Since I was using Twhirl for my Twitter desktop client, I thought I could try it out for Friendfeed too. Creating the Twhirl Friendfeed profile and linking it with my Friendfeed via the Remote Key was a very quick and easy procedure. Then I had to change a bit my desktop to fit Twitter, Friendfeed and Launchy.

That’s how my desktop looks now. I call it Desktop 2.0, a social, live and active interface for the web. Streaming all of my friends’ activity over Friendfeed and communicating with them over Twitter.

Productivity

Since I didn’t had any previous experience with live activity streaming I was expecting that all my productivity would go to hell, as I wrote on a previous post. But this didn’t happen.  I was able to engage conversation in Twitter while working for the blog and do some Friendfeed comments and likes.

Usability

Twhirl works just fine with Twitter, but in Frienfeed it seems to get a bit lost. My opinion is that the slow and laggy scrolling make a bit difficult to keep up with Frienfeed over Twhirl. Also it’s a bit slow when you’re about active and fast conversations in comments of a Friendfeed item. On the other hand, it’s great for browsing and liking your friend’s activity and for the task of the live streamer. But it’s not for the heavy use, like Scoble’s one. Heh.

Desktop integration

Twhirl can integrate with your desktop realy well. First of all it’s an Adobe Air application, which means it’s cross platform and can work on your Linux, Mac and Windows system just fine. It’s also highly customizable not only visually such as opacity -which it’s great- (each Window -Twitter, Friendfeed- it’s a separated and has different options) but also how it works i.e. how it handles updates, notifies etc.

Personal thoughts

After the last buzz with the new Twitter client from Loic’s team and the Tweetdeck vs. Seesmic desktop battle, I think that if you want a not only Twitter desktop experience, Twhirl will be the perfect solution for you. Your desktop will also become a Desktop 2.0 by streaming Friendfeed and Twitter content live. In the future though, we might see Tweetdeck, Seesmic Desktop and maybe other apps too, providing Frienfeed support.

[Update: I’ve just started using Seesmic Desktop for my Twitter desktop client replacing the Twhirl one’s. Kinda fail? But the Friendfeed Twhirl will stay here.]