Firefox does Twitter: Twitbin

Twitbin is a small Firefox extension that puts a Twitter sidebar inside your browser. Once you've logged in with your Twitter credentials, it keeps tabs on your friends or public Tweets. You can also write new posts right from the sidebar.

To toggle the Twitbin sidebar on and off, there's a bird logo that shows up on your browser next to the home button. The sidebar has its own links, for switching back and forth between friends and public feeds, and a refresh button to update posts. If you're not interested in manually hitting the refresh button, Twitbin can be set to automatically refresh all the posts every 1, 5, or 10 minutes.

To toggle Twitbin on and off, there's a handy button installed on your browser.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Twitbin is not without its snags. For example, when typing there's no character limit warning to let you know how much room is left; instead, it just cuts off once you've hit 140 characters. Likewise, the typing interface only gives you a single line, so you can't see what you've written about without scrolling back and forth.

Twitbin is free and maintains that no-cost aspect with advertisements; you'll see a small ad on the bottom of the sidebar. It's fairly unobtrusive, and in place to pay for the development team's server costs.

Compared to some of the other Twittering solutions out there, Twitbin is very similar to Tweetbar in its use and integration with Firefox. Tweetbar also works with the Flock browser. For other ways to use Twitter, check out our Newbie's guide or our post on six ways to improve Twitter.

[Found on TechCrunch.]

This is what Twitbin looks like once it's on your browser. You can set it to refresh automatically or you can hit the refresh button.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

[xxdesmusxx]

Great start, but problems

It is a great start but it does have some big problems.

1. clicking a link opens a new window ...can't open in the current window without a hack (right click on the link, and then left click the link to open in the current window). They need to allow links to open in new tabs.

2. Sometimes it hangs, sometimes it won't show new Twits

3. They need to disclose the placement of the advertisements at the bottom of the sidebar. Ad-block does take care of it, but they need to TELL people it is their in the first place.

I'll stick with Twitterbar for posting, but I do use this sidebar for viewing friends Tweets.

[Twitbin]

Thanks from Twitbin

Thanks for posting about our application. We're glad you like it and appreciate you posting about it. @ xxdesmusxx We are aware of a few little issues that we have already fixed and will launch in the next version (such as the links opening in a new tab). We are trying to look into the hanging issue and will fix it as soon as possible. As far as the ads, we have it stated on our website that they are ads.
"Note that we run ads at the bottom of the page, they are small, and hopefully unobtrusive. Servers cost $, so we have to cover costs somehow."
Right now we are running ads for friends of ours and aren't making money off of it. We should have the next version available very soon. If you have any more comments or suggestions, we would love to hear from you. Thanks again for posting about us!
Xavier
Xavier at twitbin.com