Twitter is has become a crucial part of my online life: I use it for my personal brand management, as a news source, and as a resource for answering any questions I might have. When I’m on the go, I use the popular Twitter client Tweetie on my iPhone,but when I’m sitting at my computer I use the Twitter Gadget for Gmail. I prefer using the web interface simply because it’s extremely lightweight — and I have yet to find a desktop client that I like.
Having Twitter inside Gmail (s goog) is awesome. It’s a simple text box that sits in the lower left-hand corner of my Gmail window. I keep Gmail open in a tab all day, so whenever I want to tweet something, I simply pop over to my Gmail tab, scroll down and type in my message. I end up using other computers a lot, and it’s much easier to log into just one account, Gmail, instead of two separate accounts, Gmail and Twitter.
I also have a URL-shortening gadget installed in my Gmail that resides directly above my Twitter gadget, which makes tweeting even more dreamy. I can shorten a link and post it without ever navigating to a new window.
The gadget’s feature set is everything you need (from its site):
- OAuth authentication, your Twitter account password is not required.
- Supports multiple Twitter accounts*
- Mark all as read (like Google Reader)*
- Automatically refresh
- Reply, Re-tweet inline
- View reply to inline
- Gmail look and feel
- SSL support*
- Share tweets with your friends(your Gmail friends group’ contacts)*
- Twitter Search
(*These features are awesome!)
To install the Twitter Gmail Gadget:
- Navigate to the “Settings” section of your Gmail
- Click the “Labs” tab
- Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to the “Add any gadget by URL” and click the “Enable” radio button
- Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page
- In the “Settings” of your Gmail you should now have a “Gadget” tab. Click on it.
- In the “Add Gadgets by URL” box paste: “http://twittergadget.appspot.com/gadget-gmail.xml” and then click the “Add” button.
- You should now have a Twitter gadget on the left-hand side of your Gmail. Enter your Twitter username and password, let it authenticate, and you’re good to go.
What Gmail gadgets do you use?
