Seesmic released an update of its desktop platform last week on both the Windows and the Mac platforms. It had been in private beta for a while but was finally released to the public and its clear that Seesmic has grown far beyond just another Twitter client. The first time you open it up, it will take you directly to your account page, where you can add any of the following accounts: Facebook, Foursquare, Google Buzz,Google Reader, Last.fm, Linkedin, Ping.fm, Twitter and YouTube. There are also more sites available through Plugins and the sdk is available for developers to add more sites in the future. It will be interesting to see if developers take advantage of the opportunity.
Once you’ve add the sites you want, then you can set them up the way you want. Each application can be use to its fullest within Seesmic. You can go through your Google subscriptions, view YouTube videos, keep up with your Facebook friends and Twitter without ever leaving the Seesmic desktop application. When you write a post, you can easily choose which client or clients you want to send it too. You can also keep up with Twitter trends and do searches.
There are a couple of problems I have run into while using the application, first I haven’t been able to get the Last.fm application working. I just set up a new Last.fm account recently, so the problem maybe on my end, I am just not sure. The second problem is you do have to install Microsoft’s Silverlight to use it, so Linux users are out of luck at this time. It is also not very practical on a small screen, unless you like to scroll back and forth. It would be interesting to know how many people actually use multiple sites within the Seesmic application. Is this something that people want or are they looking for something more simple. I think a lot of people would see this as a clear case of information overload and a bit overwhelming. I am not one of those people however, I love having everything right in front of me, I do wish that the applications Identi.ca or Status.net were available within Seesmic, hopefully they will be soon.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the revamped Twitter website, will effect third party Twitter clients like Seesmic. I think that Seesmic saw what was coming and has begun to develop for a future, where it will no longer be dependent on Twitter for its survival, Clearly Seesmic has grown past its Twitter roots and is blazing its own trail, with Twitter only being part of its service.