While Twitter desktop clients offer far more functionality than Twitter’s own web site, there are ways to add more advanced options to the web interface. Two browser extensions that started life as user scripts for the Firefox Greasemonkey extension add a variety of tweaks to the Twitter interface.
PBTweet+
One of the most comprehensive Twitter extensions, PBTweet+, is available for not only for Firefox (as a Greasemonkey script) and Chrome, but also Apple’s Safari browser and Opera. It’s compatible with both the old and new Twitter interfaces, and while it isn’t perfect, it does offer some useful additions to Twitter’s functionality.
The most useful of these is automatic URL shortening. PBTweet+ adds a “Shorten URL” button to the bottom of the tweet window, to the right of the location menu. The script uses Bit.ly for shortening, and allows you to link your Bit.ly account via the Options menu.
PBTweet+ also offers short URL previews when you mouse over a link in the timeline. These previews are superior to those found in most desktop clients: instead of previewing just t.co links or opening a separate window with the preview information, as in TweetDeck, PBTweet+ offers pop-up previews of all short URLs, whatever the hosting service.
Facebook posting and sharing options are also included. PBTweet+ allows you to cross-post your tweets to Facebook, and you can choose to share all tweets or exclude replies and retweets. Individual tweets from your timeline can also be shared, or you can opt just to share links or photos from a specific tweet.
Most of PBTweet+’s other features are interface enhancements. It adds background colors for replies, highlights the word “RT” in red to make old-style retweets stand out, and allows you to set a mark point in your timeline that you can then jump to directly by clicking the “read mark” button.
There’s also a Timeline Filter option to remove tweets including specific keywords from view, a timeline search box independent of Twitter’s own search feature, and a “Public Tweets” button that removes retweets and replies from the timeline display.
The options menu offers further customizability: you can change the font size for tweets, select from a variety of languages (PBTweet+ also adds a Translate button to the tweet interface), enable auto-updating to eliminate clicking on the “new tweets” bar, and enable desktop notifications either through Chrome or Growl on the Mac (it isn’t compatible with Growl for Windows).
Unfortunately, there are also some omissions. While PBTweet+ does have inline media previews, it only supports a limited range of services, and doesn’t include major players such as YouTube, Plixi, and TwitPic (though it does support pop-up previews for all three in the old Twitter interface). There’s also no media uploading support.
Power Twitter
The other comprehensive Twitter extension, Power Twitter outdoes PBTweet+ in some areas but falls short in others. The current version (1.60) isn‘t compatible with Firefox 4., but the Chrome version worked right after the install. The Safari version also functioned properly.
Like PBTweet+, Power Twitter includes URL shortening through Bit.ly. There’s no way to connect a Bit.ly account, and the process is slightly less intuitive: you first click on the “Shorten Link” option, paste the URL into a text box, then click the “Shorten” button to complete the process.
Power Twitter takes PBTweet+’s mouse-over short URL previews to another level: instead of either the short or long version of the URL, it displays a text headline, sometimes accompanied by a preview of the text in the link. There’s also an icon to the left identifying the source of the link.
Unfortunately, this feature doesn’t work for links shortened with a Bit.ly account. Testing with a tweet shortened through PBTweet+, Power Twitter displayed the Bit.ly icon and the short link instead.
Power Twitter’s inline media previews are more robust than PBTweet+’s. YouTube videos appear in the main stream and can be played directly, and photos from TwitPic, Flickr, and YFrog all display as well. The only photo service that exhibited problems was Plixi.
Unfortunately, Power Twitter’s photo uploading feature is broken. Clicking the option prompts you to authenticate Power Twitter through OAuth, but even after successful authentication, it defaults to the authentication prompt and never gets to the actual uploading option.
Power Twitter offers two unique additions, but these are both virtually useless. “Update Mood” allows you to tweet your current mood from a menu of options, while “Send a Twitter Gift” links to an external application to duplicate one of Facebook’s silliest features.
On that subject, Power Twitter has none of the Facebook cross-posting and sharing options of PBTweet+, and also lacks its visual enhancements and browsing options. It also doesn’t seamlessly update the stream the way PBTweet+ does.
On balance, the inline media previews and shortened link displays don’t compensate for Power Twitter’s shortcomings. If you’re looking for an extension to enhance the Twitter web interface, PBTweet+ is the superior option.
Paul Brown - Paul Ferrell Brown graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1994 with a B.A. in English literature, and completed his M.A. in ...
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