With the announcement last week from Twitter about the new HTML5 based TweetDeck program for Windows it is only a matter of time before the old TweetDeck, which runs on Adobe AIR, disappears into a dark abyss.
The writing is on the wall, or on the web actually, this morning with a brand new TweetDeck.com homepage.
Noticeably absent is the familiar yellow TweetDeck bird logo like this:
That logo has been replaced by the Twitter Bluebird and the additional tag of by Twitter on the new logo. You will also notice no download links for Adobe AIR or any of the TweetDeck mobile apps. The only downloads available are for either a Windows or Mac version of this new TweetDeck program and a link to the Chrome TweetDeck App.
If you are a TweetDeck user like I was since even before Twitter bought them out then it is time to seriously look at alternatives to replace it. For me the new TweetDeck is not going to cut it because in this conversion it has lost most of the customizations that were possible with the original TweetDeck and the way I use it. I did try it out when it came out late last week but quickly went in search of something else because of those limitations and the new user interface.
I have landed with MetroTwit myself which is the first 3rd party program besides the old TweetDeck that I have used for more than a day. I tried the other big player, Seesmic Desktop, as well but never settled with it either.
MetroTwit is working daily to improve the program and it appears they are addressing at least one major customer wish list item and that is multi account capabilities. If they add a Custom URL Shortener option at some point I will be an extremely happy camper but I can also live with the setup for now.
I am looking forward to seeing how they innovate the program down the road.