FeedDemon 3, which is available for download here, includes some new features that turn this already-brilliant RSS reader into an almost perfect Twitter client for Windows. Here’s why:
1. Support for Short URLs
If any of the tweets includes a URL that has been shortened using TinyURL or any other URL shortening service, you can simply hover the mouse to know the real "long" URL. See animation.
2. Subscribe to your Twitter Timeline
FeedDemon is one of the few RSS readers in town that support authenticated feeds. That means you can subscribe to your Twitter Friend’s timeline in FeedDemon as long as you know your Twitter username and password.
Such a thing is not possible in Google Reader since it doesn’t "official" support RSS feeds that requires a password.
3. Twitter Avatars
When you subscribe to any Twitter search feed in FeedDemon, it always will show profile image of the person who made that tweet. This is again very helpful in scanning large results especially when you use the newspaper layout with two columns.
4. Search Twitter from FeedDemon
FeedDemon, by default, includes the Twitter search engine so you search tweets directly from the address bar of FeedDemon without having to fire your web browser.
5. Get Tweets via Desktop Alerts
In FeedDemon, you can select a group of feeds that will pop-up desktop alerts as soon as new items are published in that feed. Go to Tools -> Options -> Desktop Alerts and choose all your Twitter feeds. This will help you track Twitter even while FeedDemon stays minimized.
6. Intelligent Hyperlinks
When you subscribe to a Twitter feed inside Google Reader, all the tweets are plain text and just link to the original status message. FeedDemon, on the hand, will auto-discover Twitter usernames, web URLs and #hashtags in the tweet and converts them into hyperlinks. See screenshot.
7. Send Links to Twitter
This feature is not available in FeedDemon 3 by default but let me share a quick hack that will help you post links from FeedDemon to Twitter (similar to Tweet This button on blogs).
Open the "SendTo" folder present inside the default installation folder of FeedDemon 3:
C:\Program Files\FeedDemon\Data\SendTo
Create a new file "twitter.xml" in this folder and copy-paste the following text inside this file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<fdsendto service="Twitter"
template="http://twitter.com/home?status=Reading {title} {url}" />
Now restart FeedDemon and you’ll see a new "Twitter" option under the Send to menu as shown here.
8. Send replies from FeedDemon
If you are reading your Twitter timeline or a Twitter search feed inside FeedDemon, you can reply to any tweet directly from FeedDemon via the new "twitter reply" icon in the menu.
Related guide: Why FeedDemon is Better
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/software/feeddemon-3-twitter-client-for-pc/8073/
Reader Comments
Looks interesting but first I hope issues with update time gets fixed. I am subscribed to some Twitter accounts (link-heavy) via their RSS and sometimes it takes FeedDemon days to update feed.
Twitter RSS feeds are bit quirky and theu don’t play with complex server-side update tracking well. :(
Written by Rarst on 03.30.09
I still prefer TweetDeck, although having intelligent hyperlinks is a cool feature, which I’m sure slows down the post speed though. Nice article too, thanks.
Written by Nick Slevkoff on 03.30.09
Rarst – You can turn off synchronization with Newsgator Online and then your RSS feeds will update directly from the sources “on demand”.
Written by Amit on 03.30.09
My “Send To” button is missing in beta installation. It was present in previous 3.0 version. Any help?
Written by AL on 03.30.09
You can add the Send To button in FeedDemon from Tools -> Choose Icons.
Written by Amit on 03.30.09
I do no have the icons for twitter reply. It is not in my icons. Any help would be appreciated.
Written by Mario A . Núñez on 03.30.09
For RSS feed reading i’m relying on Bloglines, but i think i must try this RSS desktop Client FeedDemon 3, From the pictures above it seems integration with twitter has made it absolute perfect tool in action.
Written by Shanker Bakshi on 03.30.09
Cool features…As it is I’m a die hard fan of feed demon..hope to see some more new features in the next update
Written by Harsh Agrawal on 03.30.09
So what about that Google Reader integration you were talking about, beside the import feeds step?
Written by tvmagia on 03.30.09
@Amit
I know but FeedDemon/PC is not the only way I access my feeds in Newsgator so I kinda need that sync. :)
Written by Rarst on 03.30.09
This sound like it does everything that Tweetdeck does. What makes this better?
Written by Gabe on 03.31.09
I would still prefer to keep feeddemon on for RSS feeds from blogs and news sites. While Tweetdeck does the twit job brilliantly.
Written by Vamsi on 04.01.09