck offers humanitarian agencies free co-branded TweetDecks in which users can choose to have their own branded feeds as the default column settings.

In addition to using TweetDeck to synthesize Twitter searches for information during humanitarian crises, the application has a messaging system, which can be embedded into its border, rather than in the columns, to broadcast important messages to specific locations, Dodsworth explained.

TweetDeck for Chrome will launch free when Google releases its Chrome Web Store, expected later this year. 

TweetDeck operates with 15 employees based in the UK, U.S., France and Poland.

By Julie Mollins, AlertNet, London

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