SheGeeks

A few days ago, Sobees released their Friendfeed desktop app (bTittleTattle) and there were many complaints and suggestions for the app. However, everyone was still holding their breath for Alert Thingy, a Friendfeed desktop app with an interface similar to Twhirl. When it previewed on TechCrunch, the most obvious reason for the hold out seemed to be because of the similar interface.

Twhirl is the third most used client for Twitter and for good reason! It does a great job of showing you your tweets in an efficiently digestible manner, with various features and services implemented right inside the client! Alert Thingy looks to do the same, but unfortunately it wasn’t worth the wait and falls short on numerous things.
   

The Interface

When you first launch Alert Thingy, the interface is a semi-transparent, which there is no way to change (please fix this Howard Baines). Just like bTittleTattle, to login into your friendfeed account using Alert Thingy you need a remote key. Once logged in, you’ll see your latest Friendfeed updates, displayed in the same manner as on your Friendfeed homepage.

For each item, you’re shown the name of the users and the service which the item is from, the name of the item, a timestamp, who likes it, and comments for each item. As for comments, there is no way to open or close the comments that are shown. Instead, comments stay there taking up plenty of space that you might not want to be used by this item. To the far right, you’ll see an icon signifying the service that the item is coming from also.

Click Image To Enlarge 
    

Search

There is a search feature located at the top of the client. However, there is a serious display problem that sometimes occurs when using the search feature.

The client tries to expand in width to accommodate the search results, yet it ends up cutting off the right portion of your view and the scrollbar is no where to be found. To get around this, you’d have to resize the client beforehand.

Your search results are highlighted in red. Unfortunately, there’s no way to filter results, something that bTittleTattle excels at. The only way to get out of the search mode is to hit the refresh button at the bottom, which could become an annoying quirk.

Comments, Likes, and Alerts

Of course, you can comment and like an item directly from Alert Thingy and it shows up almost instantaneously. The downside is that you can’t delete a comment from Alert Thingy. As for actual alerts (it is called Alert Thingy), just like with Twhirl, a small box will pop up in the bottom-right corner of your screen displaying the latest update (just one). However, unlike Twhirl, clicking the pop-up alert will not bring Alert Thingy to the forefront of your screen.

Why I’m Sticking with bTittleTattle and the Web

Alert Thingy has a great visual interface, but that’s all. It’s pure eye candy and shows your images and videos (though video playback is not available from Alert Thingy) very nicely. However, I want to be able to delete a comment or unlike an item directly from the client. I need to be able to sort and filter my results and alerts and I seriously wish to be able to change the transparency that’s enabled by default.

There’s also no way to click back to an item’s Friendfeed page. Clicking on any of the items will take you to the original items page, which could help with comment fragmentation, but that’s not what the point of Alert Thingy should be. So until then, Alert Thingy has to go.

Other Articles On The Web About Alert Thingy:

Alert Thingy Out Now

AlertThingy, The FriendFeed Desktop Application, Launches

AlertThingy Arrives

First Look: Alert Thingy for FriendFeed

AlertThingy? Friendfeed Desktop app launches

Alert Thingy: Finally a Way To Use FriendFeed

AlertThingy: the Adobe AIR desktop application for FriendFeed

Popularity: 5% [?]

This post is being written to let my audience know why I blog and also to clear up some questions and concerns about the entire Mashable ordeal from last night.

I Don’t Get Paid For This

I don’t write for money. I’ve been paid to blog exactly one time when I signed up for Smorty, a service that pays you to blog about certain sites and services. I got paid $7 for it and I didn’t like the way I felt afterwards. So, I’ve never done it again. It’s never been about money for me. I just like to doing it. I love tech and I love sharing and finding out about new technologies and web services! I blog to satisfy the geek in me. This isn’t a job and has never felt like one. It’s more of a life hobby.
      

Conversations Not Traffic

I’m here for the conversations first and foremost. Everything else comes afterwards. I don’t write for traffic, and though I mention my RSS stats every chance I get on Friendfeed and Twitter, they aren’t the most important things to me.

I’m more concerned about conversations. I try to optimize SheGeeks for better traffic and to expand my reach as much as possible because they bring in more chances for conversations. They are what makes me feel good about SheGeeks. CONVERSATIONS MAKE MY SITE VALUEABLE!

Sharing is Caring

As cliche as this may be, I place a lot of value in that statement. I like to share the cool things I find out about on the web. That’s the purpose of SheGeeks; to share Corvida’s tech findings.  I want my audience to pass these findings along and share with others that they think might be interested. These tools, sites, and web services that I find are there for mass adoption and consumption, not just little ol’ me!

Feeling Hoodwinked

However, I have a serious problem when people don’t give credit where credit is due. It doesn’t have to be only pertaining to me. It can be anyone. That problem escalates ten-fold when it’s from people , companies, or sites that I expected better from.

This brings me to my Mashable ordeal. Yesterday, I was sent an email by the developer of the Sobees desktop app suite. Though it was addressed to me, I’m more than certain that it was sent to others too. It would have been a big mistake on their part if they hadn’t. I was also sure about this because I’ve seen their products written up on other sites. Anyway, the email was just letting me know of their bTittleTattle app, a Friendfeed desktop app.

I immediately did 3 google searches to see if anyone else had written about the product yet, downloaded, tested, and wrote about the application, refreshed the searches I did earlier, and posted my write-up!.

I tweeted about it several times on Twitter because I have huge names and great people following me such as Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb), Sarah Perez (Grand Effect, ReadWriteWeb), Louis Gray, Steven Hodson (FriendfeedWatch), and two people in particular from Mashable: Adam Ostrow (Editor In Chief) and Kristen Nicole.
    

Why am I pointing this out?

These are big names in the circles I pass through! These are people who have also been very supportive of SheGeeks and I really look up to them as role models in my field of Tech. These are also people who may want to hear about the release of this product since it was more than relevant to some of their audiences.

3-4 hours later. Mashable publishes a review of bTittletattle. Great! I checked to see if any type of credit was given and also to see if they had another perspective on the app. NOPE! Really Mashable? Is that how we do things in this field now?

Why I feel I Should’ve Been Given Credit

This is totally biased and you’re welcome to put your thoughts in. But it’s how I feel and I’m standing by until I feel I have proof not to.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I had tweeted about my review several times and even asked for my followers to Stumble, Digg, or promote the article in some way if they liked it. So, it’s possible that someone from Mashable saw it, then again it isn’t. I’m not going to debate this, though I’m sure you know what I think the answer is.     
   

I’m just going to point out that they should’ve done their homework. Adam pointed out to me that this was a press release that was emailed to quite a few people. AND?! That doesn’t discount the fact that you need to do your homework, especially for something this new! Here’s a clip from a conversation that Adam and I had about the ordeal.

Corvida: [...] so that I as a college student who reads, writes and thinks cannot have authority? U have to have a stamp from a corporate company and not an observer. Then why do you quote the likes of WSJ?

Adam: that’s not the case at all … it’s when the WSJ, RWW, or anyone has proprietary information

in this case, both you and us found out about the app, and you happened to write about it b4 us

it’s similar to a press release … if AOL sends out a press release announcing they’ve acquired Bebo, and I write about it 2 hours before TechCrunch, TechCrunch is definitely not going to link to us

Corvida: As a competitor they wouldn’t want to, but as a professional network, they know that they should and I’m sure everyone keeps tabs on everyone, even on the up-and-coming.

I’m not trying to be hostile or rude because you guys have credited SheGeeks before, the Color Wars is a prime example of that.

However, for this situation, I’m not buying what you’re saying at all, because 4 hours is more than enough time for just about every person on Mashable that’s following me to have picked up the fact that I had wrote about it and broke it first

If anyone would’ve done a search on Google around the time Mashable posted their article, there were 3 links for "friendfeed desktop application" "sobees btittletattle" and "sobees friendfeed desktop application". All of these links pointed right back to SheGeeks.net.

I’m just saying…

Maybe I didn’t deserve the credit. Maybe I did. Great arguments for both sides could be procured, but let’s be real here: people are playing a dirty game in tech these days and all in the name of page views and money. I just want some credit and conversations.

Conversation Between Adam and I.

Popularity: 6% [?]

 Sobees, a desktop application maker, has jumped on the Friendfeed API application bandwagon.

Today, they released their Friendfeed desktop application entitled "bTittleTattle". It’s a standalone app that is apart of their bSuite applications, but does not require a beta invite.

No Hassle Sign In

To sign into the app, all you need is your friendfeed login name (case-sensitive) and a friendfeed remote key. Be sure to adjust the update time meter at the bottom of the app. Once you’ve done this, the application loads about 6 items at a time.

Features

To see comments and likes on an item, simply move your mouse over an item and a sidebar will slide out displaying the comments and likes for the item. You also have the option of making the font bigger and adding more space between each item, which will be necessary every time you enlarge the font. However, these settings do not apply to the comment and likes box.

A great feature that Sobees has incorporated is the ability to filter not only by service,but also by text and users! You can find all the search methods at the top of the application. Towards the bottom of the application are left and right arrows that allow you to cycle through pages of items.
   

Not only can you see comments, but you can reply back to an item and like an item by clicking on the speech bubble and smiley face right inside of Sobees. The application can also display youtube videos and images. And though you can see images in bTittleTattle, you cannot play a video via the application.

The application comes with 3 different color schemes you can choose from: the standard green scheme (pictured above), a white scheme, and a red scheme.

One Of A Kind

While bTittleTattle could definitely gain some ground while we all drool over Alert Thingy previews, I was more concerned with CPU usage. It turns out that it’s actually not hard on your memory, though I can’t say the same for the rest of the bSuite. All in all, it just might keep me from visiting the Friendfeed homepage so often.

bTittleTattle is built in WFP and runs on Windows Vista / XP. It requires .NET 3.5. It will be available as sobees module but we decided to also release it as standalone application, just like we did for bTweets.

bTweets is their Twitter desktop application.

Popularity: 8% [?]