Twitter, Facebook and Google+

I have accounts on all three of these social networks, and I wanted to share my views on what I believe are their positives and negatives.

I access my Twitter account from a number of sources. I use the Google Chrome extension Silver Bird, the official Twitter client on my Android phone and on my Android tablet. I even occasionally use the Twitter website. Which I use at a given time depending on where I am. If I'm at work then I use Silver Bird and if I'm out and about then I use the app on my phone or tablet.

Silver Bird is an extension that shows an icon in Chrome. When you click the icon it drops down a pop-up window that shows my Twitter feed. The icon also changes to show new tweets are available. This is exactly how I wanted it before I found Silver Bird, so the extension fits me rather than the other way around.

My main problem with Twitter, is this. Say I've been checking Twitter all day via Silver Bird and then I leave work and want to check Twitter on my phone. Twitter isn't aware that I have already viewed some tweets so places me in the list of tweets where I last left the application, leaving me to scroll until I find some tweets that I haven't read! I'm also informed about mentions in tweets even if I've already read them. It can be really frustrating!

Then there is the way it notifies me of new mentions or direct messages on my Android devices. Like email of old, Twitter checks on a time frame you set (i.e. every hour, every 2 hours etc.). This just wastes battery, especially when Google saw fit to include a neat push notification system with Android! No supposedly, Twitter updated the app for Android to include push notifications, but the notification options don't appear unless the Auto Refresh option is enabled, so I suspect its not really push.

Twitter isn't alone on this. Facebook does similar. To see new friend requests, messages or other stuff in the Facebook app, it needs to auto-refresh as well. Surely they both have the infrastructures to sort this out! Before anyone tells me there are other applications that do notifications correctly, I imagined there were, but I need to get around to searching for them. Leave suggestions in the comments below....

So when Google released Google+ (and the official Google+ Android application) it was a breath of fresh air! Photos & Videos get uploaded automatically (settings can be changed to prevent this or configure over 3G/WiFi) but are not automatically shared with anyone. Notifications appear immediately like proper push notifications should. It also doesn't notify me twice about the same message/comments etc.

I really like the way Google+ notifies you on the web version too. Very similar to Facebook, but its nice cause I see it in my GMail account and other services of Google's that I use (would be nice in Blogger too for when I'm writing these posts ;) or on the Android Market site too). Can't really hold this one against Facebook or Twitter as Google provide more services that I use!

I might look in to writing applications for Android and Chrome that include everything I want... but is there a need for this from others!

Neil